3 Ways Into Sunday’s Stories for Children: Superpowers

Fourth Sunday of Lent

This week our journey will take us to another surprise encounter with Jesus in the Gospel, and to a familiar psalm that reminds us of Jesus, our “Good Shepherd.” When we think about Jesus’ time in the desert, we remember that he was tempted to use superpowers so that he could prove that he was God’s son. Instead, he chose to act like a shepherd, a vocation with very low status. We can wonder about all the ways that Jesus as a shepherd shows us the true power of God: leading from the front to recognize abundance and danger, walking next to us in compassion, and following from behind to be with the stragglers and keep them from getting lost.

Print, fold, read, and color the story booklet.

1. Sing and Dance

Sing or listen along with Bobby McFerrin’s arrangement of Psalm 23 performed by The Choir of Trinity Wall Street. And dance with slow movement and breath, or pantomime the imagery in the psalm.

2. Play and Pray

With family or a few friends, make a conga line. But blindfold the leader! How can the people behind help guide the leader? Take turns in different positions and share how each one felt.

Pray: Merciful God, you are with us through our highs and lows. Thank you for being with us and providing what we need. Help us to be just and true and to live in your love. Amen.

3. Create

Create a fear-conquering superhero. What do you fear? Draw a superhero and/or comic strip about a time when fears were conquered with a shepherd’s superpower, like kindness, trust, compassion, faith… What would that look like? 

Other Lenten activities:

• Make an ACTS prayer prompt fortune teller.
• Print this Lenten calendar. Each day, choose one lenten practice for your family to try. Put a sticker on or mark the spaces after you have completed that day’s practice. Feel free to continue that practice throughout Lent and ongoing. (There are 46 days in Lent, but we don’t include Sundays, as they are “little Easters.” It’s up to you if you want to take a break from your Lenten practices on Sundays or not.)
• Make a Paschal candle. Cover or hide it until the Easter Vigil or Easter morning. Then, light it every day or each Sunday during the 50 days of Eastertide.
• Choose from these weekly practices for Lent or make up your own as a family.

We will have materials for all of these activities and copies of the book Sparrow’s Prayer at Children’s Time, Sundays at 10am on the Mezzanine, for children to take home throughout Lent or while supplies last.