Where The Wild Things Are

Week 2 – Discussion Guide

Mark 8:31-9:1
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the
law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He
spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to
rebuke him.
33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked
Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the
things of God, but the things of men."
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life[c] will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his
soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone
is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in
his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Mixer
Talk about the different events and symbols in the movie and
what they represent. Below I have listed a few to get the
conversation going. Feel free to interpret them in your own
way.

The Real Pile – This is demonstration of the monster’s togetherness.

(See question 1 below)
The Desert – This is most likely the ugliness in Carol’s life. The more
vulnerable parts of Carol’s story. Perhaps hard times or emotions that
are difficult to deal with.
Carol’s Model – This is Carol’s big dream for his community. (see
question 1 below)
Bob and Terry – Talk about the way you felt when you finally got to
see who Bob and Terry were.
Dirt Clod War – This is the showing of how dysfunctional they have
become, all of their baggage and bad ways of relating comes out in
this part of the film.

Going Deeper
1. What does everyone want? How does Carol’s model and

© 2010 Dixon Kinser

 “the pile” express that? Everyone wants to be together.
When Carol takes Max to see his model, he is honestly showing
him what his ultimate vision for their community is. It is a place
where they are together and happy. During the pile scene you
get this sense of oneness and harmony. The monsters said
things like: “we should stay like this forever!” and “this is fun,
remember when we used to have fun.” You get the sense that
the pile and Carol’s dream is the monster’s version of shalom.
Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace. But it’s much more than
that. For the ancient Jews, shalom was the name for God.
Shalom is about God’s dream for us to be in peace and harmony
with one another and all of creation. Shalom is where all of this
is headed. It is a state of togetherness and oneness with each
other. What the monster’s want and what God wants are
actually quite similar things.

2. So if Carol’s dream and God’s dream are similar, why

can’t they get along? Because they build a fort! The fort is
about trying to fix something without addressing the source of
the problem. Remember the desert scene, and how Carol talks
about it: “This place, well this is not so good.” The desert scene
is the part of Carol’s life that he doesn’t want to address, he just
wants to stay focused on the good and fun stuff but as we can
see they must address the real issues before they can actually
get back together.

3. Take a look at the passage from Mark. In Jesus’ day there

were many voices about how to be in the shalom of God. The
Pharisees argued that piety (religious devotion) and properly
following Torah (the law) were the way. The Sadducees argued
that learning Greek culture and acquiring wealth and status was
the way out of oppression from the Romans. For the Zealots, it
was overthrowing the Romans with revolution and violence.
When Jesus announced to his disciples that he was in fact the
messiah, each disciple had their own idea of how Jesus was
going to liberate them and build his kingdom. So when Jesus
tells them that he is going to die and if his disciples want in on
his kingdom, then they are going to need to join him, they
aren’t happy about it. Wasn’t this the guy that was supposed to
make us great? Wasn’t he the one that was going to liberate
our people from oppression? So you can imagine why Peter
would object to such a notion. How is Peter like Carol in this
story? Peter is like Carol because he wants the shalom of God
without first dealing with the very thing that disrupts the

© 2010 Dixon Kinser

 shalom: sin and death. The way to deal with sin and death is
through self-sacrificial love. It is through suffering for the sake
of others. This is how sin is defeated, this is how we become at
peace with one another and with the world. This is how we are
in harmony with God. This is how we are all getting back
together. What are the problems we are facing in our own
life? Would you like to be liberated from the stress and
negativity of this problem? What are the ways we are
trying to get what we want without first dealing with the
problem? What are the ways we are medicating
ourselves? Are you like Carol, saying, “I want a place
where everything you want to have happen will happen?”
Or are you moving in the way of Jesus dealing with these
problems head on and suffering for the sake of right
relationships?

Lead everyone through a meditation.

Have everyone consider the things that is giving them stress
and to name it. Maybe it’s a group of friends that you feel
excluded from? Maybe it’s something you heard on the news?
Maybe your parents are fighting all the time? Maybe it’s
somebody you really can’t stand to be around, but have to see
them everyday?

Sit with it for a moment.

Ask for God’s shalom. Ask for peace. Ask for ways to really
confront the problem. Ask for courage. Ask for healing.

May you trust God, that this is the way to being liberated from
the things causing you suffering.

Pray God is near.

© 2010 Dixon Kinser