WONDERFALLS Bible Study Week 12

Episode 12- Totem Mole

Exodus 12:47-49

 The whole community of Israel must celebrate this festival, ⁴⁸ but no uncircumcised man may eat it. If a foreigner has settled among you and wants to celebrate Passover to honor the Lord, you must first circumcise all the males of his household. He is then to be treated like a native-born Israelite and may join in the festival. ⁴⁹ The same regulations apply to native-born Israelites and to foreigners who settle among you.”

Deuteronomy 23:3

No Ammonite or Moabite—or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation—may be included among the Lord's people.

Ruth 1:16

But Ruth answered, “Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

Matthew 17:1-13

Six days later Jesus took with him Peter and the brothers James and John and led them up a high mountain where they were alone. ² As they looked on, a change came over Jesus: his face was shining like the sun, and his clothes were dazzling white. ³ Then the three disciples saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. ⁴ So Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, “Lord, how good it is that we are here! If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was talking, a shining cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased—listen to him!”

⁶ When the disciples heard the voice, they were so terrified that they threw themselves face downward on the ground. ⁷ Jesus came to them and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don't be afraid!” ⁸ So they looked up and saw no one there but Jesus.

⁹ As they came down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Don't tell anyone about this vision you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from death.”

¹⁰ Then the disciples asked Jesus, “Why do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah has to come first?”

¹¹ “Elijah is indeed coming first,” answered Jesus, “and he will get everything ready. ¹² But I tell you that Elijah has already come and people did not recognize him, but treated him just as they pleased. In the same way they will also mistreat the Son of Man.”

¹³ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Matthew 26:36-40

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Grief and anguish came over him, ³⁸ and he said to them, “The sorrow in my heart is so great that it almost crushes me. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ He went a little farther on, threw himself face downward on the ground, and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, take this cup of suffering from me! Yet not what I want, but what you want.”

⁴⁰ Then he returned to the three disciples and found them asleep; and he said to Peter, “How is it that you three were not able to keep watch with me for even one hour?

Galatians 2:11-14

 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him in public, because he was clearly wrong. ¹² Before some men who had been sent by James arrived there, Peter had been eating with the Gentile believers. But after these men arrived, he drew back and would not eat with the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who were in favor of circumcising them. ¹³ The other Jewish believers also started acting like cowards along with Peter; and even Barnabas was swept along by their cowardly action. ¹⁴ When I saw that they were not walking a straight path in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you have been living like a Gentile, not like a Jew. How, then, can you try to force Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Galatians 3:15-29

My friends, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it. ¹⁶ Now, God made his promises to Abraham and to his descendant. The scripture does not use the plural “descendants,” meaning many people, but the singular “descendant,” meaning one person only, namely, Christ. ¹⁷ What I mean is that God made a covenant with Abraham and promised to keep it. The Law, which was given four hundred and thirty years later, cannot break that covenant and cancel God's promise. ¹⁸ For if God's gift depends on the Law, then it no longer depends on his promise. However, it was because of his promise that God gave that gift to Abraham.
¹⁹ What, then, was the purpose of the Law? It was added in order to show what wrongdoing is, and it was meant to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant, to whom the promise was made. The Law was handed down by angels, with a man acting as a go-between. ²⁰ But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.
²¹ Does this mean that the Law is against God's promises? No, not at all! For if human beings had received a law that could bring life, then everyone could be put right with God by obeying it. ²² But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.
²³ But before the time for faith came, the Law kept us all locked up as prisoners until this coming faith should be revealed. ²⁴ And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith. ²⁵ Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.
²⁶ It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus. ²⁷ You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. ²⁸ So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.

Deuteronomy 1:17

Show no partiality in your decisions; judge everyone on the same basis, no matter who they are. Do not be afraid of anyone, for the decisions you make come from God. If any case is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will decide it.

Reflect on this in light of the Bible passage?

What do you think of Mahandra laying claim to tribal status?

What does becoming the ‘people of God’ entail in the various passages? What tensions do we see 

there?

Where do we see similar tensions in the episode?

How did the encounter with the totem differ from Jaye’s other animal encounters?

How does the encounter with the woman differ from Jaye’s other visions?

What does the woman say about her?

Reflect on this quote: “I don’t want to be chosen.”

What does Jaye want from the woman? What do you think of this?

Reflect on this quote “okay, that’s just odd.”

How was the Transfiguration a unique event in the life of Jesus and His follower?

What do we learn about Jesus, God and the disciples involved from that passage?

What ‘oddities’ do we see in that passage?

How did Jesus feel about being chosen?

What do you think of Sharon going to the reservation to get cigarettes?

Reflect on this quote: “my people were being exploited.”

What do you think of Little Foot and her behavior towards Sharon and Mahandra?

Reflect on this quote: “her spirit spoke to you.”

What do you think of the idea of a seer, or a spirit guide?

Compare and contrast the Transfiguration event with these figures and beliefs concerning seers 

and spirit guides in other cultures.

What does Jaye say Bill Hooten needs to do?

What do you think of this?

What do you think of the way the tribe treats Mahandra’s case?

Reflect on this in light of Deuteronomy 1.

Reflect on this quote: “it’s like she knitted a sweater for me I could never wear.”

How is the discussion around being one of God’s people similar to the discussion around the seer’s 

‘gift’?

What does Aaron say about callings and spiritual gifts? Reflect on this.

What role is Aaron playing for Jaye now?

Reflect on this in light of our earlier discussion of Moses and Aaron in Exodus.

Reflect on the feather ceremony.

Reflect on this quote: “I’m not a leader…I need a leader.”

Reflect on this quote: “you are having a spiritual awakening” in light of the Transfiguration.

How does Jaye play a role similar to Jesus in the transfiguration vis a vis Hooten?

What are the trials of the seer and the tribal trial over Mahandra like?

What kind of ‘trial’ did Paul get involved in, in Galatians?

How does the Galatians 3 passage enlighten the reasons for the trial in Galatians?

How did Peter and James resist the call of God in Galatians? How does Jaye in the passage?

What is the man’s encounter with his New Grandmother like?

Reflect on this: “it was a set up, I didn’t stand a chance” in light of Deuteronomy 1.

What do you think of the sit-in?

What does Jaye realize as a result of the sit-in?

Reflect on what happens to Littlefoot in the sauna.

Reflect on this quote: “I wish I had great purpose…no you don’t.”

What does Jaye say of purpose?

How do the Gospel passages reflect on this exchange?

How do the Galatians passages?

What ‘transformations’ do we see in the episode and in the Bible passages?

What does Jay say about being ‘special’?

What does the Hooten?

What do you think of the way it all comes together at the end?