Whoever Serves

Week 5: Written on the Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Fellowship – Snacks or a Meal (10 minutes with snacks; longer, obviously, if there is a meal).

Gathering Time (5-10 minutes). In pairs or groups of three, have participants share their response to the question, “What is your fondest memory?”

Group Dialogue (Approximately 30 minutes). Read Jeremiah 31:31-34.

• How is this new covenant that God will make different from the first? [The defining act of the first covenant was the Exodus. This passage only hints at the new covenant’s defining act coming through forgiveness.]
• How is this new covenant similar to the first? [In the first covenant, the relationship was characterized as a marriage (v. 32). In this new covenant, God describes the relationship as one where we shall be God’s people.]
• How is our covenant relationship with God both binding and freeing? [We become free to serve God and live in a new way. We have a new desire or even choose to be bound to the law of God – loving God and neighbor. (See also Matthew 10:39.)]
• During Lent, we are reminded how far from living more fully into this covenant relationship we are as individuals and as a community of faith. We don’t always act out of love for God and neighbor. We don’t always act as those who have God’s law written on our hearts. How might Lenten practices, such as denying ourselves certain luxuries, become acts of reminders of the abundant life we are called to live?
• As a group, find a prayer to read and recite together. You might use the Confession and Pardon from The United Methodist Hymnal or the Prayer for Confession of Sin from the Book of Common Prayer. What insights do you gain from these prayers? How might praying these prayers or similar prayer daily become a helpful prayer practice?

Prayer (10 minutes). Share prayer requests and respond appropriately.

Sending Forth (2 minutes). Ask for a volunteer to lead the group in prayer, or read the following prayer in unison: