Thursday, January 12, 2012

Sunday School Update 1-15-2012


Jesus in the Temple
 
We know very little about the time in Jesus’ life from his early childhood until be began his ministry in Nazareth .  What happened in those years in between?  Today Bible story is the only story in the Bible that tells something about this time of Jesus’ life.  The trip to Jerusalem and the Temple in today’s Scripture probably tells about a time of Passover.  Passover was a special holy day when every person who was able to made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple and eat the Passover meal within the city walls.
 
Passover was a glorious time.  The city of Jerusalem fairly filled to overflowing with tourists.  During special celebrations the men would often gather in the Court of the Gentiles and discuss with the teachers major theological issues.  Sometimes these debates became quite animated and lasted for hours.  With these learned men Jesus found himself debating the meaning of scripture.
 
When persons read this story today, they might ask, “How could Mary and Joseph have simply left Jesus in Jerusalem ?”  Village life in Bible times was quite a bit different than life today.  Families from the same village often traveled together on these special holidays.  The women would start early in the day, and men would catch up with them in the evening, when camp had been set up.  Mary probably assumed that Jesus was with his father.  Joseph, likewise, could have assumed that Jesus was with the group, however, he would be safe.  It was when they discovered that Jesus was not with the group that a sense of unease arose.
 
Because of who he was, Jesus certainly knew much about God and had a sense of who God was.  But imagine the hunger to debate the religious leaders and to get a  better understanding of ho they viewed God and the Scriptures.  Who do your children turn to when it come to learning about the Bible?  About God?  About Jesus?  Sunday school is often the only place where they can get their questions answered and their spiritual needs met.  Be open to talking with your children about God and about the Bible.  Be willing to say, “I don’t know” and, “Let’s look it up together.”
 
In this week’s lesson your children will hear about the story of the fateful trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was left behind talking to the elders.  Scriptures say that Jesus was asking questions of the elders.  But perhaps what he was discovering from these learned men was how they interpreted God from the Scriptures.  Jesus learned as well as taught.  He learned from his parents, from the rabbis, from his disciples.  When the time came to take up his ministry, he would change the people’s view of God for all times. 
 
Our story will be when Jesus was a boy/Where is Jesus.  Activites will be can we talk, zippety zee, grow-growing-grown and a game we can play will be Dreidel time.  As you may now Dreidel was a game similar to Jacks and this games was played at Hanukkah.  This was a special celebration of a time when the temple lights burned for eight days on only a small amount of oil.  If we have time All About God in which we will reading versus out of Psalm, and I will have the children try to find those versus and finally Happy Prayer.
 
Bible Verse
 
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor
 
Luke 2:52
 
Bible Story
 
Luke 2:39-52
 
 
Lisa Wille
Cell:  770-362-2175
 

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