Leaders Notes: Week 5

Leader’s Notes

Living the Lord’s Prayer

Week 5 "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Welcome & Prayer  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 churchwide 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 5 and in it we’ll be exploring the last two petitions in the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."  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  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: https://firstpresatl.org/livingthelordsprayer/  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 For sake of time, you may wish to skip this question and start with the content on the next page.

I. “Lead us not into temptation"  Background: This is the last of the “we-petitions.” This line has been a source of much debate for scholars throughout the centuries. Origen thought that the point was not to avoid all temptation, but to avoid becoming overpowered by temptation. Tertullian and Cyprian believed that while God does not lead anyone into temptation, he does allow humans to be tempted.

Augustine and Jerome understood it to mean that God would never allow anyone to be tempted beyond what they could handle.  Read, or have someone else read, the opening text.  Read the biblical passages (Matthew 26:36-41 and Matthew 13:15-17) and ask the associated questions.  Read the next block of text o You might remind the class how this “we” language has appeared in the earlier parts of the Prayer. o Invite the class to discuss the question about the collective nature of the petition. o A few temptations the church faces today might include the tendency to split over theological differences, overly focusing on one demographic of the community to the 1

Leader’s Notes

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Living the Lord’s Prayer

exclusion of others, or losing sight of core beliefs and values in an effort to become more seeker-friend.

Read the next block of text. o While there are some temptations that we can, thankfully rid ourselves of, there are others that we will no doubt fight for the duration of our time on earth. And there are still other temptations that we can’t foresee that will trouble us, and we will be unprepared for. Thus, the supplicant is asking for daily help with respect to all forms of temptation that we face. o It is important to note that in teaching this prayer to his disciples, Jesus’ expectation was not that they would become perfect. Rather, Jesus’ hope is that they would persevere in their faith despite the temptations they face.

Read the biblical passage (Ephesians 6:10-17) and ask the associated questions.

II. “But deliver us from evil.”  Background: There is a lot of debate surrounding this line which is only found in Matthew’s version. Some scholars believe that it can be read as “Rescue us from the evil one” since it uses the same language in Matthew 4:3; 13:19, 38 in speaking about the devil as the tempter. The Didache’s version of this request reads: “Remember your church, Lord, to deliver it from all evil.”  Read the first block of text o We often think of sin and evil as personal – that is, the tendency of individuals to have the wrong intentions or to act in ways that are immoral. o However, Christian theology also identifies a institutional component to sin and evil. This does NOT mean that all institutions are inherently bad or corrupt. Rather, it is a way of recognizing that certain problems in the world are the product not of a single person’s shortcomings but rather of a whole system that allows for or even perpetuates unjust conditions in the world. A good example of this type of evil is poverty.  Read point 1 and then ask the associated discussion question.  Read point 2 and the accompanying biblical text (James 4:1-7). o Ask the discussion question.  Read or have someone else read the second block of text.. o Read the final scripture passages (1 John 5:18-20 and Matthew 16:13-20) and ask the associated questions.

III. “For thine is the kingdom…”  Read or have someone else read the last blocks of text. o The Didache (pronounced : Die-da-kay) is an anonymous Christian treatise. It constitutes the earliest written catechism in church history. It also includes sections on church organization, ethics, and instructions on rituals like baptism. o The added doxology is likely modeled after Jewish prayers, most of which include doxologies at their conclusions. The Magnificat of Mary (in Luke 1) and the prayer of exaltation in Revelation 4:11 which celebrates God’s final victory over evil are comparable to this. If there is time, you can read these passages, and compare them to the doxology found in the Lord’s Prayer, noting their similarities and differences.  Read the final discussion questions. o The Christian theologian Karl Barth viewed the doxology in connection with deliverance from evil, saying that this part of the Lord’s Prayer affirms that “the Kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God, and not the Devil, sin, death or hell.”

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Leader’s Notes

Living the Lord’s Prayer

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