Adult Bible Studies Fall 2021 Teacher/Commentary Kit

By Clara K. Welch

Hundreds of thousands of people each week have transformative encounters with God through Adult Bible Studies—Bible-based, Christ-focused Sunday school lessons and midweek Bible studies endorsed by the Curriculum Resources Committee of the The United Methodist Church. In 2020, we reintroduced printed focal 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.

Adult Bible Studies Fall 2021
Theme: Belong

Unit 1: Outside In
Sociologists studying the story of the early church often attribute the growth of the church to the sense of belonging that it offered people in a world where belonging was limited to those with things such as property, high status, and/or birthright. This unit of lessons looks at the various ways that the Bible makes clear how we belong to God’s people even when we appear to be outsiders. Several of the lessons point out where we as human beings insert distinctions that restrict membership within the community of Christ.

Scriptures: Jeremiah 29:1-23; Luke 7:36-50; Galatians 2:11-21; Philippians 3:2-21; Ephesians 2:19-21

Spiritual Practice: Hospitality

Unit 2: Into the Future
After over 2000 years of existence as an institution, we can easily take for granted that we know what the church is. This unit invites readers to look at it from the view of the community living into the future. The Greek word for church, ekklesia, is not a word that the first members of the church associated with a religious activity. The word signifies the assembly of the people of God. It is instructive to look at what their understanding of the purpose of assembling as a group signified, how it has shaped our understanding of church, and how reading these texts might renew and expand our understanding.

Scriptures: Acts 2:37-47;1 Corinthians 12:12-31; Matthew 16:13-19; Revelation 3:1-6, 14-20; Deuteronomy 29:10-29

Spiritual Practice: Community

Unit 3: The Fellowship of the Table
Once one enters the Church through baptism, the central identity marker for membership in the church is participation in Communion. The opening of God’s people to both Jews and Greeks, men and women, masters and slaves required people previously unaccustomed to eating together to sit down at a common table. When we look at the Gospel narratives, we see Jesus modeling open table fellowship. In this unit, we will look at the significance of the practice of open table fellowship in the church as a sign of God’s shared abundance, ministry of reconciliation, and celebration.

Scriptures: John 6:1-15; 1 Samuel 25:2-39; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Isaiah 25:6-10a; 55:1-3

Spiritual Practice: Open Table Fellowship


Adult Bible Study components include:
Student Book
Published quarterly, each week's Student Book lesson lists background Scripture, features key verses, provides reliable and relevant biblical explanation and application, and more, in a readable font size that is accessible to everyone.

Teacher Book
The Teacher Book provides small-group leaders with additional biblical background and exposition and suggestions for guiding group discussion for each quarterly theme.

Video-DVD
Does your group enjoy watching videos to generate conversation around Bible studies? Video sessions directly correspond to the Adult Bible Studies quarter’s theme and content and features a segment for each Bible lesson.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781791006525

Clara K. Welch

Clara K. Welch has served churches in Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia as a diaconal minister and an ordained deacon. She is certified in the areas of Christian education and older adult ministry through the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Following graduation from Lebanon Valley College with a bachelor s degree in music education, Clara taught music at Red Bird Mission in Kentucky. She then attended Scarritt College in Nashville, where she earned a master s degree in church music and Christian education. After several years of working in the local church, she returned to school and earned an MTS at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Clara and her husband, Brian, have one daughter, Rebecca Jo.

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Editorial and Design Team

Jan Turrentine, Editor

Tonya Williams, Production Editor

Ken M. Strickland, Designer

Administrative Team

Rev. Brian K. Milford,

President and Publisher

Marjorie M. Pon, Associate Publisher and Editor,

Church School Publications

ADULT BIBLE STUDIES TEACHER (ISSN 1059-9118). An official resource for The United Methodist Church approved by the General Board of Discipleship and published quarterly by Cokesbury, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37228. Copyright © 2021 by Cokesbury. Send address changes to ADULT BIBLE STUDIES TEACHER, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37228.

