1 Peter: The Cornerstone
I Peter 2 – Jesus, our Cornerstone
Scripture reference: “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house…the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”
Objectives:
1. Children should be able to repeat, “The Lord is my Rock”.
2. Children should understand what a cornerstone is and compare Jesus to a cornerstone.
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer. This letter was written by St. Peter. Who was Peter? Help the children remember him as a fisherman, one of Jesus’s disciples.
- Bring a large rock to class. Have the children discuss the characteristics of the rock: it is strong, it is heavy, we can stand on it, it is hard. Play the game paper, scissors, rock: the rock breaks the scissors, and even when covered by paper, is it still there? So God is like a rock – strong, trustworthy, doesn’t change or go away, etc.
- Go on a field trip, weather permitting. Have each child pick out a rock that seems special to him. Look at the rocks in the classroom; in what ways are they the same and in what ways different? Sizes, shapes, colors, textures – so we are all different even though we are all people. How are we alike and how are we different?
- Take a set of wooden blocks. Begin with the largest; explain how this is the cornerstone – the first stone and the strongest – of the building. Build a tall building now, using the cornerstone as the base and all sorts of other blocks. Peter is saying the church is like this building, with Jesus as the cornerstone and us as the “living” blocks.
Make a pet rock: Have each child take his special rock (or, if weather is bad, bring some rocks from home and let them choose). Put on old T-shirts or smocks. Paint the rocks with poster or other washable paint. Glue a piece of felt on the smoothest side; this will be the bottom. Paint the child’s name on the top or side of his rock; remind him that he is a living rock in God’s Church.
- Close with prayer.