All Is Bright - Connect Groups
Introduction
Introduction
Silent night! Holy night! All is calm, all is bright…
These lines beautifully describe a precious peaceful moment the night our saviour Jesus was born. An impossibly small treasure, a beautiful scrap of humanity in the eye of the storm.
‘Silent Night’ was written in Germany in the 19th century by Joseph Mohr and was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO in 2011 to acknowledge the enormous power of this song. The simple words and melody are spine-tingling and reverberate around the world each December. In the cold and dark humanity remembers the bright light that came one dark night.
On the one hand at this time of year it can seem like all is indeed bright as our homes, shopping centres and streets are lit up 24/7 but the reality is it can also feel dark, cold and grim for a host of reasons. Christmas can be a bleak time for many, with the financial and social pressures of the season compounding issues of poverty, injustice, isolation and grief.
In the midst of pressing economic, political and ecological forces what do we mean when we dare to say ‘all is bright’ this Christmas? In a world that knows only too well hostility, cruelty and inequality, where are we seeing the brightness?
We are seeing it in Emmanuel — the wonder of God with us! Jesus light of the world shines through everything, we read in Colossians 1 that it is through Christ ‘that all things hold together and have their being’! Christ’s light cannot be put out it is literally woven into reality. In the middle of a dark and shabby stable, on a dark and inhospitable night, in a dark and dangerous time — all was bright through God's gift of Jesus Christ to the world. Jesus came to redeem and restore our world — to help us see the brightness in everything and Christ has redeemed the world and is going on redeeming the world!
The light of Jesus cannot be extinguished, the darkness will never overcome it. This Christmas let's rediscover the bright multi-coloured light of Christ that shines in and through everything, even if it’s sometimes hard to see. And as well as seeing the brightness, how are being the brightness? Carrying the multifaceted light of Christ with us? That light that illuminates the goodness in creation, the harmony we were meant for.
We are not beyond hope, beyond redemption, the light still burns, all is bright! Let’s revisit the timeless story of the nativity and have our eyes wide open to the bright colours that empower, enthuse and enlighten us in the face of cruelty, injustice, poverty, isolation and inequality.
Because into the noise of disruption and upheaval, pain and confusion comes a beautiful moment of quiet each year that reminds us that all is — indeed — bright.
Weekly overview
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Purple — Passion and power!
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Blue — Blessing and belting out the blues!
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Green — Gleaning and gleaming!
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Gold — Gratitude and glory!
Download the Discussion Questions as a PDF
These discussion questions adapt our monthly theme for small Connect Groups or personal Bible study. The questions are divided into 4 parts to correspond with the 4 weeks of the Daily Worship theme. They are offered as a guideline and there is no need to go through all the given questions in a single session, or in the following sequence. Feel free to pick and choose, or adapt to what interests you or your group.
