Contributed by Jennifer Krausz,  Bethlehem, Pa.

Warm-up Question

Have you ever posted anything negative about anyone on the internet? What was the reaction or the result?

Student Suspended for Facebook Posting

Justin Bird of Oak Forest, Illinois was suspended from the high school where he is a sophomore for posting a Facebook fan page against his teacher, in which he made a derogatory remark about her.

He has had problems with the teacher since the beginning of the school year at Oak Forest High School, where he is a high honors student. He created the Facebook fan page on February 9.  It was active for five days before he took it down on February 14, gaining about 50 fans but no postings other than his. The page was “for anyone who has had a bad experience or just plain dislikes” the teacher.

The day after he took the page down he was called into the dean’s office and suspended. His parents are considering legal action against the school because they say the page was created entirely at home and not at school. They question whether a school has the right to suspend a student for actions taken outside of school. No threats of any kind were made against the teacher.

Recently, the federal courts ruled that a Florida student could sue her school to remove a 2007 suspension from her record because of a negative Facebook post against her teacher. The judge ruled that Facebook posts made outside of school time and property fall under the umbrella of free speech.

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever had a teacher that you just clashed with from the beginning? How did you handle the situation?

2. Do you think a school should have the right to punish a student for something done outside of school time and off school property?

3. What do you think the school should do about students who post derogatory comments about teachers on social networking sites?

4. How would you feel if you were a teacher and negative comments were posted against you on the internet?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, March 7, 2010 (Third Sunday in Lent)

Isaiah 55:1-9

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

So many times Jesus shows refreshing common sense. In a world where common sense often seems lacking, especially among the powerful who set up the rules we live by, Jesus sets everyone straight about what is really important. Or at least, he tries.

The religious leaders of the time had rules about everything:  How you had to wash before you ate, touched other people, came to the temple, or cooked food.  How you prayed, how you made sacrifices, and of course, what work you were allowed to do (or not do) on the Sabbath. There were more than 600 different rules which governed every part of their lives.

The problem, as Jesus saw it, was that these rules were getting in the way of doing what God really wants. He wants people to look at their hearts.  Instead they just looked at the rules and whether everyone else was following them. In a sense, the rules were taking the place of having a real, personal relationship with God. When Jesus said, “Repent,” it was really a call for the religious leaders to look at their hearts, turn to God, and realize that loving and serving other people is more important than following hundreds of laws.

Sometimes we can technically follow all the rules, but our hearts are nowhere near where they should be. We may be full of resentment about the rules, or we may feel that we are better than other people because we followed the rules and they didn’t. Jesus knows that our hearts need to be focused on loving God and loving our neighbors. When our hearts are in the right place, we will be more likely to do the right things for the right reasons.

Discussion Questions

• Do you follow the rules even when they don’t seem to make sense? Why or why not?
• If Justin Bird met Jesus face-to-face, how do you think their conversation about his teacher and the Facebook postings would go?
• What rules or laws would not be necessary in our society today if everyone focused their hearts on loving God and loving their neighbors as themselves?
• When you attend church, are you more concerned with following all the rules and procedures or on focusing your heart toward loving God and others? How do you think your congregation would change if everyone focused more on loving God and others and less on following its own written and unwritten rules?

Activity Suggestions

• Many people have a negative view of the church today because they think it has too many rules to follow. (It is interesting how, even with Jesus and his example of not letting the rules get in the way, humanity tends to go in that direction eventually) Brainstorm some ways that your congregation can go out into your community and show people outside the church that you are more focused on loving each other and them than on following the rules.  (Note: Even though you aren’t going to focus on the rules, this exercise is not about law-breaking or immoral behavior.)  For example, you might go into a busy area and give away bottles of water, or cups of coffee, just to be nice and serve the community. Many congregations have attracted new members and helped people come to faith in Jesus by showing them love, rather than emphasizing rules. 
• This could be very controversial.  As a group, talk about the written or unwritten rules in your congregation. Are there any that get in the way of knowing and loving God?  Do any hinder members from loving those inside and outside the church?Set a time to talk with your pastor or a member of church council (or the governing body of the congregation). The goal of this meeting is not to attack the rules or the leadership. First, ask questions about why the rules exist and what their purpose might be. The group may learn that the rules have a good purpose and can help rather than hurt. Very gently, share the group’s lesson from today and your concern over the rules the group listed. Listen to what the pastor or leader has to say and ask him or her to consider the group’s concerns.The purpose here is to foster understanding and share possible concerns, not to make trouble or necessarily change anything.

