Section 163:3a
The Hope of Zion

Discernment Process

Spiritual formation involves our whole selves. It is the shaping of both our inner and outer lives. Apostle Booth points out the incarnational nature of Doctrine and Covenants 163 and invites us to express love and healing with real people in real ways.

One of the challenges of discipleship is to discern where and how we are to embody God’s generosity, justice, or peace. Where can the body become an instrument of the spirit in each of our relational and cultural realities? Experiment with the following process for five days or longer.

1. Take at least ten minutes of quiet time at the beginning of your day to discern a specific act of generosity, justice, or peace that you feel God inviting you to complete by day’s end.
    

2. Begin your discernment time by sitting, standing, or lying in a quiet place and becoming calm as you pay attention to God’s Spirit moving in and out of you with your breath.
    

3. Slowly read Doctrine and Covenants 163: 3a and let the words speak directly to you.
    

4. Offer a brief prayer asking God to help you discern one way you are invited to make the peace of Christ real in your life during this day. Share with God your intention to express generosity, justice, peace, love, or healing in a tangible or physical way. Ask for direction and compassion in carrying out this intention.
    

5. Spend another five minutes (or longer) in silent, listening prayer. Trust that God will bring a person, need, or situation into your heart and mind to which you can respond. Pay attention to images, feelings, and thoughts that come into your awareness during the silence. Be patient. Take the time needed to become clear about which need or response seems to be capturing your attention or connecting most deeply with your sense of God’s movement.
    

6. End your prayer with a statement of gratitude and an “amen.”
    

7. Close your discernment process by deciding when, where, and how you will carry out the act of peace, healing, or generosity during the day. If you keep a written schedule, write the action in your calendar (or on your computer calendar) as a “To Do” item.
    

8. Carry out your act of discipleship with prayer and compassion.
    

9. Reflect on your experience at the end of the day or the next morning as you begin your new discernment process. You may wish to journal or share with a friend.

For Further Reflections and Discussion

1. Read or sing all three stanzas of HS 484, “Make Us, O God, a Church That Shares.” What words and images speak most powerfully to you? Why would this hymn be considered a modern-day “song of Zion”?
    
2. Apostle Booth begins her commentary on “The Hope of Zion” with reference to the almighty God of the universe coming as a baby. How do you understand the theological concept of incarnation? Why would this be an appropriate starting point to discuss the vision of God’s peaceable kingdom on earth?
    
3. The quotation from Sharon Thornton’s book indicates that love is more than a feeling; it must be a powerful, life-changing action. How does this idea of love differ from the predominately secular world around us? In what ways are we called to act (love) counter-culturally?
    
4. The author states, “We cannot retreat from the secular world in the hope of finding God elsewhere. God is visible with the people amid their struggles, conflicts, sin, and marginalization.” Relate this to the various images of Zion and Zionic community expressed over the years in the Community of Christ.
    
5. Walter Wink contends, “In Jesus we see the suffering of God with and in suffering people” and, therefore, we are called to establish Christ-centered communities that lift up the cross and follow the risen Christ into the streets, offices, schools, homes, villages, and hospitals to change those social structures that allow the inhuman and unjust treatment of people. What are some beginning steps your congregation can take to accomplish this? What are you already doing?