| WAYS TO BEGIN: Greet each student. Spend time talking about the past week. You should probably serve some light refreshments.
THE THEME: Sadducees (a group within Judaism; other groups include Pharisees and Essenes) ask Jesus a question about the resurrection of which they had been taught not to believe in. Jesus answers them in a straight forward manner. As youth often have a lot of questions about what happens when people die, this is a passage that might have a lot of interest to them. Jesus explains suggestion that in the resurrection, things are different than on earth and that living or dead and resurrection, God is the God of both realms.
THE STORY: Luke 20:27-38. Have someone read the story aloud. You may wish to explain before reading that the Sadducees area group of Jews with slightly different beliefs than Pharisees. Just as Episcopalians believe in some things differently than Baptist or Methodist, Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection, but Pharisees did.
SOME QUESTIONS TO TALK ABOUT:
1. What questions do you have about this story? What do you think Jesus is trying to teach us?
2. Do you believe in a literal resurrection of the dead? What about a literal Heaven or Hell? Discuss your beliefs about what happens when you die. What questions do you have?
3. What does it mean to you to be called "a child of God" or "like an angel"?
4. How do you imagine yourself and others after death?
AN EXERCISE TO DO: As a class compile questions you have about life after death. Then invite your priest or some other adult such as a member of an EFM (Education for Ministry) class to come and discuss your questions with you.
1. Or have each student interview key adults in the parish as to their answers and report back. A good resource is a book (also a video) called Questions of Faith which asked ontemporary thinkers and theologians certain questions, including "What happens after death?". This series was part of a Trinity Institute some years ago. You might also look at the Prayer Book, pages 861 & 862. The Catechism asks and answers questions about "the Christian Hope".
2. Finally, Madelene L'Engle in her book of poems THE WEATHER OF THE HEART has this to say in a poem entitled "Star Light"- "Perhaps after death the strange timelessness, matterlessness, absolute differentness of eternity will be shot through like a starry night with islands of familiar and beautiful joys..." Often, poetry is the only way to talk about those deep mysteries of life and death. With this age of student, I often find that giving them the opportunity to express mystery in poetic or artistic symbols is most helpful. You might get some decent watercolor paper, a few brushes and some paint and invite each student, while quiet music is played, to express in some non-objective way, their thoughts and feelings about life after death. Sometimes, asking them to create a circle and place with its perimeter's their symbols, gives them a way to begin.
|
