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object lessons for adults

Adult Object Lesson: September 9, 2012

A Gospel Story for the Dogs

Mark 7:24-37

Today’s object is a dog. Use a stuffed dog, a picture of a dog, or even your own pet. You might consider using two stuffed dogs—one of pedigree to represent the Jews and one of less definite breeding to represent the Gentiles.

Mark tells two stories in this Sunday’s Gospel.

The first story tells Jesus’ hesitance to extend his message  beyond the people of Israel. Jesus uses the metaphor of children and dogs.

Is is right to take the food meant for your children and throw it to the dogs? he asks.

The Gentile women is quick-witted. Her answer impresses the great teacher. Even the dogs eat the children’s crumbs and that’s all I’m asking for — a crumb.

Jesus hears the woman and is moved. Her daughter is healed.

Point out the woman could have stormed off in a huff at being likened to a dog. Even today, as lovable as our pets are, we don’t refer to someone as a dog without expecting a fight! But this woman stood up to the miracle worker — who might have struck her down on the spot for impertinence.

You can talk a bit about the most endearing quality of dogs — their loyalty and trust — qualities that played out in today’s lesson.

The second story is about the man with a speech impediment. It, too, is a strange story. Jesus takes the man aside and heals him in private of his speech impediment. For the first time in his life this man can speak and be understood. Jesus orders the crowd, who reappear at the end of the story, to keep the report of this miracle under wraps.

You can tie the dog analogy to this second lesson. A favorite trick to teach a dog is to speak or bark upon command. It’s a lot harder to teach a dog to be quiet! Yet that is what Jesus asks of the healed man and the crowd of people.  “Do not tell anyone.”

Order your dog or dog object to not bark. If you have a group of children or youth, you might enlist them in your story-telling by asking them ahead of time to bark whenever you give the order “do not bark” or “be quiet.”

These passages remain a bit puzzling. Why was Jesus reluctant to heal a child of a non-Jew? Later, why did he charge people to do something that goes entirely against human nature?

Why do we hesitate to embrace people different from us? Why do we admire dogs of pedigree?

What stands in our way of telling the Good News?

photo credit: 27147 via photo pin cc
04 Sep 2012

Tuesdays Are Object Lesson Days

abc's of object lessonsWe never set out to be experts in object lessons, although we were major contributors to a site specializing in children’s sermons before we (and our children) were evicted from our church.

Strange things can happen on the internet. Last November we visited a small church in Fort Washington, Pa. We wrote about the pastor delivering an object lesson in a church where there were no children present. It seemed to be more popular with adults than such sermons are with children.

That post, now about nine months old, still gets daily search engine traffic. In response to this interest, we have started to post an object lesson corresponding to the lectionary readings for the upcoming Sunday. We’ve posted about six so far and aim to try to add a new post featuring Adult Object Lessons each Tuesday.

Although we use an object (most of the time) sometimes we just present ideas for interactive lessons with adults. Many can be adapted for use with both children and adults—sometimes encouraging the age extremes to engage with one another.

We leave most of the theological interpretation to theologians. We just make some suggestions on how the topic might be handled.

We’re not quite sure what we are getting into or how much discipline it will take, but we’ll make the effort. Hope it helps!

photo credit: nettsu via photo pin cc

21 Aug 2012

Object Lesson for Adults (July 29, 2012): Measuring Miracles

Five barley loaves and two fishes2 Kings 4:42-44, Psalm 145:10-18, Ephesians 3:14-21, John 6:1-21

The Gospel story of Jesus Feeding the Multitude is a lot about numbers.

Use your fingers as your objects and start counting. Or for a modern flair, use a calculator.

  • The boy had five barley loaves and two fish.
  • There were 5000 in the crowd.
  • When all had eaten their fill, the disciples gathered 12 baskets of leftovers.

Numerologists will read special meaning into these passages.

  • Five barley loaves (five=grace)
  • Two fish (two=witness)
  • for a total of seven (seven=perfection)
  • Twelve is the number of governance. (12 tribes, 12 disciples)

The story—at least for us today—is less about numbers and more about miracles.

The audience that day would have known the Old Testament story that is paired with this gospel. Elisha gives the orders in this story. People are fed. Food is leftover. It was no less newsworthy because this miracle fed only 100.

The New Testament narrative is meant to leave no doubt. Jesus can perform miracles—miracles that surpass Elisha’s and also surpass our expectations and satisfy our desires. Elaborate on this.

If you are celebrating Communion, do a quick calculation of how many might come to the altar a bit later in the service. Estimate the number that might be coming to other altars in other churches in your neighborhood and beyond at the same time. Add this number to the Bible’s 5000 and sense an ongong miracle.

photo credit: hoyasmeg via photo pin cc
23 Jul 2012

Object Lesson for May 13, 2012 — A New Commandment

Sunday’s texts are all about love. The gospel is John 15:9-17 and is the focus of much of John’s life teachings—The New Commandment.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  (v.15)

It is Jesus’ last but abiding message to the world before returning to heaven.

Such a simple commandment, but so easy for us to forget as we tend to live our lives in a world measured by justice, not love.

Try acting out this scenario.

Tell a few members in advance that they will be taking part in a play. But don’t tell them too much. Make sure they are members with a sense of humor and make them realize that they will be role-playing.

Create a mock court. You might want to put on a black robe or hold a gavel in you hand to indicate that you are changing roles. Use the pulpit as a judge’s bench or stand on the chancel steps, indicating that you are “in charge.”

