March 11, 2018 Fourth Sunday in Lent Num. 21:4 9 Ps. 107:1 3, 17 22 Eph. 2:1 10 John 3:14 21 Transforming Grace Goal for the Session Adults will discover and articulate how God s gift of grace described in Ephesians intends to transform our lives. n PREPARING FOR THE SESSION Focus on Ephesians 2:1 10 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, John M. Vonder Bruegge Verses 8 10 force the reader to look both back and ahead. Looking back, the reader is reminded that salvation being made alive again after being dead in sins is a gift that comes only by grace. As Paul argues in both Galatians and Romans, any notion that such a result comes from works is forestalled, and any cause for boasting removed. Looking ahead, however, God has prepared in advance other works for all those who are created in Christ as God s handiworks, culminating in a new way of living that contrasts with the old. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Ian S. Markham The great privilege of being human was never meant to be reduced to a state of manipulated control by forces outside our control. We were made for greater things. And God sees all this even when we are dishonoring the gift of creation by self-absorbed egotism. God s vehicle to bring about the transformation is the work of Christ. We are already saved. The work is accomplished. We participate in the resurrection now, and are invited to witness to the gift of grace that we have received. The agent of this dramatic change is God. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Adam E. Eckhart While we can oppose the forces of sin, make personal headway against them, and forge our identity as church in relation to them, we cannot defeat them. No one may boast that they have overpowered the powers. We are too weak. Not even Christ defeated the powers in life. It is Christ s resurrecting victory over sin and death that manifests and verifies our hope of redemption. The already, but not yet quality of the resurrection is why we return perennially to Lent, unable to avoid Christ s death to the powers but able to foretaste Christ s decisive victory. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Jeff Paschal Yes, we are saved by grace through faith. No, we do not rely on good works to be saved. But we are what God has made us people created in Christ Jesus for good works. So good works are now transformed. Instead of being frantic means for trying to save ourselves, good works are the blessed opportunity for us to live out the lives we were destined to live. Good works are expressions of Christ alive in us ministering to the world. Good works are demonstrations of our present reality and future; we are God s royal children exercising God s dominion of love in the world. 1
Transforming Grace FOCUS SCRIPTURE Ephesians 2:1 10 Focus on Your Teaching Adults know the joy of receiving and extending gifts. However, the affirmation in Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith and not works may challenge lives, and churches, and may muddle genuine accomplishment with earning or deserving God s acceptance. How might this session liberate the works of faith from duty, moving our actions into the realm of good works done out of sheer gratitude for God s grace? Ever gracious God, help me to fathom the gift of your grace toward me and toward all. Guide me in helping those who will gather to likewise discern the depth of your grace. Amen. YOU WILL NEED Bibles cross purple fabric six votive candles and lighter or batterypowered votives gift-wrapped package, inside of which is a sheet of paper with Grace written in large letters copies of Resource Sheets 1 and 2 copies of Resource Sheet 1 for March 18, 2018, unless it will be e-mailed to participants newsprint or board markers pens or pencils plain paper Adjust the numbers of small groups according to the size of your class. Small groups generally work best with three or four persons. LEADING THE SESSION GATHERING Before the session, arrange the purple fabric in the center of your learning space and place the cross and votive candles on it. Form partners. Ask each pair to respond to this question: P When were you given a gift that caught you by surprise and left you full of gratitude? After a few minutes, gather the group together. Place the gift-wrapped package next to the votive candles. Light one candle. Ask for silent reflection on this question: P What did it feel like to remember that gift you discussed with your partner? Light a second candle. Ask for silent reflection on this question: P How did that gift affect the relationship between you and the giver? Light a third candle. Ask for silent reflection: P When have you offered such a gift to another? Light a fourth candle. Offer the following prayer: Gracious God, we remember the gifts that stir deep gratitude in our lives. Open us now to the gift you bring in Scripture, and through this gathered community, that our gratitude may be deepened and our lives transformed by the grace you bring to us and to all. In Jesus Christ. Amen. EXPLORING Ask adults to silently read Ephesians 2:1 10. Distribute paper and pens as needed, and write the following questions on the board or newsprint. Then ask a volunteer to read the passage aloud. Encourage participants to make notes on these questions during the reading: P What questions do particular words or phrases raise in your mind? 2
Transforming Grace The opinions of scholars vary on the authorship and audience of Ephesians. Many see Ephesians as a circular letter to a number of congregations written by someone strongly influenced by Paul. P What to you is the single most important affirmation in this passage? Invite participants to tell what they wrote in response to each question. (If you have a large group, consider forming groups of three or four for this activity.) Read and discuss Resource Sheet 1 (Focus on Ephesians 2:1 10). Ask in response to the What? and Where? excerpts: P What insights do these excerpts bring to your understanding of the passage? Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 2 (How the World Was Viewed in Biblical Times) and ask participants to read it. Discuss how this passage might be translated to reflect the way we view the world and universe today. Relate how this ancient worldview furthers our understanding of other biblical texts that presume such a perspective (e.g., Genesis 1:6 10, 14 18; Psalm 104:5 9; Proverbs 8:22 31). If you have time, form three small groups to look up these other passages and consider how they reflect the worldview explained on Resource Sheet 2 as well as in Ephesians 2:2. You might also delve into the idea that even our worldview continues to be adjusted and transformed by, for example, the discoveries and theories of modern physics and deep-space astronomy. Ask: P How might those changes affect the way we hear such texts as these, and the images with which we frame faith today? Have adults look again at the whole passage. Ask them to call out every gift of God they hear identified in the text. Write each gift on the left-hand side of a board or newsprint sheet. Next, identify what need that gift meets and how it does so. Write those thoughts in a different colored marking pen on the right-hand side across from that particular gift. Focus the ensuing conversation on the importance of those gifts of God as they relate to the transforming of our lives by God s grace. Write grace is the gift of God not the result of works on one sheet of paper. Write we are created in Christ Jesus for good works on a second sheet. Then ask the group to imagine that these are two different petitions to be submitted to your church council for consideration as a mission statement for your congregation. They can sign only one petition so they must decide which one more clearly reflects their faith and your church s calling. Form two lines and sign the petitions. Allow each group to offer their reasons for their choices. Ask: P How can the affirmations in Ephesians bring transformation to our lives and community? EASY PREP RESPONDING Choose one or more of these activities, depending on the length of your session: 1. Saved by Grace Read and discuss the following longer excerpt for today s Ephesians passage from the Feasting on the Word commentary: The good news is that we do not need to launch into a frenzy of good works in order to earn God s love and forgiveness. Nor do we need to engage in the 3
