This school year I've been having fun with the Day School kids in Chapel. John will play his guitar or banjo and lead the kids in fun songs and I teach them great stories from the Bible, using as many props as I can muster. We're a good combination, I think.
It has been interesting deciding which stories to tell the kids, deciding how to craft them so as not to traumatize the the children, thinking about the message/theology I hope to leave them with. I came up with a year plan that walks through some of the great Old Testament stories for the first few months, then will start into the great New Testament stories by delving into the birth narratives for Advent.
Yesterday, we talked about Samuel anointing David as the next king of Israel. First, I talked a little bit about prophets, then a little bit about King Saul who had started out listening to God but then stopped listening and started doing his own thing. And then I morphed into Samuel, traipsing to Jesse's house to figure out which of his kids would be chosen by God as the next king. My first foray into revisionist story-telling came then. I couldn't stand talking about the SONS of Jesse and excluding the girls from the story. Excluding them from the possibility of being chosen by God as special and as leaders. And so my daughter's giant doll played the part of one of Jesse's children, along with a giant leopard, a few dogs, an elephant, and a chicken.
"Samuel" went up to each one, musing about how they were so big or strong or good-looking and therefore must be the one chosen by God. But each time God said, "No - that's not the one. You're looking just at the outside. I look inside, at a person's heart." That's the part of the story I adore. That's the moral and theological lesson I want the kids to take away from it. But unfortunately, the rest of the story, as written, is pretty disappointing.
"Samuel" goes through all of Jesse's sons that are present and determines that none of them are God's chosen leader. So he questions Jesse and finds out that there is this young shepherd son that has been out in the field all this time. In comes David, soon to be anointed the next king. And here's how I WANT the story to go next. I want God to shout out to Samuel, "This is the one! My chosen next king! He may not look like much, but his heart is so full of love for me!" But instead, we are told that David "was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome." We don't hear anything about his honorable, loving, kind inside - even the Bible writers were stuck on appearances. And so came my second foray into revisionist story telling. My 3 year old kindly agreed to be David. I pulled him up and said, "David wasn't the oldest. He wasn't the tallest. He wasn't the best-looking. He may not even have been the wisest. But he loved God with all his heart. And God chose him to be the next king of Israel."
It has been interesting deciding which stories to tell the kids, deciding how to craft them so as not to traumatize the the children, thinking about the message/theology I hope to leave them with. I came up with a year plan that walks through some of the great Old Testament stories for the first few months, then will start into the great New Testament stories by delving into the birth narratives for Advent.
Yesterday, we talked about Samuel anointing David as the next king of Israel. First, I talked a little bit about prophets, then a little bit about King Saul who had started out listening to God but then stopped listening and started doing his own thing. And then I morphed into Samuel, traipsing to Jesse's house to figure out which of his kids would be chosen by God as the next king. My first foray into revisionist story-telling came then. I couldn't stand talking about the SONS of Jesse and excluding the girls from the story. Excluding them from the possibility of being chosen by God as special and as leaders. And so my daughter's giant doll played the part of one of Jesse's children, along with a giant leopard, a few dogs, an elephant, and a chicken.
"Samuel" went up to each one, musing about how they were so big or strong or good-looking and therefore must be the one chosen by God. But each time God said, "No - that's not the one. You're looking just at the outside. I look inside, at a person's heart." That's the part of the story I adore. That's the moral and theological lesson I want the kids to take away from it. But unfortunately, the rest of the story, as written, is pretty disappointing.
"Samuel" goes through all of Jesse's sons that are present and determines that none of them are God's chosen leader. So he questions Jesse and finds out that there is this young shepherd son that has been out in the field all this time. In comes David, soon to be anointed the next king. And here's how I WANT the story to go next. I want God to shout out to Samuel, "This is the one! My chosen next king! He may not look like much, but his heart is so full of love for me!" But instead, we are told that David "was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome." We don't hear anything about his honorable, loving, kind inside - even the Bible writers were stuck on appearances. And so came my second foray into revisionist story telling. My 3 year old kindly agreed to be David. I pulled him up and said, "David wasn't the oldest. He wasn't the tallest. He wasn't the best-looking. He may not even have been the wisest. But he loved God with all his heart. And God chose him to be the next king of Israel."
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