Pitchers 5: Sinless Stuff

Part of the board during our 12/7/11 Immaculate Conception discussion, a subtopic in the lesson on the first chapter of Luke

1. The Holy Spirit overshadows Mary, Ark of the New Covenant, as the Shekhinah overshadowed the Ark of the Old Covenant. That dot in Mary's womb is newly-conceived Jesus, made from one of Mary's eggs and the divine overshadowing.

2. The dot grows into a more recognizable baby. This life-size Jesus in the womb shows his complete physical connection to, and dependence on, his mom. Jesus gets all his oxygen and food from Mary's body. If Mary was a sinner, how would that sinful stuff stay out of Jesus? How could a sinful Ark be a suitable home for a sinless person?

3. Mary even as a little girl already has in her the egg that will become Jesus. Would it make sense for Jesus to be conceived using a sinner's egg? How could Jesus be made of sinful stuff? Would God want to get the sin out of the egg before it was used to make Jesus? Wouldn't it be more straightforward to have Mary be saved from sin when she was conceived in her mom? That way Mary's tummy would be a pure place for Jesus to grow, and her egg would be a source of sinless stuff for Jesus' body to grow from.

4. Who perfectly atoned for our sins? Jesus. Yes. And the Church teaches that Mary was spared from Original Sin by Jesus' atonement before she was born. But Mary was born first! Yeah, so? So how could Jesus die for her sins? He would be too late!  Well, look at this:

Twist & turn Highway 178 perceived from the road itself, versus from a hot-air balloon

Remember, God stands outside of time. Time is something He created, so he doesn't see things one after the other like we do. It's like Highway 178 from Pickens to Rosman- it may take 20 minutes to experience the road in your car. But daughter, if you were up above the road in this balloon, how long would you need to see the whole road? I could see it all at once! Yes. You'd need no time at all. God sees everything all at once, too. So for God to let Jesus' atonement work "ahead of time" for Mary would be no big deal.

 This post is linked to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

Prophecy Potpourri

This post links to RAnn's Sunday Snippets

  

The temple, where Isaiah scolded the Sons of Abraham; where Jeremiah scolded the Sons of Abraham; where Jesus scolded the Sons of Abraham by quoting Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The November 23 class covered the majority of Isaiah's prophecies, excluding all the ones which relate directly to Christmas: they'll be covered in the Dec. 14 class. On the 30th, we quickly reviewed some of them, and launched into prophecies by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah and Zechariah. Ideally we'd have gotten through Malachi. But Malachi is the end of the New Testament, so in some ways it's good to begin the next class with Malachi, do a review of the Old Testament, and then jump into the New.

Because there are so many prophecies, and time is tight, we only cover the ones that I think are most understandable by the kids; and/or are explicitly referred to in the New Testament or the Mass; and/or directly apply to Jesus. Each one is permanently highlighted in my Bible and temporarily sticky-tabbed so I can quickly go from one to the next.

In each case, I give a bit of background to the prophet, where he and the Jews were in that point in history, read the passage, and then ask the class how the verses will be fulfilled. The following verses overlap both classes. For brevity, a single verse here typically represents the wider passage which I would actually be reading. Likewise, the kids' answers are usually not as pithy as what I show here. Nevertheless, the kids do their own thinking.

Isaiah 6:

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

The Mass quotes the seraphim.

"Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin purged."

This passage anticipates the understanding of Purgatory as a cleansing of sin through fire.

"8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am!"

Isaiah responds to God using Samuel's words.

Isaiah 11:

"1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."


The future Messiah will be a descendant of David, who was messia'd, anointed, by Samuel.


"he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked."

But the Messiah won't be tough guy like David.

Isaiah 22:

"In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."

Jesus will likewise give keys to Peter. This section of Isaiah 22 is acted out, it's more than just asking questions.

Isaiah 24:

"6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines..."

God won't limit his blessings to just the Chosen People.

Isaiah 40:

"3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain."

Israel would be happy to get another David-type Messiah...but Isaiah says prepare the way for God. Later on, John the Baptist will quote Isaiah at the Jordan river.

Isaiah 42:

"1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, with whom I am pleased; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street..."

At Jesus' baptism at the Jordan, God will quote Isaiah. And if this is a Messiah prophecy, why is he such a wallflower?

Isaiah 52:

"13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 14 As many were astonished at him-- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance..."

"Marred...like damaged, beat up? Yes, how does this apply to Jesus? The soldiers beat him up? Yes, and? Whipped him? Yes, and? They stuck the crown of thorns on him? Yes, good."

