Adult Bible Studies Winter 2022-2023 Student

By Sue Mink

A comprehensive Bible study plan and spiritual practices to deepen your relationship with God

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 United Methodist Church.

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. Included to help students go deeper into the lessons are :
A comprehensive Bible study plan with more flexibility in terms of Scripture selection and topics.
Observation of the church seasons, including Advent and Lent.
Suggestions for developing spiritual practices (prayer, confession, worship, mindfulness, solitude, community, hospitality, neighboring, service, and celebration).
No printed Scripture text allowing you to choose your own Bible translation.

Additional information about Adult Bible Studies, Winter 2022-2023
Theme: Power and Love
This winter, our Bible lessons follow the theme “Power and Love.” The lessons first challenge us to try to understand Scripture, particularly the Nativity accounts, from the position of vulnerability and powerlessness. They then move to a closer look at what it means to belong to the family of God and culminate in a series of lessons on love and how it informs and changes our relationships. The writer of the student book is Sue Mink.

Unit 1
Power and Vulnerability
God’s incarnation was into a poor family from a village of no consequence, vulnerable to the whims and machinations of the mighty Roman Empire. While some people reading this Bible study can relate to the poverty and obscurity, most will read it as citizens of a great world power. Some people know from experience that power can be abused even against a government’s own citizens, but others have known only the protection and benefits of that power. These lessons invite us to read the Nativity stories from the vantage point of the victims of empire.
Scriptures: Judges 9:1-15; Matthew 1:1-25; Matthew 2:1-12; Matthew 2:13-15
Spiritual Practice: Acts of Mercy

Unit 2
Power and Belonging
The lessons in this unit follow the trajectory of biblical imagery for faith development from adoption through baptism and infancy in faith, into youthful excitement and exuberance, and then to a mature faith that struggles, challenges, and questions.
Scriptures: Galatians 3:23—4:7; Luke 15:11-32; John 17:1-24 and Ephesians 4:14; Colossians 3:12-17; Matthew 22:1-14
Spiritual Practice: Rule of Life

Unit 3
The Power of Love
One of the distinct traits of biblical theology is the emphasis on God’s hesed (“lovingkindness”) and Jesus’ selfless love. In the
early twentieth century, a great deal of ink was spilled trying to distinguish agápe love by which we become channels of God’s
love from philía, friendship in which reciprocity is important, and éros, a passionate sort of love. Recent scholarship finds that Greek and biblical thought blurs the lines of agápe and philía and finds a greater emphasis on relationships. While we should enact our love without thoughts of personal gain, the ultimate goal of loving our enemies is becoming their friend.
Scriptures: 1 John 4:7-21 and Ruth 4; 1 Kings 3:16-28; 1 Samuel 18:1-4, 19:1-7, 20; Matthew 16:21-28
Spiritual Practice: Spiritual Friendship

Other Adult Bible Study components, sold separately, include:
Teacher/Commentary Kit
The Kit includes a Teacher Book and a Concise Commentary that are both supplementary and complementary to the Adult Bible Studies student book

The Teacher Book provides small-group leaders, teachers, and facilitators with additional biblical backgr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Oct 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781791020453

Sue Mink

Sue Mink creates artwork that explores the intersection between art and theology. She is a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary and Carnegie-Mellon University, where she earned her design degree. She is the author of Preparing the Way: An Advent Study Based on the Revised Common Lectionary and The Sanctuary for Lent 2014. She lives in Leesburg, Virginia.

Book preview

Editor’s Perspective

Power, wrote author Philip Yancey, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.¹

In the church year, of course, we are not there yet. We’re not to the point of Lent’s call of repentance nor Good Friday’s crucifixion nor Easter’s resurrection celebration. But we have approached another point in time where vulnerability, suffering, and love converged in the face of crushing power. God’s Incarnation was as a vulnerable baby born into a poor, obscure family subject to the whims of a mighty empire that was not at all well-intentioned.

The soothing Advent candles of hope, love, joy, and peace frame our observances positively, as they should. But faithfulness to the biblical witness requires us to remember that the Crucifixion was not the first time Jesus’ safety was at risk, nor was it his first venture into suffering. From his birth, Jesus personified vulnerable love that absorbed suffering. Hope, love, joy, and peace come at the cost of relinquished power, intentioned anguish, and ultimate sacrifice.

The first 12 lessons of this quarter were written by Sue Mink, and the last lesson was written by Michelle Morris. These lessons remind us that God’s reign in this world is good news to some but bad news to those who reject it and insist on clinging to misused, abusive power. They call us to submit to God’s reign in our lives with a mature faith that acknowledges challenges, struggles, and doubts. And they challenge us to live selfless love that is willing to surrender everything for the good of others.

