The Unforgiving Servant

I was afraid the meaning of the parable got a bit lost in the shuffle last week. So this week we helped drive it home a little by “bookending” it with Jesus’ conversation with Peter. Peter, who knows that love is an important commandment, and has probably heard some people think three times is already going the second (third!) mile of forgiveness, asks Jesus if they should forgive others as many as seven times. Jesus answers, not just 7 but 70x7. We had someone do the math for that on the blackboard. Then Jesus and Peter sat down while we reported the parable he told to illustrate what he’d just told Peter.

Our king, in his crown, sat on his throne reading his accounts ledger and noticed that this one servant owed him an enormous amount of money. He writes $10,000,000 on the blackboard. He calls the servant before him and tells him it’s high time he pays back the money. He says he can’t yet. The king tells him to go get his wife & children & come back, so the servant has to go choose someone to be his wife and children. They come before the king & he says, since you can’t pay, I am going to sell all of you as slaves so at least I’ll get a little money out of you. The servant kneels and begs the king to give him time and he will pay it all back. The king knows this is impossible, but he takes pity on the man and decides to forgive his whole debt. The family goes home very happy.

And yet the very next day, this fellow meets another servant who owes him $100 (writes that on the board). He demands repayment, and the fellow servant says he hasn’t got the money. Servant #1 says, pay it or I’ll have you thrown into prison. Servant #2 kneels and begs for more time. Servant #1 says, forget it! And two “soldiers” armed with swords come to drag him (her) off. At this point servant #2 bursts into tears at being so roughly handled. I was a bit callous, perhaps; this girl has been very volatile lately and it’s hard to take her tears real seriously. So I went right on with the story, saying, obviously, servant #2 is very unhappy about this, so some other servants go and tell the kind what happened. Immediately the older sister of the crying girl appoints herself one of them; she marches up to the king and starts shaking her fist at him and yelling at him in her non-verbal but vociferous style. (Hey, this isn’t the king’s fault! He’s on your side! smile) The king calls servant #1 back before him and says, I had mercy on you, shouldn’t you have had mercy on others? For that, you are going to jail for the rest of your life! And the soldiers haul him off.

Jesus and Peter stand up again & Jesus says to Peter, this is why we must keep forgiving others; otherwise your sins will not be forgiven either.

For our game, we offered a shining example of forgiveness: a bop-bag, whatever you call those things, the ones that keep “forgiving you” (popping right back up for more) no matter how many times you punch them in the nose. Each child got to punch it while counting out seven times. Our crying servant was still a bit sulky and not wanting to do it; her sister worked very hard to persuade her. Finally she was willing to try it when someone turned it around so she wasn’t hitting something that had a face on it. She can be sweet!

For craft time, we talked about how a life with a heart full of forgiveness is very beautiful, like a flower is beautiful. But—and we showed a sample picture—a flower with only one petal isn’t very pretty, is it? Even forgiving seven times—a flower with only seven petals isn’t that pretty either. So we encouraged them to stick on as many petals as they could.

I got to lead the Bible study time this week. We started by discussing the parable and at first no one was managing to apply it to anything but money & they were all saying, eventually you just give it up and it’s not that a big deal. How about other things that are not money? They couldn’t think of anything bad enough to be hard to forgive. What? Am I the only one who ever struggles with this? Too hard to believe! So I brought up the example of a husband walking out and taking up with another woman. Whoa, now that got the discussion going! Hard to harness it and get back to the Bible and the application! Which was NOT “so go out and forgive whoever you’re mad at” which is how I’ve always tended to read this. But it had struck me while I was preparing, that (duh), the real point of Jesus parable was to compare the huge debt we owe the “king” to the relatively limited ways others sin against us. Application being, when it’s hard to forgive, remember how much you need God’s forgiveness. We closed with I John 1:8-10.

Back in the Saddle

It’s wonderful to be back at Merciful Love after our six-month home assignment. Attendance and enthusiasm are high! Now if I can just scrape off a little rust here.

