The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Our final parable for this unit was the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. As is true for many of the parables, it is very short in the original, so we had to do some embroidery to make it more visual.

We began by introducing our Pharisee. Before we began, our storyteller of the morning asked, shouldn’t he have phylacteries or something? Great idea! We even happened to have one lying around from a long-ago craft time, so used that. Now this Pharisee was very zealous for God’s law. He would never take a bribe: someone comes up & waves a $100 bill at him (yes, we have them aplenty here; they’re worth around $12 US) and asks if he could help his business go smoothly. He gestures, No, No! Our Pharisee pursued justice. We had two sisters start arguing (they are good at this!), and he said to each in turn: you have some fault, and you have some fault. And had them shake hands. Next: he would never commit adultery. He chose a “wife” and then the two walked arm in arm, while another girl started blowing kisses at him. The script said he was supposed to cover his eyes, but instead he started blowing kisses back! Oops! We finally did get him to cover his eyes, but I don’t think he had any idea why. Our model Pharisee also fasts regularly: someone began passing cookies out to the other kids but when they were offered to him, he had to do the “No, No” again. I was proud of him for managing to do that! He does like his cookies! Finally, he tithes everything he gets. Someone gave him a bouquet of 10 plastic flowers. He cut one off and stuck it in a vase in front of the offering box.

Next we introduced our tax collector. This fellow, we said, had a hard time finding a really good job. (I stole this from the parable of the unjust steward). He had tried doing road construction—beating at the floor with a cardboard pickaxe—but he wasn’t strong enough (dumps the pick, wipes his brow). And he hated begging (going around the room with a tin cup labeled “alms”; no one gave him anything). Finally, he got a job with the hated Roman government as a tax collector. The salary wasn’t great, but he could easily supplement it by padding the tax bills. Which he didn’t feel real good about, but a guy’s got to live, right? (Changes label on cup to “income tax” and now everyone has to put in some coins.)

So now today is the Sabbath, when everyone goes to the temple. The leader asks if anyone would like to pray. Our Pharisee stands up and thanks God for keeping him holy, not like SOME people (points at tax collector). Our tax collector prays, too, but he doesn’t stand up or speak loudly. Simply hits his chest a couple of times and says, forgive me.

We ask everyone, which one of these prayers was more pleasing to God? Indeed, Jesus closed this parable by saying that he who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. We also held up I Peter 5:5, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Our game went really long, but I hope it was worthwhile. First, each person, like the Pharisee, had to say something they were really good at. Then we went around again but this time they had to say something they wanted to change in the coming year. Some kids needed a lot of coaching, but eventually everyone participated to some degree.

Craft was those long fringes that Pharisees like to have on their garments to show how pious they are. The only picture I took the whole morning was of the scarf with all the tassels attached. I’ll add that later when I get it uploaded…

The Good Samaritan

How can you not have fun doing this one? Because I wanted to emphasize the question that prompted this parable, we started by introducing Jesus and a lawyer. There were enough individual characters in this story that they all “needed” a prop to help keep them straight. Jesus wore the white vest we use for Him in all the stories. The lawyer, since he was so smart, got a graduation cap. He already knew the two most important commandments, which we held up for review, but he also knew they were hard to keep perfectly, so he was hoping to make it easier. So he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus replied with this parable.

There was a man (wearing a jacket) who needed to walk to the city of Jericho. On the way, suddenly some thieves attacked him! They stripped off his jacket, and beat him half to death—with balloons to help prevent things getting too real, ha! Then he was supposed to lie there on the floor, but it was easier to just let him sprawl in a chair. Soon along came a priest (in a red cloak) who looked at the injured man and walked widely around him. Next came a Levite, or “priest’s assistant,” in a necktie, who did the same thing. But then there came along a Samaritan—one of those punk guys a good Jew wouldn’t even talk to, wearing a sideways baseball cap and bouncing along on a stick donkey. He (she) took pity on the injured man and stopped. She took some bottles out of her carry-bag and poured some of their contents (air rather than wine & oil) on his arm & head & then attempted to bandage him up. She managed the arm but decided the head was going to have to be left as is. Then she helped him get on the donkey and led him off to one of the side rooms where they “spent the night.” Then in the morning, the injured man stayed inside (I think he would have stayed in there the rest of the morning if we hadn’t remembered to get him out when we started the game!) while the Samaritan came out. She gave a couple of coins to the innkeeper (in a bibbed apron) and told him to take care of him with that money, and she would bring more later if necessary.

When Kevin led this parable three years ago, he sent some photos of kids “bandaged up” in toilet paper. Looked like fun, but I thought it would be even more fun if for our game time the kids had to bandage up their parents! So that is what we did.

