Rise and Shine - June 3
The Redemptive Power of Love
The Rise and Shine discussion group meets Sunday mornings at 9:00 am in the Parlor. Adults from the 8:00 & 10:00 services gather for discussions that are relevant to their lives through the lens of a current topic and scriptural references. This week's discussion outline can be read or downloaded below.
Click HERE to download a copy of this week's discussion outline
This week, we'll be watching Bishop Michael Curry's royal wedding sermon at the start of Rise and Shine. Feel free to familiarize yourself with it below.
“We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love, and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world. But love, love is the only way.”
- The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as quoted in Bishop Michael Curry’s royal wedding sermon
When Bishop Curry was invited to speak at the royal wedding he knew that he would have an audience of millions. He chose to speak on the redemptive power of love. This gives us the opportunity to consider how we need to use love to start redeeming people in our lives and in the world.
Here are some bible verses and quotes from the sermon to guide our discussion:
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death,
passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
Questions:Why compare love here to death and the grave as opposed to birth, life, or grace? What is the author trying to convey?
Bishop Curry
We were made by a power of love. And our lives were meant and are meant to be lived in that love, that’s why we are here. Ultimately the source of love is God himself.
Questions: What things do you see within our society that people claim as a purpose for living that exist outside of Love? What about within our church?
1John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Questions: In what ways do you see people claiming to “know God,” but denying love? What about those you see who exist within love, but claim to not know God?
Bishop Curry
Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of history. A movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world, and a movement mandating for people to live that love. And, in so doing, to change not only their lives, but the very life of the world itself.
Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream, and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way poverty will become history. When love is the way the earth will become a sanctuary.
When love is the way we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of God.
Question: What do you think Bishop Curry is calling on us to do in calling us to make love “the way?”
