Journey to Jesus: Kneeler Stage, The Battle

Find this drawing here.

(If you're just joining this series, it begins here.)

Now that we've talked about kairos moments and the way that God is initiating kingdom work in our lives each and every day, we talk about the reality that each moment is not just a moment of choosing between God and self, but is, ultimately a moment of choosing where we stand in the continual battle that wages since before our story began. We are choosing to be aligned with Christ or with Satan (for more on this, see this post).

Spiritual warfare. There seem to be two dramatic extremes when it comes to the topic. We either avoid discussing spiritual warfare at all costs, or it becomes what dominates the way we relate to the world. Things are either "just coincidence" without any connect to the spiritual realm, or they were caused by angelic / demonic activity.

I grew up in the first extreme. In my understanding, everything was spiritually innocuous. Christ had ascended into heaven and we all awaited his return... until then, not much was happening in the spiritual realm. When I moved to California and met some evangelicals, I was introduced to Frank Perretti's books. When I read This Present Darkness, I was completely freaked out. No one had ever come anywhere close to suggesting to me that there might actually be demonic and angelic involvement in the life of humans.

As we Journey to Jesus together, I feel it's important for kids to understand that the spiritual realm is real. They need to know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. However, they also need to know that the decisive battle has already been won and we have been given everything we need to continue to stand until its conclusion.

And so we talk about Ephesians 6 and Roman armor. There are some good technical descriptions of the purposes of each piece of uniform here, but I'm sure there are probably even better ones available in a good commentary on Ephesians. This feels so incredibly practical to the kids. They can imagine each piece of armor and what purpose it served. They can draw connections from the physical to the spiritual. This concrete to abstract connection is right where their brains live when they are 9-12 years old.

What is harder for them to grasp is the tension between the military language and the non-violent way of following Jesus in the way of the cross. Here, I try to draw out some of the things we learn about the battle in the book of Revelation, which I gained from Michael Gorman. The Lamb (Jesus Christ) wages war very differently from the Beast (Satan).

Find this drawing here.

·      The Lamb conquers by enduring suffering and death

·      The Beast conquers by inflicting suffering and death

·      The Lamb endures suffering and death in order to free others from suffering and death.

·      The Beast oppresses others with suffering and death in order to perpetuate / multiply suffering and death

When we use the tactics of evil to try to resist / overcome evil, we become beastly. When we follow the faithful endurance of the Lamb, we become more like Christ and share in His victory over evil, sin, death and experience freedom from evil, sin, death. We are already sealed by the Lamb… His Holy Spirit is a guarantee that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

And so we do not fight the way a person would fight a battle on a battlefield. Instead, we stand in the victory that is already decided, in the power and the authority and the presence of Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, who stands in us and through us. I don't think the kids even come close to really understanding this. But, then again, how many of us as adults can really understand it? 

Journey to Jesus: Kneeler Stage: Two Roads, Two Kingdoms

(If you're just joining this series, it begins here.)

After exploring the over-arching narrative in which we live (simplified, of course), we're ready to talk about the daily journey. Every kairos moment is a moment of choosing which kingdom we journey toward: kingdom of God or kingdom of self (and consequently, the kingdom of our enemy who longs to keep us from God).

I love this illustration that I found here. I don't know what was in the mind of the artist when he or she created it, but it nearly perfectly exemplifies the complexity of the choices we make every day. The options that are most celebrated and lauded by our culture are often the ones that lead to darkness and death; whereas the ones that look dangerous and risky and ridiculous in the eyes of the dominant culture (toward the kingdom) are the ones that lead to life. (I could say much more about post-modern suspicion represented in this, but that's not what this post is about.)

The illustration I draw on the white board of two kingdoms is not nearly as creative or layered as the one here, but it helps the kids to consider that they are continuously presented with forks in the road. One road is an invitation to live in fellowship and communion with God and the other is an invitation to live for something else. This is the constant conflict we live within.

I read an excerpt from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in which Eustace has become a dragon. Ending with this segment: "He realized that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race.  An appalling loneliness came over him.  He began to see the others had not really been fiends at all.  He began to wonder if he himself had been such a nice person as he had always supposed.  He longed for their voices… It was very dreary being a dragon.  He shuddered whenever he caught sight of his own reflection as he flew over a mountain lake.  He hated the huge bat-like wings, the saw-edge ridge on his back, and the cruel curved claws.  He was almost afraid to be alone with himself and yet he was ashamed to be with the others.” 

C.S. Lewis talks about how Eustace became a dragon by thinking dragonish thoughts and dreaming dragonish dreams. I pause and ask the kids about the dragonish thoughts and dreams that they sometimes dwell on. Some examples might be, "He has what I want. I want more." "She's being mean to me, I'll be even meaner to her!" "I'm much more important / interesting / intelligent, etc. than ___, why does everybody pay so much attention to ___ instead of me?" etc.

