Adult Bible Studies Winter 2020-2021 Teacher

By Cokesbury

Winter Theme: Hope
This winter, our lessons
develop the theme of “Hope.” The writers of the student book lessons are
Taylor Mills and Bruce Batchelor-Glader; the teacher book writer is
Stan Purdum.

The Good News
These lessons
continue a unit that began with the last Sunday in the fall quarter,
encompassing the Sundays of Advent and the first Sunday after Christmas.
They call us to consider the Incarnation and what it means that God
sent Jesus into the world in human form, as one of us. Thus, the lessons
invite us to think about the relationship God wants to have with us and
how God’s sending Jesus makes that relationship possible.


The Hypocrites and the Holy
The
lessons in this unit challenge us to examine ourselves in light of the
examples we see in the individuals in Scripture. Where do we find
instances of hypocrisy or holiness? And how do these tendencies
contribute to or diminish our hope? Lesson 5 focuses on John the
Baptist, preparing the way for Jesus, the hope of the
world. Lesson 6
tells of Jesus commenting on John’s ministry and announcing the good
news. Lessons 7 and 8 help us think about how the hope Jesus brought
functions in our lives. And Lesson 9 looks toward the ultimate
fulfillment of that hope, with the full coming of the kingdom of God.


Holy Living
This
unit embraces all the Sundays of February and March; and, as such, it
continues into the next quarter. The eight lessons of the unit invite us
to think about what it means to be the people of God and to pursue holy
living. The four lessons in this quarter help us look at how we deal
with one another; how faith is expressed action; the sort of “fasting”
God wants from us (whether or not we abstain from certain foods); and
how, in fact, Christians are the temple of God. During this unit, Lent
begins, which is an especially appropriate time to think about holiness.


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made exciting changes designed to benefit Bible study groups. For 2020,
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Bible passages in both the Student and Teacher books. Lessons follow the
church seasons, including Advent and Lent, and include suggestions for
developing spiritual practices to help nurture your faith.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Oct 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781501895258

Book preview

To the Teacher

One of the first words many babies say is light. And they don’t just matter-of-factly utter the word. They exclaim it, eyes dancing and fingers pointing to and reaching for its source. Light! Encouraged by parents and other relatives and friends, they repeat the word over and over, happy with its existence and with their newfound ability to identify it.

They can’t yet know, of course, what all light means and can do. They just know that seeing it brings them joy. Children afraid of the dark find comfort in a nightlight burning softly in their rooms. Even as adults, one of the first things we probably do when we enter a room is turn on the light.

Light is critical for safe and successful navigation. Long before ports were developed, people built fires on hilltops to guide mariners to shore, a concept that led to the development of lighthouses. Those structures evolved over time to serve also as a warning to seafarers against dangerous rocks and reefs.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, churches, bridges, office buildings, stadiums, colleges and universities, and other structures around the world, some usually dark and indistinguishable at night, began to glow brilliantly with lights of various colors. Lights shone in memory of those who had died as a result of the virus. They burned in gratitude for those on the front lines fighting it and those working to ensure that we continued to have the food and supplies we needed. But equally important, they radiated as a symbol of hope during a dark and uncertain time.

Light shows us where we should go and what we should avoid. It is a significant metaphor in Scripture. God’s word, the psalmist tells us, is a lamp before [our] feet and a light for [our] journey (Psalm 119:105). We do not need to fear anyone or anything, because the LORD is [our] light and [our] salvation (Psalm 27:1). I am the light of the world, Jesus said. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life (John 8:12).

Illness, isolation, economic upheaval, anxiety, fear, doubt, uncertainty, stress—the darkness of these and many other forces can threaten the flame of hope, even for people of faith. At these times, and indeed in every time, the church holds the faith, the hope, and the light for us. We are supported not only by those with whom we worship, study, serve, and fellowship each week, but also by that great cloud of witnesses who came before us (Hebrews 12:1). As part of that great cloud, we are held by faith and hope; and we, in turn, hold it for others.