Closing Prayer

God of love, we pray that our hearts will ever seek to know you better. Help us follow your two greatest commandments, to love you and love our neighbors as ourselves. May our actions be pleasing to you as we follow in your ways and, when the world looks at your church and the people in it, may it see your love rather than burdensome rules.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Contributed by Daniel Wiessner, Tacoma, Wash.

Warm-up Question

Have you ever done something that you knew was dangerous?  Why did you do it?  Some possibilities: peer pressure, standing up for a friend, pride in your own accomplishments, just for the thrill.

Accepting the Challenge

A number of sports carry hazards. (Football comes to mind.) This year’s Winter Olympics reminds us of the inherent dangers of a person traveling at 90 miles per hour. The luge track at the Whistler Sliding Center, in British Columbia, was touted as the fastest course around, but speed and a small misstep in practice proved fatal for Georgian Olympian, Nodar Kumaritashvili.

While the only other luge-related death in the Olympics was way back in 1964, Kumaritashvili’s death has raised the more general issue of athletes’ safety in professional sport competitions such as the Olympics.

Kumaritashvili had apparently expressed concerns about the safety of this particular track, but he, like his fellow sliders, took on the risk. In the same way, we all accept challenges which pose some sort of danger, be it social, emotional, or even the possibility of physical harm. Even with the risk, the goal of succeeding in our ventures drives our ambition to go for the gold.

Article source:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/15/winter.sports.dangerous/index.html

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know anyone who has ever been hurt in a sport? Do you think the growing intensity of sports today makes them too dangerous?
2. If the chances of serious injury (or even death!) from participating in your favorite leisure time activity increased 5%, would you still do it? 15%? 40%?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, February 28, 2010 (Second Sunday of Lent)

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35

Gospel Reflection

In the gospel lesson this week, Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem and begin the climax of the Gospel story.  The Pharisees are warning Jesus about Herod. This is the same Herod who, not long before, was responsible for the death of John the Baptist. Rather than turning tail, however, Jesus gave the messengers another message to deliver: Jesus was going to cure illness and cast out demons like he had been doing the whole time, and then “on the third day” (soon) he will finish his work. Finish his work? Jesus knew exactly what was coming. In the church year, this journey to Jerusalem marks the beginning of the season of Lent, and on Good Friday Jesus will give his life to pay for the sins of the whole world.

Athletes may train their entire lives with dreams of competing at the Olympic Games, despite the dangers of their craft. Similarly, Jesus’ life of selfless acts of saving and healing culminates with his trip to Jerusalem. In the same way that past hazards had not changed his message or direction, Jesus would not be swayed by warnings about a murderous Herod. Athletes risk life and limb for a shot at the gold; Jesus went to Jerusalem knowing that he would give himself as the ultimate sacrifice for us all.

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of your personal goals? What are you doing to reach them? What “dangers” are you facing in your pursuit of these goals?
2. Have you ever walked into a situation knowing that it wasn’t going to end well, but also knowing that good was going to come out of it?

Activity Suggestion

Talk to someone you know and greatly respect. Ask what hurdles he or she crossed in order to accomplish major life goals.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for the talents you have given us, and our ability to meet life’s tough challenges head-on. Please watch us and keep us safe as we venture through this week. Amen.

Contributed by Angie Larson, Clive, IA

Warm-up Question

What do you think is your life’s purpose?

Fighting Temptation with Purpose

Shin Fujiyama, now 25, was born in a fishing village in Japan.  Born with a hole in his heart, he had childhood health problems.  The doctors told him that he didn’t have long to live. “Somehow I was cured,” says Shin, “and I became a normal kid and I had a second chance.”  Shin went on to study pre-medicine at the University of Mary Washington.

