March 11 - What We Believe: God the Father

Lesson Plans:  First Person of the Blessed Trinity:

God, the Father

There are no particular scripture passages for this lesson. 

Overview:

The Blessed Trinity is a mystery that has been revealed to us through the Church.  It is not something that you will find overtly spoken of or explained in the Bible.  With knowledge of the Trinity one can see how the Trinity has worked through the Old Testament into the New, but there are no specific teachings about it in the Bible.  That we have knowledge of it is by grace alone as it is a mystery that we cannot fully comprehend.  Have you ever tried to explain the Trinity to a child?  Tough to find the right words, even tougher not to accidentally slip into heresy!  The nature of the Trinity is a very difficult topic that many people have tried and failed to fully understand and explain, thus all the heresy.  If you look at all the major episodes of heresy most tend to revolve around a misapprehension of some aspect of the nature of the Trinity or its persons.  That said, we’re going to teach about it anyway!

This week’s lesson focuses on the first person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Father.  It will be the first in a series of three lessons each focusing on a different person.  So, this will be a building lesson group.  We will examine the characteristics of each person, one per week.  For the older students we will need to tie this together in the concept of the Trinity.  The younger children will just be getting familiar with each person. 

God, the Father, is many things to us and thus has many names.  We call him, God, Father, Lord, Creator, Abba, and many more.  He calls himself “I am.”  What else could he say about himself?  He simply is because there is nothing to compare him to.  We see different sides to God as we read scripture.  He is loving, generous, jealous, vengeful, patient, wrathful, all sacrificing, wise, just, righteous, commanding, holy, creative, etc.  He is eternal and unchanging, yet, we see how he deals with humanity in different ways over time.  In our lesson, we will help our students explore the character of God giving the children a language to use to understand him. 

PreK-Kinder Lesson Notes:                                                                                                          

This class will be learning about what God does.  At this age, children think very concretely rather than abstractly.  Their knowledge of a particular thing is usually defined by what it does not how it works.  The TV is not an electronic device that transmits visual and auditory data via signal waves, it’s the box that Sponge Bob lives in.  While we can communicate that God loves them and cares for them, they understand better in the concrete sense what God does.  He creates.  He gives us rules.  He gives us what we need (housing, food, clothing – all provided from basic materials God gave us).  We can say, “God loves you” and most will eagerly agree, but to help them understand what that means, we need to delve into how we know that God loves us.  How does God show he loves us?  We will focus on that concrete understanding of God and draw out their awareness of who God is by helping them with the language. 

Objectives: 

·         Help the children articulate their understanding of who God is. 
·         Give examples of what God does so that they begin to understand his character.

Activities:

·         Have a discussion with your students about God.  Ask open ended questions. 

o   Who is God?

o   What does he do?

o   What can you tell me about God?

o   Does he love you?

o   How do you know he loves you?

o   How does God show he loves you?

o   Can you name some things that God does for you?

o   What are some other things God has done?

·         Write down their answers and save it for the craft.

·         For fun you can expand the conversation to things like:

o   What does God look like?

o   Where is God?

o   Is God with you?

o   Does God like your prayers?

o   Does God like it when you sing to him?

o   Does God like it when you do nice things?

Crafts:

·         Make a God mobile.  Supplies:  wire hangers, white paper, precut white paper shapes, tape, markers, hole punch, yarn/string/ribbon.  Take a piece of white paper, fold it along the long axis, and cut a small hole in the center.  Pull the paper over the hook part of a coat hanger until it rests at the top of the triangle.  Orient the paper so that the long sides hang down over the triangle area.  Label this paper with the words “God”  Cut varying lengths of yarn (4-6 per student).  Precut various shapes of paper that are at least 3 inches square.  Hole punch each near the top.  After discussing who God is with the students, ask each individual student what they can tell you about God.  Expect very simple answers like “strong, makes things, loves.”  Try to get 4-6 different things out of them.  Write one on each small piece of paper and give it to the child to decorate.  They can also decorate the hanger paper.  Remind them not to color over the words so that they cannot be read.  When they are done, tie the small pieces of paper to the bottom of the coat hanger. 