Isaiah 53:

"5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed."

The soldiers whipped Jesus which made blood stripes on him.

"he poured out his soul to death....yet he bore the sin of many"

Jesus died for our sins.

Isaiah 56:

"To the [foreigners] who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters."

God will adopt people who aren't Jews to be his children.

"...these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."

People who love God can come to the temple just like Chosen People; and later on Jesus talks about the House of Prayer.

"I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered."

God will love more than just the Chosen People. What does the Bible call those other people? Pagans? Close, but no...Gentiles? Yes, good.

Isaiah 57:

"Are you not children of transgression...who slay your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?"

Some Jews would still sacrifice their children to baby-eating false gods.

Jeremiah 7:

"Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word"

Jeremiah stands at the temple, as Isaiah did, and as Jesus will do.

"...if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, 7 then I will remain with you in this place..."

If the Jews don't stop ignoring God, he won't dwell among them in the temple.

"Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, 'We are delivered!'--only to go on doing all these abominations?"

You can't expect God to ignore your sins.

"1 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes?..."

In the New Testament, Jesus quotes Jeremiah at the temple.

"12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel...therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh."

God abandoned Shiloh and never dwelled there again. Would he quit living in the temple if Israel kept on sinning?

"And they have built the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire..."

More baby-killing kind of like today, when most baby-killing is by abortion.

Jeremiah 31:

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah"

Jesus talks about a New Covenant at the Last Supper, and we hear those words at Mass, too.

"I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts"

A law written on your heart is better because it's based on love.

Ezekiel 36:

"I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you."

Sprinkling water is how Levitical priests would purify lepers; it's also like baptism, and when Naaman immersed himself in the Jordan to get clean of his leprosy. Sometimes there's immersion, sometimes sprinkling.

Daniel 7:

Wasn't Daniel put in the lion's den, but he didn't get eaten? Yes, that's him. Here's part of a prophetic vision Daniel had:

13 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man..."

Jesus would refer to himself as the Son of Man. [the kids didn't know this at all, I had to just tell them.] And at the Ascension he went up in clouds. And at the Second Coming he'll come down on clouds.

Micah 5:

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days."

David was born there! And Jesus will be born in Bethlehem too!

Zechariah 9:

"9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass."

"So in the Bible, what's an ass? A donkey! Yes, so how does Jesus fulfill this prophecy? He came into town on a donkey! Yes, what town? Jerusalem! Yes, and the people thought he was...the Messiah! Yes, like who? David!  Yes."

Classtime ran out at this point. Next week we'll finish the Old Testament with a look at Malachi, and review the whole New Testament in 15 minutes or so. Then we'll jump into the New with a discussion of the Immaculate Conception, which will be the day after class.

Déjà Joué

Yes- almost déjà vu.

I've been playing wargames since I was 11 years old. Just in case you aren't up on what a wargame is, it's this sort of thing.  Let's agree that they are, like opera, an acquired taste. Anyway, in this weekend's edition of the Wall Street Journal, there was a review of a novel, The Third Reich, in which the wargame The Third Reich (I own a copy) plays a critical role. This game came out when I graduated from highschool in 1974.

It's oddly affirming to see it mentioned in the WSJ of all places, after so many years.

Res Ipsa Loquitur 6

9 minutes from the November 16 class. Review of earlier Old Testament material connects to future New Testament material, as described in Plus de Review 2.

Notice that from :30 to :54 my bouncer decides to separate a couple of mischievites, and the kids are rearranged on the fly with very little disruption to the lesson flow.

Sorry about the rough edit.

Cornucopia

Thanksgiving Dinner, courtesy of My Wife the Energizer Bunny

Plus de Review 2

This article is also posted at Amazing Catechists

Review is a form of repetition. And review, like repetition, should be used introduce new concepts which relate to the items being reviewed. That is, review is not just for reteaching old stuff....as shown from these bits of review from the November 16 class:

"Y'all remind me please, who did God tell to get out of town last week? Elijah! Yes, why? 'Cause he told the King there would be a drought. Yes. And if God tells you to leave town on short notice during a drought, what would you soon be needing? Water! Yes, and...food! Yes. "So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank from the brook." (1Kings17)