Our lessons this quarter, written by Taylor Mills, Bruce Batchelor-Glader, and Stan Purdum, center on the theme of Hope. They remind us that, as followers of Jesus, hope is already and always ours. Even when our way seems dark and uncertain, we have a sure path to follow. Even when we do not feel hopeful, we have hope within us because Christ lives in us.

What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light (John 1:3-5).

Jan Turrentine

[e-mail]

Unit 1: Introduction

God With Us

Unit 1 is a continuation of the fall quarter. The last lesson we studied in the fall showed us that God created humanity in God’s own image (Genesis 1:27), and we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14, NIV).

These passages were familiar to early Christians. Paul knew them when he wrote his letter to the Philippians, and John knew them well when he wrote his Gospel. Indeed, John 1 is a Christian creation story we hold alongside Genesis 1.

In Lesson 1 of the present quarter, our attention turns to Psalm 8:4: What are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? As you prepare for this lesson, consider Psalm 8:4 alongside Genesis 1:27. Though we are made in God’s image, the psalmist reminds us that we are rather insignificant in comparison to the Creator. How amazing that God would even consider making us at all, and then to make us in God’s own image!

In Lesson 2, Paul explains how we are to live with one another the way God lived among us in the person of Jesus. He includes what we call the Christ Hymn, a poetic description about how Jesus emptied himself and humbled himself (Philippians 2:7, 8).

In Lessons 3 and 4, we will read John’s Gospel. In the beginning, says the evangelist, was the Word (John 1:1). The Word is, of course, Jesus Christ; and John says that "everything came into being through the Word (John 1:3, emphasis added). Since we are part of that everything," that means we came into being through the Word, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

When you teach Lesson 4, it will be the Sunday after Christmas Day. Jesus has been born to a waiting world that, like Philip, desires to know God. The incarnation of God into human form, the Son, means that we can finally see God, and what we see is Jesus.

This unit couldn’t come at a better time. Advent and Christmas focus our attention on the birth of Jesus. In Bethlehem, a miracle will take place. The Word through whom everything came into being will be born among us. The God in whose image we are created will share our humanity. We call this miracle the Incarnation (Latin: In into, carn, flesh. In the flesh). Jesus is God in the flesh or, as a child once put it, God with skin on!

God’s Christmas gift to the world is God’s own self. In Jesus, God experienced what it is to be human. That’s a huge part of why the Incarnation is so amazing! The Incarnation was God’s journey to us.

Once God had journeyed to us in Jesus, the journey took God in Jesus all the way to the lowest point of our humanness. Jesus emptied himself and humbled himself to the point of death on a cross, but death would not hold the Son of God! At the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he ascended to the heavens. That was God’s journey back, taking our human-image into the heavens.

It’s all come full circle in this unit! God created us in God’s image. Jesus, the incarnate God, came to be with us and experienced our full humanity. God punched a way for us through death by Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Now, we can follow Jesus through death and out the other side as beings created in the image of God!

December 6 | Lesson 1

God and Human Beings

(The Second Sunday of Advent)

Focal Passage

Psalm 8:1-9

Background Text

Same

Purpose

To explore what it means to be made in God’s image

Psalm 8:1-9

¹LORD, our Lord, how majestic

is your name throughout the earth!

You made your glory higher than heaven!

²From the mouths of nursing babies

you have laid a strong foundation

because of your foes,

in order to stop vengeful enemies.

³When I look up at your skies,

at what your fingers made—

the moon and the stars

that you set firmly in place—

⁴what are human beings

that you think about them;

what are human beings

that you pay attention to them?

⁵You’ve made them only slightly less than divine,

crowning them with glory and grandeur.

⁶You’ve let them rule over your handiwork,

putting everything under their feet—

⁷all sheep and all cattle,

the wild animals too,

⁸the birds in the sky,

the fish of the ocean,

everything that travels the pathways of the sea.

⁹LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!

Key Verses: What are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur (Psalm 8:4-5).

