On Our Knees

Planning the Session

Session Goals

As a result of conversations and activities connected with this session, group members should begin to:

• explore the proper relationship between us and the sustaining and creating God;

• encounter the transcendent God who cares for us and our loved ones;

• practice an attitude of thanksgiving for the Creator of the universe.

Biblical Foundation

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

— The Lord's Prayer

Special Preparation

• On a large sheet of paper or a board, print the following terms: spiritual discipline and spiritual practice.

• Also display the Lord's Prayer as printed at the beginning of the study on a large sheet of paper or a board. Alternatively, plan to project it, highlighting the line covered in Session 1. You will need to use the posted or projected copy of the prayer in the remaining sessions.

• Head one large sheet of paper or location on a board with the following: "Either God is or God isn't" and another with "If God is, God is a lot bigger than we thought."

• Decide if you will do any of the optional activities. If you decide to have the group make a creation montage, gather magazines with pictures of the natural world. Alternatively, download and print photos of the natural world from an Internet site with free images. Also obtain one or more sheets of posterboard (depending on the size of your group), glue, and colored markers.

• While most participants who were raised in the church have likely memorized the Lord's Prayer, those new to the church may be less familiar with it. Those raised in a tradition other than your denomination's may also have memorized the prayer in a slightly different form. Posting the prayer in its entirety enables everyone to recite it with confidence.

Getting Started

Opening Activity

As participants arrive, welcome them to the study. If there is someone who did not bring a notebook or an electronic device for journaling, provide a notebook or paper, along with pen or pencil.

Gather together. If participants are not familiar with one another, provide nametags and make introductions.

Invite the group to reflect on their first memories of the Lord's Prayer. Ask:

• When do you remember first hearing the prayer? Was it in worship? From your parents? From a Sunday school teacher?

• Who taught you the prayer?

If you have participants who are new to the church, ask them to describe what they know about the prayer.

Call attention to the two terms you posted — spiritual discipline and spiritual practice — both of which are ways of describing how people live out their spiritual lives. Invite participants to recall or quickly scan the Introduction to the study. Discuss:

• Which of the two phrases does the author prefer? Why? How do you respond?

Point out that in the study the author will offer suggestions for how participants can use contemplative images and metaphors to "stretch" the Lord's Prayer, as well as how the Lord's Prayer can guide them in deepening their devotional life. In this first session, they will explore the first phrase of the prayer.

Opening Prayer

Pray together, using the following prayer or one of your own choosing:

Holy God, we praise and honor your name. Guide us as we embark on this study, that we may encounter you more fully through the prayer your Son, Jesus, taught his disciples then, and to which we are called to commit ourselves more wholeheartedly now. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Learning Together

Book Study and Discussion

Explore the Prayer's Context

Invite a volunteer to read aloud Matthew 6:5-9, which is also included in Chapter 1 of the study book. Point out that Jesus taught this prayer to the disciples in the context of teaching them about humility. Discuss some of the following:

• It would be wrong to interpret this passage as a prohibition against public prayer. What is Jesus warning against, and to whom is that warning directed?

• In what ways could we say that Jesus' teaching of this prayer is literally an act of liberation and empowerment for all the people of his day and ours?

• Have you ever observed what you can identify as self-serving public prayer? Under what circumstances?

Encounter God's Transcendence

Ask someone to read aloud the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer. The author observes that this phrase has the ability to transport us out of everyday life into the serene presence of a magnificent Creator God. Invite participants to reflect for a moment on the following open-ended prompt:

• When I think of heaven, I picture ...

Ask them to describe how they imagine heaven to be — where it may be located and what might be visual images, emotions evoked, or inhabitants. Encourage them to consider whether their ideas of heaven are literal or more metaphorical. Then discuss:

• Why is the author attracted to the image of heaven as a place "up there?"

• What does your picture of heaven convey to you about a transcendent God?

• The author recalls images of the Grand Canyon in conveying to him a transcendent, Creator God — the God to whom the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer speaks. What images communicate most powerfully to you of God's reality?

Explore Implications of Transcendence

Form pairs. Ask one person in each pair to read the information from Chapter 1 under the heading "Either God Is or God Isn't" and the other to read the information under the heading "Downsizing God." After reading their assigned material, ask each person in the pairs to summarize for his or her partner what the author has to say. In the total group, call attention to the two posted large sheets of paper (headed "Either God is or God Isn't" and "If God is, God is a lot bigger than we thought"). Invite participants to call out words and phrases that communicate what each topic has to say about a transcendent God. Jot these words and phrases on the appropriate sheets. Discuss some of the following:

• The author says the first phrase of the Lord's Prayer drives him to his knees in gratitude. What response does the phrase evoke from you?

• We have sometimes deemphasized God as a transcendent Creator and simply focused on the teachings of Jesus about being a good neighbor. What do you think is the relationship between the Creator God and those teachings? Which more accurately reflect your own feelings, and why?

• The author suggests that science not only confronts but also expands our concept of God. In what way? Do you agree? Why or why not?

• In what ways does the Lord's Prayer serve as an antidote to our selfie world?

Ask participants to jot down in their journals these questions posed by the author:

• Will this day belong to me, or will it belong to God?

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