Then for a craft, we had collected ten different items that might be good to have in a first-aid kit. Each kid got ten small squares of paper with the name of one item per square; their assignment was to draw the items and put them all into a box in the middle of the table marked “first-aid kit.”

I was glad to have been assigned to lead the Bible study this time, as I wanted the chance to bring out something I had learned from this parable a few years ago. I think it’s important to notice that the parable was meant to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” and not “How much must I do for needy people in order to fulfill God’s commands?” And did you ever notice that Jesus doesn’t make a point of criticizing the priest or the Levite? And here’s a question to ask yourself—could it be that neither the priest nor the Levite had any first-aid items with them? And as far as I can tell from the story, they were walking, not mounted. And another question—did you notice what the Samaritan did not do for the injured man? He did a lot, to be sure, but he apparently needed to get going the next day so he had to leave him in the hands of the innkeeper rather than stay and nurse him back to health. He didn’t have to do absolutely everything to be Jesus’ model neighbor. The real point of the story is that this man did not stop to worry about who it was who needed the help he was fully able to provide. I think we’re not expected to do everything for everyone. (Did you notice that this parable is directly followed by the story of Mary and Martha?) However, we are expected to do what we can for anyone.

Parable of the ten pounds

Our volunteers from Hong Kong got to lead this week, and they did a super job. For our story, did you ever notice that although the story talks about the master giving a “pound” (or, as we chose to say, one piece of silver) to ten of his servants, we only see what happened with three of them? So we said he gave the money to “some” of his servants, and made that number be three. Then they were to go multiply their money. Somehow a parent ended up being the first servant. She “decided” to make her money by buying some little stampers at 2 for a silver piece & then selling them for 2 silver pieces each. So on the first round she ended up with 4 silver pieces. She wisely decided to hang onto two of them—if she lost the rest, she still would have doubled her money—and just buy four more. Then she starts out yelling, who wants to buy my stampers? I cried, I do! So she comes over and says, the price has gone up, they’re up to 3 silver coins each! Ha! That wasn’t in the script, but I loved how she was getting into her role! Anyway, I said forget it & she had to sell them at 2 coins each so ended up with a total of, surprise surprise, 10 silver coins.

What about the next servant? He figured the market for stampers was getting saturated, so he spent his silver coin to buy a shoeshine kit (a shoeshine brush). Then he shined shoes for a silver coin per pair. So five different folks had to put their feet up for him to brush, & then pay him one coin each time. He was really enjoying himself, collecting all these coins for such easy work!

The third servant was so afraid to do anything with the money that her sister had to come help. Together they “decided” to take the coin and put it in a little bag that one sister could wear around her neck so no one could steal it.

Now the master comes back, and of course he praises the two industrious servants and scolds the third.

Since today the adults were not having a regular Bible study but were having a thanksgiving-for-the-past-year sharing time, I didn’t want the parable to end here with the impression that the kingdom of God was about making money! So our narrator held up the big ear again and said, let him who has ears to hear, hear! Just like these servants were given a silver coin each, we have all been given the gift of the gospel. (One of the servants then distributed to everyone a picture of a gift box with a tag reading “gospel”). Our Lord and master does not want us to keep it to ourselves either, but to multiply it by sharing it with others so that they too can be blessed.

For our game, just as one silver coin became many in the hands of the faithful servants, the job for each of the two teams was to take one large sheet of paper and tear it up so that it became many pieces. Everyone understood this one and participated willingly! The girls beat the boys, 180 pieces to 108, or thereabout.

We followed this same theme for the craft. A fan when closed looks like just one rectangular piece, but then you open it out and see it “become” five blades that together can make you feel comfortable on a hot day.

I had so much fun just watching everything that was going on, I forgot to take pictures of any of the action. But here at least are what the fans looked like:

The Friend at Midnight

This was a shorter and simpler story than some. We have two foldaway cots in a storeroom at the dorm/church, so to start out we introduced this fellow and his wife, and his two (doll) children, who were ready for bed. They set up the cots, boy on one cot, girl on the other, children in between and all covered with a large blanket. Then we introduced his friend who would like to go to bed herself, but couldn’t because another friend (two friends; the one wouldn’t cooperate without her mom accompanying her) had just arrived after a long journey (two trips around the room). Were they hungry? Yes. So since she had nothing in the house to serve them, she went to her neighbors’ for help. Of course in the parable it’s the husband who does all the interaction with the persistent knocker, but our “husband” was enjoying the nap break too much, so our “wife” (the drama queen) did all the talking, and played it up quite well. But of course eventually got up and got some bread for the knocker.