When we were gone three years ago, Kevin led a series on the parables of Jesus. Unfortunately, the notes he left behind weren’t easily reproducible, so Grace hasn’t been doing any parables beyond a first one, on the Sower, during the two months since finishing the Acts curriculum I left behind. She’s been so busy doing some fantastic pastoral work with individuals, that on Sundays she has used whatever materials she could find with help from others. I am thankful that she is okay with my taking over the Sunday planning again as I would really like to get the whole package updated and user-ready for—(? don’t ask!). Which means I will eventually have to go back and write some filler stuff, but for right now I’m just managing week by week. With the Lord’s help!!

Anyway, enough of this. Our first Sunday back was just a welcome party, but this past Sunday we plunged into the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). We introduced a couple of new characters at the beginning of the parable; besides the owner, we assigned two adult “foremen” who would be in charge of keeping the hired laborers on task. Task being, pick grapes one by one off of some bunches at one end of a long table, wash each grape in a basin in the middle of the table, and then put it in the proper red- or green-grape box at the other end. We made a paper clock that one of the girls happily set to the different times—6:00, 9:00, 12:00. 3:00 and 5:00—when the owner went out among the group to choose one or two more kids as laborers, agreeing with them for one silver coin each (show coin, get a handshake). Then a bell rang at 6:00 and everyone had to line up from the most recent hire to the all-day ones. Each got their silver coin & then the first two hired were encouraged to whine about not getting more. (Encouraging whining! Oh dear!) :-) Finally wound up with a short dialogue emphasizing that this was in fact not unfair.

I’m not sure anyone understood the meaning of the parable, especially since the Bible study time was a “special” one where the parents watched a testimony video & discussed it while the kids were doing their game and craft. This is a new thing we’re trying once a month when a team of three usually comes from Hong Kong to help out. Only one came this week though!

Anyway. Our game consisted in each child drawing a card assigning them a different simple task, but each one getting the same reward. Then for craft time we made clocks “like the one used in the story.” Well, sort of!

Fifth Anniversary

I haven’t posted for months because we’ve been in the US for months. Still in the US, but we enjoyed a video Skype call with Merciful Love last Sunday for their 5^th anniversary. So good to see all their faces! Things have been going well. Grace Tung has added some “Praise Aerobics” to the roster of activities. She’s also begun a weekly Bible study with two moms (one a believer, one not yet) on Thursday mornings. The second mom also brings her 30-something daughter who is not actually mentally handicapped, but has some issues that make her fit in well. The daughter has professed faith in Christ and from what we hear she has shown great improvements in her ability to interact with others. We heard that her brother—whom we’ve never met—attended the 5^th anniversary Sunday! I can only imagine that is because he has been impressed by the changes in Kam Ip’s life. That is so exciting! I can hardly wait to get back (two more months yet)!

Grace sent some pictures from the Bible story, though she apologized for forgetting to take a group photo. She suggests waiting to take the official 5^th-year photo until we return—what a nice idea!

Easter Sunday 2011

In tidying up the storeroom in anticipation of our home assignment, I was glad to come across this "resurrection dial" I'd made our first year. It was nice not to have to make it over again. Here are the cover and underside of the dial:
But we started our story with the picture of the crucified Christ still hanging on the wall. Then we had "Joseph of Arimathea" go and ask Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that he could bury it in his own grave. It struck me as I was writing this story—I wonder if crucified criminals of that time were generally just dumped in common graves, not given any kind of proper burial? So it was rather important that Joseph did this; otherwise where would be an empty tomb? Anyway, Joseph took the crucifixion picture off the wall and put up the "resurrection dial" on our blackboard/easel with it set on day one, and the door open so all could see the wrapped body inside (which is a bit blurry in the diagram). Then he got a friend to help him push the "heavy stone" over the opening. Then some soldiers came with Pilate's permission and put a seal (sticker) across the edge of the door.

