Adult
• 4 Sessions of Learner’s Materials
• 4 Sessions of Teaching Materials
• Handouts
1. 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
2. Mark 6:1-6
3. Isaiah 6
4. Revelation 4-5
I, probably a lot like you, have lived out my very best friendships in a variety of different places. In fact, all the "milestone" times of my life are marked by these relationships. To sift through memories of these friendships is to reflect on a wide range of activities, a host of conversations and meals—all of which are secondary to the ongoing celebration of life, relationship and the sustaining love at the heart of the very best of friendships. Yet, to attempt to characterize the relationships I have with these friends by the settings and circumstances of our shared experiences is to miss what is truly important—the relationships themselves.
Within Scripture, there are numerous accounts of worship. Four such accounts provide the focus for the sessions in this unit of study: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Mark 6:1-6, Isaiah 6, and Revelation 4-5. Scholars have taken these accounts and drawn from them orders of worship—or components of worship. Some create a category of experience and seek to find relevant things to say about this category by paying attention to the specific details offered in the scriptural account. Others seek clues for recreating that experience—again, by careful examination of settings and circumstances.
Many valuable ideas are to be gained by such study. However, we must remind ourselves not to allow the details, although admittedly important, to obscure what is ultimate—that which lies beyond the details. Each of these accounts of worship in Scripture is an individual's experience. Each of these stories is the story of one person's encounter with God. The details of these encounters then offer insights into the changes that must take place in a person's life after such an encounter with the living God.
As stories, they are meant to be read and heard. Each text offers an invitation to the reader to become a part of its story. Each of these stories relates an encounter with God, and as readers and hearers, we are thus invited to encounter God. We are invited to experience the presence of the Holy One ourselves and to have our own perspectives inverted and our own beliefs transformed and our own actions changed.
by John Ballenger
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