Title: "Holy Ownership"

1. Have you ever read these chapters before? If so, how did you tend to react to them? What experience from Andy’s childhood did he weave through his message and why?  

2. Read 11:2-8. How does 20:22-26 help us understand the rationale for Jewish kosher laws? What other traits often characterized ritually ‘unclean’ food? What did abstaining from blood remind the Jews every time they ate? How does that hold a key for our sense of significance?

3. Read 12:1-5. Why might someone read this and conclude that God is a misogynist? How do these laws actually reveal God’s surprising grace for the marginalized and overlooked? What does this tell us about our God which has the power to destroy our sense of insecurity? Read Matthew 8:2-3 and discuss how Jesus reversed the crushing power of the Levitical purity laws. How does the grace of his blood destroy our indecency and make us truly clean?