Pitchers 23: Isaiah's Crèche

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Every year we take about 30 minutes of the last class before Christmas to create a Nativity based on Isaiah's prophecies. Here's the text in case you want to do it in your class:

Class, what's 'Christmas' mean? It's when Jesus was born. Yes, good, that's what Christmas is...but what does 'Christmas' literally mean? Oh, Christ's Mass. Yes again. And you're right, it celebrates Jesus' birth. ¿Quién aquí habla Español? Who speaks Spanish? Me! ¿Cómo se llama Christmas en Español? How do you say Christmas in Spanish? Navidad. Yes [Navidad goes up on the board]. Does 'Navidad' mean 'Christ's Mass'?  No, it means the baby is born. Right. In English we say Nativity [on the board]. Somebody tell me, what's a Nativity scene? It's the little statues of baby Jesus and the 3 Kings and all. Yes...one reason I like the word Navidad is that it reminds me of Jesus being born in that little humble stable.

OK, here's the deal. I'm going to read Isaiah's Christmas prophecies one at a time. You tell me what part of the Nativity scene is prophesied and I'll draw it in. We're going to create a New Testament picture by using Old Testament prophecies. Here we go.

"Hear ye now, O house of David...the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (7:13-14) Mary and Jesus! Yes; they aren't all this easy, I'm just being nice to start.  [Mary (and Joseph) are drawn, but not baby Jesus, for reasons that will become apparent later....maybe you can guess.] 

Next: "O Jerusalem, you bring good tidings...be not afraid, say...Behold your God!" (40:9) Ha! I told you the first one was easy. What are good tidings? Good news? Yes. In Luke's Christmas Gospel, who borrowed from Isaiah and said, "..be not afraid...behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy"? No guesses yet? Look at this Greek word,evangelousios [on the board]; it means good news, glad tidings. In Isaiah's day how did the king get his news? From TV? Ha, no, from  messengers! Yes, messengers. So let's think of evangelousios as meaning "good message" instead of "good news." Tell me again, who brings the message? The messenger! Yes. Please observe the magic finger [I erase from evangelousios until I have angel]. If evangelousios means "good message," what does "angel" mean? Umm, messenger? Yes, genius! So at Christmas, who said, "..behold, I bring you a good message of great joy"? Oh, the angel! Yes, God's messenger. And since the message comes from heaven, the messenger should have......wings! Yes. [On the board goes a winged messenger.] Make a halo! OK...there ya go.

Next:  "Behold, the Lord GOD.....shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. (40:10-11)  All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee. (60:7) Shepherds and sheep! Yes. [I draw them.] That one looks like a dog instead of a sheep! Stop whining...pretend it's the best sheep you've ever seen.

And: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." (60:1-2)  No guesses...here's more: "the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." The star!Thank you [up it goes], and what else...? Listen again: "the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." (60:3) The kings! Yes, both of them! There were three! Well, Luke doesn't say how many. For now I'm showing two.

"The multitude of camels shall come...(60:6)" The camels! Yes...see if you can tell me how many humps. Two! One! Y'all wait a second and listen to it all, don't just guess like monkeys: "The multitude of camels shall come, the Dromedaries of Midian and Ephah." So? Two? You're just guessing again. Does anyone know the main difference between the Dromedary camels in this passage, and Bactrian camels? One of them has two humps! Yes, the Bactrian, so I'm drawing one-hump Dromedaries. The camels should be spitting. Let's compromise- this one will spit....and this one has manners.

"....they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the LORD." The three kings brought gold and incense! Yes, two gifts...so I'm drawing only two kings, see? But there were three gifts! Well, if y'all can name the third gift that Isaiah left out I'll draw it and a third king. So? Umm...myrrh? Yes genius, myrrh! [3 kings and 3 gifts on the board] We'll look at the gifts again later on this year.

"I have nourished and brought up children; and they have rebelled against Me." Just like teenagers! "The ox knows its owner; and the ass its master’s manger. But Israel does not know; my people do not consider." (1:1-3) Tell me...the ox?  Yes, and? the...the donkey? [on the board] Yes, and what's a manger? Baby Jesus' crib. Yeah, sort of... "manger" is the French word that means "to eat," so...it's what the animals eat out of. Yes, the name tells us. So what goes in a manger? Stuff to eat. Yes. [Jesus goes in the manger] So why is Jesus in the manger? 'Cause it's his crib. Well, yes, but why is Jesus put into something that you put food into? No guesses? That's ok, we'll come back to Jesus being in the manger later this year. Now listen again: "The ox knows its owner; and the ass its master’s manger." Whose manger is it? The master's? Yes, and who is the master? Jesus? Yes. "But Israel does not know; my people do not consider." This line doesn't give us anything to draw, but something to think about.