Lower Elementary Lesson Notes:                                                                                                

This class will be focusing on the names of God.  They will be working through the names of Jesus and then the Holy Spirit in the coming weeks.  By seeing what people have called God in scripture, the students can begin to understand who God is.  Descriptive names help us see God’s identity.  The great thing about God is that he is consistent – eternal and unchanging.  While we can point to a human and say, “he’s nice” or “she’s honest,” we know that this is not always the case with a person.  They are just mostly nice – nice enough to be labeled “nice.”  If we label God something, he is always that something.  He is consistently that way, in fact as God, he is the source of that trait.  If God is loving, we can understand him as creator as being love itself.  All the love that there is comes from and through God.  If God is just, we can understand that justice finds its source in God.  There is no “kind of” about God!

Objectives:

·                                 Students will understand God’s character by what he does and by what people have called him over the years.  We find many names of God used in scripture.  This is one of the ways God reveals himself to us.

·                                 Students will begin to recognize God in different ways in scripture. 

·                                 Students will understand that a person’s actions (and God’s) define them. 

Activities:

·         Have the students describe themselves.  They can only use terms that describe things they do.  They can’t say nice or pretty, they have to say things like, acts with kindness to others, etc.  It will be a little hard at first, but help them find ways to define themselves by what they do.  Guide them away from adjectives over to verbs.

Crafts:

·         Make a God word collage.  Supplies:  Copies of the “God” page, markers or colored pencils, a list of the names of God.  Provide each student with a page with the word “God” spelled out in large balloon letters filling as much of the page as possible.  Students will use the list of the names of God to select their favorite ones.  They can write these names and decorate inside the letters G-O-D.

GOD

Upper Elementary Lesson Notes:                                                                                                

This class will be focusing on God as part of the Blessed Trinity.  As mentioned above, the Trinity is not discussed directly in the Bible.  Jesus makes reference to it when he tells the Apostles to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and in statements like “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” but we never hear him or anyone else use the word ‘Trinity” or explain the exact nature of it.  We are aware in scripture of the existence of all three parties, but how they relate an are intertwined is a mystery. 

We know that as Christians we are a monotheistic religion, meaning that we have one God.  But, we also know that there are three persons of the Trinity and they are distinct and different.  They are not “aspects” of the same person.  We can say the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and so on.  But we also know that they are in perfect union as well (again, one God). So we can say that each of the persons is God.  God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not assistants or demi-gods or lesser entities.  If you are talking to Jesus, he is God.  If you are talking to the Holy Spirit, you are talking to God.  What can get confusing is that many of us refer to God when we are thinking of the Father and thus the term God loses its meaning in the Trinitarian sense.  Sometimes we can even adopt the attitude that God, the Father, is over the other two persons.  That is why it is good to interchange the terms for the children so that God does not become a term reserved solely for the Father. 

There are a number of Christian symbols that are used for the Trinity.  The first image below illustrates the concept of the Trinity, showing the unity and distinctiveness of each of the persons.  The others just generally represent the trinity by showing either one shape with three sides/points/lobes, or the interlocking of shapes.

Once you’ve laid the ground work of Trinity it will be time to move on to the specific nature of God, the Father.  Each of the persons of the Blessed Trinity are both completely and perfectly united and yet unique and distinctly different.  This is how we are able to have a sense of each of the persons offering different contributions while still being one God.  It should be noted that because “they are inseparable in who they are, they are inseparable in what they do.  But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity” (CCC267).  In other words, we can think of their roles uniquely in the sense of Christ’s incarnation or the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  There are ways in which we interact with or perceive the individual persons of the Trinity without necessarily fully registering the participation of the other two (even though in reality they are inseparable).  Thus as we talk about God, the Father, it is reasonable that we will see certain things as attributed to specifically to him.  We just need to remember that the full Trinity is present and participating in any given thing. 

