After the Party Decorations Come Down

I just packed away the Christmas tree and ornaments, decorations and nativity set. It always seems a bit of a sad time – what filled my space to overflowing with colour and texture and memories and celebration now seems empty. I have the playmobil Wise Men set, but haven’t put it out, because this past Sunday we had already moved on to Jesus’ baptism in the lectionary. Epiphany has come and gone.

In the church, it can be a challenge to make this time relevant and exciting. Perhaps it can’t and shouldn’t be just as wondrous as Advent and Christmas, but the span of time from now until Lent can seem bland and a mere place holder in the calendar. What of importance really happens? And yet, in the 6 or 7 weeks from now until March 1st, when the season of Lent begins, and then up until Holy Week we are compacting roughly three years of miraculous and amazing ministry and teaching of Jesus. Those three years laid the groundwork for the Church and for our understanding of the events of Holy Week. This is a pivotal time.

Beginning with Jesus’ baptism (and even before, with the few accounts we have of His childhood) we have the opportunity to really show who the Child in the manger became and what God called Him to do and be. Consider one or more of the following for kicking off this important season leading up to Lent:

1. Make a timeline of the following events and share the stories to help learners understand what we know of Jesus’ childhood (being sensitive to their ability to deal with the content): Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-20), Jesus’ naming and presentation in the temple (Luke 2:21-38), visit of the Wise Men and escape to Egypt when he was about 2 (Matthew 2:1-18), return to Nazareth (Matthew 2:19-23), boy Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). Talk about how Jesus was a child like them and would have gone to Hebrew school with the other boys and learned his father’s carpentry trade. Make available any reference books about living and growing up in first century in the Holy Land. Imagine together what would be different about living when Jesus was a child from living now, and what would be the same.

2. Jesus’ baptism not only introduces the idea of Him publicly answering His call to ministry, but it also introduces us to John the Baptist, His cousin, born of Elizabeth and Zechariah a few months before Him. I love the description of John in Matthew 3:1-12 of his rugged lifestyle and habits and dress and how he spoke. If you can find a volunteer, have "John" visit your learners in costume and give the message from this passage, offering the invitation to repent, or turn from old ways, and to be baptized. Unpack with your learners what John was asking the people to do and that he was talking about Jesus as the One whose sandal he was not even worthy to untie. Consider together who today would have that kind of status. Try some honey and, if available in your area, some chocolate-covered insects. Yum!

3. If possible, take some time to stand around the baptismal font and/or see if it can be incorporated into children’s time. Share stories of baptisms they’ve seen or experienced. Talk about different church traditions – dunking in a tank or at a lake, or sprinkling from a font, and at different ages (be sensitive to your learners and their understanding). Read Matthew 3:13-17 (or any other gospel’s account) and talk about: Why do we baptize? Why would Jesus need to be baptized? Why was God so pleased about it? Would your learners want to be dunked in a river? Share from your denomination’s creed and or faith statements what is believed about baptism.

4. Matthew 4:1-11 seems to happen right after Jesus’ baptism. No sooner has He been blessed by God than He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days and nights. Get learners to act out the story. When are times that they have been tempted to do something that wasn’t right? What happened as a result? Why was the tempter (devil) tricky in what he asked Jesus to do? How did Jesus do? Jesus hadn’t eaten the whole time He was in the wilderness. How well would they do at a challenge when they were really hungry? What help do they think God offers us when we’re in a tough spot and being challenged to do something that isn’t right or true to God’s way?

5. For any of the above, you know your learners and what helps them access the story. Acting it out, building or drawing or writing about it, singing about it, making a craft, watching a video clip or creating a game about the theme may be the exact right key to understanding and even applying what they find in the Word.

How amazing that God sent the Saviour of the whole world to earth as a helpless infant who grew into a child, a teen, and an adult, learning exactly what is like to be human and able to communicate with us and point the way. How awesome it is to think of the journey represented by the above stories, of His years with His parents and the special time when He realized that He needed to begin the work set out for Him by God.

We, too, have opportunity to reflect on the work set out for us – our call to live as Christians, to turn from bad habits and things not honouring God, to hear the voice that is constantly telling us that we are beloved even as we serve. May we never grow deaf to that voice or grow complacent and lose our sense of wonder that we are part of this story.