Deuteronomy 08: Bracha

Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. Quoting Walter Brueggemann, Tim taught about the “doable character of Torah,” and that this nature “frees the community of the faithful from from excessive preoccupation and anguish about how and in what ways obedience might be done.”
How does this resonate with your own experiences of Torah, whether that’s been over this summer at RC, over the last five summers, or in other contexts? How “doable” does it seem to you? How has your sense of the Torah evolved over the course of this time studying Deuteronomy and in the past?
2. In his sermon, Tim pointed out that what was true for Israel so long ago is still true in our lives today: “God isn’t the only one making offers of blessing.” Some of the examples of other offerers he shared are (a) individualism (aka “rights & freedoms”), (b) consumerism (aka “the economy”), and (c) nationalism (aka “national security.”
First, as a group name some of the blessings on offer from the “-isms” above. What specifically is being offered?
How real do you think these offers are? In what ways can these offered blessings be delivered? What and how do these “-isms” and others fall short of what’s promised?
3.. Tim shared the following quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”
What are same trains that you are on today or have been on in the past where you perhaps are trying (or did try) to run the corridor in the opposite direction?
What do you think of Bonhoeffer’s observation? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
What are some of the reasons it can be difficult to exit those misdirected trains? If you feel like you’ve had an experience of exiting this type of metaphorical train in your own life, how did you do it? Are you glad you did? What are some of the outcomes (positive, negative, or neutral) of de-boarding one of these “trains?”
4. When making the decisions alluded to in Deuteronomy 28:3-5, the decisions that lead to life and prosperity or to death and disaster, Tim reminded us that “today is always the day this choice is set before us.”
How hard or easy is it for you to believe this? Does it seem true? Are there places or situations in life when you feel like it’s too late to change your choices?
Does the idea of “you get to choose again every day” feel more true for others than for you? Share about what this idea prompts for you internally as you consider it.