Comment of the day goes to the new girl. Maybe about five years old, young enough that she wanted to sit in her mom’s lap during the Godly Play story. Of course we had a bunch of kids on laps this week, whether a parent’s lap or an older sibling’s… the Godly Play circle on Easter was crowded, cozy, close, very full.
We tell the whole story of Jesus, from birth to crucifixion (what’s that? someone asked) and the mystery of life after death. We take the story out of its straight line from beginning to end, and put it in a circle so it can go on forever. We ask the children, “I wonder which part of this story was the most important?” and they give various responses, agreeing or disagreeing with one another, offering different reasons why. There were a lot of good responses to that question, but only one of them caused my jaw to drop. The new girl, her small hand still high in the air, said “the part where it was the women who went to see him, because usually men get to do the important stuff, but the women did that part.”
I gave her “comment of the day” (secretly, in my mind – we don’t have prizes or up-vote buttons in Godly Play) because to me that is the part that so many people miss. The backwards way of Christ’s life, where the last are first, and the first are last, where the outsiders are on the inside, and the deprivileged become important, is at the center of the Gospel. Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of God” (Mt18:3). And I thank this little child for bringing me back to the center of the story.
I was reminded, too, of my commitment to write some more women’s Godly Play stories. Do you know the story of the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet? Four different versions of that story are told in the four gospels, and in two of them it is said, “wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” The words at the end are nearly the same as our commandment to celebrate communion “in remembrance of me” (of Christ). Yet the story is not told often, and we don’t remember her much. The rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar is a notable exception that includes a song about the anointing, and Judas’ confronting her, at the very beginning. But I think she deserves more… a Godly Play story, and perhaps a few sermons. Stay tuned, and I will let you know when I need some play-testers to help play with the story.
Every Blessing,
Talitha