Session 1
Encountering God: Adam and Eve
Summary-
The very opening of the bible tells us three fundamental truths about the world and our place in it. First, Genesis tells us that the world and everything in it is “good.” We’re not here by accident. Nor is God a far-removed, hands-off creator. God has made creation out of love and God takes pleasure in it.
Second, the bible tells us in the story of Adam and Eve that humans are made in God’s image. We are “very good” in God’s eyes because each of us, in our own particular ways, reflect God to others. We all have a sacred worth.
Third, the bible wants us to know at the very beginning of scripture that God has made us for a purpose. We’re not just here for our own happiness. We’ve been put here to care for what God has made. That means we’ve been made to care for God’s earth, for God’s creatures and for one another. This a job the church refers to as ‘stewardship.’
Session 2
Encountering God: Abram
Summary-
While the creation story seeks to express who God is, who we are and why we’ve been put here on earth, the story of God’s covenant with Abram teaches us why God wants us to be in relationship with him.
We can learn two primary lessons from the story of Abram. First, we learn that God isn’t just a God who creates us and then leaves alone to fend for ourselves. Instead God is a God who makes promises to us.
Secondly, we learn from Abram’s encounter with God that Abram (and all those who came after him) was called by God so that Abram and his people would be a blessing to the entire world. God wants to remake the world in love and God’s plan to do it is through Abram’s people. Religion, faith, church- we misunderstand all of it if we think it’s about us. God’s called us to be part of the Church so that we can be a blessing to others.
Session 3
Encountering God: Jacob
After the death of Abraham and the birth of Isaac, the bible presents us with the story of Isaac’s two sons, Jacob and Esau. The character of Jacob shows us a person in conflict, with his family and with God. Jacob is impulsive, foolish and not always particularly likeable. Still, Jacob has two encounters with God. Through Jacob’s story we learn two important things. First, we learn that God can have a relationship and can work through anyone- no matter how unlikeable they may be. Secondly, we learn that, like Jacob, we can struggle and wrestle with God and that it’s through our struggles that God changes us. In Genesis 32, running from his brother, Jacob wrestles all night with God at Peniel. Jacob will not relent all night long until ‘the man’ (God) blesses him. In the end God does bless him and changes his name to Israel, which means “you have striven with God and with humans and you have prevailed.” What it means to be followers of God, then, is not to have all the answers but to be someone who struggles with God.
Session 4
Encountering God: Moses
The Book of Genesis ends with Joseph in Egypt, setting the stage for Abraham’s ancestors to be slaves in Egypt as the Book of Exodus opens. In terms of theme, theology and influence, Exodus is the most important book of the Old Testament. From God’s encounter with Moses we learn that our God is a God who hears the cries of the oppressed and intervenes in history to liberate them. We learn as well that God is able to use unlikely individuals to further his work (Moses) and that, once liberated, God wants his People to live together in such a way that it’s an example to the world (the Commandments).
Session 5
Encountering God: Joshua
After forty years in the desert, Moses doesn’t make it to the finish line; Joshua will have to carry on to the Promised Land. From God’s encounter with Joshua we learn that God’s People are engaged in a mission that is larger than our selves. We also learn from Joshua’s story that our task as people of faith is to apprentice under the elders of the faith (like Moses) so that we will be able to lead when called.