I hope this blog will become a great source of information for everyone involved in Christian Formation at Ascension. Much of this site is still being constructed, but eventually you'll be able to find information about what's going on in our various Bible Study Groups, our Adult and Children's Sunday School classes, and the Youth Group that we're working hard to establish. There will also be a schedule for our many wonderful volunteers who teach Sunday School.
To get started, let's take a look at what Ascension's children will be learning over the next several weeks. Parables When you hear the word parable, you probably think of a few memorable, simple stories that Jesus told to large crowds or used to answer direct questions. But, did you know that they form approximately one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings? A quick search on Wikipedia will show that: Scholars have commented that although these parables seem simple, the messages they convey are deep, and central to the teachings of Jesus. Christian authors view them not as mere similitudes which serve the purpose of illustration, but as internal analogies in which nature becomes a witness for the spiritual world. Many of Jesus' parables refer to simple everyday things, such as a woman baking bread (parable of the Leaven), a man knocking on his neighbor's door at night (parable of the Friend at Night), or the aftermath of a roadside mugging (parable of the Good Samaritan); yet they deal with major religious themes, such as the growth of the Kingdom of God, the importance of prayer, and the meaning of love. This spring the Children’s Sunday School class will start a unit on parables. We’ll study the following: February 19 – The Sower Agriculture was a major business in Galilee, so a sower was a very common sight. After talking about where the seeds land and what happens to them, Jesus explained that the seed is the Word of God. He ended this parable with a challenge, “Everyone who has ears should pay attention.” We’ll talk about how we can listen to God and how we can be “good soil.” February 26 – The Good Samaritan This is more than a story about a man helping a stranger. Jesus’s target audience, the Jews, hated Samaritans enough to destroy their temple on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans equally hated the Jews and desecrated a Jewish temple during Passover with human bones. It’s safe to say that these two groups did not think of each other as neighbors. But, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves if we want to enter into God’s Kingdom and Jesus uses this story to tell us who our neighbors are. We’ll help the children understand the greater meaning of the word neighbor and talk about ways to show love to all people. March 5 – The Lost Sheep and The Lost Coin Both of these stories share the theme of loss, searching, and rejoicing. They remind us of God’s grace and of our own personal value despite the fact that we are all imperfect sinners. Jesus tells us repeatedly about the joy experienced by God and the angels in heaven when one sinner repents. Luckily for us, that joy is greater than the joy experienced from “ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (from Luke 15:7) March 12 – The Prodigal Son It would be insulting to any father for a child to demand their inheritance, but in this context the request would have made the son dead to the father - the two men would have never spoken to or seen each other again. When the son was forced to become a hired hand feeding pigs it would have been devastating to him and not just because he had been rich and now he was doing a poor mans job. In Jewish tradition, swine are more than simply unclean animals that can’t be eaten. A pig is the only non-kosher animal that a Jewish individual is forbidden from raising for non-food purposes - Jews can raise a horse to use for riding, but they can not raise a pig to produce leather. When the son decided to return home to his father he risked a great deal. The community could have turned him away, his father could have made him a slave or, even worse, stoned him. We’re not going to expose your children to the horrors of stoning, but we are going to help them understand that our father in heaven is equally as loving and forgiving as the prodigal son’s father.
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AuthorWelcome! I'm Miranda, the Director of Religious Education at Ascension Episcopal Church. Archives
April 2017
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