Christ s Abiding Presence

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Session 8 Scripture John 21:1-14 Christ s Abiding Presence session essentials The risen Jesus appears to his disciples after they spend a night trying to catch fish.

1 Session 8 Scripture John 21:1-14 Christ s Abiding Presence session essentials The risen Jesus appears to his disciples after they spend a night trying to catch fish. When the disciples fail to catch fish after a night of work, they recognize the risen Jesus whose presence fills their nets to bulging. Young children know the joy that can come from others helping them with a task that seems fruitless and frustrating. In today s story, we emphasize the joy the disciples feel when they recognize the presence and help of the risen Jesus. In today s core session, we explore with children the season of Easter and today s fish story. Core Session (p. 54) Getting Started Gospel Story: Going Fishing Fish in One Net Praying Together Enrichment (p. 55) Discover the Good News Singing Together Art: Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea (brushes, paints in shades of orange, red and yellow, black or dark blue poster board) Twins Seven-Seven Fish Tag (blanket or sheet) Young Children and the Gospel What You ll Find Online Helps for Leaders (p. 57) More About Today s Scriptures Reflection Using Visual Arts, Part 1 The World of the Bible: Sanhedrin and Sadducees 53

core session Getting Started (5-10 minutes) Gather the children in a circle. Remind children: Easter day is over, but not the season of Easter. The Church is still celebrating.

2 core session Getting Started (5-10 minutes) Gather the children in a circle. Remind children: Easter day is over, but not the season of Easter. The Church is still celebrating. Today is the Third Sunday of Easter. In Easter, we celebrate that Jesus, who died, is alive, now and always. We can say a special Easter greeting every week between now and Pentecost. Help children say together several times the special Easter greeting learned in Session 7: Greeting: Alleluia! Christ is risen! Response: The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! Gospel Story (5-10 minutes) Going Fishing Story Focus: If you use the Session Companion Visuals for Preschool/Kindergarten, you can use the poster Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea as a visual focus for today s story. One evening Peter says, I m going fishing. We will come with you, say Peter s friends. They climb into a boat and row out onto the water. Throw out the net, says Peter. They throw out the net. No fish. Throw out the net again, say Peter s friends. They throw out the net again. No fish. enhance your core session Yes, says Jesus. Come with me. Peter s friends bring the boat to shore. Jesus builds a fire. Jesus and Peter and the friends all eat together. Fish in One Net (5-10 minutes) Children pretend to be fish caught in Jesus net in this noncompetitive version of Musical Chairs. Place the chairs in a circle, allowing plenty of space between them. Ask the children to move around outside the circle, pretending to be fish in the sea. Explain that the circle of chairs is Jesus net. When the music stops, each child sits on a chair. After the first round, remove a chair and start the music again. This time when the music stops, two children will have to sit in one chair in order for everyone to be inside the net. Continue playing, removing a chair after each round so that on the last round, all the fish will be caught in one net! Praying Together (5 minutes) Remind children that Peter jumped from the boat to be with Jesus. Ask volunteers to take turns jumping up and down as they shout a greeting to Jesus, for example, Good morning, Jesus! or Hooray, Jesus! Close by praying: Jesus, thank you for coming close to your friends long ago. Thank you for coming close to us today. Amen. They fish all night, but they do not catch a single fish. When the sun comes up, Peter s friends say, Look! Who s that standing on the shore? I don t know, says Peter. The man calls, Throw out your net one more time. Peter and his friends throw out the net. Fish! So many fish they can hardly hold onto the net. It must be Jesus! the friends shout. He always helps us! He always brings us joy! Peter jumps into the water and swims to shore. Jesus, it is you! he says. You always help us. You always bring us joy. 54