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Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ are used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scriptures quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org). Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 (Second edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. Scripture taken from the Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version–Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. Scripture taken from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version—Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

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To the Teacher

A Letter of Encouragement

The Spiritual Practice of Hospitality

A History of Belonging

The Spiritual Practice of Community

The Spiritual Practice of Open Table Fellowship

BELONG

Unit 1Outside In

1September 5Hospitality to Strangers

2September 12Being Bold to Join

3September 19Opening the Door to Christ

4September 26Citizens of God’s Household

Unit 2Into the Future

5October 3The Church’s Activities

6October 10The Church as One Body

7October 17The Church as a Discerning Body

8October 24The Need for Spiritual Renewal

9October 31Covenant Renewal

Unit 3The Fellowship of the Table

10November 7Shared Abundance

11November 14A Meal of Reconciliation

12November 21Communion Connections

13November 28Come to the Banquet

Meet the Writer

Clara K. Welch is an ordained deacon in the North Georgia Conference. She holds a bachelor of science degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. After graduation, she served as a music teacher in two elementary schools related to the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky.

Clara also has a master’s degree in Christian education and church music from Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee, and a master of theological studies degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She has served United Methodist churches in Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia in the areas of Christian education, children’s music, and older adult ministry.

Currently, in addition to writing curriculum for The United Methodist Publishing House, Clara teaches piano lessons to children and adults. Clara’s hobbies include baking and photography.

Clara and her husband, Brian, have a daughter, Rebecca Jo, and a son-in-law, Kody.

To the Teacher

The commons area of my large high school was a bustling, noisy place, its rows of long tables our gathering place before school and during lunch. I don’t recall much about the food we were served, but I do remember the atmosphere—the exclusion, the distinctions, the divisions. Unless you were a new student, you knew just where you should sit and where you shouldn’t. I can still picture the various cliques into which people grouped themselves, or perhaps were grouped by others.

It should not surprise us that cliques are still part of the contemporary high school experience. Many of the same cliques I recall from my high school still exist: the athletes, the popular ones, the supersmart kids, the artsy types, the band members, and the loners, among others. The lines among the various groups today, however, seem to be blurred, thanks to social media.¹ Because kids interact with so many people on social media, they may be more inclusive and accepting of those who are different from them. They may move comfortably among various groups and consider themselves part of several.

Fulfilling the need to belong is essential for humans. We all want to know where and how we fit in, and this motivates our behaviors and informs our choices. But the need to belong is not just something God fashioned into us. It’s a need God has already met. We don’t have to wonder. We don’t have to doubt. Throughout the biblical narrative—Israel’s beginnings, the Law, the books of history, the Psalms and other writings, the prophets, the Gospels, the epistles—Scripture is clear: We belong to God.

The psalmist beautifully reminds us, Know that the LORD is God—he made us; we belong to him. We are his people, the sheep of his own pasture (Psalm 100:3). And the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants too (Psalm 24:1). Through the prophet Isaiah, God said, Don’t fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine (Isaiah 43:1).

Paul wrote, If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to God (Romans 14:8). And though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other (Romans 12:5).

Our lessons this quarter, written by Greg Weeks for students and Clara Welch for teachers, focus on what it means to belong to God and to one another, to be the church. They challenge us to identify and remove the distinctions that restrict membership within the community of Christ. Once we enter the church through baptism, the central identity marker is participation in Communion. Paul’s teachings about it remind us not only that the meal constitutes the community, but also what sort of community we are to be.

Seating was by reservation only at my high school. That’s not the case at Christ’s table. All are welcomed, and there is room for everyone.

So now you are no longer strangers and aliens. Rather, you are fellow citizens with God’s people, and you belong to God’s household. As God’s household, you are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. The whole building is joined together in him, and it grows up into a temple that is dedicated to the Lord (Ephesians 2:19-21).

Jan Turrentine

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¹From chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-met-high-school-cliques-change-study-20190218-story.html.

