My Soul Clings

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 answer, “Is it easy or hard for you to fall asleep? Why? What keeps you awake at night?

Group Dialogue (Approximately 30 minutes). Read Psalm 63:1-8 and Luke 13:1-9.

• Bearing fruit is an important theme in Jesus’ teaching ministry (Matthew 3:10, Luke 5: 43-44, John 15:5-8). Why do you think “bearing fruit” is important for Jesus’ followers and what does it look like?
• How is staying in love with God (Psalm 63) vital to bearing fruit? [Finding our strength and joy in God is crucial when the way grows weary.]
• “I will meditate on you in the watches of the night.” What does it mean to meditate on God? [It could mean, as the preaching notes for this week suggest, “finding a memory, a word, a verse from the Bible, or, even better, a moment—a moment of joy and hope, a moment of encounter, of intimacy and healing, a moment of shared love and closeness and holding it like a jewel in your mind.”]
• Rather than speculate on who the “worse sinner or worse offender” is in the two incidents mentioned in Luke 13:1-5, Jesus turns the focus back on the questioners, warning them to repent. How is Jesus’ sharp retort a helpful word to us? [1. Jesus has little interest in argument for the sake of argument. 2. Judging others isn’t in our job description. 3. True change starts with us.]
• In the parable, the man working in the vineyard recommends practicing patience with the barren fig tree. What people or situations is God inviting you to practice patience with this coming week? What would “digging around it and putting manure on it” look like?

Optional Activity – listen to this week's playlist song. “Light of Home” by U2.

To what do you cling? Psalm 63 invites us to reflect on where we find security and sustenance when we are desperate, disillusioned, or in danger. Yes, we need food, water, and shelter. Yes, we need community that protects us when we feel threatened and alone. Yet underneath these basic needs is something even more necessary: God. As you listen to U2’s “Light of Home,” consider: “When you are surrounded by chaos and turmoil, how do you find security, confidence, and home in God?”

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

Sending Forth (2 minutes). End with the following prayer, a similar prayer, or the Lord’s Prayer:

O God, you are our God, help us to seek you with every fiber of our being, to praise you with every breath, to cling to you as if our lives depended upon it. Because they do. Reach down and hold us up, God. Hold us up. Amen.

Rev. Joe Hamby is the Director of Community Education at Roof Above, a comprehensive homeless service provider in Charlotte, NC. In his first career, Joe was a youth pastor at several United Methodist churches in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. Joe’s other ministry interest takes him to Cabarrus Regional Juvenile Detention Center twice a month.