In this issue…
//Beginning the Beatitudes
//Reader’s Theater: When Disciples Became Apostles
Dear fellow story-dwellers,
We may be deep in winter, but how wonderful to know that the days are lengthening. The “lengthening of days” is an ancient way of referring to spring. The Old Saxon word for it is lentin.
Many Christians around the globe began a season of focused lentin anticipation earlier this week. Because, yes, New Creation is just around the corner. In fact, the renewal has already begun. But until we see it in its fullness, we follow Jesus’ footsteps in waiting in the Wilderness, his Spirit our tabernacle oasis of God’s presence.
Read more about the history and significance of the lentin season here:
For my family, this year’s lengthening of days is a season of simplifying: what do we really need? What is at the core of our faith?
How are you anticipating New Creation this season?
In other news…
OneStory is Presenting at the Children’s Spirituality Summit!
A huge thank you to everyone who donated so that we could say “yes” to this very cool opportunity. Nicole and I will be presenting at the Children’s Spirituality Summit taking place near Chicago this May. Our topic is The Bible as Adventure: Cultivating an imaginative approach to the real story of the Bible.
We look forward to sharing this experience with you!
Progress and Patience for our New Website
If you’ve been to onestory.bible recently, you’ve noticed that we’ve taken all of our curriculum links down. Because the platform they were on is being sunsetted, it’s been difficult for new families to access them.
We are making good progress on converting them to downloadable PDFs, but it is a painstaking process. The extra time devoted to preparing these PDFs means that we’ll only be able to send newsletters once or twice a month for a while. Thank you for your patience!
A Blessing
May this year’s lengthening of days shed greater and greater light on the beauty of how God is renewing creation.
In grace and peace,
Amber
Beginning the Beatitudes
For our Bible time this year, my family is engaging with BibleProject’s year-long series on the Sermon on the Mount. We are currently studying Matthew 5:1-16, better known as the Beatitudes.
This video is too beautiful to only watch once, so my family has already watched it several times. However, we retain only a small fraction of what we see and hear, even after watching it several times.
We’ve found that a quiz game is a fun first step to helping us think about these videos at a deeper level. Watch the video and then try these questions out for yourself:
You can access our game by creating a free account on Blooket. Here’s the game link:
Reader’s Theater: When Disciples Became Apostles
We’ve been exploring the stories on either side of the Sermon on the Mount through reader’s theater Bible studies. Part of the beauty of reenacting these stories is how it helps us to continue to live into this grand narrative in our own contexts.
Jesus’ students were ordinary people. Other rabbis could boast about only accepting the best students, but Jesus hand-picked teens and young adults who had no hope of following a rabbi. Following. That’s what students of rabbis did. They followed their rabbi everywhere. Their goal was to become like their rabbi—to think and act like their teacher.
In the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus gave his students a master course in how to think like he did. After the Sermon, he showed them what it looked like to live these thoughts out. It included things they thought were impossible: healings, calming the chaos of the sea, delivering people from evil spirits.
Until OneStory’s new website is up and running, you can access all of our reader’s theater Bible studies for the stories in the Gospel of Matthew here:
But the really crazy story comes next: Jesus sends them out to do these things, too. While these things were cool on their own, they were a sign of something even cooler: the nearness of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It marks a change in the story. The word “sent” is where we get the “apostle” from. Apostle means “sent one.” Jesus didn’t just teach students for the fun of it. He taught and he showed, in order to send. And he sent in order to make them partners in cultivating God’s Kingdom…on earth as it is in heaven.
Here’s a section from this story:
Narrator 2: Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, saying,
Jesus: Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach, saying,
Disciple: The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
Jesus: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give. Don’t take any gold, silver, or brass in your money belts. Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor sandals, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.
There’s more story where that came from! Until our new website is ready, you can download the full story here.