TGIMMinsurgent1

October 15

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Thursday, October 15

LUKE 11:42-46

I want the religious leaders and you to look carefully at what you are doing.

Prayerthoughts
a. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they properly honor the early prophets, but that they were responsible for killing them. Who are the prophets in my day that I should listen to, and have I tried to follow them?

b. Jesus reminds the Pharisees that the Scriptures predicted the martyrdom of prophets whose death they brought about in the sense that they would have participated in killing them. I have not taken part in "killing" the prophets, but have I put their teachings into my life?

c. Jesus addresses the scholars of the law directly telling them that they have taken away the key of knowledge, that is, the law which brings people to God. What is the law that brings me closest to God, and am I following it right now in my life?

d. Jesus tells the Pharisees that they will not enter the place of God and that they are leading others away from God, strong criticism of people whose very being should have brought people to God. As I study my life, how well am I leading people to God?

e. The Pharisees and scholars of the law sought revenge. Is revenge part of my thinking and words and actions?

f. My prayerthoughts...

Today I will read Ephesians 1:1-10 and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

THE PLAN

+ Luke’s Gospel today continues Jesus’s words against the religious leaders of his time

- the only reason for being this upset was that the Pharisees and Sadducees were not what they claimed to be in the area of religion, the area of a relationship with Jesus’s Father

- they should have been true followers of God, his Father

- and they weren’t

- they had the key of knowledge, as he said

- that is, they had the truth, but refused to let it influence them

+ We work with the same truth

- the truth of God’s action in our lives

- establishing that truth is the purpose of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in one way or another

- Ephesians was probably one of the later letters of the New Testament—80-100 AD

- someone closely connected with Paul was the author

+ The truth about Jesus in particular is the primary focus

- and the letter is literally full of great meditation possibilities:

- right at the beginning of the letter, the author—we’ll call him “Paul”—points out that Jesus was set forth by God the Father as “a plan”

- that plan is that we have been redeemed through Jesus

- and therefore we have the opportunity of eternal life

- the prayer of thanksgiving is in order

- and that plan is the plan that you and I have chosen as spiritual people

- that means that the most important meditation book for us is the New Testament where we discover the plan of Jesus—how he talks, acts, and especially try to get into his thinking process

+ Getting into his thinking about the Scribes and Pharisees, we can see that it was a personal thing—they were only acting like they knew his Father, God, and it was pure hypocrisy

- we know the truth, the plan of Jesus—we can’t only act like we know it

- it has to have an effect in how we live.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "Insurgent" -- beginning session

THE "WEAKNESS" OF ONE WHO LOVES

The Gospel

MATTHEW 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

Gospelthink: I give you my two commandments which include all law. Am I truly loving the Lord and my neighbor?

In the movie "Insurgent," having escaped from the Erudite and the Dauntless factions, Tris, Four, Peter and Caleb hid with the Amity faction. As the army of Erudite chases them, after Peter had betrayed them and Caleb left them, Tris and Four eventually end up with the Factionless whose leader is Four's mother, Evelyn. Meanwhile, Jeanine, Erudite's leaders knew that she had to have a Divergent to open the mysterious box which was found in Tris' house. She ordered all Divergents to be hunted down and brought to her so that one of them would open the box. Realizing that Tris would respond when other people were threatened and killed because of her activity, Tris eventually gave herself up to Jeanine because she did not want to be responsible for the deaths of anyone else.

When evil people want to control someone who is good and loving, they will appeal to the loving person's "weakness." If Tris Prior had a weakness as she was being thrust into a leadership role among the Divergents in the movie "Insurgent," it was love of others. It had bothered her immensely when her friend committed suicide because of something she had said; it was likewise a problem for her when Jeanine and the evil people of the Erudite faction decided to kill people as long as Tris did not turn herself in to them.

When Jesus made "love of neighbor" to be on the same level as "love of God," something unheard of in the Jewish religion at the time, he was calling for a revolution of sorts. Every religious person in Jesus’s time easily recognized the importance of God in their lives. They dedicated one day of the week in which the people followed very strict rules dedicating the day to God; they even would never pronounce God's name and instead used another holy name for God. Jesus said with his doctrine that every religious person had to treat a neighbor with the same amount of respect.

In the fantasy world of "Insurgent" Tris would not tolerate the deaths of other human being. The chances were that the evil people in charge would kill them anyway, but Tris would not allow the death of anyone because of her. It was the "weakness" which brought about her surrender.

You and I do not live in fantasy worlds, but we live in a world that in many ways equals the problems of the fantasy world of the movie "Insurgent." There are many in our world who do not value love as a factor when it comes to other human beings. We may not be able to do anything about it on an international or even national level, but we can do something about it on the local level, that is, our own level of existence.

On that local level, we are called to honor and love other human beings--neighbors--as we love our God. If every one of us were able to follow Jesus's direction, or indeed courageous people like a fictional Tris Prior, perhaps the world on an international and national level would be better than it is.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, through Your Son, You have called us to love other human beings, in fact with the same strength that we love You. Many times, we fail to follow Your Son because we are so weak in that love. Give us Your grace to not only love You, but all of our neighbors with the same intensity. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Perhaps the only "weakness" a human being should have is to possess a true love for all people.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 56 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why?
2. In your opinion, do most people of the world follow what Jesus said about love of God and neighbor? Yes or no and why?
3. If everyone in the world accepted what Jesus said, what would change in our world?
4. In your opinion, in real life now, who is a person that truly "loves everyone."
5. In what ways is our world like the fantasy world of "Insurgent"?
6. Who in our world right now is most "unloved"? Can we do anything about it?
7. Analysis: Discuss Peter's actions in the movie. For example, did he plan to "help" Tris and Four from the very beginning?
8. Scene analysis: Caleb leaves the group. In your opinion, why did he leave?
9. Analysis: In your opinion, did Four's mother Evelyn simply desire the power of being a leader as Four thought at the beginning? Yes or no and why?
10. Analysis: Should Four have executed Eric? Yes or no and why?
11. Analysis: Does the amount of killing in the movie affect young people who watch the movie? Yes or no and why?