3 with your enrichment activities Discover the Good News (5-20 minutes) On the first page of today s Discover the Good News (#8) you ll find an illustrated version of today s gospel story. On the second page, you ll find a demonstration of the fish sign used by early Christians. You can provide trays filled with salt, sand or corn meal for children to use in practicing fish signs of their own. Children might also like to draw this sign in colored chalks on a board or even on the Church sidewalk. If you use At Home with the Good News, distribute this week s papers (#8) to the children before they leave. Singing Together (5-10 minutes) From Singing the Good News you and the children can sing together: It s a Miracle (p. 6 of the songbook, track 2 of the CD) Season of Victory (p. 41 of the songbook, track 11 of the CD) To celebrate the alleluia prayer that marks Easter season, you may want to play for children the Honduras Alleluia from the Session Companion Audio CD. This would provide especially suitable background music as children play Fish in One Net (from today s Core Session) or work on the art project described below. Art (10-20 minutes) Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea Place the poster Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea from the Session Companion Visuals for Preschool/Kindergarten where the children can see and touch it. We use the poster in this session to help children celebrate the fish motif in today s Easter story. Invite the children to talk about what they see on the poster. What colors do they see? Can they trace the fish that they see? In today s story, many fish appeared to Jesus friends. The friends saw all these fish as a sign that the man on the shore was Jesus. Set out paper and orange, yellow and red paints. (Using complementary colors only keeps the colors bright in young children s paintings.) Encourage children to paint their own bright fish as signs of Jesus, who brought many fish to his friends. Have ready a poster board of black or dark blue. When the fish paintings are dry, children can cut out their bright fish and glue or tape them to the poster board. A viewable, high-resolution image of today s artwork, Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea by Twins Seven-Seven. To access the image, you ll need this password: 21art12. Prince Twins Seven-Seven The artist known as Prince Twins Seven-Seven was part of an artistic movement known as Oshogbo art that flourished in Nigeria in the 1960s. Oshogbo was a movement of young artists who worked outside the structures of Nigerian academic art. Seven-Seven draws on Yoruban mythology and personal narrative to create his drawings, paintings and engravings. Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea glows not only with the warm colors of the artist, but with his exuberant spirit as well. A prolific artist, Prince Twins Seven-Seven has extended his work into several expressive modes: poetry, sculpture, music and acting. UNESCO recognized his work by naming him An Artist for Peace. Fish Tag (5-15 minutes) If room allows, set up an area as the net by draping a blanket or sheet over chairs or a table. Select a child to be Peter; the other children become fish. Peter tries to tag the fish, while the fish try to swim away from Peter. Any fish who is tagged goes inside the net. When three fish have been tagged, Peter chooses a new child to become Peter and the three fish are set free. With a larger group, also select one child to be Jesus. When Jesus calls out, All fish in the net! all the children swim to the net and play begins again. enrichment 55

4 enrichment Young Children and the Gospel After a long night of empty nets, the fishermen spy a man on shore. He calls to them to cast their net over the right side of the boat. Suddenly the net is bursting with fish. Impetuous Peter, recognizing the man to be the risen Lord, jumps out and swims to shore. Like Peter, contemporary Christians are called to recognize Jesus. Our call is to seek and serve Christ in all persons. If you looked into a difficult child s face and saw the face of Jesus, how might you conduct your Christian education session differently? Some leaders have found these ideas useful in working with difficult children: Try to understand the child s preferred learning style. Does this child want plenty of time alone, to think over what is being taught? Does this child need activity, and lots of it? Does this child get frustrated when working alone on challenging art projects? Keep a journal of moments when the child seems fully engaged and relaxed. Use your observations to incorporate activities that this child will enjoy into each session. Through casual conversation, learn what special interests the child has outside the Christian education session. Find ways to include these interests during the session. For example, one child may want to bring her pet turtle to the session. Another child may want to show others a complicated dance he has invented. What You ll Find Online at Click on Weekly Resources, then April 18 to find: Printable Scripture Backgrounds for today s readings. Information on this week s Model of the Faith, Anselm, remembered on April 21. Two optional Fishing Games: Fish Tag and Fishing Relay. An optional art activity titled Sailboats. Click on Seasonal Resources to find: An article for leaders titled The Book of Revelation. An article for leaders titled The Gospel of John. An article for leaders titled Keeping Easter. A helpful guide to viewing and responding to art titled First Impressions. A viewable, high-resolution image of today s artwork, Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea by Twins Seven-Seven. To access the image, you ll need this password: 21art12. 56

