A LENTEN BIBLE STUDY SERIES Cross Talk Bible Studies on Mutual Conversation and Consolation Presented by the Claimed Strategy Committee as a part of Growing Deeply in Faith: Five Years of God s Creative Grace!
Dear Colleagues in Ministry: Are you looking for resources for midweek or Sunday morning Bible studies for Lent? If so, the Claimed Committee of our synodical strategic plan has a gift for you: this five-week Bible study series based on the Sunday lectionary texts for Lent which also serve to unfold meanings of this year s synodical emphasis on Mutual Conversation and Consolation in our life together (www.mnys. org/growinginfaith). The materials that accompany this message are ready for you to use and/or adapt for your local ministry setting. If you already have program plans for Lent, these materials can be modified for use at other times and on other occasions. A goal of this resource offering is to create occasions to be engaged in the scriptures so that we may come to better understand conversational encounters as times when God communicates grace to us. Another hoped-for outcome is that these Bible studies will themselves become occasions to actually experience this grace in conversation, thus enriching participant s engagement with the Sunday liturgy, while building our confidence that our gracious God in Christ is in our midst when two or three gather together in Jesus name (cf. Matthew 18:20). What s Inside: Preface 2 Introduction 2 Week 1: Sharing the Good News 4 1 Peter 3:18-22 Week 2: Sharing the Good Truth 6 Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Week 3: Sharing Holy Wisdom 8 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Week 4: Sharing Hard Truth 10 John 3: 1-21 Week 5: Sharing New Life 12 John 12:20-33 We also invite you to anticipate similar Bible study resources for the coming years as we live into our Five Years of God s Creative Grace, that our life together and faith commitment may be deepened by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace. If you have questions about how best to use these materials, please feel free to contact Pastor Jonathan Linman, Assistant to the Bishop for Faith and Leadership Formation: 212-870-2374 or jlinman@mnys.org. We pray that you find these resources enriching. May God bless you in your holy conversations! Cordially in Christ, Members of the Claimed Committee 1
Preface This Bible study uses the Lectionary for Sundays in Lent (Year B) to explore the wanting-to-be-unpacked means of grace that Luther names: Mutual Conversation and Consolation. For each week, one of the readings is featured in the study. Leaders should feel free to use the other two readings as they see fit and applicable. In addition, there are other resources noted that a leader might choose to incorporate. Each context is different, so the effectiveness of these additional voices in the conversation will vary. The additional voices include: sections of the Small Catechism, works of visual art, and even a speech. This Bible study does not include prompts for creating directed conversation. Since we are asking people to place new value on mutual conversation and consolation we did not want to create the discomfort that can come when one is expected to have a meaningful conversation with someone they may not know well enough for such an experience. Instead, this study asks participants to reflect on conversations fruitful and frustrating, to value these real encounters in new ways, and to see the grace that is ours when we share in conversation with another. It is the goal of this study that through this reflection very real conversation will be born and the participants will see that this gift of mutual conversation and consolation is truly a means of grace for the people of God. Blessings on your journey. Introduction In his Smalcald Articles Luther discusses the multiple ways we receive the Gospel: first, he says, we receive the Gospel when the forgiveness of sins is preached; second, in baptism; third in communion; fourth, through the power of the keys; and then (as an afterthought or perhaps because it seemed commonsensical): and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren, Matt. 18:20: Where two or three are gathered together, etc. Remarkably, even though Luther indicates that this practice is a way we receive the Gospel a sacramental means of grace the church and Lutheran tradition has not paid it much attention. So this is our opportunity: let s explore together what mutual conversation and consolation might mean for the church and for our lives today! Means of Grace: Mutual Conversation and Consolation (2014-2015) Confession, Forgivenes, Reconcilliation (2015-2016) Preaching and Proclamation (2016-2017) Baptism (2017-2018) Eucharist (2018-2019) First, look over the excellent resources on the synod website. What resonates with you? What needs to be heard today both inside and outside the walls of the church? Here are some additional thoughts to begin a discussion about what makes mutual conversation and consolation a remarkable practice and a remarkable means of grace for our tradition: When mutual conversation and consolation is affirmed as a means of grace it gives common, daily, mundane experience: a transformative sacramental gleam. We engage in nourishing, 2
