ETC 4420 Day 3 (7pm)

The woman who suffered twelve years bleeding (Mark 5.24-34)

Discussion

Remember Mark 10.40-45
How is Jesus unlike the Gentile rulers of his day and ours?
(a Roman ruler, or a traditional faith healer, or an unkind boss in a factory)
How does Jesus reveal his humility as he serves the woman?
How does Jesus lead towards the coming of God’s kingdom?
How can we follow the example the woman sets?
What can we learn as leaders from the example that Jesus sets?

Issue: Supporting the family

1. What is the family in the Bible?

2. What is a family in Ethiopia today?

3. How is family life in Ethiopia today changing?

4. How are Christian families similar and different from the families around them who do not share their Christian faith?

5. How do Christian families today learn from the Christian wisdom of their grandparents?

Discussion

Who taught you about the family?
How did they teach you about the family? Where did this happen?

What was the mixture of showing and telling, setting an example, telling a story, sharing a saying, or giving specific teaching?
Who passed on the traditions of your family to you?
Why? How? Where? What age were you?

Reflection

What would your mother or your grandmother say if she was here?

What would your grandfather or your father say if he was here?

What would your little sister or your little brother say?

What do you want to say to God about your family?

Homework

Imagine that the woman in our story had an early version of the iPad (more than 1000 years before it was invented). Imagine that she is surprisingly tech savvy. Image her asking Google Gemini to help her think about family life in the Bible. She has moved to Ethiopia since her encounter with Jesus. Here is what she asks Google before she speaks to you.

Please provide me with an overview of the teaching of the whole Bible on family life.
I am interested in what a family is in the Bible, what a family is for, what the roles of the different members of the family are in the Bible, and how the teaching of the Bible can helpfully shape family life in Ethiopia. Think for as long as you need. Thank you.

Read the response from Gemini, and you can improve it as you go along.

Google Gemini on Family Life in the Bible

Imagine that the woman from our story is good at asking one LLM to assess the output from another. She appreciated Gemini’s comments on the teaching of the Bible on the family. She decided to ask Claude.ai about the strengths and the weaknesses of the material from Gemini. This is what she received from Claude before she speaks to you.

Strengths of the Analysis

Now imagine her living in Ethiopia today. She is an established member of one of the churches in which you serve. She is keen to support her family spiritually. She asks you as one of her spiritual leaders, to serve her and her family by writing a prayer that she can pray for herself and for them as she does what she can to train and support them. She wants to help them remain rooted in God’s word while being responsive to the changing world in which they are living.

Now write the prayer you will give her to pray in response to her request, and send it over to me. You could use the Lord’s Prayer to guide you, or use a different framework.

Please email your response to [email protected] by 5pm before we meet at 530pm

ETC4420 (530pm) sessions

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