After the kids (and their parents!) have shared some dragonish thoughts, we continue reading in the Dawn Treader as Eustace explains to Caspian, Lucy and Edmund where he has been. We end with this part: "Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been.  And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been.  Then he caught hold of me – I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on – and threw me into the water.  It smarted like anything but only for a moment.  After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone… And then I saw why.  I’d turned into a boy again…

After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me… in new clothes.”

Eustace tried to peel the dragon skin off himself a few times, but each time, it grew back. We reference Romans 7 and talk about how much a part of the Christian life this struggle is. No one is above it. No one has completely triumphed over it. But the good news is in Romans 8. The Spirit sets us free from sin and death and empowers us to live differently. The picture of Eustace being taken out by the lion and dressed in new clothes is a picture of baptism. Our old selves are put off and we are clothed in Christ Himself. 

We turn to Ephesians and explore the command to live as children of light, being filled with the Spirit (You could also turn to Colossians 3:5-17, Galatians 5:16-26). We talk about the put off / put on dynamic and find some examples in this passage of things that need to be taken off and things that need to be put on, keeping in mind that all of this is only possible by the empowering of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. 

I ask the kids some questions: Have you ever tried to get rid of your own dragon scales? Tried to be better? Tried to behave better? Tried harder? How did it go?

If God’s not involved… if God isn’t the center of the process, all of our efforts are essentially worthless… short-lived, temporary. We must realize that scratching at our own scales is not a permanent solution and so we must place ourselves at the mercy of the lion’s claws.

For reflection for the week to come, I toss out some questions: What are your dragon scales?  Which parts of yourself do you think are least pleasing to God?  To your parents?  What do you most often feel sorry about?  Or what are you most often disciplined for?  What must you put ON to replace these?  If you yield to him, what can you expect from God on your behalf?  For next week, think about a situation in which you were disciplined or felt sorry about your behavior or attitude.  How can you depend on the Holy Spirit to empower you to take a newly redeemed action if this old situation comes up again, now that you know that Christ is re-clothing you?

Even though there is conflict in this life and we are constantly presented with the bondage that evil brings on one hand and the freedom we have with Christ on the other hand, we persevere in the Spirit of Christ, acknowledging the tension between what we are and what we have been called to become (Romans 6-8, Colossians 3, 5). Each and every kairos moment is an opportunity to turn again toward Jesus, to keep on the Journey to Jesus, to depend on the Spirit as Jesus Himself did on earth.

Journey to Jesus - Kneeler Stage

Now that we have covered the stages of conversion, the need for conversion, the Apostle's Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, it is time for us to move into the 'kneeler' stage (for the overview of the series, start here). The kneeler stage fits perfectly with the season of lent, as it is reflective and asks the question, "how do I become more like Jesus?"

At this point, I teach the kids the circle and we walk through a few kairos moments to help them get the hang of asking the questions, "what is God saying? and how will I respond?" The kids draw the circle on a bright piece of paper and I ask them to hang it somewhere visible in their house where they and their parents can use it to discuss any kairos moments that come up during the week.

After we've gone through the circle, I tell the kids a joke. But they never laugh. The reason they don't laugh is because I don't actually tell the joke, I only say the punchline. Because they don't know what came before, the punchline isn't funny and they don't get it. I act all naive and pretend that I just don't understand why they don't think it's funny. When they finally explain to me that I have to tell the first part of the joke or the punchline isn't funny, I feign surprise and amazement. Then I tell them the beginning of the joke and the punchline now makes sense.

This is like our life with God. If we don't know what has happened before we were born into the story, chances are that much of the story of our life won't make any sense. Using the basic outline of Epic, by John Eldredge, I tell the kids the grand narrative of our story. While I tell the story, they draw a picture for each of the acts to help them remember.

Act 1: Eternal Love, fellowship, community of the Trinity
Act 2: Rebellion, Jealousy, God's character is questioned by Satan & his angels, who are cast out of heaven.
Act 3: Creation, Fall, Flood, Exodus, Nation of Israel, Exile, Rebuilding of the Temple, Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Pentecost, Early Church, all of history up until now.
Act 4: Christ Returns, Restoration of all things, New Heaven, New Earth, Eternal love, fellowship, community of the Trinity with humanity.

From this explanation of the story, we see that loving community is the beginning of the story and loving community is the continual movement of the story. Everything can be understood as God's goal of restoring, renewing, establishing loving community with humanity.

Now that we see the overarching story, we recognize that we live in a story that is incomplete. There is a protagonist (a hero) and an antagonist (an enemy) and humanity / creation is the place where that conflict is played out. The antagonist seeks to thwart loving community with the Trinity at every turn, and God keeps inviting humanity into loving community with Himself. Our role is to receive the invitation into loving community with the Father, Son & Holy Spirit, and humanity and to resist the natural inclination (sin) to turn against God and humanity.

This is where we find ourselves in our kairos moments. When we experience strong emotions, it is often because we are feeling the pull to turn against or to receive God's invitation to be loved and embraced. These are the moments that shape and form us as we continually make choices to receive or resist the invitation to loving community. This is the battle we face throughout our lifetime.