Kids Korner: Loving the world (Mar. 10th)

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Read John 3:14-21 with your family.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, and hard to imagine, the world and the culture around us being different than what we know. When we learn about history, however, we can see that the people in the past live differently than we do today.

Now, imagine what the world can be in the future? What does God ask us to help create?

God came in human form named Jesus, to show us how to love each other. Imagine if we showed that love more often, how would the world look different.

It’s hard to imagine something that hasn’t happened yet, but we have God’s promise that if we try to make everyone’s life better, we will get to a world of happiness and peace. We can imagine it through the way Jesus lived and asked us to live.

And if all of us work together we can bring about that future of love even faster.

Lenten Study 2024 – Week 3

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There are many children in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but they are often overlooked or by-passed by Sunday lectionaries and Bible studies. Even Sunday School curriculums rarely take time just to focus on the children, or the childhood of significant people in Scripture.

Through this Lenten series we will be looking at some of the children found in Scripture, why their stories are significant, how they are related, and their influence on the growth of our spiritual tradition.

Week 3

Boys who became leaders

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Sunday Reflection – Lent III, March 3, 2024

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Jesus at the Temple

John 2 13  Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.

16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, “Get those doves out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17  The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, “My love for your house burns in me like a fire.”

18 The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, “What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?”

19  “Destroy this temple,” Jesus answered, “and in three days I will build it again!”

20 The leaders replied, “It took 46 years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?”

21 But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22 And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus.

Kids Korner: Jesus will rise up (Mar. 3rd)

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Read John 2:13-22 with your family.

In the Gospel of John, everyone knew that Jesus was the Messiah from the very start. The other Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke kept Jesus’ identity a secret until almost the end.

Since everyone knew who Jesus was supposed to be, they didn’t listen well to what he said. They wanted to take things ‘literally’, which means only hearing the words and thinking that is the whole message. However, Jesus wants people to understand his words had more meaning than just the surface understanding. He wanted to talk about God’s world with word pictures so people would use their imaginations to learn more about how wonderful God really was.

When Jesus said he would ‘raise the Temple again in three days’, he did not mean a whole new building would poof into existence after three days. He was trying to get people to understand that a building like the Temple was not the only place to worship God. That Jesus would rise on Easter morning, three days after he was killed, and we were to celebrate how good God was with Jesus anywhere, not just one building, because Jesus was the “new Temple” (he wasn’t meant to be a building, it was just a word picture for a place to talk to God).

Lenten Study 2024 – Week 2

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There are many children in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but they are often overlooked or by-passed by Sunday lectionaries and Bible studies. Even Sunday School curriculums rarely take time just to focus on the children, or the childhood of significant people in Scripture.

Through this Lenten series we will be looking at some of the children found in Scripture, why their stories are significant, how they are related, and their influence on the growth of our spiritual tradition.

Week 2

Girls in the Hebrew Scriptures

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Sunday Reflection – Lent II, February 25, 2024

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Jesus predicts his death

Mark 8 31 Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32 Then Jesus explained clearly what he meant.

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. 33 But when Jesus turned and saw the disciples, he corrected Peter. He said to him, “Satan, get away from me! You are thinking like everyone else and not like God.”

34  Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and he said:

If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. 35  If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. 36 What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? 37 What could you give to get back your soul?

38 Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Kids Korner: Don’t say that (Feb. 25th)

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Read Mark 8:31-38 with your family.

Sometimes we have friends who support us in everything we do without a problem. Sometimes we have friends who support us even if they think we are making a bad choice.

And sometimes we have friends who try to talk us out of things because they are afraid we will get hurt.

In this story before Jesus and his followers get to Jerusalem, Peter was trying to talk Jesus out of doing things that would hurt and probably kill him. The language Jesus used “Get behind me, Satan”, sounds really harsh, but what it really meant was “stop tempting me”.

Jesus knew what he had to do, and he knew that the people in Jerusalem would be angry once he was finished. So Jesus needed all his strength and the support of his friends to do the job. Anyone who questioned what Jesus was going to do was just too hard for Jesus to deal with.

Jesus was never angry at Peter, he just needed Peter to understand how hard it was already, and Jesus simply could not hear the thought of doing something differently.

Lenten Study 2024 – Week 1

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There are many children in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, but they are often overlooked or by-passed by Sunday lectionaries and Bible studies. Even Sunday School curriculums rarely take time just to focus on the children, or the childhood of significant people in Scripture.

Through this Lenten series we will be looking at some of the children found in Scripture, why their stories are significant, how they are related, and their influence on the growth of our spiritual tradition.

Week 1

Brothers in Genesis

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Sunday Reflection – Lent I, February 18, 2024

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Baptism & Temptation

Mark 1 9 About that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 As soon as Jesus came out of the water, he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a dove. 11  A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”

12 At once God’s Spirit made Jesus go into the desert. 13 He stayed there for 40 days while Satan tested him. Jesus was with the wild animals, but angels took care of him.

14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and told the good news that comes from God. 15  He said, “The time has come! God’s kingdom will soon be here. Turn back to God and believe the good news!”