A Letter of Encouragement

Dear Teachers,

Thank you for serving in your church and giving your time and energy to participate in leading Bible study. The invitation to proclaim God’s Word may seem daunting and overwhelming at times. Moses resisted and explained to the Lord that he could not speak well. Jeremiah resisted and said he was too young. We all may have our reasons why we feel we are not up to the task, but God has called us to proclaim the Word.

Bible study is vital to the life of the church. The Scriptures tell the story of God and God’s people, and we as twenty-first-century Christians have a place in that story.

The ancient Israelites were not always faithful. They strayed from following God’s commands and gave their allegiance to other gods. Unfortunately, the same may be said of the present generation. The biblical text shows us God always remains faithful. God redeemed humankind and all creation from sin through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

This is the story we need to continue to proclaim in our churches and communities. As a Sunday school teacher or small-group Bible study leader, you have the wonderful opportunity to share this story again and again. As you lead your group in the study of various Scripture passages, you have the opportunity to point out God’s faithfulness and remind your group members that God’s forgiveness and salvation through Christ are available for each one of us all the time.

When our congregations face challenges, it helps us to know the first-century congregations faced challenges, too. Through the accounts in Acts and the writings of Paul, Peter, and the other apostles, we gain insight into how these early congregations resolved their differences. We find encouragement and wisdom that will help us achieve resolutions and remain the faithful body of Christ.

You will not always know what is on the heart and mind of each person who participates in your group. If your group shares prayer requests and joys with one another, you will have some idea, but many concerns remain unspoken on our hearts.

As a teacher, you have the wonderful opportunity to share God’s promises revealed in the biblical text—promises of steadfast love, faithful presence, comfort, healing, forgiveness, hope, and joy. You have the opportunity to remind others that Christ invites us to live in relationship with him and to follow his example of love and service. You have the opportunity to remind others of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

As you prepare to teach each lesson, pray for God’s guidance and direction. Remember you do not walk into your meeting space alone. God is with you. Many times we do not know how our teaching affects the life of someone else. We do not know how an idea, an explanation, or an illustration helped someone else grow in their faith and relationship with Christ.

But sometimes members of our group will approach us and tell us how a lesson gave them courage to face difficult times; guidance to make decisions; or hope when they felt all hope was lost. Sometimes members of our group will tell us that, through our teaching, they gained a better understanding of a biblical passage or a theological concept suddenly made sense. Sometimes class members will tell us that, through participation in our class, they found the hope or comfort or joy for which they were longing.

Yes, the invitation to serve as a Sunday school teacher and/or Bible study leader may feel daunting and overwhelming at times. But we know it is a privilege to proclaim the amazing good news of Jesus Christ. It is an awesome joy to have a part in helping others grow in a relationship with our Lord.

Thank you for saying yes!

Clara Welch

Unit 1: Introduction

Outside In

We find security in knowing we belong! In the secular world, we are aware of distinctions that restrict membership in various groups and tell us we do not belong. The same was true of the secular world in biblical times.

In God’s community, there are no restrictions to membership. Sociologists who study the early church often attribute its growth to the fact that these distinctions do not apply in the church. Everyone is welcome in God’s community.

The spiritual practice for this unit is hospitality. The lessons in this unit look at various ways the Bible makes it clear that we all belong to God, even when we appear to be outsiders.

The first lesson is Hospitality to Strangers. When the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon as punishment for their unfaithfulness, God instructed them to promote the welfare (Jeremiah 29:7) of that foreign city. The exiles showed they belonged to God by showing hospitality to people who considered them to be outsiders.

In Lesson 2, Being Bold to Join, Luke tells the story of a woman who knew she was labeled an outsider due to her sin. She boldly entered a Pharisee’s house to see Jesus. God encourages everyone who feels unworthy to take a bold step and approach the Lord. God calls the church to proclaim the good news that everyone belongs in God’s community.