Notice that Isaiah says Israel doesn't know the master, but the dumb animals, the ox and ass do; maybe they aren't so 'dumb' after all,  and as we see from the picture, the humble, uneducated shepherds know who Jesus is, and so do the pagan Gentile Kings, who aren't even Jewish. So we see that Jesus will come for the Judeans, for non-Jews (that's us), the rich and the poor. Jesus will come for everyone, "all peoples," as Isaiah prophesied.

Pitchers 18: Teach and Draw

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Board from the December 11 Class. Click to Enlarge.

Stuff on the board was drawn in more-or-less chronological order. Not everything covered in class was drawn on the board.

1. Christmas. The Nativity. A bit of Spanish: Navidad.

2. Isaiah, the Christmas Prophet: virgin, tidings, star, shepherds, sheep, kings, gold, incense, Dromedaries, ox, ass, manger, and the manger's master. A bit of Old English: tidings. A bit of Luke: myrrh. A bit of French: manger. A bit of Greek: aggelos, evangelion.

3. The Flight to Egypt. Maybe to Alexandria where young Jesus, like you kids, would learn some Greek.

4. Isaiah, Jeremiah, the boy Jesus, and the adult Jesus all at the Temple. A bit more Spanish: escribir.

5. John the Baptist at the Jordan, site of water miracles. The Jordan runs from Galilee to the Dead Sea. More Greek: baptizo. Still more Greek: dromos = run, race. Like a fast camel: a Dromedary. John is the Prodromos, the Forerunner, the herald. As John's father Zechariah prophesied: "you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways." 

Not just words in books. Proclaim. Write. Act. Sing. Draw.

Photo by Guest Bouncer John Biediger

Catholic Time

A couple of days ago I posted about making quick handouts for my Catechism class. One of them included this image of St. Michael's Church (Michaeliskirche) in Hildesheim (Hilda's Home, a Saxon goddess), Germany:

I was tempted then to say something about the pattern of the snow in the shaded foreground, but it wasn't relevant to the subject of catechetical handouts. But I'll say something about it today since it points to something important about Catholicism.

Germany sits higher on Earth's globe than America does (excepting Alaska). Hildesheim lies at the 52nd parallel, further north than Winnipeg, Manitoba. So at the winter solstice, the sun doesn't get very high, and even at noon will cast long shadows. Looking at the shadow in the foreground, you can see that beyond the shadow there's almost no snow.

So I was looking at the snow and thinking that the building behind the photographer lay on an east-west axis. And because the edge of the shadow is parallel to the church, then the church lies on an east-west axis as well. Of course this makes sense: Catholic churches are traditionally "oriented" to face the rising sun. And if the east-west orientation is correct, the shadow of the leftmost tower tells us it's a bit before noon, on a day near December 21.

Idly curious about just how well-aligned the church was to true East, I had a look on Google Earth:

That's odd: the church is oriented a bit North of true East. Maybe it was oriented to align with where the sun would rise on St. Michael's feastday...that'd be September 29. The answer is no, because after the Sept 21 Equinox, the sun will rise and set in the South; look at Hildesheim's solar chart for Sept 29:

The yellow line shows the sun rising about 3 degrees South of 90 East, not North. But wait a sec, Europe used the less-accurate Julian calendar when construction of St. Michael's began in AD 1001. When the Church replaced the Julian calendar with the Gregorian in 1582, there was a 10-day error between the sun and the calendar. In 1001, there was a 6-day error. To get the proper solar chart for Sep 29, 1001, we have to subtract 6 days, which gives us Sept 23. But that date still has the sun rise a couple of degrees south of East.

Huh...suppose instead of using the saint's feastday, we go with Sept 21, the Equinox? Maybe the builders fully intended to lay the church out at 90 degrees East by measuring at dawn on September 21. Yes, but we already know that wouldn't get them true East; but maybe they didn't know. If we subtract 6 days to correct the Julian error, we have Hildesheim's chart for Sept 15:

    That's more like it. The sun rises about 4.5 degrees North of East, and sets about 4.5 degrees North of West. By the way, the sunset & sunrise are figured from the top edge of the sun. The software also accounts for where Hildesheim lies within its time zone: you can see how the yellow 12 representing clock noon doesn't quite match the sun's noon, which is always 180d South. But no-one knows at what instant after the sun broke the local horizon on Sept 21, AD 1001 (Julian calendar) the authorities might have marked the church's axis. And the sun itself is over half a degree wide, so anything between a 4 and 5 degree northward skew on the church's alignment would be extremely accurate.

I inserted the above enlarged image into an Autocad drawing and measured the angle of skew: despite the fuzziness, I get 4 degrees. How about that.

