Before We Get Started

For our discussion today, we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?

This Week’s Topic

The Cross

Today’s Topic

At the Cross: The Roman Centurion

Discussion Questions

Mark 15:33-39

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Defining the Overstory

Malcolm Gladwell, Revenge of the Tipping Point 

[A Cultural] overstory is closer in meaning to what the Germans call the Zeitgeist, which translates literally as time-spirit [or, spirit of the times]. Zeitgeist overstories are wider and higher. 

They cast a far longer shadow on the ground beneath them. And the questions I want to ask are: What does it take to change a zeitgeist overstory? Can a story on that scale be rewritten and reimagined, in a manner that changes the way those below think and feel?

I believe the answer is Yes.”

 

In the sermon, Rome’s cultural overstory was described as being about Polytheism, Power, and Partronage. What are some themes you see in our culture’s overstory?

How does our cultural overstory affect the lives of its people?

Your Personal Overstory

Brene Brown

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. 

What were some of the ideas and themes that shaped your life and decisions as you came of age?

How did our cultural overstory help you and how did it inhibit you?

What are some practices or choices that could help you edit your overstory? 

The Gospel’s Overstory

Peter Storey, With God in the Crucible

The story of Jesus is of one who suffered freely. He entered our condition, shared our humanity, embraced our pain, and experienced our grief. He died not only for us, but with us, hanging between two of our kind on Calvary.

It is so very difficult to understand why some suffering comes. But when suffering is borne faithfully, God can do deep and wonderful things. And when suffering is embraced by the Son of God Himself, to be with and for us all—that is the story of our salvation.

Who are all the people included in the gospel’s overstory?

How does the gospel’s overstory differ from our culture’s overstory?

How would your life be impacted if you used the gospel’s overstory to edit your own?

Closing Thought

Read aloud the words to the old hymn, I Love to Tell the Story, and then end in prayer for one another. 

I love to tell the story

  Of unseen things above,

Of Jesus and His glory,

  Of Jesus and His love.

I love to tell the story,

  Because I know ’tis true;

It satisfies my longings

  As nothing else can do.

 

I love to tell the story,

’Twill be my theme in glory

To tell the old, old story

  of Jesus and His love.

 

I love to tell the story;

  More wonderful it seems

Than all the golden fancies

  Of all my golden dreams,

I love to tell the story,

  It did so much for me;

And that is just the reason

  I tell it now to thee.

 

I love to tell the story;

  ’Tis pleasant to repeat

What seems each time I tell it,

  More wonderfully sweet.

I love to tell the story;

  For some have never heard

The message of salvation

  From God’s own holy Word.

 

I love to tell the story;

  For those who know it best

Seem hungering and thirsting

  To hear it like the rest.

And when, in scenes of glory,

  I sing the new, new song,

’Twill be the old, old story,

  That I have loved so long.