In Pursuit of Sexual Wholeness: Discussion for Week 2 

Opening Prayer

Begin your meeting together by taking some time to rest and relax into the present moment, releasing all the cares of the day, and centering on the presence of God. 

1. Invite everyone to sit in a comfortable position, close eyes, and breathe deeply in and out, focusing on the sound and feel of the breath with each one.
2. Continue deep breathing, and with each inhale imagine taking in air charged with the very life and power of Christ, filling and cleansing the mind and body. 
3. Continue slow deep breathing and notice anything negative or tense as it comes up.  As you exhale, let go of pain, fear, self-judgment, worry, discomfort, etc, imagining it sinking down through your body and releasing it away from you onto the floor.
4. Continue deep breathing this way for a few minutes until there is a sense of calm and peace, embracing and welcoming God with each breath in, and letting go of all that is not God with each breath out.
5. Now intentionally submit this time to God, simply offering yourself, and open your heart and mind to further ignite the Divine Spark of the Holy Spirit in you.     
6. Close your time together with a prayer aloud.  You can pray the one below or use your own words:

Jesus, you are more substantial and real than any created thing. You give life to all and sustain everything by your life-giving breath, yet we so often have a hard time sensing, seeing, hearing and feeling you.  Help us to be aware of you and what is true and life-giving, so that we may take you in.  Use our time together now to awaken us that we may grow more and more alive in you.  Amen.

Discussion

As you engage with the following you will see suggestions for the group settings which might be best appropriate for responding to the questions.   Feel free to consider as a  group or even individually how to adapt and which ones you feel comfortable talking about with the whole group, which ones might be best discussed in a smaller setting with one or two others, and if there are any that would be best to reflect on personally during the week.  Some group questions: 

1. What are your feelings about this series at this time?  
2. What was the most important thing you took away from the first week, or something significant for you from this series so far?

One person read the following Scripture slowly aloud.  Close your eyes and try to picture the scene in your mind and imagine yourself there.  Be open to Jesus teaching you something personally relevant to you now as you hear the story recounted. 

Scripture Reading

 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

  “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

  “No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

John 8:1-11 (New Living Translation)

Group Discussion questions:

1. Discuss the cultural context of this story.  What impact did tradition, religion, gender roles, etc. have on the people in the crowd?  The woman?  Jesus?
2. What messages/narratives were expressed about gender and sexuality around you as you grew up?  From family?  Ethnic and national culture?  Media? Religious tradition?
   1. What were messages about being male? 
   2. What were messages about being female?
3. Describe the level of comfort, ease and openness with which sex would be discussed (or not) in your family growing up?
4. During this series we have talked about how strongly family, culture and church can influence our sexuality.  What would you say have been the major sources of influence in your life regarding sexuality: family, media, church, friends, etc.? 

The following questions may be suitable for a smaller setting or personal reflection:

1. What are some contexts in the past where you have talked about sex and your own sexuality? How did this go? Was it a positive or negative experience?
2. What are your impressions of sex in the context of spirituality?  How compatible is your view of sex and God?
3. Find one person to discuss an area you desire to grow in health regarding sexuality.  If you desire healing from past sexual brokenness, shame, grief or judgment because of sexuality, ask for prayer from someone you can trust, and offer it back.

Group Reflection

Sit comfortably in silence as a group with eyes closed. Leader leads the group in the following way:

1. Invite everyone to reflect on the discussion and allow any issues or challenges to surface within. What has been most stirred up in you? After a few moments ask everyone to pick one of these issues and silently reflect more deeply. What is really going on? What is at the root of this issue?
2. Leader prays: “Come Holy Spirit; come and fill our hearts as we open our lives to you. Touch us and help us with our struggles and pains.  We acknowledge that we are broken and in need of you.”  Leader then invites everyone to silently open themselves to God in relation to the issues that have surfaced.
3. Encourage everyone to consider what is happening. How is the Holy Spirit working within you at this moment? What is God doing?
4. Spend more time in silence, as each person invites God to deepen the work of the Holy Spirit within them.
5. Leader closes this reflection time by praying: “Thank you Jesus for your presence with us.  Help us to embrace your vibrant and radiant love, and make us whole, we pray. Amen.”

Spend another couple of minutes for each person to consider what might be appropriate personal next steps. Do you need any kind of help? Do you need to talk more deeply with someone? Group leader can share the various resources available as part of this series and encourage everyone to take advantage of them.

Closing Prayer

Leader or someone else closes the discussion with a prayer.