So what does this have to do with Catholicism? Well, consider that in Genesis God saw that all he created was good. And that even after the Fall, God used his physical creation to show his promise to Noah (the Rainbow); to show the Israelites when to break camp (the Shekhinah cloud); and to show the Magi where Jesus was born (the star). So the Catholic Church still stays in touch with God through his creation, and vice versa. We have churches "oriented" to the East, or a saint's feastday dawn; a holiday whose date is calculated each year based on the movement of the Moon and the Sun (Easter); and another which was probably originally observed on the Winter Solstice (Christmas). Given the intimate relationship the Church maintains with God through the physical world, it's no surprise that it was she who recognized the 1-day-per-128-years error in the Julian calendar, and had the knowledge and the authority to fix it.

XmaSnaX

We do not have games or crafts or movies or parties of any kind in Wednesday Sunday School. All classtime is...classtime. Whatta concept. These children will be graduating from highschool in 6 more years; babydays are slap out the window. But during the Christmas class the kids can eat snacks and drink pop; that's called an unparty. I lose about 10 minutes of productive time to unparty inefficiency, but even Scrooge let Bob Cratchit take the afternoon off on Christmas Day. And most of the class material is Christmas-related, and they are good kids, and well...I'm weak.

"Hey, it's almost Christmas; what season is it? Winter? Not yet. Fall? No, I mean what Church season? Advent. Yes, which means Arrival. I was thinking this week about the first Advent, when Mary was waddling around [I do so] with a huge stomach, saying, "Joseph, I am so ready to have this baby." I always considered Advent being a time of expectation, like "O come, O come, Em-ma-a-an-u-el," but never really thought about Mary being tired of waiting and wanting to get it done. That's how my wife and daughter-in-law are; I think all mothers have their own personal Advent season every time they are pregnant.

Y'all remember last class we were talking about Mary, and the Immaculate Conception came up? Yes. It's related to Baby Jesus and Christmas. Which reminds me I didn't see any of you at Mass last Wednesday, but I know you young'uns can't drive yourselves to church. Anyway, let's think about the Immaculate Conception a bit. Who was immaculately conceived? Jesus! Well, yes, he was. Let me ask it this way: who is honored by the feast of the Immaculate Conception? Mary. Yes. It's not about when Jesus was conceived without sin, but about...when Mary was conceived without sin.  Yes. It's about Mary growing in her momma, not Jesus growing in Mary. OK, let's review some [on the board goes the Ark of the Covenant & pregnant Mary to the right]: here's the Ark of the Old Covenant and ...the Ark of the New Covenant.  Yes. The old Ark contains God's stuff; the New Ark contains...God!  Yes. What's more precious and holy: God's stuff, or God Himself? God Himself. Yes. Now let's look at the Old Ark for a second. It wasn't just some old box the Israelites kept pots in. It was made of expensive wood and the inside was lined with gold. It was the finest, purest, most precious container they could make. And how did they move the Ark around? They carried it on poles. Yes, so they wouldn't touch it. Why would they not want to touch the Ark? Cause it was important? Yeah, sort of. People felt unworthy to touch the Ark because of their sins; the Ark was set apart from sinful things. Y'all know the nuns we have in our parish? Yes. Well, suppose some young man thought one of them was cute, and asked her to go on a date, go out dancing. That'd be weird! Yes, why...she's not married. Nuns don't do that after they're nuns! Right, they are set apart, like the Ark. They're reserved for God by their own choice. And Mary freely chose to be set apart, too, and be the Mother of God.

Now, the Ark never contained anything but the jar of manna, Aaron's staff, and the Commandments. Can you imagine if the Ark was empty, and I came along and wanted to store my shoes in it? That'd be wrong! Suppose they were brand-new shoes? No! Suppose they were golden shoes? Umm...no! Why not? Cause it's for God's stuff, not regular stuff. Right. The Ark is permanently set apart for God's stuff. Now here's Mary, the...New Ark!  Yes. What's in her? Jesus. Yes, who is...God. Yes. Now we know that God is more valuable than his Stuff. And we know how much respect the Israelites had for the Ark. So how much respect might we have for Mary? More! Yes, way more. Now was that stuff in the Ark perfect? Perfect? Yeah...would you expect anyone to worship the pot of manna? I don't think so. Me neither...even if it's God's Stuff it's still just stuff. Was the stuff in Mary perfect? It wasn't stuff, it was Jesus! Right, who is perfect. So do we worship what was in the New Ark? Yes. So which Ark should get more respect? The New one!  Yes.

Now tell me, are we born in sin? Yes. Why? Cause Adam and Eve sinned! Yes, we inherit that original sin from our parents...what's it called? Umm...Original Sin? Yes. I thought I'd trick you on that, y'all're too smart. Do our parents create us? Yes? Yes, with God's help. We inherit sin though our parents because we're made from them. Tell me, who was Jesus' Father? God the Father? Yes. Does he have a body?. No. Is God a sinner? Well, isn't God perfect? Yes, just checking. And Jesus' mom? Mary! Who had...a...body'n'soul!  Yes. So if she was sinful...Jesus would get it from her?  Yes.

