why teach Sunday School

The first grade Sunday School teacher obviously had not prepared to teach. She flipped through the Bible story book looking for a story. With a lackadaisical shrug, she began a four sentence lesson about Jesus walking on the water. Then she transitioned so quickly to the conclusion that I have no idea how she reached her moral of the story, “Study hard, go to college, get a good education so you can get a good job.” I happened to be in the class because a timid, visiting grandchild needed moral support to visit the unfamiliar classroom. If not for her, I never would have known how that teacher concluded her lessons. She had done it so often that a regular student echoed the mantra. When she said that, I blinked in disbelief. That story is just too exciting and interesting to tell so flippantly. “Would you mind if I told that story? I just read it this week,” I asked. She stepped back. I took seven or eight minutes to tell the same story, stamping my feet on the concrete to show how solid the water felt that day when the storm raged around them. Seeing Jesus walking on water, Peter dared ask to join him. He climbed out of the boat and walked on water until he looked down. He stepped out on faith. He looked away and doubted. He began sinking. Keep your eyes on Jesus. It’s a grand story; I did not want my grandchild or the other kids to miss it or the faith lesson it teaches. When the teacher moved away the next month, I took her place. I like Bible stories. They show how folks back then responded to their circumstances. Some step out on faith and begin to sink. Others persist in the face of a complete upheaval of their world as happened to Daniel and his three friends. Rcently, I taught about Daniel and his three friends taken to Babylon as slaves to be trained to serve the idol-worshiping king. Daniel and his friends looked at all the fantastic food the king provided for them and shook their heads. As the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob they had learned very early in life that some foods were unclean. They did not eat those foods. Daniel asked their steward to only be served vegetables and water. He did not want to defile himself with the unclean food, even if it did come directly from the king’s table. His supervising steward let them reject the king’s food for ten days. In the end, they all looked healthier than the other Israelite slaves who enjoyed the king’s food. The four continued their vegan diet for the three years of training. I have heard and read the story many times in my life. I thought every child knew that story. I was wrong. Half the class had never heard about the teenagers taken to a foreign land to be highly trained slaves who resolved to only eat vegetables and drink water. All the Israelite slaves had lost the war, their country, their families and their names. But Daniel and his friends had not lost their faith and determination to obey its tenants. “It would be kind of like you going without chips, candy and sodas,” I said. “Well, I couldn’t do that,” they said. “I understand. I am not very good at staying on a diet like that for a long time. Still here were four guys who determined they would live God’s way, even if it made them look different. They did it and were smarter and stronger than all the others. It’s something to think about,” I concluded.Living by faith can feel as scary as stepping out of a boat in a storm or as tedious as only consuming vegetables and water for three years. The stories demonstrate it can be done, one step, one day at a time, and I think kids need to hear that early and often.