Advent 2017 - Fourth Sunday

December 24th is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent in 2017.

The Annunciation. Doré.

Engraving from La Grande Bible de Tours (1866)

These are the readings for this week:

• 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
• Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26
• Romans 16:25-27
• Luke 1:26-38

The study guide is here. Our celebration prayer from the guide is this:

Ever faithful God,

through prophets and angels,

you promised to raise up a holy child

who would establish a household of peace and justice.

Open our hearts to receive your Son,

that we may open our doors

to welcome all people as sisters and brothers,

and establish your household in our time. Amen.

Advent 2017 - First Sunday

December 3rd is the first Sunday of Advent in 2017.

These are the readings for this week:

• Isaiah 64:1–9
• Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19
• 1 Corinthians 1:3–9
• Mark 13:24–37

The study guide is here. It starts like this:

Prepare. Advent is the season to anticipate the coming of the Messiah, the Christ. During the week, use this guide as your preparation — both for daily personal study and reflection, and as preparation for the Sunday gathering. The elements in this guide include: the Sunday readings; space to respond to the readings; questions about the readings; activities for group sharing; and a program for the Advent celebration during the Sunday gathering.

New Advent Study

Starts December 3, 2017, Noon.

Philemon and OIA

We're taking advantage of our three-week study of Philemon to add to the tools in our Bible study toolkit. We're going to be using a variation of the inductive study method (so-called) presented by Peter Krol in his book, "Knowable Word". The method is straightforward in its approach and very accessible to anyone wanting to learn to study on their own.

The acronym, OIA, stands for three steps in your study:

Observation - what does it say?
Interpretation - what does it mean?
Application - how should I change?

These could also be defined as "what", "why", and "so what"; or as "what the original author said", "what that meant to the original audience", and "what it means in our context".

While I generally organize my study a little differently than Peter Krol has presented it, I think we'll benefit from trying this out.

You can purchase the book, but Peter has kindly provide a summary guide that you can use as a reference. We handed out a few in class today, but you can print it from here.

Some New Testament Prayers

This is the first post for the new Sunday Community study on the Disciples' Prayer. Posts for this study will be available sometime during the week for the following Sunday and may contain supplemental information for the study that isn't in the study guide. And sometimes they may just be placeholders where you can post comments.

This week, as part of the study you were asked to look for a prayer from the New Testament and compare it to the Disciples' Prayer. Here are some possible passages you could choose.

• Acts 7:59-60
• Ephesians 3:14-21
• Colossians 1:9-12
• Ephesians 1:15-23
• Philippians 1:3-11
• Jude 1:24-25

As is true of every post, you are welcome to post a comment for me or for other members of the Sunday Community.