Lesson 3 is Opening the Door to Christ. Paul’s letter to the Galatians addresses the conflict created when some Jews expected Gentiles to follow the law of Moses. This included the observance of food laws and acceptance of the ritual marker of circumcision. Paul proclaimed there is no place for such divisions within the church. Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ through baptism.

Lesson 4 is Citizens of God’s Household. In the time of the early church, citizenship in Rome was limited to an elite group. Roman citizens enjoyed benefits, protection, and social status that were not offered to the lower social classes. Paul declared he gave up the physical advantages of Roman citizenship (Philippians 3:4) in exchange for the spiritual advantages of citizenship in God’s household. Membership is open to everyone. The citizens of God’s household do not seek personal glory and wealth. Instead, we seek to conform to the self-giving example of Christ.

Paul criticized the church in Corinth for not treating members from different social and economic classes with equal respect when they observed the Lord’s Supper. Paul reminds us that just as everyone is equally welcome in the church, everyone is equally welcome at the Lord’s table.

September 5 | Lesson 1

Hospitality to Strangers

Focal Passage

Jeremiah 29:4-14

Background Texts

Jeremiah 22:3-5; 29:1-23

Purpose

To explore how to live out God’s call to show hospitality to the strangers in our lives

Jeremiah 29:4-14

4The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. 6Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. 7Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

8The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Don’t let the prophets and diviners in your midst mislead you. Don’t pay attention to your dreams. 9They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I didn’t send them, declares the LORD.

¹⁰The LORD proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the LORD; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. ¹²When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. ¹³When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me. ¹⁴I will be present for you, declares the LORD, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring you home after your long exile, declares the LORD.

Key Verse: Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare (Jeremiah 29:7).

Connect

One of my favorite movies is The Sound of Music. The main character, Maria, had planned to live her life in an abbey as a nun. It soon became apparent, however, that she was not ready to make the commitment to this life. The Mother Abbess sent her to the home of Captain von Trapp to serve as governess for his seven children. Maria felt as though she had been exiled, forced to leave the abbey when she wanted to stay.

To her credit, Maria made the best of her situation and served the family well. To her surprise, she and Captain von Trapp fell in love. Her marriage to him sent her into yet another exile as the family was forced to flee their beloved homeland in order to remain true to their moral principles.

On March 12, 2020, I attended the women’s dinner at our church. While we were there, we received notification that the public schools would not reopen until further notice, and our bishop was requesting churches suspend onsite congregational worship for the foreseeable future. At that time, we were just beginning to realize the threat of a pandemic and that social distancing was about to become our way of life.

When the women’s dinner was over and I was saying goodbye to friends, I felt as if I was in one of the closing scenes in The Sound of Music. The von Trapp family sang So Long, Farewell at the end of a music festival, knowing they had an escape plan in place, knowing they were heading into an unknown future and might never see their fellow Austrians again.

As I left the church that evening, I knew I would eventually see these friends again, but the future felt so uncertain. I wondered how many weeks would pass before it would be safe for us to gather again within the church walls. We were being exiled from our church building, exiled from meeting in person for Sunday school, small-group meetings, and choir rehearsals. As I walked to my car to drive home, I wondered what the future would hold.

The people of Judah experienced exile as a nation. They were forced to leave their Land of Promise and move to Babylon. Today, we continue to experience times when we feel as though we are living in a kind of exile. Sometimes we find ourselves living in a place we did not choose to go. Sometimes situations around us change and we feel as if we are living in a foreign place and we did not even move! This is what people around the world are experiencing now as I write this, six weeks into a time of social distancing in an effort to stop the spread of this virus.

God told the people of Judah, Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile (Jeremiah 29:7). In other words, show Hospitality to Strangers. Who are the strangers we meet during these times of exile? How do we show hospitality to strangers when we ourselves feel like the stranger?

In this lesson, we will explore the ways we are called to show hospitality to strangers in the various settings of exile in which we find ourselves.

