All the questions within the Adolescence category for Jewish & Christian Heritage.
Once there was a boy named Svetaketu (Svayta-kaytu) who went away to school to learn all about God. When he came back home his father could see that although he had learned many things there were still some things, some very important things, that he did not yet understand. When his father told him that there was more for him to learn, Svetaketu said, "Please, Father teach me," and his father said, "So be it, my son."
Svetaketu’s father said, "Go bring me a fig from that large tree over there." Svetaketu ran to pluck a fig and brought it to his father saying, "Here it is, sir." Then his father said, "Cut it in two," and Svetaketu cut the fig in two saying, "I have done as you asked." Then his father said, "What do you see in the fig?," and Svetaketu answered, "All these little tiny seeds." Then Svetaketu’s father said, "Cut one of the tiny seeds in two," and Svetaketu did. Svetaketu’s father then asked, "What do you see now?," and Svetaketu answered, "Nothing at all."
Then Svetaketu’s father said, "But, my son, I want you to know that even though you can’t see it, there is an unseen power in that seed which can grow such a seed into a great tree like the one over there. And, Svetaketu, the unseen power that is in the seed is the same power that is in the whole world. That power is God. That power is Spirit and God’s spirit-power is in you, too, Svetaketu."
When Svetaketu heard his father’s words he felt very small and very big to think that he asked his father to teach him more about the spirit-power of God that was in him.
And so his father did and Svetaketu learned that even though this spirit-power is unseen by our ordinary eyes, we can see it with our inner eyes. It is there in such mysteries as growing aod loving.
And that spirit-power is in each one of us. It is in everyone here at church. It is in everyone in (your town or area). It is in everyone in our (state). It is in everyone in our (country). It is in each and everyone in the whole world.
Goal:
To introduce the idea that people find God in many different places.
Preparation: Read Background for “Hide and Seek with God”
Activities:
Introduce the story:
In our Unitarian Universalist church people have many different ideas about God. For some people God is what’s really real, for some God is what’s most important, and for some God is what’s most mysterious. But there are also some UUs who have ideas about what’s most real and most important and most mysterious but they don’t call those things God. They use other words, like Universe, Life, or Love. In our church we each decide for ourselves which words to use and what we believe.
The stories I’m going to read were written to help kids decide for themselves what they thing about God. Here’s the first one.
Discuss:
Would you want to play Hide and Seek with God? Would it be fun? Would it be scary?
If you were playing the game, where would you look? What do you think God might look like?
One girl found mysterious things but she wasn’t’ sure she wanted to call them God. Do you ever feel this way?
Draw a picture of what you think God looks like. Hide your pictures around the room and play “hot” and “cold” to find them – telling the finder they’re getting hotter if they’re getting closer to it and colder if they’re getting further away.
Game playing is not only fun for children, it is one of the ways they learn all sorts of things. Adults continue to practice skills and find enjoyment in games, also. Especially popular are games in which something is hidden and the goal is to find it. From peek-a-boo to mystery weekends, it is clear that our love of searching for something hidden is more than just a game. Our normal curiosity about things and life’s way of always providing something new for us to figure out, combine to make the metaphor of hide and seek inherently meaningful to us.
At times, it can seem as though the purpose of our being here on earth is for us to search for answers to the hidden mysteries of life. It can seem as though a divine power created a world full of paradoxes and then put us here, without explanation, leaving us to try to figure it all out. Another way of explaining this feeling that life is something of a game is expressed by Alan Watts in his book entitled The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. In this book, Watts works with the following Hindu concepts: that all is ultimately Brahman or God; that our lack of understanding this is because of the magic of maya; and that figuring it out is lila, a playful game. He likens the game to Hide and Seek in which God, who is all, hides by pretending to be all the various things in the world including each one of us. However, Watts says, "when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self, the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever."
Religions, other than Hinduism, in varying ways, also have a sense of God as hidden. In Islam one of the ninety nine names of God is The Hidden; but for Muslims, God is totally other and ultimately unknowable. Christian belief presumes that God, though originally concealed, finally becomes known through God’s own revelation. In general, the emphasis is on God’s revealing rather than on human discovery. Paul, however does write in Acts 17: 26, "From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and [God] allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for [God] and find [God] though indeed [God] is not far from each one of us. For ‘In [God] we live and move and have our being;’ …"
Where one might find God differs from religion to religion; in fact, answers to this question may well be a part of what differentiates one religion from another. Jews might say they find God in historical actions of freedom and justice; Christians might say God is revealed in the love found in the life and person of Jesus; and Muslims might say they find the one God in the words of the Quran. In Alan Watts’ story and~ in the story in this curriculum God is found in everything that is: earth and sky; light and dark; people’s caring actions; within ourselves; and even in the not knowing. For if God is a symbol for ultimate reality, values, and mystery,one’s unknowing can be considered one’s ultimate reality.