Someone else remind me what the Israelites needed while they were in the desert. Water! Yes, and...food! Yes...how'd they get those things? Moses hit the rock with his stick and water came out. Yes, and? They had manna. Yes, which was...fried chicken? Well, wasn't it bread? Yes, sort of. God had said he'd rain down bread on them, and what "rained down" was manna. What other food did God provide? No guesses? Remember when the Israelites complained to Moses about being hungry they said, "in the land of Egypt...we sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full." So what did they want besides bread? Umm...flesh? Yes, but in modern English what would we say? Meat! Yes. Somebody decirme, cómo se llama "meat" en Español; how do you say "meat" in Spanish? Carne! Yes. And how do you say "flesh" in Spanish? Ummm...I think that's carne, too. Yes. In English we have two words for that idea. One Bible will say "meat" when another says "flesh". Spanish doesn't have that problem, it's always carne, like in carnivorous. But I think it's better if English Bibles say "flesh" as we'll see in a minute. But first, y'all remind me what flesh God gave the Israelites. Ravens! Close, another bird. Quail! Yes, quail flesh, quail meat.

So God gave the Israelites bread and...flesh! Yes, and He gave Elijah...bread and flesh! Yes, the same. When the Bible says things the same way on different occasions, you should understand that they are related. For example, did the Israelites walk on wet mud when they crossed the Red Sea? No, dry ground! Yes, and Elijah crossed the Jordan on...dry ground! Yes. 

By the way, when God provides people bread and flesh like that, what's it called? A miracle? Yes, a miracle. And speaking of bread and flesh miracles, can anyone tell me a Jesus bread and flesh miracle? When he made the loaves and fishes? Mmm, good guess, but fish don't count as meat, as flesh. Another guess? No? Sometimes 6th-graders get this. OK, later on we'll cover Jesus' bread and flesh miracle. When we get to it, remember these other ones. Yes, what? What's the miracle? Nuh-uh, if y'all can't guess, I'm not telling. Just pay attention when it comes up later on.

New review topic: what's this? A stick. Gosh, really? Think some more. Moses' stick! Yes. Tell us about it. He hit the rock and water came out. Yes, and? He parted the water! Yes, so the Israelites could cross on...dry ground! Yes.

And what's this? Your coat. C'mon, y'all don't play dumb. It's Elijah's coat! Yes, his cloak. So tell it. They hit the water with it and it parted.  Yes...what water? The Jordan River. Yes. And Elijah and Elisha crossed...on dry ground!  Yes.

And this is...Elijah's bone! Close...Elisha's bone! Yes, somebody tell it please. They threw the dead man on his bones and he came back to life. Right. Yes? That's a chicken bone. Yes, use your imagination. If you don't have any imagination you can't be in this class. What do all three of these things have in common: the stick, the cloak, and the bone? They're all stuff? Yes, genius, they're all stuff! Yes. And would any of those miracles have worked without this stuff being involved? No! Right. God's power went through His creation, His stuff. What are we made of [I draw the Gingerbread Man]? A body'n'soul! Yes, and our bodies are made of...stuff! Yes. Our bodies are stuff. Now when people experience God through miracles like the ones that go with the stick, cloak, and bone, pieces of stuff, is it through the soul or the body? The body? Yes, they're just physical miracles. Dogs don't have eternal souls, but even a dog could have crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground or eaten a quail. But if we were just souls without bodies, that sort of miracle wouldn't mean much to us.

 Body'n'Soul, aka The Gingerbread Man

Remind me again, we're a...body'n'soul. Yes. So if we want to have a complete miraculous experience of God we'd want to have it with which parts? Well, both parts? Yes. But these Old Testament miracles just affect people's... bodies? Yes. But Jesus left us with some miracles that let us experience God body and soul. Can y'all think of one? No guesses? What's the water miracle we do in church? Ummm...baptism? Right...yes, what? Is baptism a miracle? Well...tell me what happens. You pour the water and the sins are gone. Yes. Washing away sins with water is pretty miraculous, isn't it?  I guess so, but baptism's a sacrament, not a miracle. That's a good point, but maybe Baptism is both a sacrament and a miracle, and we're just so used to it that we don't notice. We can't see the miraculous part of a sacrament, but it's still there. By the way, if there's no water is it ok if the priest just pretends to pour water? No!  Right, the miracle won't work without the stuff. We are spirit'n'stuff, so the sacraments are...spirit'n'stuff too!  Yes.

When we get to Jesus in a couple of weeks we'll see him work some physical miracles, but also some that are physical and spiritual. I want y'all to be able to tell them apart, so keep an eye out for that."

*************************************************************

The above review took about 10 minutes. Probably half of the time we were applying new ideas to the old material in preparation for Jesus and the New Testament.

Res Ipsa Loquitur 5

The audio of the November 9 class whose whiteboard is discussed at Pitchers 4:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3