Small Group Questions (1/15-1/21)

During our current sermon series focused on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we will publish weekly a set of small group questions for your Covenant to make use of should you desire to use them.  Here are the questions for this week:
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1. Read Matthew 5:9-12.  How do the promised blessings in this section compare with what most people in the world prize?
   
2. What do you find shocking or surprising in these last beatitudes?
   
3. Define justice and peace.  What is the relationship between them?  Is one more likely to lead to the other? 
   
4. How is the work of peacemaking likely to lead to trouble, or is it? 
   
5. Today most all Americans think well of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but in his day he was extremely unpopular with most white Americans.  Why do you think that is?  What does that tell us about Christian peacemaking?  What does it tell you that a generation after his death he is popular with those whose parents reviled him?
   
6. Who is an example of peacemaking in the world today and why do you think they have been effective?