Looking Forward to Sunday!

Another fantastic Dali painting: the "Christ of Saint John
on the Cross." 

It’s hard to believe that we’re only a few days away from the first session of Sunday school! Melissa and I woud like to share the tentative schedule with you:
Sun., Sept. 12 Lesson 1: Who was Jesus?


Sun., Sept. 19 Lesson 2: From Abraham to Moses


Sun., Oct. 03 Lesson 3: Joshua to Kings and Prophets


Sun., Oct. 17 Lesson 4: Palestine and the Temple


Sun., Oct. 24 Building the temple out of gingerbread


Sun., Nov. 07 NGA Trip (tent.)


Sun., Nov. 14 Lesson 5: Alexander the Great to Jesus


Sun., Nov. 21 Lesson 6: Bronze Bow I


Sun., Dec. 05 Lesson 7: Nativity Play Practice


Sun., Dec. 12 Nativity Play Planning


Sun., Dec. 19 Nativity Play


Sun., Jan. 09 Lesson 8: Palestinian Village I


Sun., Jan. 23 Lesson 9: Palestinian Village II


Sun. Jan. 30 Lesson 10: Jewish Sects in the Time of Jesus


Sun., Feb. 06 Lesson 11: The Good Samaritan


Sun., Feb. 13 Lesson 12: A Choice for Daniel


Sun., Feb. 27 Lesson 13: Reflections on the Bronze Bow


Sun., Mar. 13 Purim Carnival Planning


Sun., Mar. 20 PURIM CARNIVAL


Sun., Mar. 27 Lesson 14: Hillel and Jesus


Sun., Apr. 03 MEMBERSHIP MEETING-NO SUNDAY SCHOOL


Sun., Apr. 10 Lesson 15: The Upside Down Kingdom


Sun., May 15 Lesson 16: Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes


Sun., May 22 Lesson 17: What Jesus Said that Angered Those in Power




First important detail: unless things change, we will be in Room 140 at Einstein.


Another word about the blog: while I don’t expect the readership to be any larger than our class, I’m uncomfortable posting pictures of any of the students (or of Melissa or me, for that matter), even if people have filled out releases. So the blog will really just be an information-sharing resource containing links to pictures, articles, books, etc., in addition to these weekly summaries. If you have any questions or concerns about the information on the blog, just let Melissa or me know.


I’d also like to introduce a few people (including two parents of students in the class) who will be helping Melissa and me across the year:


Lele Mathis is our Teen Assistant who will be helping Melissa and I in our teaching. She is a recent graduate of the COA program here at IFFP and is a student at Montgomery Blair.


Rachel Franklin and Jose Dominguez are our Community Service Coordinators who will be helping us identify and conduct our community service project.


Meghan McCormick has graciously agreed to serve as a room parent for the class as well.


Please give our class volunteers a big welcome when you see them. Melissa and I are delighted to be working with them. If you would like to help out with the class as well, don’t hesitate to give us a call.


We’ve also heard from one or two people about the National Gallery trip tentatively scheduled for November 7th. As soon as you have a chance, please let us know if that date works for you.


Finally, we try to keep an eye out for interesting books, articles, etc. on the themes explored in the class. The themes in the class this year are great to discuss with your kids. The pieces described below are very thought-provoking. You may want to check them out as we move through the year:


The Hero With A Thousand Faces: Joseph Campbell’s masterwork talks about the “meta myths” about a hero passing through challenges exist across cultures and times. Very interesting in putting a literary and cultural perspective to the Biblical story of Jesus. It was on the reading list for my English class in my senior year of high school, so it’s informed a lot of my reading since then. If you pick it up, you’ll realize (as I had forgotten) how Freudian it is.


The Book of Genesis Illustrated: R. Crumb, the comic book writer, came out with this version of Genesis last year. Not all of it is appropriate for a fifth-grade audience, but he has some interesting visuals about the creation story, the binding of Isaac and so on.


“What Did Jesus Do,” a very thought-provoking recent article in The New Yorker. It’s a review of several new books about the historical Jesus, and posits some interesting ideas: for example, that Jesus may not have been a carpenter but something more like a day laborer (which is what the Greek word “tekton” used to describe him means). The author is Adam Gopnik, who writes often for the magazine and is the brother of the Washington Post’s Blake Gopnik.


We hope you had a great Labor Day weekend and look forward to seeing you on Sunday. We wish you many blessings in the New Year. As always, give us a call or email if you have any questions or ideas. (Also, feel free to comment on the blog—we’d like to use that as a tool to drive interaction and ideas for parents as well as their kids!)


L'shanah tovah!