What kind of game requires persistence? A tug of war! If you give up & stop pulling, your team loses!

For craft we made hourglasses out of cut-up & taped-together water bottles. I wouldn’t try and boil an egg by them, but they were fun to play with anyway!

Bible study was interesting. Trying to get them to imagine how they would react in the sleeping friend’s shoes was a little hard. “Wouldn’t happen. They could just go to 7-11.” Then when I asked if anyone knew why Jesus told this parable, the immediate response was: “To teach us that we should help friends in need even if it’s inconvenient.” So if we learned nothing else, we learned that Jesus was trying to teach us to be persistent in prayer. We used an object lesson as part of the Bible study. We re-wrote the parable, having one of the women come and knock on the door and ask for three loaves of bread. I said, okay, hang on…went and got a basket and put three small rolls in it. Looked at it and said, if her friends are hungry, this bread isn’t going to be enough. Let me at least put some butter in with it…and some jelly. Let’s see, what else? Here are some leftover chicken wings from last night…they should have some fruit…oh, and my wife bakes such delicious cookies, let me get some of those…okay! At this point we had the woman at the door say,” I give up, she’s not going to give me anything,” and leave. So then I go to the door with this basket of goodies and—hey where did she go? Point being, sometimes answers to prayer take time because God is planning something better than we imagine. Don’t give up or you might miss out!

Christmas 2011

A full house today! Including Mr. Poon from downstairs (see the October 2009 post "from Noah to Abraham") who came for the whole morning, a first! He was chosen by popular demand to be our Joseph. Okay, it’s very possible that Joseph was quite a bit older than Mary! (Maybe not THIS much older though!) So we introduced Joseph and his fiancée Mary. Then a friend comes to Joseph and whispers, “Hey, did you know that your fiancée is already pregnant?” Mr. Poon, who had never heard the whole Christmas story before, had a huge reaction. “What am I supposed to say to that??!” But then of course an angel comes to him and tells him not to be ashamed to marry Mary, because the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and would be the Savior of the world. So they have the wedding.

Then, when Mary is big with child (pillow under the dress), they have to go to Bethlehem to register for the census. They walk there but can’t get a room at the inn (folded table with “full” sign), so they have to go to the stable(folded table with picture of ox & ass in stall). The baby is born (out with the pillow, turn around with baby doll in arms), and to avoid putting the baby on the dirty floor, they put it to sleep in the manger. At this point Mary, a bit embarrassed by the proceedings, holds the doll by one leg and dumps him from about waist height into the grass-filled box on the floor. Poor baby Jesus! We all sing “Away in a Manger.”

Next there are some shepherds in towel headdresses keeping watch over their picture of a flock of sheep. Angels appear to them and tell them the good news of the birth of the Savior (here we were supposed to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, but the leader missed it). The shepherds decide they better go see for themselves. We sing “O Come All Ye Faithful.” They find the stable and kneel down to worship the baby (or at least the two shepherds that are capable of kneeling do so). We all sing “Joy to the World.”

12-year-old Melissa Chu led the game, and she did a wonderful job of explaining how it was ironic that the child born King of the Universe would be born in a stable, when he should have had the red carpet rolled out to welcome Him. That we would walk the red carpet in his honor. Of course just walking down a red carpet hardly qualifies as a game, so we made it more fun by making a hoop out of the “carpet” & each person had to keep moving the hoop along in order to keep walking on the carpet. Originally I thought I could do it with just red fabric, but I found it was not real practical. I ended up pasting it along a long stretch of cardboard pieces—had to stretch the material to make it long enough for a decent hoop & kept praying that the glue wouldn’t come loose under the pressure. Duh, I could have just done this with red cardboard and saved myself a lot of hassle. But the shiny red velveteen certainly was prettier.

We had a visiting American friend who couldn’t understand the Chinese explanation & no one translated for her. She wondered WHAT was going on when, after watching the Christmas story, suddenly everyone was taking turns walking in this big hamster wheel…

Craft time was simple; everyone was given various figures to make up a crèche scene which they were to glue on to a large sheet of paper to match the example. (At least it would have been simple if I hadn’t misplaced half the glue sticks…)!

The Great Banquet

Originally we were going to tell this story a week ago. But that day there were too many other activities going on in Macau & when it came time to start we only had two kids; our “policy” is that we have three before we trot out the whole program. So instead we all went out for tea. One other family (with two girls) made it in time for tea, another (with one boy) came so late that we were done already! Need to think of changing our name again to “Latecomers’ Family Fellowship” (only one syllable’s difference in the Chinese phrases). Sigh. I kind of appreciate the break myself; this puts me an extra week ahead in preparation. But I feel bad for our helpers from Hong Kong who were going to lead the story for the first time.

