Unity week 2 | Vineyard Cincinnati Church

Questions

Swetha talked about speaking to a third-grade class in Manhattan. Most of the parents were uncomfortable when she talked about orphaned children, but the few who leaned in were the ones who lived close to poverty themselves. She summed it up this way: “Our proximity to any given issue determines our response.” Where have you seen that to be true, in your own life or in the world around you?
Ephesians 2:13–14 says that we “who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ,” and that Jesus “has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Swetha explained that Paul was pointing to a real wall in the temple that kept Gentiles out, and that biblical peace (shalom) means wholeness, not just the absence of conflict. What does it mean to you that Jesus is our peace, and not only the one who shows us the way to it?
C.P. Ellis and Ann Atwater started out as enemies. Over ten days in a room together, they heard each other’s stories, found they had more in common than they expected, and became lifelong friends. What do you think happens in us when we take time to hear someone’s story, especially someone very different from us?
Ephesians 2:15–16 says Jesus’ purpose was “to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two.” Swetha explained that “new” here means a brand-new kind of thing, and that an early church father called the church a “third race” because the world had never seen anything like it. What do you think it would take for a church today to look that surprising to the world around it?
Swetha asked us to reflect: if Jews and Gentiles were the great divide of the first century, what’s our version of that today? Where do you see walls between groups of people in our city or our world, and what might it look like for followers of Jesus to step toward them?
Revelation 7:9 pictures people “from every nation, tribe, people and language” standing together before the throne, and Revelation 22:2 describes the leaves of the tree of life as being “for the healing of the nations.” Swetha pointed out that this future is a celebration of our differences, not one culture absorbing the others. What does that picture stir in you, and how might it shape the way we live together now?
When kids used a racial slur against Swetha’s eight-year-old son, he wanted to go back out and call them racists. She gently taught him that putting a label on someone, even one they’ve earned, dehumanizes them in return. Why do you think it’s so hard not to label people back when we’ve been hurt? What helps us respond the way Jesus would?
In Ephesians 3:17–19, Paul prays that we would be “rooted and established in love,” and grasp “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” Michael prayed that being rooted in God’s love would keep us from being shaken by the news, elections, or people who don’t love well. Where do you sense God inviting you to be more deeply rooted in His love, so that you can love others well this week?

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