Christ s Abiding Presence

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Phebe Miller
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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. 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: The Man on the Shore Meals with Jesus Praying Together Enrichment (p. 55) Welcome the Good News Singing Together Art: Twins Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea (brushes, dark watercolor paint) Twins Seven-Seven Prayers of Holy Communion 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

2 core session Getting Started (5-10 minutes) Gather children in a circle and explain: Easter day is over, but not the season of Easter. The Church is still celebrating Easter. Today is the Third Sunday of Easter. In Easter, we celebrate that Jesus, who died, is alive, now and always. 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! Then ask children to talk about joyful times. When are we joyful or happy? What do people do when they are joyful or happy? What do they say? Invite children to listen for a joyful moment in today s story. Gospel Story (5-10 minutes) The Man on the Shore Story Focus: If you use the Session Companion Visuals for Primary, you can use the poster Twins Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea as a visual focus for today s story. Jesus had died. Jesus had risen. Jesus had shown himself to his friends. Then Jesus had gone away. One evening Peter said, I m going fishing. We will come with you, said Peter s friends. They climbed into a boat and rowed out onto the water. They fished all night but caught nothing. As the sun rose, they saw a man standing at the water s edge. He said, Haven t you caught anything? Not a thing, they said. Then the man said, Throw your net out on the right side of the boat you ll catch some fish! Peter and his friends threw out the net. Fish! So many fish they could hardly hold onto the net. The friends looked again at the man on shore. It s Jesus! they said. Jesus! cried Peter. My teacher! My best friend! enhance your core session He jumped right into the water and swam ashore. There was Jesus, building a fire on the sand. Peter! he laughed. Come and eat! The others rowed to shore, pulling the net full of fish. Jesus cooked some fish and gave it to his friends with bread. It s really Jesus! the friends whispered, between bites of bread and fish. Jesus is alive and with us again! Meals with Jesus (10-15 minutes) Children act out sharing meals with Jesus. Talk with children about different ways we share meals: When do we eat inside? outside? With our families only? With lots of other people around? What kind of special meals could we have in summer? in winter? Invite children to act out what it would be like to share one of these meals with Jesus. Start by dividing children into small groups. Then ask each group to pick a special meal to share with Jesus. Ask them to include in their skits how the meal would begin, how they would welcome Jesus, what they would say to Jesus and what they would do with Jesus. After 5-10 minutes, invite volunteers to share their skits. Gather children and discuss: How were our skits alike? How were they different? Each week our church family shares a meal with Jesus: How does our weekly meal begin? What do we say at our weekly meal? What do we do? Praying Together (5 minutes) Repeat the Easter greeting from today s Getting Started: Alleluia! Christ is risen! Ask volunteers to take turns calling out other greetings 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. 54

3 with your enrichment activities Welcome the Good News (5-20 minutes) On the first page of today s Welcome the Good News (#8) you ll find an illustrated version of today s story. In Welcome God s Word on page 2 of Welcome, children can work together to solve a scripture-verse puzzle drawn from today s gospel. Children will also find an activity called With Your Family that they can lead at home. 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 (track 6 on the Session Companion Audio CD). This would provide especially suitable background music as children work on the art project described below. Art (10-20 minutes) Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea Gather children around the poster of Twins Seven- Seven s Golden Fishes in the Dark Sea from the Session Companion Visuals for Primary. We use the poster in this session to help children explore the fish motif in today s Easter story. Invite children to talk about what they see on the poster. What colors do you see? What shapes can you see? What curved lines do you see? What straight lines do you see? Invite children to find echoes of today s story in this painting. In today s story, Jesus friends gathered closely around Jesus: What makes the fish in the poster look close together? How has the artist arranged the fish? In today s story, Jesus friends were joyful to see Jesus. What makes the painting Golden Fishes look joyful? Invite children to imagine other animals or plants gathered closely together. What kinds of plants might be brightly colored? What kinds of animals, birds or bugs might be brightly colored? When might these be gathered closely together? Set out crayons in bright, warm colors only: orange, gold, reds, etc. Invite children to use bright, warm colors of crayon and dark watercolor paint to make their own paintings of natural objects gathered closely together. Children first draw their objects in brightly colored crayons. Encourage children to arrange their objects closely together. Children then paint over the objects with one shade of dark watercolor paint. The crayon colors will pop through the paint. Take time to talk with the children about their finished pictures. Ask: How do the plants and animals in our pictures stay close to one another? How do friends and families stay close to one another? What are ways we can stay close to Jesus? Twins Seven-Seven The artist known as 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, 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 in He now makes his home in Philadelphia. enrichment 55

4 enrichment Prayers of Holy Communion (5-15 minutes) This week we continue a series of activities designed to encourage children to explore and learn prayers from Holy Communion. This week s prayer phrase is: Thanks be to God. Invite children to share their memories of hearing stories in church. Ask: What stories do we know about God? about Jesus? Who tells us these kinds of stories? What are places where we hear these stories? Explain: When we come together to share bread and wine, we call this service Holy Communion. Holy Communion is a special meal we share to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. During Holy Communion we hear stories about God, about God s people and about Jesus. One prayer we use after we hear these stories uses the words Thanks be to God. Gather around the Prayers Poster from the Session Companion Visuals for Primary. Draw attention to today s prayer. Encourage children to read aloud with you the prayer words from the poster. Then invite children to retell today s story about Jesus. Ask a volunteer to begin the story with a sentence or two. Let other volunteers continue the story until the entire story has been told. Then ask all children to respond to the story by praying, Thanks be to God. 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? 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. Note: For more information on today s scriptures, see page 57 or the Seasonal Resources section of the Living the Good News Online Support Site. 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. An optional activity titled Fish Food. A mini-poster titled Jesus Eats with His Friends, which illustrates a moment in today s story. Instructions for Make-a Game, which invites children to create a game for the church. 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 viewable, high-resolution image of today s artwork, Twins Seven-Seven s Golden Fishes in a Dark Sea. To access the images, you ll need this password: 21art12. A helpful guide to viewing and responding to art titled First Impressions. Some leaders have found these ideas useful in working with difficult children: 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