This metaphor in which God hides and humans search is supported by the UU Principle which urges us to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We search in all of our Sources: our own experience, the `words and deeds of prophetic women and men,wisdom from the world religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, and humanist teachings.
As Jesus was growing up he Iearned many things about God. He learned that God cared about what happened to people and he learned that God wanted people to care about each other. He also learned that he could talk with God and when he talked to God he called him Father. After Jesus was grown he traveled around the countryside, meeting many people and telling them how God wanted them to care for each other.
One time a large group of people gathered around Jesus and one of them came forward and said, "Jesus, I want to do the things that God wants me to do but sometimes it is hard to know what I am supposed to do. God has given us many rules to follow like: don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t hurt others. But sometimes it’s hard to remember all the rules. Can you tell me an easy way to remember what God wants me to do?" So Jesus spoke to God in the following way, "Father, one of your children wants to know a way to remember all the things you want your people to do. What shall I tell them?"
Then God answered, "Tell them, ‘All those rules really mean one simple thing: Love each other." And so that was what Jesus told them.
But one of the people said to Jesus, "Must we love everybody, even people who are different from us?" Jesus spoke to God again, "Father, they want to know if they must love people who are different."
And God answered, "Tell them, ‘Every one of you is different and special but you are all my children and I love each one of you and I want you to love each other,"’ And so that was what Jesus told them.
The people who came to talk with Jesus noticed that he talked to God. They asked him to teach them how to talk with God. So Jesus spoke to God again and said, "Father, your children want to know how to talk with you. What shall I tell them?"
God then answered, "Tell them to talk with me in prayer." And so that was what Jesus did. He taught the people a prayer like the following:
Father, blessed is your name
May we learn to love each other
May a world of love come to be.
Give us this day the things we need
And forgive us for the wrong things we do
As we will forgive others.
Keep us safe from evil.
Amen.
This story is new. It was written for you.
Imagine a time long ago when things were just getting started. The first flowers were blooming; the first birds were building their nests high in the branches of sheltering trees; girls and boys, men and women setting up their first families and homes. These are the things that you might have seen if it wasn’t so dark. No one could see, because it was the first night, and the first day hadn’t happened yet.
The First People could hear the wind whining in the trees, and the birds twittering and whistling. It was so dark they couldn’t see anything, but the First People were too busy to worry about the dark. They were thinking about all the first things they would need to live beyond that first night. The First People were working so hard that they really didn’t care that they couldn’t see each other in the dark. As they spoke, they would turn their bodies toward sounds of voices that didn’t have faces.
When the sun finally rose on that first morning, the whole world looked like it was made of glass. [Show the cellophane wrap on the frame.] One by one the First People realized they still couldn’t see anything. Their faces and muscles and bones were all clear. Light passed straight through their bodies to the clear ground below. The sky was clear. The trees, birds, flowers, and rocks were all as clear as glass.
Finally, one of the First Children broke the silence. "I have eyes to see with," the child cried. "But there’s nothing to see" One of the adults tried to comfort the child, but the First People were all sad.
"What will we do?" one woman said. "Last night we planned to gather the tall grass that rustles in the breeze. We planned to bend and fold, and twist and tie that grass to make the first baskets. Then, we were going to go down to the river, which we hear moving past us, to collect baskets full of water, so all the First People could have a drink."
" Oh-hh-hh," moaned a thirsty man. "How will you find the grass if you can’t see it’ How will you know if you’ve made a tight basket if you can’t see your work? How will you find your way to the water and back?"
The First People were very creative and solved all these problems, one by one. Holding hands, they formed a human chain to make a trail to the tall grass. They took small, careful steps, never knowing when clear grass might give way to clear rocks or clear tree stumps. Once the human chain was finally in place, the person on the end felt carefully for one long, thick blade of grass, pulled it out of the ground and passed it to the next person, who passed it to the next, until the blade of grass reached the last person in line. [You could have the children close their eyes and pass a long blade of grass around the circle.]