In Christ, we find an embodied illustration that vulnerability is not weakness but power, suffering is not defeat but victory, and sacrifice is not losing but gaining. Jesus, though he was in the form of God, … did not consider being equal with God something to exploit. But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him a name above all names, so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:6-11).

Come, let us adore him.

Jan Turrentine

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1 From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey quoted at goodreads.com.

Unit 1

Power and Vulnerability

Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Every year, we celebrate Christmas as a time of great gladness in the birth of our Savior and Lord. But the birth of the Messiah was not good news to everyone. In this unit of lessons, we will examine what it means to have Jesus Christ as our King.

The empires that have been built according to human nature are far different than the kingdom of God. Kings have sought to better their own positions. Societies have been structured to benefit those in power. People have often sacrificed the honor and reputation of others to protect themselves. How do these conventions look through God’s eyes? The first lesson in this unit contrasts human rule with God’s desires by examining a parable in Judges. The second lesson explores the difficult choice Joseph made to risk his reputation by marrying his pregnant fiancée, Mary.

Whenever there is a new king, that means an old king loses power. But when Jesus was born, not only did the king change, but the understanding of kingdom changed, too. While human kingdoms and power still dominate the earth, with Christ’s birth, the kingdom of God became the hope and promise for the future. How have people responded to this radical new vision of the world?

In Lesson 3, we recall how the magi recognized Jesus as the new King and traveled a great distance to worship him. In contrast, Lesson 4 reminds us that King Herod sought to kill him. Worshiping Christ means that as part of his kingdom, our allegiance is to serve the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength.

December 4

Lesson 1

Reign Over Us

The Second Sunday of Advent

Focal Passage: Judges 9:1-15

Background Text: Same

Purpose Statement: To dedicate ourselves to God’s rule over human rule

Judges 9:1-15

¹Abimelech, Jerubbaal’s son, went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem. He spoke to them and to the entire clan of the household to which his mother belonged: ²Ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which do you think is better to have ruling over you: seventy men—all of Jerubbaal’s sons—or one man?’ And remember that I’m your flesh and blood!

³So his mother’s brothers spoke all these words on his behalf to all the leaders of Shechem. They decided to follow Abimelech because they said, He’s our relative. ⁴They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men, who became his posse. ⁵He went to his household in Ophrah and killed all seventy of his brothers, Jerubbaal’s sons, on a single stone. Only Jotham the youngest of Jerubbaal’s sons survived, because he had hidden himself. ⁶Then all the leaders of Shechem and all Beth-millo assembled and proceeded to make Abimelech king by the oak at the stone pillar in Shechem.

⁷When Jotham was told about this, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He raised his voice and called out, "Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!

⁸"Once the trees went out to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king!’

⁹"But the olive tree replied to them, ‘Should I stop producing my oil, which is how gods and humans are honored, so that I can go to sway over the trees?’

¹⁰"So the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be king over us!’

¹¹"The fig tree replied to them, ‘Should I stop producing my sweetness and my delicious fruit, so that I can go to sway over the trees?’

¹²"Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and be king over us!’

¹³"But the vine replied to them, ‘Should I stop providing my wine that makes gods and humans happy, so that I can go to sway over the trees?’

¹⁴"Finally, all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and be king over us!’

¹⁵"And the thornbush replied to the trees, ‘If you’re acting faithfully in anointing me king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the thornbush and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’

Key Verse: Which do you think is better to have ruling over you? (Judges 9:2).

A few years ago, I spent three months in Romania. It’s a beautiful country, but it has a heartbreaking history. From 1965 to 1989, Romania was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu. When the president’s death in 1965 left a vacuum in the government, Ceausescu was able to take advantage of political infighting among more qualified candidates and present himself as a viable compromise candidate for president. However, after gaining power, he became a brutal dictator. His repressive policies and human rights violations, along with the severe economic hardship he created, brought the country to its knees.

Finally, Ceausescu was executed in a coup. The country is still struggling to put those dark years behind and recover from the damage done by one man’s grab for power.

Leadership Focused on the Lord

Throughout history and until today, nations have struggled with the intersection of faith and political power. The American Constitution values the separation of church and state, but clearly ethics and morality are crucial elements of leaders who govern for the good of all.

We don’t turn to the Book of Judges much today, but it deals with these questions as it examines an important transition in the history of Israel. Our Focal Passage looks at Abimelech’s attempt to set himself up as the king of the Israelites and provides an introduction to our consideration of the conflict between human rule and God’s kingship. The parable we find in Judges 9 points to the barrenness of human rule.

Prior to this time in their history, the Israelites were ruled by Moses and then by Joshua as they were conquering the Promised Land. But after they were settled, they struggled with the best way to rule themselves. Israel wasn’t a unified people, but rather a group of clans with constantly shifting allegiances. They sometimes banded together for military purposes, but there was no