When we think of God, we see Him in particular as Creator, author of our salvation through His divine plan, the one who keeps us in existence, who is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful, who provides for us, who listens to our prayers, who receives and accepts our worship, who desires our presence with Him in heaven.  We understand His care for us in enjoying what He has provided for us and in seeing his plan for us.  Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you and been blown away by how much people loved and cared for you by planning and working to make the party special for you?  It’s hard not to feel really loved by someone who would go to that much trouble for you.  Now, multiply that out to someone planning and caring for all the people that have even been and will ever be!

Objectives:

·         Students will have a rough understanding of the Trinity based on the diagram below.  Discuss with them how the three people we talk about in church, read about in the Bible, and address in prayer are connected in Trinity. 

·         Make sure they understand that there is ONE God.  Even though we interact with three persons that feel separate to us, they are united even in their uniqueness.  Consider the following statements:  “Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father draws him and the Spirit moves him.” 

·         Students can describe God by his character, actions and how he has revealed himself in scripture.

Activities:

·         Use the Trinitarian image below to help explain the nature of the Trinity.

·         Have a discussion with the children in which they are able to list all the things they know about God.  Keep track of their answers on a white board or poster.  Help them along if there is a significant area they are overlooking.  Try to connect Jesus and the Holy Spirit to each thing they say so that they see the Trinity functioning as one.

·         Ask the children to think of all the ways they have seen God depicted or even how they picture him in their minds.  Ask them to think of the ways He is symbolized in images.  Some examples are a rainbow (remembering his covenant with Noah), a hand (symbolizing creation), a face in the clouds (symbolizing God in heaven).  See what else they can come up with.

·         Discuss the different Trinitarian symbols listed below.  Ask what they different aspects of the images represent.  If you have time, go on a field trip to the sanctuary and see how many of the shapes they can see depicted in the stained glass, linens, woodwork, etc.

Crafts:

·         Below there are a number of symbols of the Blessed Trinity.  Let the children pick their favorite and then create the symbols for themselves.  Ways they can make it include:  hammering nail holes in the metal lid of a frozen juice package to make a medallion; making a 3d image out of clay; reproducing the image in marker/colored pencil/watercolors/paint on a piece of drawing paper; cutting the shapes to make the image out of felt/fabric/construction paper and making a mini-banner; carving the image into a flat block of clay or soft balsa wood block.