healing, and uplifting conversations around dinner tables, on the street, before, during and after doing the business of the church in meetings, in walks through parks, by school lockers, at water coolers, in coffeehouses, and at the pub. The subjects of our conversations may not even be explicitly churchy or speak specifically of faith. So what gives them this gleam? By claiming conversation and consolation as a means of grace we are saying something about the way God becomes incarnate in our everyday lives. In Luther s Freedom of a Christian he describes how we become little Christs to one another. Mutual conversation and consolation is unique among the traditional Lutheran understandings of grace for a few reasons. In our liturgies and generally within the walls of the church the means of grace are declared to us. We need this. We need to hear this word of grace clearly, regularly, and from someone who we recognize has the authority to say something as bold as God forgives you. But can grace also be communicated? Conversationally? Mutually? In a reciprocal exchange? Mutuality, reciprocity, and exchange are usually outside the bounds of what we Lutherans recognize as grace. Declared grace has had a tendency to slide toward individualism. It focuses our attention primarily on the relationship between me and God. The community and our place within this body of Christ can be overlooked. As Lutheran theologian and pastor Joseph Sittler emphasized: focusing only on declared grace has also tended to separate us from the community of all creation this in spite of remarkable Biblical testimony about Christ s cosmic role in bringing forth all creation and looking for the day when all things will again be brought back to Christ s body! Communicating grace to one another requires neither authority nor sacred space set apart. Mutual conversation and consolation happens between friends, fellow travelers, and fellow members of the body of Christ. This practice becomes a means of grace when it transforms office cubicles, sidewalks, soup kitchens, and locker rooms into sacred space. It allows mutuality, reciprocation, and community-building to be transformed past the normal boundaries. 3
Week 1: Sharing Good News 1 Peter 3:18-22 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20 who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him. How is grace shared? In this passage, Jesus proclaims it to the spirits in prison. In the Lutheran tradition, we are most familiar with proclaimed or declared grace. We come to our communities of worship week after week, hungry to confess our sins and hear a word of forgiveness declared to us by people ordained with the authority to do just this. This familiarity with declared grace makes Luther s comments in the Smalcald Articles all the more surprising. He identifies mutual conversation and consolation as a way we receive the Gospel a means of grace. Yet this is an altogether unfamiliar side of Luther. Luther s characterization of mutual conversation and consolation suggests that we receive grace in more ways than just declaration. Grace must also be communicated, shared among equals in a spirit of mutuality. So look again at this passage from 1 Peter. This passage also witnesses to another way grace is shared. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. In baptism we share in Christ s death and resurrection. He trades his righteousness for our unrighteousness death for life and he communicates these gifts to us through baptism. What was Christ s becomes ours, just as what was ours becomes his. Here is an exchange that is not quid pro quo or tit for tat. This exchange is also a communion: uniting us with Christ and, through Christ, with one another. Declaration can be made from afar, but communication implies connection. The Gospel is not information but a connection to Christ and to one another. This is what it means for mutual conversation and consolation to be a sacrament. Participating in mutual conversation and consolation is not just exchanging words, but communicating with one another in a way that creates community the body of Christ. Look at Andrej Rublev s Icon of the Holy Trinity on the next page. In this image the persons of the Trinity are not just in conversation, they are communicating: communication, communion, community, communicatio. Take a moment of silence together and let this icon communicate with you. Then share with the group: What do you notice? What effect does it have on you? How do you experience grace in your community? What might need to change in order for you to experience grace in a spirit of mutuality and community? 4 Supporting Passages: Covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:8-17 Temptation of Jesus in Mark 1:9-15
