Behold the board at the end of the 10/26 class. As usual, much of it was erased and then refilled. This photo corresponds to the lesson plan as it runs from settling down in Canaan through the anointing of David. I’m not going to discuss everything we covered, just what is on the board.

1. The Ark of the Covenant.  Some review of last week’s class. The Glory Cloud/ Shekhinah is introduced, which settles on/ overshadows/ dwells in the Ark and Meeting Tent. At the far left a sketch of Moses atop Sinai  under the Glory Cloud/ Shekhinah has been erased. Tent drawing to left illustrates how the Glory Cloud overshadowed the Tent during the 40 years in the desert, and moved away when it was time to pull up stakes. Overshadowing implies protection. (future connections to Elijah & Elisha, the Holy Spirit & Mary.)

2. Review of atonement, forgiveness, and  Levitical sacrifice is followed by the question, “Could good Israelites who had their sins forgiven & atoned for by the sacrificial system go to Heaven?” If not, then where did they go? (future connection: Jesus descended into “Hell.”)

3. The ritual mixing of cleansing water and atoning blood is introduced (Lev 14): “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest; 3 and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall make an examination. Then, if the leprous disease is healed in the leper, 4 the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet stuff and hyssop; 5 and the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 He shall take the living bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet stuff and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water; 7 and he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is to be cleansed of leprosy…” (future connections to the Crucifixion and Baptism)

4. The Israelites settle down in Canaan. God dwells in the Meeting Tent at Shiloh. I add Eli sitting on his stool to the left while his corrupt sons profane the Dwelling.

5. Review of Samson introduces the word Nazirite, someone who is dedicated and separated to fully serve God. (future connection to John the Baptist, priests and nuns) Samuel’s story follows Samson’s, including Samuel being called by God 3 times and responding in the affirmative 3 times, which makes an oral contract. (future connections to Elijah & Elisha, Jesus & Peter)

6. Connecting the past to the present. A reminder that the Israelites still fight with their neighbors over the Promised Land.

7. Israel’s enemies worshiped an assortment of baby-eating false gods, yet they were also afraid of the God of Israel: “Israel went out to battle against the Philistines….Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who slew about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies….the Philistines were afraid; for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.” (1Sam 4)

Sinful Israel is defeated, Eli & sons die. The Ark is captured, but due to plagues including my favorite plague, hemorrhoids, the Ark is returned to Israel. But the LORD never dwells again in Shiloh, which remains desolate. (future connections to Jeremiah, the Temple, and Jesus)

8. Confronted with the prospect of being misgoverned by Samuel’s no-good sons, Israel insists on a king after Samuel. Samuel picks Saul, who as we see from the picture is tall and handsome.

9. Saul has his problems; God sends Samuel out to secretly anoint a new king: David. We act out the anointing process. The kids learn the common meaning of Messiah, Christos, and Anointed One. Some etymologically related words are discussed, especially chrism and msha, the Egyptian word for crocodile, whose oil was used to anoint Pharaoh. (lots of connections to all this)

10. The Gingerbread Man represents the unity of Body and Soul. This had to do with the hypocritical behavior of Eli & Sons. I usually draw him when the issue of Faith and Works comes up. The arrow from the body back to the soul indicates that one’s works reflect one’s inward disposition; so if your works oppose your faith, then you probably don’t really believe. (connects to constant theme of Faith & Works)

Catechists, never forget the words of St. Francis of Assisi, Petter of Squirrels: “Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, draw pictures.”

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A useful tactic to get kids to think in the classroom is to do what I call going negative.  I learned this way of thinking about a problem when I was a teenager, especially when trying to figure out faith.  Going negative isn’t new: Sherlock Holmes fans may remember how he took the same approach in asking why the dog didn’t bark. So instead of asking why Jesus did x, or why the Church teaches y, I was constantly wondering, “why didn’t Jesus do a” or “why doesn’t the Church say b.” Pondering (sometimes for years) the a,b & c that weren’t said or done often shed light on the superiority (not just the option) of x, y & z.

I churned for decades over the fundamental problem of why God required the whole Jesus project instead of simply declaring us forgiven.  God is omnipotent, after all. I suppose this is no problem for billions of Christians, but I had to grind through dozens of negative propositions to arrive at an understanding of Salvation History that meant something to me. I knew all my life that “Jesus had to die for our sins,”  but that was just a fact, like heliocentricity.  I was in my late 20s before I finally understood Jesus’ sacrifice in a way that mattered.  Oddly enough, years of “but why not…but why not…but why not…” eventually illuminated a childhood experience with a broken window which was full of “but why nots.”  Once I sorted out the broken window, faith fell into place.  I don’t think I’d've ever acquired a motivating faith without having reflected on the “why nots.”

