Engaging Gospel Doctrine (Episode 129)

Lesson 3

“Unto You Is Born … a Saviour”

Hook / A bit late, but here we have a Christmas episode.
Manual Goal / To encourage class members to rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ and follow the example he set in his youth, “[increasing] in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man”
EGD Goal / To appreciate what we learn from the details of the birth narratives, reflect on what the birth of a savior means in our lives, and how we can follow the example of Jesus in growing mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially.

Correction to consider:

I just finished lesson 2 and I'm struggling a bit- looking for help fleshing it out. At the end, the discussion was about how the Lord can do things and work in ways that we would be shocked at given our cultural and moral framework. While this is completely logical and almost obvious, it's competing with my thought that we can expect high morals from God. Maxine mentioned specifically those who are struggling with the essays, the disruption of faith when we learn the messiness, and that she wishes that weren't the case.

I'm struggling to vocalize my exact issue...I guess it is that how are we to judge what is of God? While going through my faith transition, it's been dominated largely by the polygamy issues and blacks and the priesthood issues. The suggestion in the lesson seemed to be that maybe God can do things that seem abhorrent to us, in order to accomplish whatever it is He is trying to accomplish. I'm trying to reconcile this with my thought process "That just feels so wrong. That can't be of God."

…the problematic aspect of this did occur to me as we were discussing. I wish I could have made that clearer. I didn't mean those instances where we say "This feels wrong and so can't be from God," but rather "Even though society tells me this is wrong, *God* tells me it is right and I feel peaceful about it."

Am I making any sense?

  1. Sunday School
  2. Appreciation for the birth of Christ
  3. Review the Reading
  4. What does the birth of Jesus symbolize and mean in our lives? (“birth of a savior”)
  5. Not the nativity we are familiar with: What do we make of the nativity stories in a Sunday School context?
  6. Appreciating for Matthew’s story
  7. Appreciating Luke’s story (Simeon and Anna)
  8. How can we follow the example of Jesus in increasing in wisdom, stature, favor with God, favor with our fellow humans (balance of actualization) (Mental, physical, spiritual, social/relational)
  9. Conclusion I
  1. Scripture Study
  2. Return to the Reading (Oxford Commentary)
  3. Comparing the nativity stories (Powell chart)
  4. Luke’s birth narrative in academic perspective
  5. Matthew’s birth narrative (Jesus as a new Moses)
  6. When did Jesus become God’s son?
  7. Study Notes
  8. How can we appreciate the birth narratives even if they are not historical?
  9. Thoughts of Jesus “increasing in wisdom and stature”. Was Jesus omniscient during his life? What might he have known when?
  10. What does it mean to be a “child of God”? (Heavenly parents, Jesus adopts us at baptism) (Jesus as God’s son)

Magnificat:

Ave Maria:

Birth narratives compared:

1