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Cain and Abel, and jealousy

Today’s lesson looked at two important points that came out of the story of Cain and Abel. 

1) Whatever you do for God, or give to God, do so to the best of your ability.

The two brothers, Cain and Abel, each made sacrifices to God.  Cain sacrificed “some of” his crops and Abel sacrificed “the first-born of his flock”. There is something general about Cain’s sacrifice but something special about Abel’s. The Bible [in Genesis 4] is not clear on why, but for some reason God “looked with favour” on Abel’s sacrifice but not so with Cain’s. This angered Cain. The closest God comes to explaining why he did not accept Cain’s is in saying to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”  Apparently, the substance of the two sacrifices had little to do with God’s pleasure at it or not.  Rather, it had something to do with “doing what is right” in making the sacrifice.

This reminded me of the story [Mark 12:41 – 44] in which a poor widow put “two tiny coins” into the temple’s treasury chest while many rich people put in “large sums.”  Jesus’ praise for the widow over the rich people had nothing to do with the absolute amount involved but something to do with the circumstances of the people involved and the resources from which their offerings came.  We should aim to give God the best we have to offer.

Click here to watch a brief story of Cain and Abel.

2) Dealing with jealousy.

As with Cain and Abel, the things that we do (e.g. playing soccer, cooking, singing) are often not as good as what someone else does.  Sometimes we think that we are not admired or liked as much as someone else. These things can happen even in our own families. In this video a priest discusses how we can accept and deal with such situations.  Click here to watch it.

Loving the outcast

Today’s lesson looked at how Jesus loved the “outcasts” of the society at that time, and how he encourages us to also love the outcasts of our modern society.  In biblical times outcasts were people excluded from mainstream religious, economic, and social life for various reasons.  Outcasts included…

  • The sick and “unclean”: People with chronic skin diseases (often translated as “leprosy”) were prevented from entering towns.  People with physical disabilities or bodily discharges were barred from entering the temple.
  • Occupational outcasts: Tax collectors were despised because they were seen as traitors who collaborated with the Roman Empire and who often extorted money from their own people. Shepherds were also viewed with deep suspicion and were frequently barred from formal religious life due to a reputation for dishonesty.  I did not know this before preparing the lesson.  It is therefore especially significant that Jesus’ birth was first announced to shepherds.
  • Social and vulnerable classes: Widows and orphans lacked legal protection, economic independence, and social standing in a patriarchal society.
  • Foreigners: Non-Jews or foreigners living in Israel (like the Samaritans) were marginalized and socially avoided.
  • “Sinners” and moral outcasts: Prostitutes, the uneducated, and anyone whose lifestyle violated the strict legalism of the religious elite were branded as outcasts.

Jesus openly interacted with all these groups of people (which really annoyed the religious leaders).

The lesson asked the children to name all the people they do not like. They were then asked to understand that Jesus loves each of these mean, stinky and bad people just as much as he loves us.  Our challenge is also to love those people as much as Jesus loves them.  

Short videos highlighting showing how Jesus healed diseases and included all “outcasts” were used.  Here they are.  You can watch them again with your children.

This full length movie (The detective) was not used in the lesson but I recommend it to adults.  It is about a priest who tracks down a thief, not to arrest him but to bring him to repentance.  It is on You Tube so it is frequently interrupted by adverts, which is annoying, but please be patient and just click to skip through the adverts.  The movie is very thought provoking.

Christmas Day to Pentecost

The lesson on 17 May 2026 covered 5 major events:

1) Christmas Day.  This celebrates Jesus coming to our world in the form of a human baby.  We spoke about Jesus coming to teach us a better way of living, to take care of other people, to take care of the world that he created, to live like Jesus lived, and to create Heaven here in our world.

2) Good Friday.  The day Jesus was killed by people who were opposed to his teaching.

3) Easter Day.  The day Jesus came back to life.

4) Ascension Day (which we celebrated last Thursday).  The day Jesus returned to heaven after 40 days with his disciples and followers in which he explained that he would be leaving them but that he would send a helper to them.

5) Pentecost Day (which we will celebrate next Sunday).  The day the Holy Spirit came to the disciples as the helper that Jesus promised he would send.

A verse that the children memorised was “Jesus said, I am with you always and forever.  Even until the end of time.”  I shared moments in my life when I felt that Jesus was with me.  Quite unexpectedly several children came to me individually after the lesson and told me of moments when they felt that Jesus was with them.

Two videos were used in the lesson.  Please watch them again with your children.

1) The story around Ascension Day.

2) The story around Pentecost.

A scientist’s road to belief

While collecting examples of music to help the choir learn the songs we sing, I stumbled across a video about a scientist’s unusual path to faith. He is not just “any old scientist” but is a world-reknowned scientist. His name is Francis Collins,  an American physician-scientist who discovered the genes associated with a number of diseases and led the Human Genome Project. 

In the video he explains how “atheism would no longer be an acceptable choice for him” and that that “was the least rational of the options.”

Please watch this video. It is really fascinating.

Bible quizes

Here are some fun quizes that you can try with your children, or the whole family can get involved. Perhaps these or similar (more difficult) quizes can be used in a Quiz Evening as a parish event.

Easter … before and after

We did not have Sunday School on Easter Sunday, because the Easter Vigil service was very early. We also did not have Sunday School in the weeks before Easter for various reasons so there was no opportunity to teach the children about some of the very important events in the life of Jesus that are central to our faith.

In this lesson we learned about the following. Please click on the links to watch the videos with your children. They are each less than 5 minutes.

God is alive. This explains how Jesus was arrested and abused in the events leading up to Good Friday. It tells how Jesus was killed on the cross. It describes how Jesus was placed in a tomb and how some of the women followers discovered the empty tomb 3 days later and several events when various people met Jesus was now alive.

After the tomb. This descibes how many followers did not immediately learn that Jesus was alive. It describes the men meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus meeting some disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Later Jesus appeared to more than 500 people. The story descibes how Jesus left but promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with us and that one day he would come back again.

Jesus appears to Thomas. Thomas was not around on Easter Day when the other disciples witnessed that Jesus was alive. He only returned from wherever he had been about 8 days later. Thomas was reluctant to believe such impossible news. The story tells how Jesus reassured Thomas and did not criticise him (or us) for not immediately believing.

We learned two songs that you might want to sing with your children.