Leader's Notes: Week 2

Leader’s Notes

Living the Lord’s Prayer

Week 2 Our Father who art in Heaven

Welcome & Prayer • •

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Allow class to gather and have fellowship.

By 10:00am at the latest, convene everyone for general announcements and attendance. o Be sure to introduce yourself to the class. If guests are present, it would be appropriate to go around and have everyone introduce themselves (just names for brevity).

Remind everyone about the First in Focus series and how it works. For instance: o “First in Focus is a special six-­‐week Sunday School series designed to generate church-­‐ wide conversations around important topics in Christian faith and theology. In weeks 1 and 6, all participants gather for a lecture in Fifield Hall. In weeks 2-­‐5, participants meet in their individual Sunday School classes to explore the topic further with the help of a curriculum.” o “This is week 2 and in it we’ll be exploring the very first line of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven…”.

Lead class in a brief prayer. o Given the subject of this series, you may wish to start with the Lord’s Prayer itself.

Introduction •

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Handout this week’s curriculum (printed copies are available in the classroom). o Please note that e-­‐book versions of the participant’s guide are also available on the web at: http://firstpresatl.org/learn/firstinfocus/prayingthepsalms/ Read, or have someone else in the class read, the Introduction, which can be found on the front cover of the Participant’s Guide Then read, or have someone else in the class read, the conversation starter. o Remember, not everyone in your class might have attended the week 1 lecture. You may wish to offer additional comments of your own to help give a sense of what was covered during the week 1 lesson. o Both an audio podcast and a video of the week 1 lecture are available online, as well as a link to the Prezi slides. See http://firstpresatl.org/learn/firstinfocus/lordsprayer In terms of the amount of ground covered, this week’s session is the most focused insofar as it only looks at the opening address.

I. “Father” •

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Background: Some older Bible commentaries suggest that in calling God “father” Jesus radically breaks from Jewish tradition and does something innovative and distinctly Christian. This is an unfortunate overstatement. While it is true that Jesus gives a new priority to this term when addressing God (he uses father 170x in the Gospels), there was already ample precedent for calling God father in Jewish prayer.

Read the opening text and then ask participants to read the two biblical texts given (Mark 14:36 and Romans 8:15-­‐17.

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Leader’s Notes

Living the Lord’s Prayer

In both of these texts, the Aramaic term Jesus would have used is not only translated into the Greek equivalent (pater = father in Greek) but it is also transliterated as ’abba.

Transliteration involves using letters in one language that approximate the sound of the word in the original language. In doing so, the authors of these passages literally enable us readers to “listen in” on the sound of Jesus’ address to God. Pose the question that goes along with the biblical texts. o Mark 14:36 is Jesus’ anguished pray from the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed and condemned. Jesus’ cry of suffering is framed as a desperate plea from a son to a father. o Romans 8:15-­‐17 talks about our transformation into being adopted children of God and heirs with Christ. In this state of forgiveness and acceptance, we can call on God as father, not as master.

Read, or have someone else read, the next block of text and the accompanying discussion question. o In the Gospels, it is only Jesus who calls God father. But elsewhere in the NT, Paul and others commonly refer to God as father. o Some possible answers to the first part of the question (“For you, what does the language of father suggest about the God to whom we pray?”) include: § Nearness, love, goodness, mercy, forgiveness, assurance that we have been heard, comfort, etc. o The second part the question is open-­‐ended. Allow space for participants to reflect on how the particular term we use to address God (father, creator, redeemer, etc.) changes the tone of our prayers. You might alternatively ask: “How do you typically address God in prayer?”

Read, or have someone else read, the next block of text. o This block is a little bit longer than usual and deals with the delicate matter of masculine language for God. Ask participants to read the biblical texts given (Isaiah 49:15; 66:13; Deut 32:11-­‐12; Hos 11:3-­‐4; Matt 23:37) and pose the accompanying question. o These questions are meant to be open-­‐ended and to encourage reflection about non-­‐ traditional (but still very biblical!) language about God. This section ends with a discussion question about how we might bring greater balance to the church’s language about God. o If you feel that some of these topics surface in response to the previous question you may wish to skip ahead to the next section of the study. o

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II. “Our” •

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Background: This section takes a closer look at the meaning and significance of calling God “our” father. In Greek, the first person plural pronoun (we/us/our) is used 9x in this short prayer. o This section contains 3 important ideas, each of which has an associated discussion question.

Read point 1 and the associated biblical text (John 15:15-­‐16) and discussion question. o In this text, Jesus calls his disciples friends. You might encourage participants to think about what it means to approach God as a “friend” in prayer. Would that change our language? What we talked about? How honest and vulnerable we were?

Read point 2 and the associated discussion question.

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Leader’s Notes

Living the Lord’s Prayer

This question is trying to get participants to think about how the Lord’s Prayer invites us into community with one another. That is, in saying “our” we situate our faith within a broader web of relationships, ministries, and stories. o You might point out that this question reflects the emphasis of our Long Range Strategic Plan on “deepening participation.”

Read points 3 and pose the accompanying question. o It should be kept in mind that in Christian theology, the communion of saints refers to members of the church, both those living and those already in heaven. o

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III. Who art in Heaven • •

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Background: The archaic verb “art” is the early modern English of “is.” However, in Matthew’s Gospel, no verb is present. The text simply reads: Our Father in Heaven.

Read the first block of text and the accompanying question. o For sake of time you may elect to skip this question and move directly to the next block of text.

Read or have someone else read the next block of text. o Immanence refers to God’s nearness, the pervading and continuous presence of God in the immediate reality of our lives. Transcendence refers to the way in which God lies beyond and apart from the everyday workings of our lives and our world. o By timely we mean “in time,” the opposite of God’s eternality.

Read the biblical passages listed (Psalm 9:11; Isaiah 56:7; John 1:14; and Ephesians 3:16-­‐17) and pose the accompanying questions. o In Psalm 9:11, “Zion” is a way of referring to Jerusalem. o The “house of prayer” referred to in Isaiah 56:7 is the Temple.

Raise the final discussion question. o This question shifts focus from where God is when we pray to where we are when we pray.

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