Stepping into Scripture: Liturgical Year A

By Lillith O'Shann Edmiston Moore

Stepping Into Scripture is designed to teach you how to immerse yourself into God's Word.You will learn to take a scripture passage, construct a flow chart and then write what God spoke to your heart and what God taught you. Stepping Into Scripture is a resource book designed for clergy, lay speakers, Bible study teachers, Sunday school teachers, accountability groups or your private study. God speaks to us through his word. With Stepping Into Scripture, you have the opportunity for God to speak to your spirit and be shown new insights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646707706

Book preview

Advent 1 Year A

Matthew 24:36–44

Prepare Your Heart and Mind

April 15, 1912

It was the fourth day of the maiden voyage of the Titanic, the ship that wouldn’t sink. Some of the wealthiest people enjoyed first-class luxury cabins, fine food, and dancing. Immigrants were in the lower decks laughing and dancing looking forward to a home in the new land. All having a good time, not a worry in the world. Then came the iceberg.

During World War II, the troops had prepared for the European invasion. They did not know the day and time. They were on standby. The commanding officers didn’t know when. Even those who were to make the decision didn’t know when it was to be. They would have to determine the best day and time based on many factors including the weather. Then came June 6, 1944.

In the days of Noah, people were indifferent to the coming disaster. There was wickedness and the thoughts of their hearts were continually evil. They were eating and drinking, having a big time. But Noah did all that God commanded and he prepared. He built the ark, stored food, and kept two of each animal and waited. Then came the flood.

Today we have no way of knowing when Jesus will return. The angels nor Jesus himself knows when the time will be. Whenever God determines the day and the hour, Jesus is ready. He is prepared. Like Jesus, we must be prepared for such a day. We must prepare our hearts and minds every day so we will not be caught unaware. We are to establish God’s kingdom right here on earth today and every day. Then the day and time will carry no fear for us. We will have found favor with God.

As children of God, our destiny is not one of wrath but of salvation. Whether alive or dead, we are to live with him. Before Jesus suddenly appears like a thief in the night, he will appear around the corner as a homeless person, a hungry person, an ill-clothed friend, an imprisoned neighbor, a sick family member, or as many other broken people. There are certain things we need to do in order to be prepared for our encounters with Jesus.¹

Put on the breastplate of faith and love—above anything else, we are called to love one another. We are to love regardless of their beliefs, their social status, or their disagreement with our theology. God loved the world. Jesus loved all people. We are called to do the same. We must have faith that God will enable us to love all people for alone we are unable to.

Put on the helmet of salvation—The helmet of protection is our salvation. We need not worry about outside forces affecting us for we are sealed in Jesus with the promise of the Holy Spirit.² We are God’s people. He claims us as his own.

Encourage and build up one another—show grace by the words you speak to each other. Do not tear one another apart. There should be unity and harmony among God’s children and we are all children of God. We should not put others down or discourage them in any way. We must be positive with a positive influence.

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¹ Thessalonians 5:4–11

² Ephesians 1:13

Advent 2 Year A

Matthew 3:1–12

Prepare the Way for Others

Isaiah 40:3–5 speaks of Isaiah’s prophecy about John the Baptist. John would be that one voice crying out in the wilderness. The wilderness was the place of Israel’s liberation from Egyptian control. Now it is the place where another liberation was to take place. A place where God’s glory would be revealed.

John the Baptist’s ministry was to make the path straight for others. He was to make straight in the wilderness a highway for God and to God through Christ Jesus. John was that one voice in the wilderness proclaiming repentance, to reverse their thinking and behave differently as the kingdom of God had come near. John was introducing Jesus to the world.

John Wesley proclaimed the kingdom of God was not a future happy place in heaven but a state to be enjoyed on earth. He believed that eternal life began in this life. This eternal life begins when we first become conscious of the mercy and love of God called justification.³ It is through sanctification that we learn about God’s love and showing that love to others.

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking for this eternal life here and now. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.⁴ We ask for kingdom living which is living in God’s will.

Our ministry is to prepare the way for others to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. We are to clear the path, remove the curves, the hills and any barriers that would hinder someone’s search for Jesus. We should be the map they use to discover this kingdom living here and now.

First we need to repent by asking for forgiveness and then making a complete turnaround in our lives. We must change the way we see people, how we love them and accept them as children of God. We must show them the love, not just talk about it.

We need to bear fruit worthy of repentance. In kingdom living God’s people do something with their salvation. Each one of us will have a gift and talent to be used to further God’s kingdom as we go about living our lives. If we do these in love, we will see fruit come from our actions.

We must allow others to see our faithfulness and love. Our job is not to argue our theology with them or to use scripture to fight our battles. We are above all else, to love one another with the same type of love which God loves us. Love is a verb which requires action.

We don’t need to just talk the talk but to show by our actions that God is love. As the song goes, They will know we are Christians by our love.

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³ Wesley Study Bible, p 1535

⁴ Matthew 6:9–10

Advent 3 Year A

Matthew 11:2–11

Prepare to Doubt

What happened between Matthew chapter 3 and the eleventh chapter of Matthew? What made John the Baptist go from proclaiming Prepare the way of the Lord to asking Are you the One?

One thing that happened was John was now in prison and facing death. He needed reassurance that his ministry, his life had not been in vain. When he sent word to Jesus to ask if he was the one, Jesus responded with scripture from the Old Testament. Today we can find scripture in the New Testament to support Jesus being the Messiah.

As children of God, each one of us has a mission, a ministry ordained by God. During our journey to Bethlehem, we will hear and see things which we do not understand. Our lack of understanding leads us to doubt as we search for answers to questions.

At some time, we must be prepared to doubt our ministry. For some this may happen at the very beginning of the mission. For others, doubt may arise when the mission gets tough. When these times of doubts set in, we must be prepared to seek the wisdom and knowledge of scripture. God speaks through his word and he will direct our paths and make them straight.

We must be prepared to be open minded and have no preconceived notions of what is to take place. During our mission, we must not run ahead of God thinking we know what we should do. We are to have open hearts and mind and the patience to wait on God. He will make the way known in his time.

We must be prepared to ask the hard questions like Are you the One? Jesus did not chastise John the Baptist for doubting or questioning his mission. We have no reason to fear God’s reaction or response to any question we might have. Perfect love cast out fear and God is perfect, complete love.

Like the Boy Scouts, we must always be prepared.

Advent 4 Year A

Matthew 1:18–25

Prepare to be Obedient

Those from my generation are probably familiar with the paintings of Norma Rockwell. It seems we all want holiday family gatherings to look like the cover of Saturday Evening Post. Everyone in their nice clothes, sitting around the table using our best table manners with please and thank you. It is a Kodak moment to be sure. But truth be known, most of us usually have more of a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation where everything is in chaos and nothing goes the way we desire it to.

We get so caught up in the celebration and gift giving we tend to forget the complications that arose that first Advent. Joseph and Mary were engaged when the angel Gabriel announced Mary would be with child from the Holy Spirit. Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and stayed three months. When she returned to Nazareth, she would have had a baby bump and everyone would have known she was with child. Just imagine being the talk of the town but not in a good way.

Joseph was a righteous and kind man, and he decided to dismiss Mary quietly instead of making her a public disgrace and bring shame upon her and her family. Joseph put Mary’s feelings above his. During this time stoning took place when a woman was not married but with child. Joseph had compassion as he did not want Mary to undergo this type of treatment.

But an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him not to fear taking Mary as his wife for the baby was from the Holy Spirit. When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did all the Lord commanded.

We can be prepared to be