During his sophomore year at school, life took a dramatic change.  Along with his sister Cosmo, Shin signed up for a Christian mission trip to Honduras.  On this trip he found his life’s purpose.  The group did their mission work in the hurricane ransacked town of El Progreso.  Hundreds of children lived there without adequate housing, health care, or access to education. While the group was constructing a school, a ten year old girl named Carmen gave a letter to Shin.  It shared her dream that “one day every family in my village will have a safer home.”  This touched Shin greatly. 

Upon his return to college he and his sister began a philanthropic organization named Students Helping Honduras (SHH).  Shin began his fundraising campaign with two people, selling pens and pencils.  Anxious and frustrated about the poor response, he considered giving up, but his passion burned deep.  Next, the group moved to selling Christmas cards to provide uniforms and tuition for the community of El Progreso.  Since its inception in 2004, Shin has raised over $750,000 and SSH has grown to 25 campuses.  The group focuses on continuing to rebuild the village where Carmen lives. 

After graduating in 2007, Shin and Cosmo have postponed medical school and deferred well-paying jobs.  The mission of SSH is to build a movement of young leaders to empower orphaned and vulnerable children in Honduras. 

1. What would your reaction be if you received Carmen’s letter?

2.  Do you think Shin will ever go to medical school?

3.  What obstacles could get in the way of Shin’s fundraising?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, February 21, 2010 (First Sunday in Lent)

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Romans 10:8b-13

Luke 4:1-13

Gospel Reflection

In Luke 3, just before the gospel text in this study, we get a glimpse of who Jesus really is.  During Jesus’ baptism the sky opens up and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove over the river Jordan. Accompanying the Spirit, the voice of God proclaims Jesus’ identification, “This is my Son.”

In this study’s gospel text, Jesus has just spent forty days in the wilderness.  The scripture says that, “He was famished.”  He is weakened by hunger and open to temptation.  The devil sees this as an opportune time and comes to Jesus.  He first tempts Jesus with bread.  However, Jesus has seen his purpose forty days before and can stay strong through the temptation.  Next the devil tempts Jesus with power; he shows him all that he can give Jesus authority over.  Again, Jesus stays strong.  Finally, the devil even tempts Jesus using scripture.  Jesus, strong in his purpose, is able to resist that temptation as well.

While your purposes are not the same as Jesus’, there is still a reason why you are here. When you have an understanding of your purpose it helps you fight the temptation to do something that would cause you to lose focus.  Your personal demons come out when you cease to be yourself.  Your identification, a child of God, is given to you in your baptism. When you have a clear understanding of your identification and purpose, you are better able to overcome the temptation which comes your way.  Temptation might be doubt or frustration.  It might be power, popularity, and material goods.  It might be messages from the world trying to get you to be or act in a way with which you are not comfortable.  May you fight temptation, knowing that you are a child of God and that God will carry you through.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does knowing your purpose keep you from temptation?
2. What do you think are some ways that you can seek your purpose in life?
3. What are some possible obstacles and roadblocks that could get in the way of accomplishing your purpose?

Activity Suggestions

1. Challenge youth to seek out their purpose.  Ask them to make a list of things that give them great joy.  Have them pray about what God is calling them to do.
2. Come up with a purpose of your group’s time together.  What is the goal?  How can you accomplish that purpose?
3. Discuss the following story and what it might mean. In the story of Alice in Wonderland the Cheshire cat meets Alice crying at a crossroad.  The cat in his mysterious way asks Alice why she is crying.  Alice replies that she is lost.  The cat asks her, “Which way do you want to go”? “I don’t much care where,” replies Alice.  “Well then, it doesn’t matter which path you take,” replies the cat. 

Closing Prayer

Blessed Savior, thank you for helping us see how you direct us in our lives.  Help us to avoid roadblocks, temptations, and obstacles that may prevent or deter us from following you.  We know that you will provide us with strength to recognize those dangers and push the demons away, for we belong to you. In your name we pray.   Amen

Contributed by Pastor Seth Moland-Kovash, All Saints Lutheran Church, Palatine, IL

Warm-Up Question

Who are the historical figures you look up to the most?