Small Catechism Resource: The Sacrament of Baptism (especially Section 3) Exploring the Text What images and phrases stir your spirit? What disturbs or creates questions? Where are there conversations and consolations happening? (Whether literal or figurative) Andrei Rublev, Holy Trinity Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Now reflect together on the icon and the scripture passage: As members of Christ s body through baptism, what is our message of consolation? What images come to mind when you think of your baptism? Were you there on your own, or did someone else bring you? Applying the Text When has someone s proclamation of their good news lifted you up? What were your feelings? What was your response? Who followed up with you either with encouragement, or teaching you about the faith of the Church? Have you had the experience of sharing good news that lifted others? 5
Week 2: Sharing Good Truth Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous. 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 15 God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her. God s grace creates community. In Genesis 17, this is literally what happens! God binds Godself to Abraham in a covenant and multitudes nations of peoples result! For love of the world, God refuses to remain isolated from the world. For love of the world, God creates conversation with Abraham and the world. Together, reflect again on Andrej Rublev s icon of the Holy Trinity. What does it say to you about community? Mutuality? Or meaningful, community-building conversation? The Eastern tradition of Chrisitianity has held much better to this sense of God as community in God s own being. The Trinity is not a community of individuals, but a community of mutual inner-penetration called perichoresis or mutual indwelling: one in the other, the other in one. As people made in the image of God, we are not created first as individuals, separated from one another. We are created in the image of a God who holds community in God s being. We are created in, with, and through community. The community that is God is the basis for mutual conversation and consolation. Consequently, we do not step outside of ourselves into community. Instead, living in communion with one another and all of creation, we live out the imago dei (image of God). Supporting Passages: Being connected to Abraham through faith in Romans 4:13-25 Jesus Speaks of His Suffering and Taking Up Our Crosses in Mark 8:31-38 6
Small Catechism Resource: The Sacrament of the Altar (especially Section 3) Exploring the Text What images and phrases stir your spirit? What disturbs or creates questions? How is the message delivered in Genesis an example of Too Good to be True? Andrei Rublev, Holy Trinity Public domain via Wikimedia Commons For Mark 8: How is the conversation in Mark an example of Too True to be Good for Peter? As Jesus nears his goal, it is time for his followers to step up to the plate. Do you feel confronted like this in your life? Who is helping you make these kind of commitments? Applying the Text Can you recall a time that you heard someone share with you news that was too good to be true? How did you process it? What enabled you to believe/receive it? Can it be true that God really does love us, anyway! What connections do you see between communion and mutual conversation and consolation? What role does the body of Christ play in each? 7
Week 3: Sharing Holy Wisdom 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God s weakness is stronger than human strength. For Luther, the cross is always at the center. So, put the cross at the center of mutual conversation and consolation. If we first look at God s conversation with us, we are wise to mine deeply the message of the cross. Certainly the cross is at the center of this holy conversation. Then, turning to our neighbor and considering our conversations and consolations with one another, what happens when the cross is put in the center of these moments and encounters? What are the messages of the cross that we are called to translate and transfer into our every conversations as we are once again encouraged to be little Christs to one another? Find an image of Salvador Dali s Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus) online. Jesus is not attached to the cross, and yet is certainly in a pose of suffering. Imagine St Paul, using the theology of this passage, viewing this painting. Use this in discussion, as you wish. Supporting Passages: Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 Cleansing of the Temple and Predictions of its Destruction in John 2:13-22 8
Small Catechism Resource: The Ten Commandments (especially Commandments 4-10) Exploring the Text What images and phrases stir your spirit? What disturbs or creates questions? Where are there conversations and consolations happening? (Whether literal or figurative) Can you imagine and create the conversation between God s wisdom and humanity s foolishness? Can the weak really be strong? Can the weak lamb be victorious? Does this have anything to say to us as we confront violence in our communities either from the people or from the authorities? Would this attitude influence the conversations we are having? Applying the Text Think of conversations around reconciliation that you have had. Where is the wisdom in forgiveness? What does the cross have to do with mutual conversation and consolation? In other words, what might forgiveness have to do with mutual conversation and consolation? 9
