NOTES: 1] Welcome back to LK's Gospel after our long spell in JN. We stay in LK now for the rest of the church year. 2] Eating with people is important to Jesus & a central feature of his ministry. So is his concern for & recognition of women in the church community & society as a whole. 3] 'Sinner' applied to the woman implies she was a known prostitute. (Known by whom?) Rather than leave her nameless, let's call her 'Deborah' in our exploration.

WARMING UP: What's our favourite snack food / main course / dessert?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week’s Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

36-39   Would we have the guts Deborah shows in entering such clearly hostile territory as the Pharisee's home to show our devotion to Jesus? What other qualities do we discover in her? Do we have those qualities? When it comes to giving to God (in any sense) do we ever ask ourselves whether being generous is a waste of some kind? Have we ever responded to God in any way as generously as Deborah does here?
Is our understanding of God as deep as hers is, or do we still look at people in categories (e.g. 'sinner') that put them down. How wide are we open to people 'warts & all'? Is God more interested in putting people down or raising them up? Do we still incline more to taking Simon's view of people like Deborah, or can we go beyond that to Jesus' view? Really?

40-43    Does Simon 'get' the story? Do we? Who are the two debtors in our case? Which one are we? Always? How big is our debt to God? Do we believe it's been forgiven? If so, are we grateful as Deborah? If it's not so, is it time we did an audit of our spiritual journey? In telling this story, has Jesus changed our attitude to other people? Anyone specific? To ourself? Where does such change of attitude need to take place? In general, do we take story / stories seriously as a way of 'seeing' God / us?

44-50   Are we as intuitive about, responsive to acts of love shown to us as Jesus demonstrates here? What makes for an intuitive response? Can we see the difference between: a) Deborah being forgiven her sins because of what she does, &, b) Deborah acting as she does because she's been forgiven & knows it? Which of these is Jesus' understanding of the situation? Are we conscious that our sins have been forgiven, or hoping & praying they will be? What's the relationship between faith, forgiveness, & peace?

8:1-3   How would we sum up 'the good news of the kingdom (Rule) of God? If the women named here as part of Jesus' team were thrust back into the shadows afterwards, is that just an example of how easy it for good news to be turned into bad? How does that happen? Are we living as a 'sign' of good news rather than bad for today's community of faith & wider community?