NOTES: 1] Disciples are to be: Committed; Wise; Effective. 2] Leon Morris (Luke, p.235) suggests that the extreme language of v.26 might mean: 'we must love Jesus so much that the best earthly love seems hatred by comparison'.

WARMING UP: Any of us on, or been on, a salt-free diet? How is it / how did it go?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened since last week's group?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

25-27    Where have the 'large crowds' gone today? Why have they moved elsewhere? How do we feel about that? Is it just a matter of large crowds always needing to be shaken down into the committed & the uncommitted? How are people 'shaken down' today? Shaken out?
              How extreme do we feel in our love for, discipleship under Jesus? Does what he says here encourage us to go further along the road with him, or back off & go home? Is the 'hardness' of what Jesus expects here one reason why the crowds have disappeared? If discipleship is a matter of extremes, what stops us just being among the ranks of the 'dangerous extremists', the 'cranks' of our society? Is there a safety line on the ground? Who or what draws it? If God has to be first in our life by this far, is there really room for anyone else in our life at all?
             How meaningful a term is 'carrying our own cross' today? Can anyone understand it who doesn't actually have to do it? Has the term 'bearing our cross' become so mis-focused, misused today as to become too distant from what Jesus is on about? Is 'carrying our own cross' anything other than a one-way ticket to destruction?

28-33   Is it possible we overlook the fact that among all the other things God is, God is Wisdom? (Often seen as a 'feminine' side of God.) Are there situations in our personal & church life when we should be asking ourselves whether we need some 'tower' (whatever that might symbolise) in the first place, let alone whether we have the resources to build it? How much does it matter to us that people don't ridicule us?
            Are there situations where we should ask ourselves whether we really need to go to war, actually or figuratively, at all over some issue, let alone whether we can sustain such a battle? Are there battles raging or brewing within our church at the moment? Should they be? Is making peace - over any issue at all - generally a first option to us, or a last resort? To try to summarise, is Jesus here asking us to give up: a) human relationships as any kind of  priority? b) our right to even live? c) our right to 'build towers'? d) our right to 'make wars'? e) our right to be anything other than a sitting duck / a dead duck? Is it any wonder the crowds have gone?

34-35  What is the one particular thing salt represents for disciples? In disciples? Is there any escaping the fact that for Jesus,  salt essentially means our being something? And doing something? How 'salty' are we as disciples in our world? Or is saltiness just for in church? If we're not 'salty Christians', isn't Jesus saying were useless? Or, as some say today, 'a waste of space'?
Can't we be better / do better than that? How?