Connect

Waiting… - Week Five

May 31, 2026 0 0

 

Week 5 Anticipating…

 

Context: 

 

As our month on waiting comes to an end what are we anticipating? For ourselves, for our communities, for our churches, for our world? There is a pattern repeated often throughout scripture and in our lives is of waiting, receiving and sharing. What are we waiting for? What are we longing to receive? What are we hoping to share? 

This anticipation is tied up with an enigmatic idea about — ‘remembering the future’. In theology it is known as ‘proleptic anamnesis’ to partake of something before it’s fulfilment. This is often described as what happens when we take Communion — a foretaste of the Kingdom to come. Living in this kind of understanding of life creates within us an understanding of the importance of the role the Church is being called to play in the world.

What do you anticipate for your Connect group? What does the next year hold for it? Discuss!

 

 

The group leader leads a quick discussion on any initial thoughts and reactions to these ideas before moving on to the next section: Introducing the readings.

 

Introducing the readings:

 

We close our theme with two practical, emphatic and encouraging extracts from the Epistles — letters written to early church communities and widely circulated among them. The Bible contains many genres, and even just one epistle can contain many. The early church was spread out, oppressed, and feeling its way into a new way of living. In real time Christians are working out what it is to be Christian — how to bear with one another, how to be patient, how to build resilience, how to go the distance.

 

Read: Colossians 3: 1-17 and Philippians 4: 1-9

 

A volunteer reads these Bible texts and then the group leader reads the following words from the Response to initiate a discussion on the readings and theme.

 

Response:

 

The ‘Q:’ sections are questions that are thrown out to the group to initiate discussion on the passage and themes. Pause after each to discuss the ideas.

 

Q: The words in our Colossians reading were radical when they were first heard and they still have radical power today. Verse 11 is an incredible, unequivocal vision of inclusion. We live now, thousands of years later, in a world profoundly shaped by the universal claims of personhood and dignity made in the New Testament. As global tensions rise and we face an uncertain future are we at risk of becoming a more divided, tribal planet where these assumptions are undermined? Is this reading going to become increasingly radical again as the 21st century wears on?

Q: What would it mean for us in our lives — our homes, our work, our local communities — to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience? Does it help us to know that we don’t do it alone, and that others in our Connect group are putting on the same outfits?

Q: What are we rejoicing about today? What is true and noble that we can celebrate? What is something pure, lovely or admirable that we have experienced recently? What in our shared life together is excellent and praiseworthy? Pool together all your responses and give thanks!