OK what's this? [I pull up my shirt enough to see my belly-button] Ha, that's your belly-button! Uh-huh...what's it for? Nothing. Well, what was it for before I was born? It was the thing....the umbilical cord!  Yes, like so. [I draw a fetal Jesus and connect him to Mary's tummy with an umbilical cord] Let's imagine I'm baby Jesus. Do I breathe while I'm in Mary? No. Do I eat? No. Drink? No. Right. Everything I get comes from Mary. We are as close to being one thing as you can get. Mary breathes, eats, & drinks for both of us, and she shares all that with me while I'm growing inside her, just like all mothers do. Now imagine perfect baby Jesus so completely joined to his mom...how could that work if she were a sinner like me? That'd be weird. Yes; we're made of a...body'n'soul!  Yes, so if our souls are messed up by sin...our bodies are too. Yes. And if Mary's soul was stained by sin...her body was too. Yes. And she would not have been a very good Ark for Jesus. Imagine I'm a good Israelite back when they were making that beautiful Ark. I come up with a nice box. I say, hey y'all don't need to make a special box, my new washing machine came in this one, it's very sturdy. They didn't have washing machines! Pretend they did! What would they say? They'd say no! Right, a regular container won't do for holding something special. And remember, Jesus floating in Mary's tummy was much closer to her than the jar of manna was to the Old Ark, just sitting there for centuries. If Mary was sinful, body'n'soul, how would Jesus get oxygen and nutrition from her without also getting sin? He couldn't. Right. That's why the Church teaches that Mary was conceived in her mom without sin, and never sinned, so she'd be a good Ark for God to live in for 9 months. And look, one last thing. [I put a dot on Mary's tummy] This is Mary's egg, the one that's going to become Jesus. If she's a sinner, body'n'soul, then...the egg has sin in it? Yes, it's part of her body. So how are you gonna get that sin out before Jesus is conceived? Well, God could do it. Yes, but what's better: to take a sinful egg and clean it off before Jesus' conception, or just have it always have been clean from the get-go? From the get-go! Right. So those are the two main ways I think about Mary being sinless from the first moment she existed in her momma: Mary's sinless tummy for God to grow in, and a sinless bit of her to make Jesus from.

Now, we know Mary's the New Ark. But There's Something Else About Mary...do y'all get that? Get what? Never mind. [I draw a sad Eve beside Mary] Who is this sad woman? She's in the Bible. Elizabeth? Ooh, good guess, but no. Mary? No...she's maybe the saddest woman in the whole universe...look, she's wearing some kind of animal skin...Eve! Yes, it's Eve. Eve feels terrible because when the devil tempted her with the apple, she could've said no, right? Yes! 'Cause she had...free will!  Yes. But she said yeah, sure, ok I guess; ate the apple and then got her dimwit husband to have a bite, too. So now we're all miserable living in a sinful world. Anyway, I saw a terrific picture a couple of days ago... I need a Mary! No, I used you last week! You daughter, get up here. And an Eve, yes, c'mon. Y'all face each other. OK, Mary you are way pregnant...put your left hand in your hoodie pocket, poke it out so we can see that baby...good. Now Eve, you look sad because...I ate the apple. Yes, and wouldn't you love to be able to fix that? Yes. Now Mary, take Eve's hand...and put it on your tummy so Eve can feel your baby...who...is...Jesus! Yes. Class, would this make Eve feel better, to know Jesus is going to be born? Yes. Why? 'Cause Jesus will fix our sins? Umm, sort of; Jesus will undo the damage of that first sin in the Garden. Eve, are you feeling better? Yes. OK, remember Mary is the New Ark; we also call her...? No guesses. Who's this? Eve. What Testament is she in? The Old Testament. Yes, and Mary is in..theNewTestamentMaryistheNewEve!  Mega-genius, yes! Mary is called the New Eve. Eve, what bad thing did you freely agree to do? Eat the apple! Yes; and Mary, what good thing did you freely agree to do? Have Jesus? Yes. Mary & Eve, sit down. Through Eve we got a mess; through Mary...the mess got fixed! Yes. Trick question: could Mary have chosen not to have Jesus? No, she had to. Why? So He could die and all. So Mary didn't have any free will? God forced her? No, but if she said no then Jesus wouldn't have been born. Right. That's scary to imagine. But God did leave it up to Mary, just like he left it up to Eve. This shows how much God loves us: he leaves us free to make incredibly important choices that don't just affect us, but the whole world, the whole universe, even."

Readers, here is the image the girls portrayed:

It's a good handout the kids can take home. And here is the winsome backstory: The Anchoress

this class will continue in the next post