Dear Lord . . .

Hear our prayer on behalf of the Sunday School. In Your grace and mercy . . .

• Grant that all churches find children in their midst with whom to share Your Word.
• Grant to all churches willing servants to teach and direct the Sunday School.
• Bless pastors with both the desire and ability to make Sunday School a high priority in the congregation's ministry.
• Bless congregations with an abundance of gifts to support Sunday School with excellent resources.
• Teach discernment to Sunday School leaders to recognize the errors of moralism and works righteousness and to seek an appropriate balance of Law and Gospel as they choose curriculum for their teachers.
• Give parents both the desire to see their children in Sunday School each week and the willingness to attend Sunday School each week themselves.
• Give all who teacher Your Word wisdom and understanding, both of the Word and of the students they teach, so that their lessons might be effective in building Your kingdom.

We ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

What Must I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?

He asked the wrong question! This account of Jesus' conversation with the rich ruler appears in three of the four Gospels. The title of this post quotes the Mark and Luke accounts (Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:17-27). But the rich ruler who addressed this question to Jesus asked the wrong question.

"What must I do!" Jesus makes clear to the man, and to us, that this asks the impossible. Human beings do not have the ability to do their own salvation. We have inherited a sinful nature from our first parents. We sin in what we do and in what we do not do. If we seek to merit eternal life, we have already failed.

Jesus' response sends the man away sad.

This question is a key to teaching God's children His Word. Don't send the children you teach away sad, seeking to earn eternal life through moral living, trying to be like Jesus, and failing. Point them instead as Jesus does, to God's strength as the source of eternal life. “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

It's not what we do. It's God's amazing grace! God has done it! He sent Jesus to earn our salvation. He gives us His Word and promise. He washes us clean through our Baptism. He forgives and strengthens us through the Sacrament of the Altar.

Does the curriculum you use teach clearly about Jesus in every lesson, about God's gifts of Baptism and the Lord's Supper? Or does it send children away sad?

God bless you as you teach His children His Word!

What Is at the Center?

Why do some folks take so much time choosing a treat from a box of chocolates?

It's because it's all about the center, the heart, the core, the inside. We want the center to be the very best among the many choices in the box.

Sunday School lessons are also about the center! What the lesson is designed to teach! Everything else either supports the central truth of the lesson, or it is window dressing.

But I heard it again this week, that some folks actually don't care about the center of the lessons in the material they purchase for Sunday School. "It's easier to fix the theology than to add the window dressing!" Forgive me for being blunt, but that's not my experience.

If the center of the lesson, the theological point that it intends to teach, is wrong, everything essential in the lesson will be wrong as well. The introduction will introduce the error. The discussion questions will draw out the error. The activities, if they are chosen carefully, will continue to teach the error.

A moralistic lesson with a kernel of Gospel tacked on will still be, at its heart, a moralistic lesson. Unless, of course, the lesson was all window dressing in the first place.

A Sunday School teacher has twenty, or perhaps thirty, opportunities a year to teach a child about the saving truth of the Gospel, which God shares with us in Word and Sacrament. I challenge you to make each of the opportunities count. Don't settle for material that is not centered in the Gospel.

Thanks for all you do to teach God's children His saving Word!

Can Non-Lutheran Material Teach Lutheran Students?

Does the publisher of your Sunday School material teach that God creates saving faith in Christ through the Word and water of the Sacrament of Baptism? What a blessing for those little ones who face temptation or guilt over sin to be reminded that "I am baptized!"

Does the publisher of your Sunday School material teach that we cannot earn our salvation or merit God's favor though our human effort? What a comfort for your students to know that Jesus has paid the full price for our sin and earned forgiveness, life, and salvation through His work! God loves us despite our sin and sees us as saints, righteous in His sight, because God sees us clothed in Christ.

Does your publisher teach that all of the Bible is God's inerrant Word, that God has the power to do all the wonders the Bible describes, even those that we cannot comprehend in our limited human brains? What joy that the children you teach do not have to guess whether this miracle of God is one that really happened!

Does your Sunday School material teach that Jesus is important because He is the Son of God and our Savior from sin, death, and the devil? How wonderful that your students don't see Jesus as just a moral example of how they should act and live, or a wise teacher, one of many.

If your Sunday School curriculum comes from Concordia Publishing House, you can be sure of these things. If you use material from a non-Lutheran publisher, no matter how good their marketing or flashy their material, then you have no guarantees. Why would you expect a non-Lutheran publisher to teach accurate Lutheran theology?

God's blessings as you teach His children His Word!

"Jesus in Every Lesson" What Does that Mean?

I see this tag line used frequently in curriculum advertising. It makes me wonder . . .

What do they mean?

It's possible to have Jesus in every lesson you teach and still teach moralism.

• Some religions teach that Jesus was a great prophet but not as great as Muḥammad.
• Some religions teach that Jesus was a great teacher.
• Some religions teach that Jesus is our best example of how to live a God-pleasing life.

These religions could teach Jesus in every lesson, and still leave the students stuck in sin, condemned by the Law. They teach children to trust in the wrong Savior. They urge us to earn our own salvation through works done by our own human effort. But the Bible tells us clearly that no one be good enough to earn salvation, and no other name will save us except Jesus.

So, yes, teach Jesus in every lesson. Teach Him clearly through both Law (we have failed to live according to God's will; we have done things He forbids and failed to do the things He commands) and Gospel (Jesus suffered for our sin, died in our place, paid for our sin, and conquered death on our behalf; those with faith in Him have forgiveness, life, and salvation).

Teach Old Testament lessons that point your students to Jesus as their Savior from sin, death, and the devil.

Teach New Testament lessons that show God's love for your students in the life and work of His Son, Jesus.

But don't settle for "Jesus in every lesson" if the full truth of God's Word is not clearly present.

God bless you as you teach God's Word . . . Law and Gospel . . . in every lesson!