MARY

MARY

Mary was the mother of Jesus.  She was a young girl, engaged to marry Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. One evening, the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that God was giving her a child, a child that would be the son of God.  Mary was afraid, but the angel Gabriel told her not to fear because she had found favor with the Lord.  Gabriel told Mary to name her baby Jesus.  Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with her son, St. John the Baptist.  When Elizabeth heard the news, her baby leapt for joy inside her.  Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth and when the Roman Emperor announced that there should be a census, everyone had to return to their hometown to be counted.  So Mary and Joseph had to travel south to the town of Bethlehem.  It was in Bethlehem, the town of David, that Mary gave birth to Jesus.  The town was filled with people for the census, so the only place for Mary to have the baby was in a stable.  She placed baby Jesus in a manger.  Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth, where they had other children and raised Jesus.  Mary is mentioned throughout Jesus’ life and was there when he was crucified.

NOAH

NOAH

Noah was one of the heroes of the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible.  God had become very angry with the people in the world because of their wicked ways.  Noah was considered a good and righteous man.  So God commanded Noah to build an ark and even told him how to build it.  God was very specific about the size and the wood (cypress) Noah should use to build the ark.  God told Noah that he, his wife, and his sons and their wives were to board the ark.  First, though, Noah had to collect two of all the living creatures on earth, male and female, and bring them onto the ark.    Noah also had to bring food for everyone on the ark.  After everyone was on board, God caused it to rain for forty days and forty nights.  The earth was flooded and every living creature except those on the ark were drowned.  God wanted to cleanse the earth of all the wickedness.  It took many days for the earth to dry out.  Noah sent a dove out to check the dryness.  The dove finally came back with an olive leaf.  Then God told Noah to let all the animals go.  God made a covenant with Noah to never again destroy the world.  The sign of the covenant was a rainbow.  Noah was considered to be a second Adam, the father of all people.  

Miriam and Simon Peter

SIMON PETER

St. Peter

St. Peter was first known as Simon.  Jesus renamed him “Cephas”, the aramaic name for Peter which meant stone or rock. Later church officials believe that Peter was the ‘rock’ the church was built on.  Peter was one of the first disciple to be recruited by Jesus.  He and his brother, Andrew, were lowly fishermen.  Jesus told them he would teach them to be “fishers of men”.  In the Gospels, Peter is often the disciple who speaks for the other disciples.  He was very vocal about proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.  Peter was also known for sharing his doubts.  Peter was the disciple who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed the morning after Jesus was arrested.  But Peter was also the first disciple to see Jesus after his resurrection.  He became a leader in the new young church.  He preached, healed the sick, and travelled to share the message of Jesus.  He ended up in Rome where he died as a martyr. 

MIRIAM

Miriam, as we learned last Fall, was the sister of Moses and Aaron.  Miriam is the one who watched over Moses after his mother placed him in the Nile River.  When Pharaoh's daughter found the baby, she named him Moses, which means "to draw out" as she took him from the water.  It was Miriam who went to her mother and brought her to Pharaoh's Daughter to bet the nurse for Moses.  Miriam led the celebration of the Hebrews after the parting of the Reed Sea and the escape from the Egyptians.  Miriam was called a prophet in Exodus after she led the women in the tambourine dance at the celebration.  Exodus 15 is called the Song of Moses and Miriam.  It is a song that celebrates God and the Hebrew's victory over the Egyptians.  Miriam died befre the Hebrews made it tho the promised land.  In Micah 6:4 Miriam is remembered as one of the leaders of the Exodus with her brothers, Moses and Aaron.

Moses and St. John the Baptist

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

St. John the Baptist was a cousin to Jesus.  He was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah six months before Jesus.  When Mary told her cousin, Elizabeth, that she was going to have a child, it is said the John, the child of Elizabeth, leapt for joy.  John’s parents were given strict instructions by Gabriel, the angel, on how to raise John.  He was to be raised as a member of a priestly family, with limits on his eating and behavior.  We don’t know much about his childhood (like Jesus). He appears in the gospels as coming from the desert wearing camel-hair garments and eating locusts and wild honey.  John preached the new idea of baptism--immersion in water for the redemption of sin. This was a very different idea than what to Jewish priests were preaching.  The Jewish priests were clinging to centuries old rituals.  John introduced the idea that being saved was for everyone.  This meant he baptized the tax collectors, poor people and even women.  John was preparing the way for Jesus.  St. John was the man who baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, when God announced how pleased he was with his son, Jesus.  St. John the Baptist became a martyr when he died at the hands of the Romans.

MOSES

Moses was the man who with God’s help freed the Israeli slaves from the Pharaoh in Egypt. He was saved by the Pharaoh's daughter at the edge of the Nile and raised in the palace. He had to leave the country as a young man after he killed an Egyptian who was hurting a Hebrew slave.  Moses went to the desert where he lived until God called to him from a burning bush.  God asked Moses to return to Egypt and free the Hebrew slaves.  Moses and his brother, Aaron, were able to free the slaves but it took ten plagues and the miracle of the Reed Sea parting to save everyone.  Moses and the Hebrews went on to wander the desert for 40 years.  During this time, God gave to the people, through Moses, the Ten Commandments.  He also provided food (manna and doves) and water for everyone.  The Ark of the Covenant was built to carry holy items during their desert wanderings.  Because Moses did not always listen to God he was allowed to see the Promised Land but could not step foot there.  Moses died on the banks of the river Jordan before the Hebrews could cross.

St. Luke's Lenten Madness

St. Luke's Lenten Madness

2013

Welcome to St. Luke’s Lenten Madness.  This is an idea borrowed from college basketball’s March Madness and the Episcopal-based Lenten Madness on the internet.  Essentially, St. Luke’s Lenten Madness is a bracket-based voting contest to discover who will win the Golden Halo.  This personality should be someone the children connect with on a spiritual basis, the person who speaks to the heart and mind.

Lenten Madness is open to all our reading children.  Each week during Lent they will be given a brief biography of two contestants. They will then be able to vote for their choice. The biographies will be available at Sunday School, emailed to their parents or grandparents, and online at a special blog site.  The children can then vote the following week at Sunday School, online, or by phone.

Here is the 2013 starting bracket -