Lent 2004 - Cycle C - Revised Common Lectionary
February 29 through April 4, 2004
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him. (Antiphon for Lent, Book of Common Prayer, page 81) And what if, during this season of Lent, we sought a deeper understanding of this amazing gospel of grace. Will that image of grace energize us to do the spiritual housekeeping we need to be ready for the "new thing" God is doing in Easter?
Palm Sunday
April 4, 2004
Luke 23: 1 - 49
A notation for this week's Gospel
Gathered in our comfortable churches, we struggle to let the difficult words of the Crucifixion land anywhere in our psyches. Would any of us have been there, or would we have waited for the news to reach us? Had we shown up, would we have demanded that Barabbas be released instead of Jesus? Would we have stood with the few at the foot of the cross? What time will we scrounge, in the week ahead, to pause and squint -- at the grace of this awesome love?
Lesson Plans for Older Children
Theme: What love is this?
Before Class. Gather materials to produce "A Week in a Few Minutes" with your group. You will need several sheets of paper, felt markers or crayons, masking tape to secure the paper to the wall. You will need Bibles, preferably one for each child and copies of the Book of Common Prayer. Acquire a schedule of the services that will be offered in your church in the week ahead. (If the schools in your community will be on spring break and the children will be in town, be prepared to tell them about the services offered during the day.) If the children are not in church today, be sure to acquire palm branches (or palm crosses) so each child can have one.
If your class is during the church service, the service will be longer today so you will probably use both options suggested. If the children were in church for the service, or for a part of the service, you will probably have only time for the second option.
Beginning. If the children have been in church for all or part of the service, invite feedback. What did they notice, what do they remember. If not, tell them that today we squeeze a whole week into our service and we will unpack that today.
Opening Prayer. Help us, dear God, to hear in the Scripture we have today the word you have for us. Amen.
Option One.
Luke 19: 28 - 40.
Tell the children this is the part of the story we use at the beginning of the service when people all have palms. This passage explains why we use palms. Perhaps you, the teacher, could read this passage to the children, asking them to follow along in their Bibles, prepared to ask questions at the end.
Some Questions.
Why did Jesus need a colt - a donkey colt, at that? (To ride into Jerusalem but not as a fancy king)
What did the people do? (verse 36)
Tell the children that we don't wave our coats, but use palms instead because one of the other Gospel accounts (Matthew) tells that the people also cut branches from the trees -- and most of the trees were palm trees. Who did the people think Jesus was? (verse 38)
Activity. Show the children the art supplies you have gathered. Tell them we are going to "portray" the events of Holy Week using drawing, words from Scripture, paraphrases, or some of each. The children can choose. They can decide how many sheets for this passage. (Selecting the donkey? Jesus on the donkey? The crowds spreading their cloaks on the road? Or, the words we proclaim that are probably what those people were saying: verse 38b)
Option. You might take the children for a walk, possibly the younger children joining your group, outside if at all possible, waving the palms. If your situation (or the weather) precludes going outside, perhaps they could do a silent procession somewhere inside the church, waving palms, walking in silence, as quietly as possible.
Option Two: Luke 23: 1 - 49. Tell the children that this is such a long passage, you will summarize parts of it, and they can read parts of it. They can follow along in the Bible as you paraphrase and as others read.
Luke 23: 1 - 17.
The leaders of the Hebrew people were now sure that Jesus was not only teaching things that they thought were wrong, but he was likely to get all of them in trouble with the Romans who were occupying their country. So they turned Jesus over to Pilate - the head Roman official. He couldn't find anything Jesus was doing that broke Roman laws, so he sent him on to Herod, Pilate's boss. Herod couldn't find anything illegal either, so he sent Jesus back to Pilate. There, Pilate thought he could get off the hook because it was the custom to release a prisoner. Surely the crowd would want Jesus released. No such luck. They wanted Barabbas released, so Jesus would, then, have to be crucified. (Ask the children if they have any questions at this point. And if they have a question you do not know how to answer, own the fact that you do not have all the answers. Tell them you will see what you can do by checking with the clergy and get back to them.) Ask the children to be thinking about how they will portray this portion.
Ask a child to read each of the following verses. After each invite questions, clarifications and suggest the children be thinking of a way to portray each.
