[BIBLE STUDY] Let All Creation Sing
“By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope.”
Every year, we wait with baited breath to say those joyful words: Christ is risen from the dead; Blessed is the resurrection of Christ! As winter gives way to the fresh air of spring, we see the resurrection physically manifested in the natural world— in the new buds that sprout forth from bare branches, in the barren blades of grass that now grow green. Our transformative environment speaks to the “new birth” that flourishes from the feasts of the Church.
- Read 1 Peter 1:3-9. How has your life flourished due to your inheritance of the Church? What tangible ways have you benefited from being a part of your Armenian body of believers?
- This passage overtly implies that there will be suffering in life—but that suffering does not have the final word. What trials have tested you and ultimately refined you? What impact did they have on your faith?
As the world around us exhibits its newness, so we too must also shed our old selves and grow into the newness of our Savior’s resurrection. In celebration of our “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” inheritance, we are called to reflect the love of Christ that has endured to this day. May we make our faith known in our actions and words, using our minds and our bodies to allow goodness to visibly blossom wherever we are planted.
- Read James 1:19-27. Why do you think James suggests being “quick to listen” embodies God’s righteousness? What are some practical steps to become “slow to speak, slow to anger”?
- The Christian faith is a faith of action. What qualities would you gain if you practiced religion the way James explains?
In closing, reflect on the words of St. Gregory of Narek from his Book of Lamentations:
“Yours alone, God, in heaven, exalted and generous; yours is the power, and yours, forgiveness; yours is healing and yours, abundance. Yours are the gifts and yours alone grace. Yours atonement and yours protection. Yours is creation beyond knowing. Yours are arts beyond discovery. Yours are bounds beyond measure. You are the beginning and you are the end.”
(Prayer 16A)