7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #4
Take Communion
Leader Note: Begin this time by taking communion together, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read through this prayer based on the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22 and the Wedding Supper in Revelation 19:
All-loving God, we praise you and rejoice in your presence. We come to this table together with hope and longing love, sharing the Lord's Supper, to eat and drink a foretaste of that future Wedding Supper. Jesus, we are making ourselves ready: tuning our hearts and training our appetites to desire you and you alone. Infuse our lives with your presence as we share your body, broken for us, and your blood, poured out for us. You wait with longing for us to drink anew in your kingdom, so we say: Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.
Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)
Throughout the season of Lent, we are engaging in the practice of Renunciation: giving up a particular (often good or neutral) appetite that we tend to use as a substitute for something God already wants to give us. And, as a reminder, we will spend the remainder of this teaching series reflecting on our practice of Renunciation in light of the themes found in one of the seven letters in Revelation.
Tonight, we’ll reflect on Jesus’ letter to the church of Sardis, where he reveals that he sees them as spiritually dead—spiritually “falling asleep” to the gospel. Jesus calls the church to “wake up” and become alive again by remembering the teaching of faith and choosing to walk in that good news.
At this point in your Lenten renunciation journey, Easter may feel more like a finish line than a celebration. Like the church in Sardis, we may have “fallen asleep” to what drew us to this particular practice at first. While this is part of the human experience, when we see our Renunciations as something to “get past” and finish, we miss out on the original intent to receive the freedom and life of God. Jesus teaches us that the pathway back to spiritual vibrancy is through the act of remembering—remembering what led us to the practice of Renunciation in the first place. Tonight, we will join the church of Sardis in remembering, in asking the Holy Spirit to reawaken us to our spiritual desire.
Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)
Leader Note: Feel free to work through the following questions as a whole Community or in smaller groups, so long as everyone has an opportunity to share.
How has your practice of Renunciation been going this week? (e.g. Where did you feel God’s presence? Where did you feel resistance?)
Renunciation is a way of withholding a good or neutral appetite to receive what God freely wants to give you. How have you found yourself wandering from or forgetting that reality during Lent?
As you enter this coming week, what could it look like for you to wake and reset your focus on what God is trying to freely offer you in this season?
Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)
Our Practice for the week ahead is to continue our Renunciation and Reclaiming through the season of Lent. Remember, Renunciation is about joy and desire! Because we are human beings, we will always be susceptible to reaching for something on our own terms that God wants to freely give us. In our Renunciation, we are asking God for what he already desires for us and learning to receive from him rather than taking it for ourselves. So, this week, let’s resolve again to renounce our good or neutral appetites and receive God’s kindness and love.
End in Prayer (5 minutes)
Leader Note: Close your time together in blessing prayer for one another, asking God to continue growing each person through the Practice of Renunciation.