Hi Godly Play Teachers!
Welcome to the lesson for January 25, Jesus Visits Martha and Mary, the story from Luke 10:38-42.
I
love this story because it does such a good job of raising questions
about hospitality- hospitality that we try to practice and the unique,
radical hospitality of God.
Truth
be told, I think I also love this scripture because I can really relate
to Martha's predicament. What kind of hospitality is important in our
own lives? To what extent is it important? I find it interesting-and
comforting- that Jesus doesn't disapprove of Martha's focused cleaning
and cooking and all her caring for her guests. His response to her
frustration of finding herself doing all the work ("Lord, make my sister
help me!") is to turn the focus to his own brand of hospitality to
Mary.
As
I know you know, children will need help understanding what the word
hospitality means. Does God ask us to show hospitality to others? What
about God's form of hospitality to us?
Of
course, one of the big questions this story raises is just who gets to
receive God's hospitality. You'll want to remind the children that in
Jesus's time, rabbis did not allow women to sit at their feet and study
the Torah, to listen and ask questions. Yet Jesus encourages it. Who
would Jesus welcome to sit at his feet today, to act as a disciple? Are
there people that some might choose to exclude? Children are so good at
helping us broaden our circle!
Ideas to Get the Children Started for the Give a Gift to God Time
*Our
creative time works best when the child feels ownership over his own
work--that it comes from her ideas and is merely inspired by the ideas
we share to get them started.
Here are some ideas from which they can springboard. I'm sure you can add even better ones. Please feel free to share in the comments.
Here are some ideas from which they can springboard. I'm sure you can add even better ones. Please feel free to share in the comments.
1. Focus on Retelling the Story
*Each
child could recreate a set of the Godly Play materials for themselves
either 2 dimensionally, through drawing the pieces and cutting them out,
or 3 dimensionally, with clay (bucket, plates, etc), clothespins (Jesus
and the sisters) and other materials-a twig broom, etc.
* Make a mural of the story on butcher paper.
2. Focus on the theme of Who Would Jesus Want to Sit at His Feet?
I
can imagine this being successful as an individual project (either a
drawing or a collage from magazine pictures) or a class project, with
each child picking what kind of person she would like to draw. Would
Jesus want the poor, the rich? Different races? The old? The young?
Families? Singles? Prisoners? Sick people? Well people? Lonely people?
Happy? They could even draw themselves! In fact, I love that idea!
There is butcher paper
in the Children's Activity Room ready for a class to work on it together. (They could draw directly on
the paper or on small sheets and then glue each person's work to the
larger paper.)
3.
The children could work on their hospitality skills. Some could prepare
some kind of food as Martha did. Some could sweep and clean. Others
could be Mary, listening to a teacher read a story. Afterwards, the
group could talk about how it felt to play each role. Then the children
could take a look at Matthew 4:4 "Jesus answered, 'It is written: 'Man
does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
mouth of God.'" This verse comes from Jesus's desert experience (his
quoting from Deuteronomy,) but it applies to this story as well. The
children could write the verse in their own words and illustrate it with
the Mary & Martha scene.
4.
We have a Love Luncheon with Senior Adults scheduled for Feb. 8, so one
way our children could practice hospitality is to make decorations for
the lunch!5. Our second graders drew pictures of what each of us would do to entertain Jesus if he came to our house.
Love, Becky
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