After the grass had been plucked, several First People started weaving baskets, feeling their work with their fingers to find even the tiniest holes that would let water out. Finally they had a few baskets that could hold water. Once again all the First People formed a human chain and worked their way to the river. When a basket was passed to the last man in line, he dipped it carefully into the river he couldn’t see and pulled it up full of water. The First People breathed a sigh of relief when the man shouted, "It’s holding! It’s holding! And so it was that the First People shared their first drink of water.
The First People had been hard at work all day, and they’d only accomplished one thing–getting a drink! Although the First People had plenty to drink, they had nothing to eat, and they all went to sleep hungry.
When the sun came up again, nothing had changed, except the First People were more worried about how to take care of themselves in a world where nothing could be seen. As the day passed, the First Women and Men planned ways to collect food. A First Child who was playing found something hard–a rock, a crystal-clear rock. She tossed the rock up in the air and it twinkled in the sun. The child held it up for her mother to see. Stretching out her clear arm, with the clear rock in her clear hand, something happened. Stripes of something not-clear showed on her face and reflected on the ground below. [Demonstrate with a prism.]
When the girl’s mother saw the stripes of something not-clear, she called the others around. The First People were excited as they felt on the ground for more clear stones that would make those seven wonderful not-clear stripes. The girl’s mother decided to name the stripes. Pointing to each in turn she called out, "Red! Orange! Yellow! Green! Blue! Indigo! Violet! " The First People played with the stripes until the sun set.
On the third morning, a gentle rain fell. The First People set out their baskets to catch the rain and talked again about how to gather food. They almost didn’t notice when the rain stopped and the sun came out. Looking up, the First People saw above them the same not-clear stripes they had played with the day before: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. As the sun grew brighter, the stripes glowed stronger.
Suddenly one man said, "What if we take our baskets and form a line to the stripes? Can we bring the red, orange, and yellow home? Can we pass green and blue, indigo and violet down the line, and use the stripes to make our world not-clear?"
No one knew the answers, but everyone was willing to try. They formed a human chain so long it led straight to the stripes in the sky. At the head of the line was the woman who had named the stripes. She filled the baskets and passed them back down the line. As she turned with the last basket full of violet, the First People gasped. All the beautiful colors were dripping out of the baskets! But the groans soon turned to cheers, for when the very first drop fell to the earth, it colored a flower a brilliant shade of red. The next drop caught a bird’s wing in flight. The whole world came alive in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Trees appeared, and blue and yellow mingled to color the grasses green.
The First People were so busy watching their world change that they almost forgot that they were still as clear as glass. Suddenly a man tossed his basket of indigo high over-head and ran down the line of First People to await the shower of color below. Others followed his lead. Soon all the First People were playing with the colors falling from the sky. They rolled in the green grass and hugged gray tree trunks. They chased orange butter- flies and marveled at purple flowers. All the colors were still quite wet, and a bit of each rubbed off on everybody. When the colors finally dried, the First People found that they were all different colors. Some were warm, dark brown like the earth. Others were the color of honey, or shades of rose and burnished bronze mingled together. Some were pink all over, and others were touched by the yellow of the sun and golden buttercups.
They were thankful for this blessing of color. Now they could see the color of ripe apples and the blush of juicy peaches, and gather good food to eat. They could see the river run, birds fly, and fish swim. They could walk with their heads held high, their eyes seeking the best path. And they could learn from everything they could see.
When they looked at each other and saw all the beautiful colors of the First People, they were especially happy, and never wanted to be in a world without color again.
Long, long ago, the Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. They were forced to make bricks out of straw and mud for the Egyptian Pharaoh (the king) for the large pyramids and monuments he was building. They worked hard and long and the pharaoh’s soldiers were very cruel to them. A man called Moses heard a voice speak to him from a burning bush. The voice told him to go to the pharaoh and tell him that God said he was to free the Hebrews and let them leave Egypt.
Many times, Moses went to the pharaoh.Every time, the pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave. And every time, he went back on his word.Many plagues–storms, blood, hailstones, frogs,wild animals–befell the Egyptians and with each plague, the pharaoh said the Hebrews could leave. Then when the storm or the terrible happening was over, he changed his mind again.