Connect

One of my favorite newspaper comic strips is Arlo and Janis. It’s a leisurely paced domestic situation comedy written and drawn by Jimmy Johnson.

The main characters are husband and wife Arlo and Janis, a middle-class baby boomer couple with a laid-back approach to life. Initially, their young son, Gene, was a regular in the strip. Over the years, he has grown and now has a wife and a child of his own. He appears in the comic less often.

One memorable strip was from the days when Gene was still a child at home. In that strip, Arlo has just confronted Gene about some infraction or other. Gene protests, But Dad! I’m only human! Arlo responds, That’s no excuse, son! Gene says, It isn’t? I thought I’d found a loophole.

Young Gene, it seems, was assigning too little significance to what it means to be human. We may do that at times. We may say, I’m only human to imply that we shouldn’t be held to too high a standard. Still, in so doing, we have made the word human synonymous with low expectations: I’m only human, so don’t be surprised if I fail. The result is that instead of apologizing for our mistakes and failures—those things for which we are to blame—we, in effect, apologize for being human!

The Bible offers a higher view of what it means to be human. Genesis tells us that we’re made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Sin hinders how we live out that image; but, even then, our humanness remains one of God’s good gifts to us. The author of Psalm 8 had it right when he prayed, What are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them? You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur (Psalm 8:4-5).

I am not among those who believe that humans will get better and better until one day we reach perfection. Neither do I believe that being human, by definition, dooms us to failure. We can use our humanity as an arena to serve the Lord and to do God’s will. Being human is not a loophole but an opportunity for largesse, a generosity of spirit, with which to reflect the image that God planted within us.

Inspect

The Psalms are a collection of sacred poetry. They were used in ancient Israelite and Judean worship. Many, and probably all of them, were sung. In fact, in Hebrew, the word psalm means music and song. Individually, the psalms fall into several different genres: laments, thanksgivings, expressions of confidence in God, wisdom statements, royal psalms, songs about Jerusalem, and hymns of praise.

Psalm 8 falls into this final category. It’s not only a hymn of praise, but it is the first one we encounter in the Book of Psalms. What’s more, it’s the only hymn in the Old Testament entirely composed as a direct address to God.

Psalm 8 declares God’s sovereignty over the creation, which in turn points to God’s cosmic grandeur. The psalm does not claim that God and creation are one and the same, like some pantheistic gooeyness. The psalmist testifies to the majesty of creation, while informing the worshiper of the higher majesty of God the Creator. The creation gives some measure of the difference in significance between the Creator and the mortals the Creator has made and between humanity and creation.

Psalm 8 has a concentric structure:

ALORD, our Lord (verse 1)

BYou made your glory (verses 1-2)

CWhen I look (verses 3-4)

B’ You’ve made (verses 5-8)

A’ LORD, our Lord (verse 9)

A and A’ form an inclusio, bookends for the psalm. The inclusio highlights the main theme of Psalm 8 and makes clear that what is in the middle of the two bookends supports the main theme.

Psalm 8:1. The psalm begins and ends with congregational praise. It names its addressee right up front: LORD, our Lord. But note that the two Lords are not the same.

The first is in all caps, which is a stylistic practice in English Bibles to indicate that the word is a translation of the Hebrew word Yahweh, which is God’s proper name and is often rendered I am or I will be who I will be. The second Lord is a rendering of Adonai, which is not a name but a description. Adonai means master, owner, or sovereign. Thus, the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) opens the psalm with O LORD, our Sovereign.

The rest of the verse, in the Common English Bible (CEB) and the NRSV, declares the majesty of God’s name, praising God’s glory, which is above the heavens. To say that God’s name is majestic does not mean that there’s anything unique or magical about Yahweh as a spoken sound or a written identifier.

In Hebrew practice, according to Bible scholar William Barclay, the name of God signifies the character of God as far as that character can be seen by the works of creation and the events of history. Theologians call the knowledge of God that can be known through creation natural revelation.

In saying that God’s glory is above the heavens, the psalmist is not talking about the eternal dwelling place of God, but about the sky, to which the psalmist looks in verse 3.