Names of God:
Abba Rom 8:15
Above All Eph 4:6
Almighty God Deut 10:17
Alpha & Omega Rev 21:6
Always Awake Ps 121:4
Amen, The Rev 3:14
Ancient of Days Dan 7:9
Avenger Ps 94:1
Blessed Ps 144:1
Calmer of Storms Ps 107:29
Clothed With Honor Ps 104:1
Clothed With Majesty Ps 93:1
Clothed With Strength Ps 93:1
Comforter Is 66:13
Compassionate Lam 3:22
Conqueror of Our/My Enemies Ps 108:13
Consolation Rom 15:5
Consuming Fire Deut 4:24
Counselor Is 28:29
Covenant Keeper Ps 89:34
Covered With Light Ps 104:2
Creator Gen 1:1
Creator of the North & South Ps 89:12
Crown of Glory Is 28:5
Defense Ps 94:22
Deliverer Ps 91:3
Dew Hos 14:5
Director of My/Our Path Prov 3:6
Disciplinarian Ps 89:32
Doer of Wonders Ps 77:14
Dwelling Place Ps 90:1
El Shaddai (God Almighty) Ex 6:3
Emmanuel Is 8:8
Eternal God Deut 33:27
Everlasting Arms Deut 33:27
Everlasting God Is 40:28
Everlasting to Everlasting Ps 106:48
Everlasting Strength Is 26:4
Excellence Is 28:29
Excellent Ps 76:4
Faithful Lam 3:23
Father Is 63:16
Father of Lights Jms 1:17
Father of the Fatherless Ps 68:5
Feeder of the Hungry Ps 146:7
First & Last Is 41:4
Forgiving Num 14:18
Fortress Ps 91:2
Gentle Is 40:11
Gift Giver Jms 1:17
Giver of Good Things Matt 7:11
Glorious Ps 76:4
Glorious Lord Is 33:21
Glory Ps 3:3
Good Ps 145:7
Gracious Ps 145:8
Great Ps 145:3
Guide Ps 48:14
Habitation Ps 91:9
Healer Ex 15:26
Healer of Broken Hearts Ps 147:3
Helper Ps 146:5
Helper of the Fatherless Ps 10:14
Hiding Place Ps 32:7
High Tower Ps 144:2
Holy One Is 12:6
Holy Lev 19:2
Husband Is 54:5
Husbandman (Gardener) Jo 15:1
I Am Ex 3:14
In Us All Eph 4:6
Infinite Understanding Ps 147:5
Jealous Ex 34:14
Jehovah Jireh (will provide) Gen 22:14
Jehovah Nissi (our banner) Ex 17:15
Jehovah Shalom (our peace) Judges 6:24
Jehovah Shammah (is there) Ez 48:35
Jehovah Tsidkenu (our righteousness) Jer 23:6
Judge Gen 18:25
Just Is 45:21
Keeper Ps 121:5
King of Glory Ps 24:10
King of All the Earth Ps 47:7
Lawgiver Is 33:22
Lifter of Our/My Head Ps 3:3
Light Ps 27:1
Living Water Jer 2:13
Longsuffering Num 14:18
Lord Gen 15:2
Lord God Omnipotent Rev 19:6
Lord of Hosts Ps 24:10
Lord of Lords Deut 10:17
Lord of the Sabbath Ex 20:10
Lord on High Ps 93:4
Love 1Jo 4:8
Lovingkindness Ps 89:33
Majesty Ps 145:5
Maker of Heaven & Earth Ps 115:15
Man of War Ex 15:3
Merciful Eph 2:4
Mighty Lu 1:49
Mighty & Terrible Ps 93:4
Mighty in Wisdom Job 36:5
Miracle Worker Matt 19:26
Most High Dan 7:27
Never Changing Jms 1:17
Near Ps 145:18
Never Weary Is 40:28
Omnipresent Ps 139:7 10
One Who Sanctifies Num 8:17
Peacemaker Prov 16:7
Perfect Matt 5:48
Physician Ps 103:3
Potter Is 64:8
Powerful Ps 66:7
Promise Keeper Is 46:11
Provider Matt 6:31 33
Ready to Forgive Ps 86:5
Reconciler 2Cor 5:18 19
Redeemer Is 54:5
Refiner Mal 3:3
Refuge Ps 46:1
Refuge from the Storm Is 25:4
Repairer of the Breach Is 58:12
Rescuer Dan 6:27
Revenger Ps 94:1
Righteous Ps 5:8
Rock 2Sam 22:32
Rock of Our/My Refuge Ps 94:22
Rock of Our/My Salvation Ps 89:26
Ruler Judges 8:23
Salvation Ps 91:16
Satisfier of Desires Ps 145:16
Satisifier of the Longing Soul Ps 107:9
Saviour Ps 106:21
Shade on Our/My Right Hand Ps 121:5
Shadow from the Heat Is 25:4
Shepherd Ps 23
Shield Ps 3:3
Slow to Anger Ps 103:8
Song Is 12:2
Steadfast Dan 6:26
Strength to the Needy Is 25:4
Strength to the Poor Is 25:4
Strength, Our/My Ps 46:1
Strong Ps 89:8
Sun, A Ps 84:11
Sustainer Ps 3:5
Teacher Ps 119
Through All Eph 4:6
Trust Ps 71:5
Trustworthy Ps 144:2
Truthful 1Sam 15:29
Upright Ps 25:8
Walks on Wings of the Wind Ps 104:3
Wisdom Dan 2:20
Worthy Rev 4:11