Finally, Moses told the pharaoh that if he did not let the Hebrews go, a tenth plague would happen to the Egyptians and it would be the worst of all. An angel of death would come and kill all the first-born children of the Egyptians.The pharaoh was frightened and said that the Hebrews could leave Egypt.
Moses told the Hebrews to kill a lamb and paint some of its blood on the doorposts of their homes. When the Angel of Death came, it would pass over the homes whose doorposts were painted with blood and their children would not be killed. The Hebrews began to make bread for their journey, but before the bread had time to rise, they started off, for they were afraid the pharaoh would change his mind again and not let them go.
All of the Hebrews followed Moses. They walked to the edge of the Red Sea, and there a great miracle happened. The waters spread apart so that the Hebrews could pass through to the other side. The pharaoh did change his mind,and sent his soldiers after them. But when the soldiers reached the sea, the waters closed over again. The Hebrews were safe! They sang songs of joy. They were free once again! Many years later, the Hebrews came to be called Jews.
Each year the Jews celebrate the holiday of Passover to remember the time when they became a free people. This is the special ceremony of the Passover Seder.
The metaphor of God as father is a familiar one to those of us raised in Jewish or Christian cultures. For many Unitarian Universalists it now is viewed in a negative way for it is a potent symbol of the patriarchal bias of religions which use it exclusively to describe the gender of God. As Mary Daly said in her book Beyond God the Father, "…if God is male, then the male is God." (p. 19). It represents the belief that ultimate reality and ultimate values have only masculine qualities and so then it logically follows that feminine qualities are of Iesser importance. Obviously, this is not a belief that Unitarian Universalists can hold.
In righting this wrong, many of us, men as well as women, now are consciously choosing to search out and promote feminine images of the divine. At the very least, we are no longer using masculine pronouns for God in an exclusive way and we are making sure to include images and concepts reflective of a feminine God. Ultimately though, we do not want to promote exclusively feminine images of God, either. It is hoped that it will be possible for our young children who are just developing their concepts of what the word God means, to grow up understanding God to be both like a mother and like a father, to have both masculine and feminine qualities.
It is important to use the story, Mother of Us All, and this story, God is Like a Father, one after the other, if at all possible, in order to reenforce the idea that God can be like both a mother or a father. Unfortunately, many congregations cannot always count on all of the children in a class being there in a regular way. For those who miss one or the other of these sessions, it might be important to briefly tell them about the story they did not hear.
The relationship of father to child is familiar and so there will be many associations with it. Jesus used this image to reflect a relationship to the ultimate which honored the transcendence of God yet retained an intimacy. Many of us can identify with this relationship in a positive way because we had a positive relationship with our fathers. However, for some of us, this image might instead reflect unhappy memories of absent or abusive fathers. This, of course, can be said, also, of the metaphor of God as a mother. This possibility is not a reason to decline to use these images, in general, for there can be negative nuances to any image of God for certain individuals, but do be sensitive to these possibilities in the conversations with your group of children.
Although the image of God as a father was occasionally used by Jeremiah and Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus stems to have found it especially appealing and it gains much more prominence in the Christian Bible. Talking to God as you would to a father, instead of as a lord, allows the conversation to be much more personal and intimate.
Jesus’ teachings reflected what such conversations with God bad revealed to him. He told his listeners that God loved them as a father would love his children. He told them that what their "Heavenly Father" wanted of them could be summed up in what is called the Great Commandment (Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27): love God and love your neighbors as yourselves. He also told them that God wanted them to forgive others of their wrongdoing just as God would forgive them. The prayer called the "Lord’s Prayer", or more often now "The Prayer of Jesus", (Matt 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4) is another summary of Jesus’ beliefs about the relationship between God and people. The metaphor of God as a father implies that people are God’s children and since God is the father of all, all are therefore members of one family. The teachings of Jesus that tell us to love, care for and forgive one another follow from this image of humanity as one family.
These images are supported by the UU Principle that urges us to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person and by the UU Source which uses Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
We define stewardship as the act of caring for our congregation, our community, and the Unitarian Universalist movement. People care in various ways: by giving of their time, by sharing their talents, and by contributing financial resources (a.k.a. treasure). Unitarian Universalists have a long, rich history of contributing to their congregations, their communities, and the world. This important aspect of our congregational life begins with the role model of good stewardship in the home. Examining how we spend our time and money as families may help us evaluate how we can be good stewards in the congregation as well.