Have someone declare “Order in the court” and “All rise” as you make your entrance in your new persona.

Introduce yourself as “judge” or add to the unreality with a more gloried made-up title.

Call your pre-selected members forward one by one. Charge them with an infraction. Make something up: nodding off during the sermon, singing off key, arriving late or skipping out before the offering. Nothing serious. Keep it light.

As each one is charged ask him or her to stand aside to await sentencing.

After all your “perpetrators” are properly charged, pose a question to the congregation. Ask them for sentencing ideas. You can do this for each one or generally, depending on how much time you want to devote.

In the end, call all the offenders back and give each one the same sentence: To love one another. You can do this one by one with an elaborate build up ending with “Love one another.” Use your imagination.

Hit the pulpit with your gavel. Send everyone back to his or her seat.

End the mock court signaling your court crier to call “All rise” and declaring the session to be over.

Get rid of the gavel and black robe, return to your role as preacher and elaborate a bit on the message of the day.

10 May 2012

Planning Ahead for a Pentecost Object Lesson for Adults or Children.

Send your church a Pentecost Birthday Card. They’re hard to find so we made one for you.

Download the high res image for printing here.

If you have an imaging editing program, type the name of your church under the word “BIRTHDAY.”  We left room.

Notice the fiery background and the descending dove. You can talk about Pentecost imagery in your lesson.

Take the image on a CD or flash drive to your local quick printer and have one printed and scored for you. It shouldn’t cost more than a couple of bucks. Ask for a trim size of 7″ x 5″/ tent fold. Don’t forget, you’ll need an envelope, which your printer can provide.

Write a note in the card. It can be from you, scripture or a “note from God” about the importance of Pentecost.

Mail it to your church, but don’t open it until worship. When you or a congregation member opens it, read the message to your congregation. Pass it around and talk about the image of fire and the descending dove.

Here’s a second part of the object lesson. While the card is being passed around, wheel out a birthday cake (optional) and a special candle which you can order online.

Light this flowery candle and it unfolds in a fiery display of two-tiers of small candles which spin as Happy Birthday plays. It will leave a lasting impression. Stand back. It makes quite a show!

You can put the candle on top of a cake if you wish to celebrate after worship.

If you happen to belong to SendOutCards online card service you can upload this art and send a card using this customized card service. They even offer the candle which would arrive with your card in a nice gift package. For members the total cost is under $20 and as low as about $15. For added effect, this card service allows you to create over-sized cards (roughly 11 x 8.5). The big size would be very effective in the congregational setting.

We recommend churches become acquainted with this card service as it is a great evangelism tool. We’ll talk about this cards as an evangelism tool in a later post. If you look up the site and want to join, you can reference our membership number (85519).

For example: If Pentecost is confirmation day in your church, you could take a photo of each confirmand and send the same card with the confirmands picture inside and a note from the pastor or congregation. A personalized card commemorating this faith milestone is sure to be a cherished keepsake.

PS: A video of this object lesson would be great video to add to your congregtion’s web site or blog or Facebook timeline.

photo credit (retouched): hapal via photo pin cc

06 May 2012

Ideas for Object Lessons for Adults

The most popular all time post on 2×2’s web site is a short article published last fall after Redeemer’s Ambassadors visited a small congregation in Fort Washington, Pa. We wrote about the pastor ending the service with a brown bag object lesson. An adult member of the congregation presented an object hidden in a brown bag and the pastor gave an impromptu sermonette about the object.

The feature was obviously popular with the congregation, almost all of whom were adults.

That little post gets search engine traffic every day!

We had seen this technique before—used with children who enjoyed the approach for the novelty but were not able to make the cognitive connections required in object lessons. Adults are better at abstract thinking — but we tend to limit the technique to children!

The challenge in developing object lessons for adults is to enhance the “sermon illustration”—the staple of any adult sermon. Objects for adults can be more complicated. But it’s still possible.

Next Sunday’s gospel is the “I am the vine. You are the branches” scripture.

The most obvious object is a vine and branch. Use two vines, one with a flourishing branch and one with a withered branch cut away. Vinca minor (periwinkle) is in bloom right now in Pennsylvania.

What other “adult” images would work? With adults, you don’t have to present the actual object. It helps, but adults can think abstractly. Here are some other “objects” that might illustrate the relationship Jesus describes.

  • Computer networks. Most adults know how it feels to be have your email disrupted.
  • Spinal chords. Once broken the limbs are paralyzed.
  • Family trees. People who don’t know their family backgrounds or feel separated from family devote their lives to finding family connections. Perhaps you know a story to tell from your own experience. There was a story in the news this week about a boy who grew up not knowing his background and then saw his picture on an old milk carton from 30 years ago.
  • Have someone call you while you are starting the sermon, so you can pull out your cell phone. Have a short conversation, perhaps feigning embarrassment. Then tell the person that you are in church right now and invite the people to shout out to them. Talk about connectedness. Invite the congregation to pull out their cell phones and connect with someone right then and there. Point out that their presence in the sanctuary, God’s House, is connecting to whomever they may have called and the connection can reach all over the world. Message: Stay connected to the vine, but take the role of being a branch seriously.

There is a great website for children’s sermons — almost all of which include an object. (Redeemer and 2×2 were major contributors to this site before our doors were locked.) Use this site for research and apply the ideas to adult sensibilities. Check out the sermon submission collection in addition to their featured sermon ideas.

03 May 2012