Transforming Grace endless navel gazing of asking, Do I believe? Do I really believe? Am I saved? Am I really saved? Excerpted from Jeff Paschal, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 113. Have the group identify particular ways that busywork or navel gazing stifles grace in churches and individuals today. Ask them to consider: P What is one type of busywork you can set aside this week, trusting God s grace is ours without it? P Likewise, what is one navel-gazing activity you can do without, trusting God s grace without always trying to prove it to ourselves? Commit to setting aside both of those. 2. Re-gifting God s Gifts Invite adults to tell about their experiences with re-gifting (giving a gift to another that originally had been given to us). Ask: in what ways can we re-gift God s love and forgiveness? Be specific. Carry out this conversation in small groups, so that individuals can have greater opportunity to share. Gather the group back together. Encourage them to re-gift forgiveness and love this week, connecting this action with the commendation of Ephesians 2:10 that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. 3. Created for Good Works Read this line from the Now What? excerpt found on Resource Sheet 1: good works are the blessed opportunity for us to live out the lives we were destined to live. Ask individuals to identify an opportunity to do a good work that gives expression to who they are as ones transformed by God s grace. Encourage them to commit to doing that good work and to be open to such works in response to unexpected opportunities this week. CLOSING Gather around the candles and light them, if necessary. Ask adults what they think is inside the package. Have one of the adults open the package and show the group the gift. Place the piece of paper back in the box. Explain the following process for offering the benediction. You will turn to the person to your right and say, [Name], may God s grace transform you, and then hand the box to that individual. That individual will say and do the same, and the process will be followed until the gift has returned to you. When the gift returns to you, lift the gift into the air and say in a loud and glad voice: Friends, by grace all are saved so by grace, let us joyfully do the good works for which God created us in Christ Jesus! Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 1 for March 18, 2018, or e-mail it to participants during the week. 4
March 11, 2018 Transforming Grace Adult Resource Sheet 1 Focus on Ephesians 2:1 10 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, John M. Vonder Bruegge Verses 8 10 force the reader to look both back and ahead. Looking back, the reader is reminded that salvation being made alive again after being dead in sins is a gift that comes only by grace. As Paul argues in both Galatians and Romans, any notion that such a result comes from works is forestalled, and any cause for boasting removed. Looking ahead, however, God has prepared in advance other works for all those who are created in Christ as God s handiworks, culminating in a new way of living that contrasts with the old. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Ian S. Markham The great privilege of being human was never meant to be reduced to a state of manipulated control by forces outside our control. We were made for greater things. And God sees all this even when we are dishonoring the gift of creation by self-absorbed egotism. God s vehicle to bring about the transformation is the work of Christ. We are already saved. The work is accomplished. We participate in the resurrection now, and are invited to witness to the gift of grace that we have received. The agent of this dramatic change is God. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Adam E. Eckhart While we can oppose the forces of sin, make personal headway against them, and forge our identity as church in relation to them, we cannot defeat them. No one may boast that they have overpowered the powers. We are too weak. Not even Christ defeated the powers in life. It is Christ s resurrecting victory over sin and death that manifests and verifies our hope of redemption. The already, but not yet quality of the resurrection is why we return perennially to Lent, unable to avoid Christ s death to the powers but able to foretaste Christ s decisive victory. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Jeff Paschal Yes, we are saved by grace through faith. No, we do not rely on good works to be saved. But we are what God has made us people created in Christ Jesus for good works. So good works are now transformed. Instead of being frantic means for trying to save ourselves, good works are the blessed opportunity for us to live out the lives we were destined to live. Good works are expressions of Christ alive in us ministering to the world. Good works are demonstrations of our present reality and future; we are God s royal children exercising God s dominion of love in the world. 2018 Westminster John Knox Press
March 11, 2018 Transforming Grace Adult Resource Sheet 2 How the World Was Viewed in Biblical Times The ancient view of the world was radically different from our own, and the implications of that view come into play in our passage from Ephesians 2:1 10. In his theological perspective on Ephesians 2:1 10 Ian Markham describes this worldview in relationship to the passage: The ruler of the power of the air (v. 2) should be located spatially in the classic Greek-influenced cosmology of this period. The space between the moon and the earth, the Greeks believed, was dominated by demonic activity (according to some writers, for example, Philo, these demons included both benign and evil beings), operating in the arena where the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire were mixed. We should not be embarrassed by this cosmology. Every age will think through its theology in the context of its own particular cosmological understanding. This is both inevitable and inescapable. Although a Newtonian cosmology of the eighteenth century might be an improvement on the Hellenistic one of the first century found in this passage, even its limits were exposed by subsequent discoveries in the new physics. And in the same way, our contemporary cosmology will be improved upon by subsequent generations. We are not going to arrive at a definitive cosmology, so we should accept that the partial cosmology expressed here is the framework for this passage. Excerpted from Ian Markham, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 110, 112. 2018 Westminster John Knox Press