5 More about Today s Scriptures Today s readings invite us to consider the meaning of Jesus presence with us. In the story from Acts, the apostles, empowered by the Spirit of Jesus, preach the gospel despite persecution. John, in his Revelation, describes how being in the presence of Jesus, the enthroned Lamb of God, moves all of creation to bless and praise. In today s gospel story, Jesus, in another postresurrection appearance, provides an abundant catch of fish for his disciples. Acts 9:1-6 (7-20) The fact that the story of Paul s conversion is repeated twice more with minor variations in 22:4-16 and 26:9-18 indicates Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Luke s sense of the importance of this event for the history of the early Church. The account not only serves to authenticate Paul s apostleship, but also shows that the mission to the Gentiles was divinely ordained. Luke uses a number of terms to describe Christians: here they are called disciples, those who belonged to the Way (an Old Testament way to describe the moral demands of the covenant), saints, and those who invoke your name. Paul s persecution of the community is persecution of Jesus himself. Blinded by the light, Paul is led helpless to Damascus and revealed to the community as God s chosen instrument or vessel. Revelation 5:11-14 Today s reading comes from the beginning of the major section of Revelation, that of the scroll with seven seals (4:1 19:10). The scene continues John s vision of God enthroned in the heavenly court. To God as the Creator, the four creatures and the elders sing praise. God is holding a scroll with seven seals, which contains the whole of God s redemptive plan, not only revealed but made effective by the Lamb. The Lamb, as the divine/human agent, is the only one who can open it. helps All creation joins in the hymn of praise, for the whole universe is already reconciled to God. The royal and priestly task of the Church is to make known that fact. Its success is already anticipated in the final Amen. John 21:1-19 Today s reading is from chapter 21, which is regarded by most scholars as an epilogue to the gospel, added either by the evangelist himself or by an editor-disciple. The helplessness of the disciples on their own is transformed by the power of the risen Lord and their obedience to him. They are scarcely able to haul in the net (the same word is used for drawing persons to Jesus in 6:44 and 12:32) because of the size of the catch. (The precise symbolic meaning of the number 153 is unclear; it probably indicates in some way the breadth or universality of the Christian mission.) The meal is described in terms harking back to the multiplication of loaves (6:11). The standard early pictorial symbol for the Eucharist was bread and fish, rather than bread and wine. Nourished by the Eucharist, Christians are to become missionary fishers of people. Reflection for they knew it was the Lord. One theme that flows through today s gospel is recognition. When the catch of fish is larger than the disciples can pull in, John tells Peter, It is the Lord. After the meal, no one asks who the stranger on the shore is; all know it is Jesus. How often do we recognize Jesus in our midst? Or do we bumble more often, who are you? Most of us are more inclined to know Jesus in the accustomed places: the sacraments, the harmonious family meals, the beautiful sunsets. Yet the challenge to the disciples is also ours: to know him in an unexpected place (a lake) under disappointing circumstances (no fish). Yet he has not changed from the person he was before his crucifixion. He speaks with the same tenderness when he invites his friends, come and eat your meal. He looks out for them with the same care when he fills their nets. He overturns nature s laws at sea with the same intensity as he called Lazarus from the tomb. This leads us to think that maybe the difficulty with recognition isn t Jesus problem: it could be ours. for leaders 57

6 for leaders helps Using Visual Arts, Part 1 by Sue Awsumb-Conn Art is a wonderful means of expression, a unique way of communicating to the world what is within each of us. Our society does not give enough opportunities to create art, as it is handed to us daily by TV, billboards, magazines, computers, etc. Yet God gives us the imagination to create splendid things if we take the opportunity to do so. We must take the time, then, to expand our minds, see what other artists have done, talk about art and try it ourselves. Teaching art to children is easy yes, chaotic and messy sometimes but easy. Children see the world in a special way, without hesitancy or fear of judgment by others. When teaching children to make art, we must invite them to enjoy the process and to think of themselves as artists, expressing their feelings about a subject. Keeping the comfort zone for making creative things should be a lifelong process. Several important ways to keep the comfort zone of visual arts intact are by sketching, learning from other artists and knowing that every piece is a learning experience. Sketching Sketching is a fine way to learn how to see the world, as well as to practice copying lines, shapes and colors. All artists use sketching in some way to record and plan future art. They also use this technique to try to understand the world How important are the visual arts in our society? I feel strongly that the visual arts are of vast and incalculable importance. Of course I could be prejudiced. I am a visual art. Kermit the Frog muppet around them. Begin the sketching process by creating a book with blank pages and designing a cover. The easiest way to bind a book is to provide pages of copy paper, per person, punching holes with a 3-hole punch and using yarn or ribbon to bind together. Countless bookbinding texts are available at your local bookstore for more creative and exciting sketchbooks. Viewing Art Learning from other artists is an excellent way to see the world with a different eye, to see what others have imagined before. Participants can observe the wonder of landscapes, stories and images that are considered masterpieces. From these, they can see that a painting or sculpture isn t magic, but a well-thought out plan of line, shape, texture, color, value, space and form the elements of design (for more on these elements, see p. 40). Paintings are often composed of warm vs. cool colors (red, orange, yellow vs. blue, green, violet) as well as carefully placed brushstrokes to make the fantastic textures of the objects in the painting. (cont. on p. 64) The World of the Bible Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (from the Greek word for a council) was the official group of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that functioned both as a court to decide cases and to determine disputed points of the Law. Because religious and political concerns were not separate in the biblical world, the council dealt with both political and religious matters. Although its exact make-up is hard to determine, at the time of Jesus its members included representatives of all the various Jewish parties the Sadducees, Pharisees, priests, scribes and elders of the chief families and worked closely with the High Priest as is evident both in Jesus trial and in the trials of the apostles (Acts 4 and 5). Sadducees The Sadducees were a small religious group or party within Judaism. Drawn from the priestly and higher social classes, they were conservative in both politics and religion. Accepting as scripture only the written Law, they rejected the Pharisees adoption of unwritten traditions as authoritative. They urged peaceful collaboration with the Romans because of their concern for the temple as the religious and financial center for Judaism and so were often accused of undesirable compromises in order to retain their power. The Sadducees disappeared as a group in AD 70 when Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans and the temple destroyed. 58

Christ s Abiding Presence

Session 8 Scripture John 21:1-14 Christ s Abiding Presence session essentials The risen Jesus appears to his disciples after they spend a night trying to catch fish. When the disciples fail to catch fish