In Catechism class the kids will sometimes make no real progress in answering a positive question, such as “why did Moses hit the rock with his staff?”  They will readily say, “God told him to;” but reader, that ain’t progress- that’s parroting. If I say, “Yes, but why did God tell him to?” I typically get, “because the people were thirsty” which is just another bit of fluff. My temptation is to give them an answer, but they can often make progress through negative questions, such as:

Why wasn’t it enough for Moses to just pray for water?
Why didn’t God make water flow from the rock without the stick business?
Why didn’t God just make the people’s thirst go away?
Why didn’t God put a lake ahead of them that they’d run into?
Why couldn’t Moses go by himself to hit the rock?

Once a couple of kids give thoughtful answers to negative questions they never heard before, we can move forward again. Within the first month of class, the kids get used to going negative when their thinking stalls. They learn to perk up each time the negative questions start, and are stimulated by the oblique thinking that negative questions engender.

Typical negative questions I might ask:

Why didn’t Jesus heal the paralyzed man as soon as he was plopped down in front of him?
Why didn’t the paralyzed man’s friends stay home and pray for his healing?
Why didn’t the Prodigal Son’s father interrupt his confession?
Why wouldn’t the Pharisees accept that Jesus had healed the blind man?
Why didn’t John the Baptist get married?
Why wouldn’t Elisha come out and speak directly to Naaman?
Why didn’t the little boy bring his bread and fish directly to Jesus?
Why didn’t Jesus and the apostles eat any lamb at the Last Supper?
Why weren’t Jesus’ wounds healed up after his Resurrection?
Why didn’t the stewards tell Jesus they had run out of wine?
Why didn’t God take more than one rib from Adam?
Why didn’t God take a toe instead of a rib?
At Mass why don’t the people put the bread and wine on the altar?

I’d give you the answers- but you’ll learn better if you work them out on your own.

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I draw all the time in class.  This is a relatively tidy board, so it makes a good example of how the drawing flows along with the lesson plan.  Last night class started with some closing discussion of the Golden Calf, and finished with Samson collapsing the roof.

Here’s the board at the end of the 10/19 class; some stuff has been erased to make room for new stuff.  It’s not a very big board, so sometimes a entire board’s content has to be erased to make space for another round of picture-drawing.  I’m going to comment mostly about what’s in this picture, not the stuff that was erased.

1. The Golden Calf prodded final discussion of idol-worship, with blue squiggles showing the drunken Israelites misbehaving.  The kids knew that nobody nowadays would worship a calf statue, and suggested other types of idols that people put ahead of God.  Money was first, which led to other possessions, and ultimately to the idea of self-worship.  This led to discussing how babies only think of themselves, and that life is a process of becoming more other-oriented and less self-oriented.  During that conversation I drew a squalling baby (erased) to the upper left of the Calf, and the man on the upper right.  That was to illustrate the growth of each person from baby to adult.  I explained to the class that when I was 30 and single, I had made idols out of cars; being so self-oriented I was essentially a 30-year-old baby.

2. At this point we were discussing this handout from left to right:

Once we got into the Holy of Holies, I drew the Ark of the Covenant while reading parts of Exodus 25:

“They shall make an ark of acacia wood; two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. 11 And you shall overlay it with pure gold… 12 And you shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark by them. (I don’t tell the kids what the poles are for. I make them tell me)…16 And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you. (The kids help decide what goes into the Ark, and as each item is named, I draw it in.) 17 Then you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. 18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19 Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.”

The squiggly red line indicates that God’s presence descends from Heaven to hover over the mercy seat.  To give a rough sense of scale I draw a high priest in a special outfit.

1a. Now we discussed different types of Levitical sacrifice.  To introduce the topic, I read and acted out Moses’ (pre-Levitical) sacrifice in Exodus 24:

“[Moses] rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 7 Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8* And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”  We re-imagined the Golden Calf sketch as Moses’ sacrifice as I added in the blood and the basin.

3. Here we were discussing the story of Manoah and his wife, from Judges 13.  This picture illustrates the moment that the sacrifice and the angel ascend to heaven, which will figure prominently in our Eucharistic Prayer class in the Spring:

“So Manoah took the kid with the cereal offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD, to him who works wonders. 20 And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.”

Through discussion, the kids figure out that Manoah isn’t making an atonement sacrifice for sins, but a thanksgiving sacrifice for his wife’s pregnancy.  Next week we’ll review this a bit, connect it to thanksgiving sacrifices by Abel, Melchizedek, and Moses, and introduce the Greek word Eucharisteo.

4. God had told Manoah’s wife, “Behold, you are barren and have no children; but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore beware, and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for lo, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from birth.”  The kids figured out what “no razor shall come upon his head” implies, and then named the long-haired man that was Manoah’s son: Samson.  The kids can tell the Samson story, so I don’t need to draw.  But I do list the the things that make Samson dedicated and separated.  Next week I’ll explain what a Nazirite is, and connect that term to the concept of dedication & separation, which will repeatedly come up during the rest of the year.

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