Week 4 - The story and our place in it

Gathering Activity: What's your favorite story?

Opening Prayer: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit you have welcomed us into your story. You have given us eyes to see and ears to hear. We do not always see and hear clearly but we ask that you will give us clarity and guide our hands to do your will, and our hearts to desire it.
Amen.

Scripture: Matthew 1.5-7

5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. ⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

Response: who knows what comes next in the story?

Scripture: Matthew 1.26-38

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. ³³He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ ³⁴Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ ³⁵The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.’ ³⁸Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. 

Response: Do you feel that you are a part of the same story?

The bible can be broken down into:

Prologue: The Bible as a Grand Story

Act I: God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation

Act II: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall

Act III: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated

Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending:
The Intertestamental Period

Act IV: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished

Act V: Spreading the News of the King: The Mission of the
Church

Act VI: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

*from Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen's the drama of scripture

We exist in Act V. We have a place in the story. This story really is our story. 

Prayer Requests: 

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.

Amen.

Dismissal: Thank-you God for giving us a place in your story. Help us to live in a way that glorifies you and spreads the news of your kingdom in everything we do. In your name we pray,
 Amen. 

 

Week 3 - Creation

Gathering Activity:

Planting plants. You can't do this online. Get a pot. Get some dirt. Get some seeds or a sapling or a little sprout.

Opening Prayer: In the beginning you created the heavens and the earth. You created us in your own image and you saw that we were good. Help us to reflect the glory of your creation. In your name we pray.

Scripture: John 1.1-5 and Genesis 1.1-2.3

John 1.1-5
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Genesis 1.1-2.3

1In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. ⁴And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ ⁷So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. ⁸God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. ¹¹Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. ¹²The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. ¹⁶God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ ²¹So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. ²⁵God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
²⁷ So God created humankind in his image,
   in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.
²⁸God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ ²⁹God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. ³¹God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. ²And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. ³So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Response: Last session we talked about seeing the world through the cross. How do we see Genesis, the beginning of the biblical narrative, through the eyes of the cross?

Prayer Requests:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.
Amen.



Dismissal: 

Leader: The cross?
Everyone: We shall take it!
Leader: The pain?
Everyone: we shall bare it!
Leader: The Joy?
Everyone: We shall share it!
Leader: The darkness?
Everyone: God shall perish it!

Challenge: find where that dismissal is from

Week 2 - In the Beginning: Seeing through the Cross

Gathering Activity: "What is this?"

What is this if you are a pigeon?

What is this if you are a dog?

What is this if you can fly?

What is this if you are five years old?

What is this if you are short?

What is this if you are tall?

Opening Prayer: Dear God, you have given us so much. Because you loved us so much you took on flesh, became incarnate, and lived a human life. Because you loved us so much you took on our sins and allowed yourself to die a brutal death on the cross and because you loved us so much you came back. You rose again in glorious victory over sin and death and you changed everything. With deepest thanks we pray,
Amen.

Scripture: John 3:11-21

11 ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’

Response: "The story begins with the vast explosion of love, joy, and hope released into the world by the resurrection from the tomb of the crucified and rejected Jesus." - Lesslie Newbigin

If we start with Christ it changes how we see the rest of the world.

Prayer Requests:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.
Amen.


Dismissal: Lord, we cannot thank-you enough. We can never earn the depth of love you showed on the cross but we can strive to make our lives reflect your love to the world. Give us the strength to view the world through the eyes of the cross: through the lens of Christ's death and resurrection, help us to trust that He will come again in glory and to know with everything that we are that we are love. In your name we pray,
Amen.

Week 1 - "Who do you say that I am?"

Gathering Activity: Hey! What do you remember from your Confirmation class?

Welcome to our first ever team challenge - you have exactly 45 seconds to get yourself into two teams -

Question One: What is the Apostle's Creed?

Question Two: What are the ten commandments?

Question Three: Do you have the Apostle's Creed memorized?

Question Four: Who is Jesus?

Question Five: Why does it matter who Jesus is?

Opening Prayer: Lord God, Creator of all, you are a relational God. A triune God who creates, redeems, and sustains, you have brought us together for a reason. Be with us in our journey toward a closer relationship with you. Guide our discussions and open our hearts to the truth of your gospel. In the name of your son Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.

Scripture: Mark 8:27-30

27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ ²⁸And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ ²⁹He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ ³⁰And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Response: A discussion regarding who Jesus is?

Challenge for the week: spend some time reflecting on how you see Jesus. What do you think of when He comes to mind? Does this effect the way you see the rest of the world?

Prayer Requests:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.
Amen.


Dismissal: Lord, we thank you for our time together. We pray that you will go with us into our weeks, continuing to guide our feet and our friendships. In your name we pray.
Amen.