For a child to develop into a functional adult and good citizen of the world, the family must mirror society. Volunteering helps kids learn that servicenot self-interestholds our world together.
As family counselor John K. Rosemond states in his article Volunteering For Kids, parents can begin teaching the social value of volunteerism by assigning simple daily household chores to children as young as three years old. Such children learn that being a member of a family involves not just sharing the familys wealth, but also its work. Parents can impress upon children the importance of community service with a simple civics lesson: without volunteer support, there would be no community sports programs, no scouting, no 4-H, no homeless shelters, and no summer programs at the local Y. By including children in community and congregational service activities, parents can teach that one person can make a difference in this world. Guiding a younger child toward compatible community service requires that parents help the child answer the following questions: What are my interests? What do I really enjoy? Whats something Ive always wanted to do? Would I prefer working with large or small groups? Indoors or out? What problems in my community or congregation need solutions?
Jim and Kathy McGinnis, founders and directors of the Institute for Peace and Justice, list seven ways to teach our children stewardship in their newsletter, Parenting for Peace & Justice:
Tithing for the congregation. Children can give a percentage of the weekly allowance.
World Bank donations. This program is similar to the UU Guest at Your Table Box.
Shalom Box appeal letters. Decorate a shoe box and use it to store appeal letters received from charities. At quarterly family meetings, discuss which letters to honor and what amount to give.
Split our energy savings. Encourage family members to turn lights out, lower thermostats, and save energy in other ways. Then, spend half the money saved on a fund for those who need utility bill assistance. (The other half can go toward a family event.)
Alternative gifts. Encourage children to be generous with their time and talents by making their own birthday and holiday gifts.
Exposure to hurting people. Prepare, serve and eat meals at a local agency, visit shut-ins, travel and work in countries with poor people.
Discussing our will. Explain to children that groups working with hurting children will receive the same bequest as each of them.
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To assist you in exploring these issues in more depth, weve attached reprints of two articlesChildren, Money and Values: Ten Principles by Susan Vogt, and Helping Children with Allowances and Savings, from Parenting for Peace and Justice Newsletter.
This session focuses on the most important theological concepts in Christianity–the crucifixion and the resurrection, For almost 2,000 years people have struggled to understand their significance. The most common interpretation of the crucifixion and resurrection is that Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity, so that individuals might experience the saving grace of God and his living presence in their midst. This is a very difficult concept for first and second graders, and it may not represent the views of their parents or their Unitarian Universalist congregation. The story in this session is condensed in narrative form without seeking to interpret the meaning of the events.
Though our children have heard the story of Jesus’ birth and some of his teachings, this may be the first time the death of Jesus and the miracle of his victory over death have been addressed with them directly. It is a rich and meaningful story on many levels, and children will need time to talk about it and ask their own questions.
Although death has been addressed before in this program (All Souls’ Day), the focus on death is more intense in this session. It is Jesus who is being put to death, and the children may recognize that this is a very important story about an important person.
As children listen to today’s story, it is possible that some personal sorrow may be evoked, such as the death of a significant person in a child’s life. Reassure children that sad feelings are an important part of our lives–that no one goes through life without some sorrow. Reassure them also that there are adults who care about them and who can help them through the painful times. If any child seems to need special attention, be sure to alert a parent, your minister, or your religious educator, so that additional help may be offered if necessary.
Many Unitarian Universalists depart from Christian tradition in their beliefs about the events that make up the Easter story, such as the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The word "resurrection" means coming back to life after death. Most Christians believe that Jesus was resurrected and that he came back to life after he died. Most Unitarian Universalists believe that Jesus died and his body did not come back to life. Even so, all of us can find deep meaning in the idea that those we love live on in our memories and that renewal or rebirth is available to us during our lifetime.
The date for the annual celebration of Easter is tied to both the historical event of the stories of Jesus’ death and resurrection, according to Christian theology, and to factors associated with the spring equinox and spring festivals. In Western Christianity, Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In Eastern Christianity, Easter is on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox or after the end of Passover, whichever is later.
The biblical references for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are: Matthew 27-28, Mark 15-16, Luke 23-24, John 18-20, and I Corinthians 15.
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Quest for Meaning is a program of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF).
As a Unitarian Universalist congregation with no geographical boundary, the CLF creates global spiritual community, rooted in profound love, which cultivates wonder, imagination, and the courage to act.