DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

3A:

• Which churches or religious buildings have you ever visited? Which is your favourite and why?
• What struck you about the churches or religious buildings you have visited? What features stood out for you?
• Which is your favourite place in the world and why?
• What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

3B:

• If you were God, what would you do to convince people that you existed?
• If God exists, do you think he would want to communicate with us? Why?
• What do you think about the idea that God is “personal”: that he made us and knows us and loves us?
• What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

3C:

• What comes to mind when you think about Jesus? What have you learnt or picked up about him?
• Why do you think Jesus is so important to people of Christian faith?
• What do you associate with the idea of Christianity or with Christians?
• What other ideas or questions strike you from this part of the film?

KEY PASSAGES FROM THE FILM

3A – “The hiddenness of God”

The mystery at the heart of the universe is not an abstract force but a God who is alive, who is personal, who calls us into a relationship with him. This is one of the key insights of the Jewish and Christian and Muslim traditions. The bible says that God is a “living God”, who is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Christians have come to address God as “Father”, which reminds us of his goodness and his care for the whole of creation.

3B – “When God broke the silence”

God has spoken to us in history, using signs and symbols and people and events. He has not left us alone. He has broken the silence. He has come to our help.

The promises he made to the Jewish people are made to us too. And Christians believe that they have been fulfilled with the coming of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.

3C – “Discovering the face of God”

Jesus was born in Bethlehem just over 2,000 years ago. He grew up in a Jewish family in the village of Nazareth about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. He was a carpenter who then became a rabbi, a Jewish teacher. He impressed people with his teaching and his ministry of healing, and gathered a group of followers around him in a community he called the Church.

He got into a long-running confrontation with the religious authorities and was put to death by Roman Crucifixion in Jerusalem. His followers claimed that he had risen from the dead and appeared to them, and that he was still present with them in some mysterious way. That’s the summary.

This is the Christian faith: That Jesus is the Son of God, who comes from the Father. That he is God himself, because he shares God’s very nature.

So when we look at Jesus we look into the face of God.