MARCH: GOOD NEWS OF THE RESURRECTION
Micah 6:8 (King James Version)
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Concept:
How do we talk about the “good news of Easter” with young children?
I remember starting to tell the story to my 2-year-old, and suddenly thinking, “Oh no. How can I tell my child a story about his friend Jesus getting tortured and killed? And then how do I explain resurrection when we’ve just been working on understanding that death is different from sleeping???” It’s all further complicated with our often-unexamined theology of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. We won’t solve it all in this post. But we will seek to open some doors and give some handles. While this post is less directly related to Micah 6:8, it does keep us on this path of doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. And it is certainly about taking a more intentional approach to parenting through a complicated holiday!
Take a Dive: This year, we are workshopping each month’s practices and themes with a group of parents at College Mennonite Church. When we workshopped this month’s practice, it became clear that stepping back and taking a look at our own understanding of the good news of Easter is key to parenting our children through the complicated holiday.
Here are some questions to ask yourself (or better yet, to talk about in community!):
So start exploring what you have been taught, what you think you know, what you wonder about. Start exploring some theories other than substitutionary atonement theory. Here are some places to get started:
How do we talk about the “good news of Easter” with young children?
I remember starting to tell the story to my 2-year-old, and suddenly thinking, “Oh no. How can I tell my child a story about his friend Jesus getting tortured and killed? And then how do I explain resurrection when we’ve just been working on understanding that death is different from sleeping???” It’s all further complicated with our often-unexamined theology of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. We won’t solve it all in this post. But we will seek to open some doors and give some handles. While this post is less directly related to Micah 6:8, it does keep us on this path of doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. And it is certainly about taking a more intentional approach to parenting through a complicated holiday!
Take a Dive: This year, we are workshopping each month’s practices and themes with a group of parents at College Mennonite Church. When we workshopped this month’s practice, it became clear that stepping back and taking a look at our own understanding of the good news of Easter is key to parenting our children through the complicated holiday.
Here are some questions to ask yourself (or better yet, to talk about in community!):
- What is the meaning of the cross and resurrection?
- What’s the story we’re telling during Holy Week and on Resurrection Sunday?
- What’s the good news of the story?
- From where (or whom) did you learn these understandings?
- What feelings do these understandings stir up in you?
So start exploring what you have been taught, what you think you know, what you wonder about. Start exploring some theories other than substitutionary atonement theory. Here are some places to get started:
- Traci Smith Article: The Violence of the Cross and Children
- Easter Sermon from 2023
- The Bible For Normal People: This blog post is good, but muck around on the website to find lots more!
Pray It
God, your love is so strong, even stronger than death! Thank you for sending Jesus, who shows us the way of love, the way of peace, the way of community. We thank you that Jesus is alive, and that we also can have life in you. Amen.
God, your love is so strong, even stronger than death! Thank you for sending Jesus, who shows us the way of love, the way of peace, the way of community. We thank you that Jesus is alive, and that we also can have life in you. Amen.
Do It:
Experience Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter) as a friend of Jesus. When I was directing Godspell at a Christian high school, I asked my seminary professor how I was supposed to make sense of the crucifixion scene when my students had such diverse understandings of the meaning of the cross. My prof said, “The gospels aren’t concerned with the meaning-making that we’ve gotten obsessed over. The gospels are concerned about the grief of our friend and teacher dying, and the joy of him being restored to us in life.” Experiencing this story as a friend of Jesus is rich - and something children can (in age-appropriate ways!) participate in. Here are some ways to participate in the story, always entering it as friends of Jesus who are experiencing the story rather than trying to impart doctrine along the way.
Experience Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter) as a friend of Jesus. When I was directing Godspell at a Christian high school, I asked my seminary professor how I was supposed to make sense of the crucifixion scene when my students had such diverse understandings of the meaning of the cross. My prof said, “The gospels aren’t concerned with the meaning-making that we’ve gotten obsessed over. The gospels are concerned about the grief of our friend and teacher dying, and the joy of him being restored to us in life.” Experiencing this story as a friend of Jesus is rich - and something children can (in age-appropriate ways!) participate in. Here are some ways to participate in the story, always entering it as friends of Jesus who are experiencing the story rather than trying to impart doctrine along the way.
- If your church offers Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, attend them. Many families go from Palm Sunday (which in many congregations is a joyous celebration of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey) to Easter - a joyous celebration of Jesus being alive. It’s important to have some of the in-between - which includes Jesus ruffling feathers, friends betraying Jesus, Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, and the crucifixion.
- If your church doesn’t have these gatherings - or if they aren’t kid-appropriate - the MCUSA free Lenten resource includes Holy Week activities so you can experience the whole week at home.
- Read the story throughout the week leading up to Easter. You could read a part of it daily from one of the gospels, or you can read from story Bibles (I recommend Shine On or The Peace Table). Another favorite of my family is Peter’s First Easter - it’s long, so we read a few pages each night when our kids were really little. Tim Ladwig’s illustrations captivated our children.
- Resurrection Eggs - but not the ones most people use! Traci Smith offers a delightful alternative, and I’ve riffed on them. You can print and cut out eggs with the described symbols (towel, etc.) on them, print pictures, or forgo the eggs all together and round up actual objects for telling the story. Here’s the Resurrection Egg Story Guide in English and Spanish.
- Easter Bracelets This year at our church, we’ll be riffing on the resurrection eggs with a resurrection bracelet - made with plastic beads and pipe cleaners. Here’s the Easter Bracelet Story we’ll be telling with that.
- Remember that, as Traci Smith says in her article, you don’t have to tell the whole story to young children. It’s okay to leave out the torture, to instead say that they hurt Jesus very badly.
- End with the good news!!! Jesus is alive! Jesus, our friend, is with us! And Jesus lived the full human experience - life, joy, suffering, death, and resurrection. When we experience those things, Jesus gets it and Jesus sits with us in the joy and the pain.
Explore it: A Note from Tami
Talashia included a number of resources in the sections above. I'm not adding further resources this month.
Talashia included a number of resources in the sections above. I'm not adding further resources this month.