Week 4: Sharing Hard Truth John 3:1-21 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. 3 Jesus answered him, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. 4 Nicodemus said to him, How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother s womb and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, You must be born from above. 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered him, Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. Here we have a story of a beautiful yet paradoxical conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with questions. Real, hard, life-changing questions. Clearly, Nicodemus came with an agenda. One is left to ask whether he is satisfied with his visit. Does he get what he has come for? Or does he leave unsatisfied? Perhaps he hears what he needed to hear rather than what he thought he wanted to hear. continued on the next page Supporting Passages: Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17 Cleansing of the Temple and Predictions of its Destruction in John 2:13-22 10
Think about this passage in terms of mutual conversation and consolation. What insights might that lens bring to our interpretation of the text? What might the text teach us about mutual conversation and consolation? Look at Alexander Bida s Nicodemus and Jesus to the right. Perhaps this artist captures the irony of a visit by a man who has come to Jesus desperately looking for answers. Jesus in the image is not connecting with him. Some may find this image troubling. Some may very much relate to it. By Alexander Bida, Nicodemus and Jesus Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Small Catechism Resource: The Third Commandment Lord s Prayer Fifth Petition How People are to be Taught to Confess Exploring the Text What images and phrases stir your spirit? What disturbs or creates questions? How would you characterize this conversation? From Nicodemus point of view? From Jesus? Applying the Text Think of a time that you had to speak a truth that might be hard for the person to hear. What was your approach? What were the feelings? What was the result? Was there a surprise? How do you respond when someone speaks a truth to you that is hard to hear? How is the wind blowing around you? Do you ever feel like God is asking you to look at something in a new light? Can you imagine having a conversation like this with a friend? 11
Week 5: Sharing New Life John 12:20-33 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. 27 Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-- Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, An angel has spoken to him. 30 Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Colossians 1:15-20 takes Jesus statement of drawing all people together into his body even further. According to Colossians, in Jesus all things hold together. This Colossians text was the starting place for Lutheran pastor and theologian Joseph Sittler s now-famous 1961 speech to the World Council of Churches (Listen to an audio recording or read the text). He was expected to speak about church unity. But, from accounts given at the time of the speech, it seems he shocked everyone by talking about church unity within the framework of unity with all things, with all creation. What kind of communion do we share with other-than-human creation? Do you ever converse or commune with nature? If you have time, listen to Sittler s speech. What does mutual conversation and consolation look like in the scope of Christ the Word through whom creation was spoken into being and in whom all things are drawn together? Notice what he says the Protestant tradition has forgotten. Jesus words in this passage connect with the Corinthians passage used in week three. If the group related to the Salvador Dali painting from Week 3, bring it back in for further discussion. Does Dali capture the glorified Christ that Jesus describes in his painting? If you do a Google image search using the key words Jesus glorified, you get very different images of the glorified Christ compared to Jesus description. What is the world s understanding of glory compared to Jesus understanding and example? Keep this contrast in mind as you discuss mutual conversation and consolation as a means of grace compared to what the world values in discourse and discussion. Supporting Passages: New Covenant written on Hearts in Jeremiah 31:31-34 Through Suffering, Christ Saves in Hebrews 5:5-10 12
Small Catechism Resource: The Third Article of the Creed Lord s Prayer Second and Third Petition Exploring the Text What images and phrases stir your spirit? What disturbs or creates questions? Consider all the participants in this conversation. What is the agenda/motivator of each? Is there common ground shared? Why or why not? Jesus is talking about his approaching death, but even so he is talking about the Son of Man being glorified. What do you think about that? How is Jesus attitude different from what we might expect? Applying the Text How do you feel what you are not being heard? What must die in you in order for the life of mutual conversation and consolation to grow? Where do you go and/or to whom to you go when you want to see Jesus? How are we helping others to see Jesus? How is Christ glorified in our conversations and consolation of one another? When have you witnessed this? 13