Monday, April 3, 2017

2017 LIFT Lenten Series on the Small Catechism (Week Five: April 5-11)


SMALL CATECHISM LENTEN SERIES
10 Commandments
March 29 - April 4


Throughout our sessions of LIFT, we will be using our Faith 5 model of discipleship:  Share, Read, Talk, Pray, and Bless.

Share Highs and Lows for the week, day, month (whatever you choose)


Read our weekly scripture

Exodus 12:1-14

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

1 Corinthians 11:23-27

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is foryou. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.


Talk about the scripture and the discussion questions below

1) What about the scripture or reading captured your imagination this week? 

2) When did you first receive Holy Communion? Bethel has started giving Holy Communion to children, even before they have received instruction.  How do you feel about this? Why might Bethel have made this decision?

3) Weekly Holy Communion has not always been a part of our tradition.  However, we have been moving toward weekly Holy Communion for a couple of decades now.  Why do you believe that we did this as a denomination? Does it matter? If so, why? 


Pray for and with each other (or share the Lord's Prayer together)



Bless each other with a sign of the cross on each other's forehead, saying "God loves you and so do I"