Signs of the Times

We all have historical figures to whom we look up. We admire what they accomplished. We are thankful for what they did for the rest of us. We use them as examples of what we could accomplish or how we should behave. Heroes of the past are an important part of any culture. 

In our culture, as in many others, some of our most-admired heroes are sports figures. Halls of Fame are places where heroes of the past are especially remembered. In the summer of 2010 Andre Dawson was chosen to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a career that spanned 1976 through 1996, Dawson played for four major league teams and amassed a career batting average of .279 with 438 home runs. 

One important factor in remembering our heroes is how they are remembered. Do we remember them as baseball players or as humanitarians? If as baseball players, for which team do we remember them playing?  For Dawson, as for many others, there has been some controversy over which team’s cap his Hall of Fame bust will wear. The final decision, which was up to the Hall of Fame committee, is that Dawson will wear the cap of the Montreal Expos instead of a Chicago Cubs’ cap, which was his choice. 

Discussion Questions

1. When you picture your favorite historical figure, how do you know that it’s him/her?
2. How much control should public figures have over how they are remembered? Should Dawson be able to choose which team’s cap his statue wears in the Hall?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, February 7, 2010 (Fifth Sunday after Epiphany)

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Exodus 34:29-35

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

Luke 9:28-36 [37-43a]

Gospel Reflection

When Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain, they met the greats of the past.  It was as if Mt. Rushmore or the Baseball Hall of Fame had come to life for them on the mountaintop. They saw Moses, the author of the law  they had been studying since they were little boys. They saw Elijah, the prophet above all prophets, promised to come again before the Messiah. And they saw their friend Jesus in all his glory. 

I’ve often wondered (and I know I’m not alone) how Peter, James, and John knew that it was Moses and Elijah they were talking with. They didn’t have pictures of them. How could they have known? What was it about the experience that helped them understand it? 

Remember that the version we’re reading was written down a long time later. Perhaps it took them a long time to figure out what had happened to them. Perhaps it was only after Jesus’ death and resurrection that they looked back and realized completely what they had experienced. Maybe only after talking it over with others (and with Jesus) as they came down the mountain, did they start to figure it out. 

Discussion Questions

1. In religious history, who is the figure (let’s say other than Jesus) with whom you’d want to sit down and have a chat? What would you talk about?
2. How do you recognize someone as a great person?  What are the qualities of greatness that you look for?

Activity Suggestion

Sit down with the historical greats of your congregation.  Find several persons who have been a part of your congregation the longest and ask them about what they remember of the congregation’s past.

Closing Prayer

Good and gracious God, we thank you for all the saints and great ones whom you have given to us as examples and teachers. Help us to learn from their example as we try to follow you. Amen.

Contributed by Jay Gamelin, Jacob’s Porch/ Lutheran Mission to The Ohio State University,Columbus, OH

Warm Up Question

What is the biggest human-made space you have ever been in?  Describe the space to someone in the room who has never been there.  What descriptors do you use? 

The Biggest…Building…Ever…

The biggest building ever built has opened in the small country of Dubai.  The Burj Dubai rises 168 stories or 2,684 feet above the desert floor reaching more than a kilometer into the sky.  This is now the tallest man-made structure in all the world, eclipsing a tower found in North Dakota that, although not a building, has claimed the title of tallest structure created by humans.

The tower features the seven-star Armani Hotel designed by the Italian designer, Giorgio Armani. The 430,000-square-foot hotel has 160 guest rooms and suites across ten stories. The Hotel features eight restaurants, a spa, swimming pool, library, fitness center and business center, as well as 30,000 square feet of conference and banquet space on “mirror-smooth marble floors,” according to the Armani corporate Web site.  Burj Dubai is part of a massive complex that includes five hotels, a huge shopping mall, more than 150 restaurants and 1,200 shops. Entertainment options include a ski resort, an Olympic-size ice skating rink, a 4.6 million-gallon walk-through aquarium, a SEGA game theme park and an 80,000-square-foot play village for children.  That is a play space the size of almost two football fields, excluding endzones.