Verse 2. Between verses 1 and 9, the congregation praises God for mighty acts, specifically the defeat of foes. There is some lack of clarity in the original Hebrew of verse 2. Some translations associate the mouths of nursing babies with a bulwark.

For example, the CEB offers the translation: From the mouths of nursing babies you have laid a strong foundation because of your foes, in order to stop vengeful enemies. The NRSV says, Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. We can agree. God can use even the sounds infants make as a bulwark or a mighty fortress against God’s foes.

Other translations link the babies’ mouths to praise. The New International Version (NIV) ties the phrase about babes and infant to the last line of verse 1: From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise is an equally valid translation of the underlying Hebrew and, in fact, gives the sense Jesus used when he quoted from Psalm 8 in Matthew 21:16.

Children in the Temple were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. The chief priests and some legal experts grew angry and confronted Jesus. Do you hear what these children are saying? they asked Jesus. Yes, he answered. "Haven’t you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you’ve arranged praise for yourself?" We concur. God, whose great glory brings forth praise from adults, is also praised by the happy burbles of little children.

Verses 3-6. Although the psalmist speaks in the first person singular in verse 3, and although humankind is the subject of verses 3-6, these verses are more about the Creator than about human beings. One way to see that is to examine the verbs in these verses. Notice that God is the actor, the subject of most of the verbs in these verses (emphasis added):

•"what your fingers made"

•"that you think about them"

•"that you pay attention to them"

•"You’ve made them only slightly less than divine"

•"crowning them with glory and grandeur"

•"You’ve let them rule over your handiwork"

•"putting everything under their feet."

The only time a mortal is the subject of a verb is in verse 3: When I look up at your skies. The experience of looking at the sky on a clear night is powerful. Many of us have gazed upward at summer camp, in rural settings, or other locations unaffected by the pollution of artificial light. We can identify with the psalmist, struck by the impressive panorama of the starlit sky. And we understand the thought he expresses in verses 3-4: How does the God who has created and governs all of creation have time to attend to mere mortals?

That’s precisely what God does (verses 5-6) and not just with the leftovers of the divine attention. You’ve made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur. Wow!

The CEB tells us that God made humankind only slightly less than divine, which is an acceptable rendition of the underlying Hebrew word. But other versions use angels, heavenly beings, God, a god, or gods. The reason is that the Hebrew word is Elohim, which appears over 2,600 times in the Old Testament.

English translations of the Bible most often render Elohim as God, even though the word is in the plural form, as in Genesis 1:26 (emphasis added): Then God said, Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us" is one place where English translators sometimes chose one of the other possible meanings. Perhaps, to some translators, it seems arrogant to say that human beings are made only slightly less than God.

Whatever term is selected to translate Elohim, the meaning echoes words from the Creation story: God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them (Genesis 1:27).

God’s attention to humankind tells us something about God’s nature. As biblical commentator J. Clinton McCann Jr. says, "The character of God’s sovereignty cannot be understood apart from the knowledge that God does choose to be ‘mindful’ and to ‘care for’ humanity. And likewise, says McCann, the identity of humanity cannot be understood apart from this relationship with God."¹

Verses 6-8. Although I included verse 6 in the previous grouping to show how the verbs applied to God, it belongs with verses 7 and 8 as a complete sentence. That sentence tells us that our dominion over creation is not our own doing. It is a gift from God that calls all of humanity to assume responsibility as good stewards of creation.

Verse 9. This verse repeats the opening refrain of the psalm, with verses 1 and 9 book-ending the affirmations in between. As the student book says, this psalm begins and ends by delivering praise straight to God’s ear.

The concentric design of the psalm shows the individual worshiper (verses 3-4) encircled by the gracious love of God (verses 1-2; 5-8) and embraced within the worship of the congregation caught up in the praise of the majestic one. It is God’s gift to be given such an identity and place in the world.

Reflect

Prepare

You might find a Bible dictionary, a Bible commentary, and other Bible study resources helpful in explaining important theological