So this week, we had some other volunteers from a different Hong Kong church. We didn’t have them lead anything as they don’t know our kids & had no prep time either, but I was very happy to have them help out during the game & craft & then the free time.

This parable was lots of fun! The king announces he is preparing a wedding banquet for his son. So first a servant helps him set a table with a white tablecloth, candlesticks, and bowls & chopsticks. Then the king sends out the servant to tell the invited guests that things are ready. The first person shows him a deed for land and says, sorry, have to go look at my new property. The second says, oh but I just bought an ox and I have to try him out with the plow! So we put our cow horns on another kid and the apologetic guest puts a harness around him and leads him off to go plowing. The third says, but I just got married, so I can’t come! She put on a tissue wedding veil and her ”husband” (mine!), a huge paper bowtie. (The Hong Kong volunteers were taking pictures; I sure hope they send us some!!) So the servant goes back to the king and says, nobody wants to come. The king says okay, then, we’ll invite the poor, the lame and the blind! First a couple of “poor” were dressed up in ripped clothing, and escorted to the table. Next, one using crutches and another a cane, and another one ended up being carried (under some protest) to the table. Finally, the last two kids were decked out in black-paper-covered glasses and led to the table.

Next, the servant explains, you are very welcome at the king’s table but he wants you to dress up in special garments to honor his son. Our “wedding garments” were party hats. I was half counting on at least one kid refusing to wear a hat, but they were all very cooperative—however, we were actually one hat short. Fortunately the one left without a hat is intelligent enough to respond to a whisper that we know she is not rebellious, we just need her to act the part. Otherwise she might have gotten her feelings hurt when the king comes in to personally distribute cookies in everyone’s food bowl but the one without a party hat is scolded for her lack of respect and thrown out of the party without any food!

The poor girl—she was also the very last to get a cookie in our game time, which was kind of like musical chairs. There were enough chairs for each person, so when the music stopped they first all sat down, but then had to get up and check whether their stool had a “wedding garment” (this time, a small paper bowtie) stuck to the bottom of it. Only one did. That person got a cookie and then he/she & one “undressed” stool were taken out of the game. We kept playing until everyone got a cookie. Everyone liked this game just fine! One girl kept trying to sit on two stools at once though, to double her chances. Turned out she was second to the last to win!

Because we had the volunteers here, the parents were able to have their longer Bible study starting right after the story. It worked out well that they were gone during craft time; the project was to make invitations not to a banquet, but to a Christmas Eve Open House we’ll be holding this Saturday at our home. So when the parents finished, they were presented with the completed invitations! I had written out the details earlier & copied then onto parchment paper; we glued these onto a red card and made a lacy border. They were pretty and the moms were surprised!

Parable of the Net

I confess, I chose this parable for this week because of the ease in thinking up the game and craft part! Planning the story was a little harder, and it did turn out pretty short.

First, everyone in the room got stickers, mostly fish, but a few crabs and lobsters. Originally four of the “fish” were to become “fishermen” but we had a smaller crowd than usual so went with two fishermen. They got on stools and started to “row” out to deep water. In the deep water, all sorts of sea creatures (everyone with a sticker—i.e. everyone) were swimming around. So they fishermen got out their big net (a bedsheet with strings safety-pinned to each corner) and draped it over all the sea creatures. Then they had to haul them to shore. One of them was supposed to hang on the the net strings while the other rowed, but somehow that got missed. So the story was even shorter, ha. Once they got to “shore,” the fishermen’s job was to sort out the crabs & lobsters, which were “unclean,” and go dump them back in the ocean. Only then could the fish be put into baskets (sit on the sofas). To finish the story, to make it clear that this wasn’t just a “fish tale,” the narrator was to finish by saying, this is how it will be at the end of the age, when the angels separate out the unclean from the righteous, and only then can the children of God enter the kingdom of heaven. But we could just imagine how this would get missed in the general noise & hubbub that is always part of our morning. So, as she was saying this, another volunteer held up a large poster of an ear, prefacing her remarks with, and Jesus said, let him who has ears, listen! It helped!

Like I said, the game was easy. I just brought in my little magnetic fishing pole & plastic fish. Simple, but everyone enjoys it.

For craft we made fish, starting by covering a marble with a small piece of clay & then pulling out fins, tail & fish lips. Add small googly eyes and glitter for “fish scales” and there you have it. Fun and cute!