That was the first day. The second day was the Sabbath: we had someone come up and turn the handle so the number 2 was showing on the dial. What do you do on the Sabbath? Nothing, you rest. So nothing happened that day.

Then it was day three, and we had someone move the dial to number 3. That day, several women got up very early to go and see the grave. But on the way there, suddenly there was a great earthquake—I shook the easel while standing in front of it, and pulled the door open on the dial. So the women get there, and they can look inside, and they see that Jesus' body is not there! But then an angel in a halo appears and says, "Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive? Jesus is risen!" The women are excited and run back to where the other disciples are. They tell them that Jesus has risen. Mostly they are not believed, but Peter and John go look for themselves. The women come with them. They look in, and John is convinced and shouts, "Jesus is risen!" But Peter says, "I'm not so sure." They and two of the women go back and sit down, but one woman stays behind, crying.

Suddenly there is a man behind her, wearing a jacket that covers his head so she can't see his face. He asks her what is the matter. She says she doesn't know what has happened to the body of Jesus. He says, "my dear daughter," (I decided not to use the name as we've had too many Mary's to keep track of already), and takes off his hood. Mary sees it is Jesus and she is overjoyed. She hugs him and then runs back to tell the disciples she has seen him herself. Once again, they don't believe her. But "that evening" (about five seconds later), Jesus himself enters the room and they see that he is indeed alive. Everyone greets him with delight, hugging and high-fiving.

We talked about how the woman did not recognize Jesus when His face was hidden by His cloak. How about us? Would we recognize our moms if their faces (and bodies) were hidden behind a sheet? We had all the moms line up behind a sheet help up by two volunteers, shifting positions between each child's turn. The child would feel through the sheet and try to guess which one was their mom. Most got it right, but not all! I love it that Mrs. Chu crouched down so she seemed to be the shortest (instead of one of the tallest), and her intelligent daughter was fooled!

Easter and butterflies always go together, so we made these butterflies with their clothespin feet.

Pilate’s Dilemma

I'm back in the US now, finally with a little breathing room to get caught up on some of the "backblog". On April 17^th, we did the story of Jesus' sentencing by Pilate. We introduced Jesus and talked about how everyone liked him but the religious leaders. Introduced the priests, who talked about how they hated being told that they were sinners when they didn't think they were, and how if everyone followed Jesus they would quit paying the priests to intercede for them with God, and they would lose out. So they were looking for a way to arrest him. Along comes Judas, one of Jesus' disciples who accepts a bagful of money to lead them to Jesus.

Jesus prays in Gethsemane while Judas and the priests plot His downfall in the background.

Judas and a couple of armed soldiers come up to Jesus. Judas kisses Him (that was the stage direction, anyway. We got just cheek-to-cheek) & the soldiers drag Him away. Judas then has a change of heart and wants to repent & give the money back, but it's too late. He throws the bag down and disappears into a side room & the people are told he kills himself.

We skipped all the back and forth between Pilate and Herod as being too complicated, and not adding anything to the point of the story. They went straight to Pilate and stayed there. This was a series on New Testament women, though, so we did introduce Pilate's wife, who sent for Pilate right in the middle of the trial & told him not to harm Jesus, because she'd had a dream about Him & He was innocent. So Pilate doesn't know what to do. He doesn't think Jesus is guilty either, but the crowd is getting ugly. Aha! There's that custom of releasing a prisoner at Passover. He picked the nastiest guy in the prison to have the crowd choose between him & Jesus, figuring they would surely release Jesus.

Actually, our Jesus (in the "trademark" white vest) looks meaner than our backwards-capped Barabbas…

But they don't choose the way Pilate hopes. He's still too afraid to go against the crowd, so he tries to at least shift all the blame onto them by having a basin of water brought, and washing his hands before everyone. Then the soldiers haul Jesus away, and we just put up a flannelgraph picture of Jesus on the cross to show that He was indeed crucified.

