*Christ Healing the Blind Man* (Eustache Le Sueur, c1645)

Dear St. John’s familes,

In Sunday School over the next few weeks, we follow Jesus’s life and learn his teachings through miracles he performs and parables he tells.

In the 3-4-5 classroom, the children will hear about Blind Bartamaeus. These supernatural acts of love and power drew people to Jesus, revealed His divine nature, opened hearts to the message of salvation and caused many to glorify God. They also demonstrated Christ’s absolute authority over nature and his limitless compassion. Altogether, they proved that He was, indeed, the promised Messiah.

In our Godly Play classrooms, the children will be learning the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Here’s some interesting information I found about one of the reasons Jesus spoke in parables:

When we ask a question, maybe the answer isn’t as important as we think. Jesus often sidestepped the questions that were asked of him. Rather than answering the question he tells a story about something seemingly totally different. Why? Because he’s more concerned with our heart than adding to our knowledge. Our heart is what brings about change; our head just fills with facts. Sometimes the answers we think we need won’t bring us what we hoped. Sometimes the questions we ask aren’t really what we are after. More information rarely leads to life change. But when our heart is addressed life change is soon to follow. God gives us what we need, what we are really after. But he doesn’t always give us the answers we are seeking. Jesus knew that the answer wouldn’t bring comfort, hope, or create life change. But a story could. (Jeffrey Curtis Poor)

It occurred to me that Godly Play follows this method of teaching as well by telling stories and asking “wondering questions.” Instead of just giving the children what we think the meaning of the story is, the wondering questions invite them to explore their own heart for what the answer might be. I do think lessons resonate more fully when you’re allowed to make connections and draw your own conclusions. Food for thought ...

Warm regards,

Alexis

Alexis MacElhiney

Sunday School Director & Youth Coordinator

Dear friends,

The Rev. Ed Thornley preaches from the pulpit Dec. 8.

During my sermon on The Second Sunday of Advent, I was reflecting on the words of The Rev. Canon Edie Dolnikowski, who spoke the previous week about how Advent is a season for slowing down, not taking on more, and seeking to adopt new prayerful and reflective practices. During my homily following Edie’s, I found myself thinking about how I have struggled with this more meditative practice myself, and how important it is to try and slow down. Of course, several friends, knowing my sense of humor, remarked afterwards, smiling, “Oh, so if it’s important for me to slow down then I suppose you don’t need me to help you this week with XYZ then …!” Or, “Do you really need the choir this week …?”

I suppose it would be nice if we were all able to continue getting some things done, even in Advent (although I did appreciate the joke!). However, it did genuinely get me thinking: what if we could keep up the pace but find more meditative ways through it? Instead of slowing down as such, what if we considered what it might mean to maintain a certain pitch and purpose in one’s life while still fervently moving forward?

Now, I’m not going back on my sermon right now, nor because I’m afraid people will stop helping me keep this church afloat in one of the busiest seasons of the year … But indeed, as I moved from sermon to announcements during last Sunday’s service, and inevitably started listing all the merry things going on in the parish which are joyful, and of course a major part of this season, I did find myself wondering if my sermon needed to be a little more nuanced. Perhaps it’s not so much about slowing down so as to cut things back, rather readjusting our pace and focus so that we might become more aligned with the way God approaches us.

In preparation for our Evenings in Advent study this past week (which was canceled due to the storm), I found myself reading one of Godly Play founder Jerome Berryman’s books, Becoming Like a Child. In the book, Berryman writes about the spirituality of childhood, and how adults, too, might reorient their patterns of prayer and the way they attend to aspects of their mature lives by reflecting on the ways that children perceive reality. In one chapter, Berryman describes what is often referred to as “unitive” or “mystical” knowing. Here, he reflects on an early childhood experience which, at different moments in his adult life, resurfaces in his memory when he encounters experiences which trigger, in his subconscious mind, the recollection of when this type of experience first took place. Berryman writes, “I had experienced a unified kind of knowing. Many have such experiences, especially during childhood. Their significance remains even if the details fade.” (Berryman 2017, 68)

In other words, one of the qualities children have, and which adults sometimes forget they have, is that our minds, and indeed our hearts, carry experiences even when we are not aware of them. And these moments resurface when prompted; sometimes happily, sometimes tragically; sometimes helpfully, and sometimes unhelpfully. But whichever way they manifest, they are with us, and our task, as any therapist or spiritual director knows, is to find ways of navigating our minds and hearts so that we know how to healthily move forward while not ignoring the past; and how to keep on moving while absorbing and reabsorbing information and experience, all the while gaining new insight into our deeper purpose even amidst uncertainty, anxiety, or busyness. This is certainly something children can teach us about, especially at a time of year like this. And perhaps this readjustment rather than removing is the more important spiritual discipline that both Advent and Christmas, at their own heart, can shape within ours.

With every blessing for this third week of Advent,

Ed.

The Rev. Edward Thornley

Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist.

Reference

Jerome Berryman, Becoming Like a Child—The Curiosity of Maturity Beyond the Norm. New York: Church Publishing, 2017.

Sunday School Update: Speaking in parables

From the Rector: Reorienting patterns of prayer