Dr. Pat's Orthodox Super Sunday School Curriculum

CHURCH SCHOOL

THE LIFE OF JESUS – THE GOSPELS

TEENS/ PARABLES AND MIRACLES

This file is provided as a resource for Church School directors. Feel free to plug in your own dates and your own teachers.

TEACHERS:  

GENERAL NOTES:

Each teen will have a Bible and a copy of “The Parables”  and “The Miracles of Christ” by Archbishop Dimitri. A copy of each Scripture on a blank sheet of paper for each teen is prepared. While it would be nice to hope that each teen would have read the Scripture and lesson ahead of time, realistically, the first 5-10 minutes of class time will have to be spent reading quietly and meditating on the Scripture. Please work with the students on Bible study techniques – each student should use this year to develop a technique for parsing the Scripture that he or she can carry to college – using colored pencils, outlines, whatever works. Paper, pencils are provided. Discussion, hopefully lively, should follow, finally, after discussing the Scripture as the youth have seen it, using “The Parables” or “The Miracles of Christ” as a guide.

At the beginning of the Parables section of the curriculum, spend a few minutes discussing what a parable is and why Jesus used parables to teach. God spoke to His people in the Old Testament almost entirely with commands and punishments, the Law, obedience, with the exception of the parable told by Nathan the Prophet to David the King. But, Jesus did much of His teaching with parables, stories. Some were quite short; some quite long. The stories were of scenes easily understood then, and still understood today. They require active listening, active interpretation. We see something different each time we hear the parable. We will see this as we go through the parables.

At the start of the Miracles, also discuss a bit the definition of a miracle. How do we identify a miracle, then or now? First, there must be a recognition of the “normal” – there are ways that the world behaves and life unfolds that are regular, obeying the “laws of nature” that everyone can see. If there was no regularity to life, then a departure from that would not even be recognizable. People normally cannot walk on water, water sitting in jars does not become wine, etc. Can we recognize any miracles in our own lives, or those of our families?

A GUIDE TO BIBLE STUDY

The plan for this year is for each student to develop for himself a method of Bible study that will serve him for years to come. No method is sacred; these are but some suggestions for how to approach the Scriptures. The parables lend themselves especially to intensive study in light of the many levels of interpretation they contain. So, on to suggestions:

1. Begin with a 1-5 minute introduction: Remind the students how to approach the Scriptures. This will take longer the first few weeks and very little time later. Hand out the lessons of the day.

2. Individual time to study the text: This will take about 5-10 minutes. This involves not only reading but a creative approach to learning. Each student will have his own copy of the text of the Scripture to mark on.  Colored pencils will be provided. First look for the facts of the story – who, what, when, where, how – like a newspaper reporter. These might be marked with one color. Then perhaps the student will want to develop their own shorthand of underlining in various colors or drawing arrows to mark repetitions, cause and effect, contrasts, quotations, particular themes, etc. Try dividing the longer readings into paragraphs and titling each paragraph. Finally, the student should also try to put himself in the place of one of the characters and experience the passage as that character would have. What do I smell, taste, see, hear, feel? Do any questions come to mind? Write them down. Anything words, phrases, concepts I don’t understand? Write those down, too. Any similar story come to mind – a movie, book, fairy tale? What about context? Who was Jesus speaking to, where, when, and why? Does this have any implication for the meaning of the passage; for example, what might the people of Jesus’s day have known about the profession of shepherd that would not be obvious today?

3. Sharing observations and questions: Use the questions the group has written down, their observations as they “became” a character, or the leader’s questions to encourage lively discussion. Be sure to help even the shy students to share. The leader must prepare some open-ended questions himself, in case the group becomes bogged down (or is half asleep). Some questions may help the group to envision the scene, some make capture the tension or emotion of the text, some may link the students’ lives to the text, and some may tie portions of the discussion together.  Write the questions down on your large tablet. While the best way for these questions to emerge is in personal prayer and from the group, some potential questions are listed for each reading in case you come up dry.

4. Now take about 5 minutes to read the appropriate section of the book, “ The Parables”  or “The Miracles of Christ” by Archbishop Dmitri. Discuss for several minutes: What answers can we find to our questions and observations in the passage? In the Church Fathers? Are any other questions generated? Can we answer them?

5. Summarize the lesson: The group should decide what main themes emerged in the study of the Scripture in a few sentences.

6. Apply the passage: How will this Scripture affect our lives? What is Jesus asking me personally to do with His truth as revealed in this passage? The Bible was never meant to be merely informative but life-changing!