For our game, we talked about how Pilate's wife remembered who she had seen in her dream, even though we don't always remember our dream. The game then was to look briefly at a picture of a person ( Xeroxed from the flannelgraph set), and then see if they could find that figure among the many blu-tacked along the walls. For some of the kids, we let them take the picture along to match; we made the smarter kids work their memories a little harder.

For craft time we made these pretty crosses out of ribbon and dismantled clothespins.

April 10th

Yes, I know, I am way behind here. Actually the topic of April 10th is the main reason for this!

Our regular once-a-month volunteers from Hong Kong kindly watched the kids while all of the adults went out to a nearby park for uninterrupted conversation. The plan was to go to a little café in the park, but there were no seats available, so we just found a little nook where there was enough room for all of us.

Topic under discussion: the fact that Bruce and I leave for a six month home assignment on May 2^nd. (Which is why I'm so behind. Getting ready for home assignment presentations plus writing/translating/gathering materials for at least the first couple of months has been extremely intense--and it's not over yet!)

We do have a pastoral worker coming from Hong Kong, and she already has her Macau work visa (That was fast! That was God!), but is still raising support and will not arrive before we leave. We expected some anxious comments about how this was going to work, but everyone seemed really laid back about the whole thing. I think maybe nobody realizes how MUCH work I put into the preparations each week—ha! Still, we were just as happy to have them expecting things to go on as usual, than for them to assume things were going to fall apart.

I sure love these people!!!

The volunteers taught the kids some origami while we were out…

A Beautiful Gift for Jesus

First, for a brief review, we saw how last week Jesus (sitting on nice chair) was asked by the mother of James and John to give them seats at His right and left hand in His coming kingdom (one child sits on either side of Jesus). We reminded everyone that they didn't understand what Jesus was trying to tell them about His coming death. But that today's story highlights someone who did understand.

Jesus and several of His disciples are once again seated at a table for dinner. This time, a servant did wash their feet for them. Mrs. Chu took an (empty) basin and (dry) towel and started wiping everyone's feet. At least two of the kids thought that meant they had to take their shoes off. So to our servant added the additional task of tying shoelaces.

But the woman highlighted in the story wanted to do something special for Jesus too. So she "ran home" and came back with a pretty jar, empty but purportedly filled with an expensive perfume. When she "poured it out" over Jesus' head, we gave a good spray of air freshener into the room, to emphasize that the scent of the perfume filled the house. It worked—some latecomers arrived just then and mom's first comment was, what's that fragrance?

We had our Jesus really enjoying the anointing experience—smoothing his hair & smiling. But then one of the disciples complains that the woman was wasteful; that if she didn't want the perfume she could have sold it and given the money to the poor. The woman looked embarrassed. But Jesus said, "Don't criticize her! I appreciate what she has done for me. You can give all the gifts you want to the poor after I am gone, but I will not always be here to give gifts to. And this gift is extra special. When other people are anointed with this beautiful perfume, they are already dead and being prepared for their burial, so they don't even know what is happening. This dear woman has anointed me for my burial early enough so that I can appreciate it! Thank you so much, daughter. It means a lot to me." He gave her a little kiss and that was the end of our brief story.

As soon as the people in our story smelled the perfume, they knew what it was. Are we also able to recognize smells right away? That was the question to be answered during our game! We had prepared 11 baby-food-sized jars with a range of "fragrances," (chocolate, peanut butter, alcohol, garlic, lemon juice, peppermint, catsup, coconut, vinegar, soy sauce, & plain water), and due to a Chinese holiday we had only a total of 11 adults and children besides myself. So each one got to draw the name of one of the fragrances and then come & smell different jars until they found it. Decided to make it a little easier by only giving each person three jars at a time from which to choose theirs. Fun.

For craft time each one received a glass bottle with different designs drawn on them in permanent marker—flowers, butterflies, hearts, whatever. They painted them as desired with tempera paints. Pictures when I go back and take them…