Inspect

Jeremiah served as God’s prophet during the 40 years leading up to Judah’s exile to Babylon, from 627–587 BC. Jeremiah 1:2-3 states, The LORD’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son, and throughout the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

One scholar writes, The ‘forty-year’ prophetic ministry of Jeremiah reminds us of Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. The looming exile would be a wilderness experience for this later generation of God’s people.¹

Jeremiah 22:3-5. This is one of the Background Texts for this lesson. The Lord told Jeremiah, Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and declare this message (22:1). The message contained commands about how to treat other people, specifically how to treat the oppressed . . . the refugee, the orphan, . . . the widow . . . the innocent (verse 3). Often, the people in these groups are strangers to us. God calls us to offer hospitality. The Lord gave the people of Judah a choice: Do what is just and right (verse 3), and kings will continue to occupy the throne of David (verse 4); or ignore these words . . . [and] . . . this palace will become a ruin (verse 5).

We know how this turned out! The people ignored God’s commandments and were taken into exile. The Temple and the palace were eventually destroyed.

Jeremiah 29:1-3. These verses introduce the Focal Text for this lesson. We are told, The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem . . . to all the people Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem.

In New Testament times, it was common practice for the apostles to communicate with the young churches and with one another through letters. In Old Testament times, the practice of sending letters was less common. Jeremiah’s letter contained information for all the exiles, but he also wanted to be sure the few surviving elders of Judah and Judah’s priests and prophets (verse 1) knew its contents.

The deportation of Judah to Babylon happened in stages. Jeremiah’s letter addresses matters related to the period between the first relocation of Judeans to Babylon (597 BC) and the fall of Jerusalem (587).² King Jeconiah (verse 2) left Jerusalem in the first deportation.

King Zedekiah succeeded King Jeconiah on the throne. He dispatched two men, Elasah and Gemariah (verse 3), to deliver Jeremiah’s letter. The fact that the historian mentioned the two letter carriers by name indicates the importance of Jeremiah’s message. King Zedekiah was Judah’s last king. He ruled approximately 11 years until Jerusalem fell and he, too, was forced to relocate in Babylon.

Verses 4-14. This is the Focal Passage for this lesson and contains the contents of Jeremiah’s letter to the people in exile. In these verses, God offers the people (1) instructions about how to live in a foreign land among strangers during the time of exile and (2) words of hope that they would one day return home.

Verse 4. The people in exile received this letter during one of the lowest moments of their history. Jeremiah let his readers know the message contained in the letter was from God. Notice the way Jeremiah described God, beginning with the LORD of heavenly forces. This was a reminder that God is the Creator of the universe and continues to rule over all creation. Second, Jeremiah affirmed, The LORD of heavenly forces is also the God of Israel. In spite of their sin, God still claimed the chosen people and remained their God.

Notice, too, that this message from the Lord was addressed to all the exiles [the Lord] carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon. God claimed responsibility for the Judeans’ deportation. God used Babylon to carry out the divine purpose. Remember God’s warning: Ignore these words . . . [and] . . . this palace will become a ruin (22:5). The people chose to ignore God’s warning and experienced the effects of their disobedience.

Verse 5. The exiles were involuntarily displaced and living in a foreign land as refugees. Imagine their feelings of loss and grief as well as their desire to return home. The false prophet Hananiah had predicted a short exile (Jeremiah 28:1-17). Jeremiah’s letter told the exiles otherwise.

God instructed the people to settle down and make their home in the new land. This meant building houses and planting gardens to provide for their basic needs of shelter and food so they would survive in that foreign place. It was not the word the exiles wanted to hear. Their first inclination may have been to rebel against their captors and resist their authority in an effort to return home sooner. God instructed them to do the opposite.

Verse 6. God wanted the people not only to survive, but to thrive and to prosper. God told them, Get married and have children . . . so that you don’t dwindle away. Did the exiles see a glimmer of hope in this instruction? Were they thinking, Surely, the Lord will not encourage us to have children if there is no future for them. Surely, the Lord