Discussion Questions

• What do you think of this building and complex?  Would you want to visit someday?
• Why do you think people feel challenged to build taller buildings?  What is to be gained out of tall buildings?
• What is the allure of something being the biggest, tallest, deepest, or widest?  Why do you think so many more people try to climb Mount Everest than attempt the second highest mountain in the world, K2?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, February 7, 2010 (Fifth Sunday after Epiphany)

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day. 

Isaiah 6:1-8 [9-13]

I Corinthians  15:1-11

Luke 5:1-11

Gospel Reflection

We love big things, don’t we?  In America it seems we love our big cars, big budgets, big cities, big buildings, big appetites, big stars, and big ideas.  We are captured by big-ness. It gets our attention, captures our imagination.  “Second place is just the first loser,” we say.  We strive for first or not at all.  We climb the tallest or ignore the feat.  We build the biggest if we can.  We plan the largest that we can afford.  We want attention.  We want to show what we’ve got.

“Big” is a word throughout these texts.  Isaiah describes God’s presence in the temple this way: God is so big that in this huge temple the Israelites have built, God can only fit in a stitch at the end of God’s cloak–and still it fills the whole temple.  The disciples cast a net into the sea and bring in such a huge catch that it strains the net to the breaking point.  Paul says he worked harder than all the other apostles… but he’s not bragging, it was God’s grace that allowed this.  Big, bigger, biggest.  Something is clamoring for our attention. 

I was in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna with a friend,staring about this fifth largest Cathedral in the world. I asked my friend what he thought God thought of this big building.  What did God think of all this grandeur?  My friend, who is much smarter than I, said he thought God probably saw this as a two-year-old’s crayon drawing posted on the fridge.  How nice.  How cute.  Look what they did for me!  How sweet.  I made Everest, but your building is really big.  I painted the sky with the crab nebula, but your artwork sure is pretty.  I adore your expertly carved baptismal font, though I hold the waters of the whole world in the small of my hand.  How can we perceive big when God is above all things?  How do we perceive God when we are so enamored by our own creations? 

The season of Epiphany means literally “to be revealed.”  Today’s lessons remind us that God is so above and beyond our concept of eminence that all we make is only a pale shadow of what truly is big. God is so far “above” us and “beyond” us that we can only deem ourselves as a specks of dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust.  After all our building, budgets, and ideas, we are still so small. 

And how much more of a wonder for that! Though we are so small, God knows us, dwells with us, and participates in our smallness!  How much more amazing that the God who could ignore us, instead, becomes one of us through Jesus, becomes a dust-person, to show us that we are known intimately and loved extravagantly by something so big.  It is this idea, God’s attention and love, that is the most humbling news of all.  May it be revealed to you today that our God is not too big to forget you.  May we be humbled today by the love and the presence of God through Jesus in our lives.

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever flown over a major city?  What did it look like from above?  How about over mountains?
• What do YOU think God makes of our skyscrapers, church steeples, and stadiums?  There is no right answer… just what do you think?
• Have you ever felt small and insignificant?  Describe how it felt, or perhaps the situation that led you to feel this way.
• Believing that God set all this in motion, what does it mean that God became human in Jesus?  What does this say about God and what God thinks of us?  What does this say about our significance?

Activity Suggestion

CRAYON DRAWINGS FOR GOD:  Set out supplies for an art project- paper, crayons, scissors, tape, or whatever you’ve got.  Read aloud Psalm 138.  Have the students draw what they see or hear in the text, either literally or figuratively.  For example, they may draw someone bowing toward the temple or the text may make them think of love.  Maybe they will draw a big heart!  In any case, invite them to draw what they feel as a gift to God.

PROCESS:  Our gifts are so small, so little.  It seems they are too small to capture God’s attention.  The good news is that God loves and appreciates our gifts, no matter how small.  God knows and sees our hearts and God makes them big, beautiful, and holy.  Give thanks that our small gift is known and appreciated.

Closing Prayer 

It is a wonder, Lord, that you would know us.  It is amazing that you would love us.  Thank you God for showing us your presence.  Thank you for humbling yourself by becoming one of us.  To you be power and glory, forever and ever.  AMEN.