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Lesson twelve - pages 24/25
Resurrection painting
Aim for the book
To engage children in a discussion relating the
Christian understanding of God to everyday life.
Learning objectives
- To know that Christians understand God
as being both 'all around' (immanent) and 'beyond' (transcendent).
There is no reason why children should not be introduced to words
such as immanent or transcendent; they do not need to be able
to spell them!
- To be able to discover that Christianity
has a future and hope.
- To understand that finding God is not
about looking in places, but in adopting particular attitudes and
responsibilities.
Bible references
John 11.25
Luke 24.13-35
Background
The painting by Stanley Spencer, 'The Resurrection
at Cookham', is possibly the most challenging image in the book.
Although it is set in a graveyard, this picture is all about life
- new life. Christians believe that they can take up the promise
of eternal life which was given to them through the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus. Stanley Spencer illustrates this by juxtaposing
the graves and graveyard (the home of the dead) with characters
who burst forth with life in every part of the picture.
Ways of using the picture
- Spend time exploring all the different aspects
of life, and new life, that are depicted in the painting.
- Encourage the children to raise questions and explore
ideas. They are likely to pose questions to which there are no
easy answers. Don't worry - allow yourself and the children to
run free with your imagination.
Key words
- Power
- Patience
- Care
- Wrath
- Loving
- Hope
Activity one - looking for God
Newspapers, magazines and so on
A5 card to stick pictures on
Collage paper and marker pens
Discuss some of the attributes Christians believe
God has, such as powerful, patient, caring, wrathful, and so on.
Try to avoid simple adjectives for God, such
as big or strong. It is important to use active terms. These
come quite easily to KS1 children and are considerably more
fecund in terms of developing ideas in RE. They are much more
akin to biblical terms than the simple ones. Make a list of
the ideas.
Identify where in the world these Christian attributes
of God can be found: in thunderstorms, in motherhood, in forest
fires, in hospitals and so on.
With older children you may wish to look out
into space as well, this can lead to very rich discussions.
Create collage images of these attributes onto
smaller pieces of card or paper and then assemble them into
a mosaic of images. Keep each image quite small, A5 at the biggest.
Use a variety of sources if possible, books, magazines and newspapers.
TV listing magazines such as Radio Times often carry such
images and also illustrate how important these aspects of creation
are in the media.
Call the display 'Where Christians believe God
can be found'.
Discuss the captions the pupils would like for
their display.
You are likely to end up with a series of captions
such as:
'God is found in the rain of storms.'
'God is found in the love of a mother.'
Write up the captions and stick them over the
display.
Activity two - hope
News stories of hope
Writing materials
Discuss hope as a Christian expectation.
Hope of being with God
Hope of healing.
Hope of being saved from oppression.
What other forms of hope are there?
Would they be appropriate for Christians?
You may wish to bring in aspects of resurrection,
such as those depicted in the Spencer painting.
Identify how hope manifests itself in
Christianity today, for example, in the Liberation Theology of the
later twentieth century, or in the work of such people as Mother
Teresa and Jackie Pullinger in offering hope.
Identify that hope is always directed into the
future.
Bring out the children's own hopes - it may be
appropriate to make a list of these.
Illustrate these hopes with examples from the
children's own lives and with news cuttings and so on.
Gather all the ideas and assemble them informally.
Discuss with the children whether these hopes
might be fulfilled in their lives. Then think about other children
in the world and whether these hopes will be fulfilled everywhere.
With younger children it is probable that you
may have to stop here. This is OK. Do not be tempted to bring
everything to a neat conclusion. It is fine for the children
to be left with unanswered questions, that of itself is the
matter of hope.
Older children could be drawn on to see that
for many people the only hope is in a world beyond this one,
heaven. You may wish to discuss what heaven is like. Again, do
not try to gather a tidy ending - after all, our limited understanding
of heaven is not very tidy either.
Activity three - God in Jesus; the Christian
revelation
Bible verses to read.
Charades. Play a 'Who am I?' type game. The
children must choose to be types of professionals/workers, say,
fireman, doctor, nurse, farmer, footballer and so on.
Ask how we could tell what it was that these
people were. What was it that the children did to give the
right clues? Next, discuss what clues Jesus gave as to who
and what he was.
Read examples:
Miracles
- Matthew 8.1-4
- Matthew 15.29-31
- Mark 8.22-26
- Luke 7.1-10
- John 11.1-44 (the story of the raising
of Lazarus - it might be best told from a Children's Bible)
Feel free to find more.
The declarations of disciples
- Matthew 16.16
- John 21.24-28
(There are, of course, many declarations in
the epistles (e.g. 2 Peter 1.16-21). It may be appropriate
to introduce these. This would have the effect of demonstrating
to the children that the epistles came from disciples of Jesus.)
And the resurrection
- Matthew 28.1ff
- Mark 16.1ff
- Luke 24.1ff
- John 20.1ff
Continue the dramatic 'charade' theme by asking
children to act out some of these scenarios. After each one,
discuss the responses of those around Jesus. How do they understand
what he is doing?
Talk again about why Christians believe God is
everywhere. There is nowhere, they believe, they can go where
God is not present.
Activity checklist
Activity one - looking for God
Newspapers, magazines and so on
A5 card to stick pictures on
Collage paper and marker pens
Activity two - hope
News stories of hope
Writing materials.
Activity three - God in Jesus; the Christian revelation
Bible verses to read
Related subjects
Geography links to catastrophes.
Web site links
For further information, look
at the links section of this site.
http://www.cookham.com/spencerindex.htm
http://www.stanleyspencer.co.uk
http://www.tate.org.uk/home/default.htm
© Robin Sharples
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