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Ordinary Time, Proper 8, Year C

Scripture: Luke 9:51-62

Rejection. To the disciples’ horror, the people of the village did not receive Jesus. Retribution, they insisted!  “No,” said Jesus, moving on. Follow, they decided. But what would follow mean? Maybe to follow is to hold focus. Staying on focus involves choosing the important and not getting bogged down in the urgent. What is the important that we follow?

Download the Lesson Plans for Proper 8

LPTW Proper 8, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 8, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Proper 8, Year C, Adult
LPTW Proper 8, Year C, All

Ordinary Time, Proper 7, Year C

Scripture: Luke 8:26-39

Demons. Not a likely topic for a meeting of psychiatric medical professionals. And the prescription — tossing demons onto the back of pigs and subsequently driving the pigs off a cliff — is equally unlikely. Yet who among us has not been taunted by a demon in some other disguise? (“I am not qualified, I can’t do it, it is too hard.” etc.) And, oh, the delicious relief when the wind blows the demons away.

Download the Lesson Plans for Proper 7

LPTW Proper 7, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 7, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Proper 7, Year C, Adult
LPTW Proper 7, Year C, All

Ordinary Time, Proper 6, Year C

Scripture: Luke 7:36 – 8:3

Luke’s Gospel accompanies us on the rest of our journey this year. Luke fleshes out the parables and adds rich details not found in the other gospel accounts. Today, it is the story of the woman who is self-convicted of sin. Her relief at encountering forgiveness flows out of her in an extravagant display of gratitude. Are we so able to confront our transgressions, confess them, and then believe they are truly forgiven, that we, too, can dance our gratitude?

Download the Lesson Plans for Proper 6

LPTW Proper 6, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 6, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Proper 6, Year C, Adult
LPTW Proper 6, Year C, All

Ordinary Time, Proper 4, Year C

Scripture: Luke 7:1-10

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus goes from calling the disciples to immediately healing people and teaching through his actions. In today’s lesson, we hear a story about a servant being healed because the centurion (a Roman army officer) had enough belief, enough faith to ask Jesus to heal his servant who he valued highly. The centurion knew that he did not deserve Jesus granting his request and he asked anyway hoping that he would bring healing. This is a story that is more about the centurion’s faith in Jesus’ ability to heal than it is about the man who was healed.

Download the lessons for Proper 4

LPTW Proper 4, Year C, Young Children
LPTW Proper 4, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Proper 4, Year C, Adult
LPTW Proper 4, Year C, All

First Sunday After Pentecost: Trinity Sunday, Year C

Scripture: John 16:12-15

In three succinct sentences, Jesus continues to prepare the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth. God who is and was has sent Jesus who is and was. Now the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, comes to be with the disciples and to be with us. We have God in three persons — a community. This community is so huge it has room for each of us to enter into this Kingdom of God.

Download the Lesson Plans for Trinity Sunday (Updated and Expanded)

LPTW Trinity Sunday, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Trinity Sunday, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Trinity Sunday, Year C, Adult
LPTW Trinity Sunday, Year C, All

Season after Pentecost, Proper 5, Year C

Scripture: Luke 7:11-17

Luke focuses on the powerful gentleness of Jesus. A young man is about to be buried. Jesus knows the devastation this man’s death will bring to the man’s widowed mother. A stunned crowd watches as Jesus gives the now obviously alive son back to his mother.

Download the Lesson Plans for Proper 5, Year C

LPTW Proper 5, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 5, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Proper 5, Year C, Adult
LPTW Proper 5, Year C, All

Pentecost, Year C Intergenerational Lesson Plan

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

The focal scripture for Pentecost is Acts 2:1-21. Jesus had told the disciples to wait until the advocate appeared. They were quite puzzled about what to expect in this advocate, but they trusted Jesus, and they waited.  The disciples had learned that there was empowerment in their spending time together, praying, and sharing their concerns.

They were probably together to celebrate Shavu’ot which was also called Pentecost because it occurred 50 days after Passover. Passover had brought physical freedom; at Shavu’ot people gratefully brought branches of their very first harvest and celebrated the “giving” of the Torah (the first five books found in our Bible), which brought freedom from idolatry.

On the Feast of Pentecost, the disciples experienced the Holy Spirit.  We can probably identify with Luke’s (the author of Acts) reaching for the right words to describe what happened: “It was like . . .” Yes. Well, like wind. Like . . . well, fire. Suddenly, the disciples were not just speaking — they were communicating. Each person listening to them understood what they were saying. Now the disciples were ready to do the work they had been given to do.

Download the Intergenerational Lesson Plan for Pentecost

LPTW Pentecost, Year C, Intergenerational

Pentecost Sunday, Year C

Scripture: John 14:8-17 (25-27)

In today’s Gospel passage we find Jesus gently preparing his disciples for the coming of the Advocate who will continue the teaching Jesus has begun and reminding them of all they had done together. In today’s passage from Acts the disciples are waiting huddled in the upper room fearing that the authorities would come and get them before the Advocate showed up. What might they have been expecting? Sure enough, God remains true to form: God is a surprise. What they get is a wind that blows into the room, chases away the cobwebs of fuzzy thinking, and fills the disciples with fire. How is that same wind blowing in our lives as we look at the work we have been given to do?

Download the Lesson Plans for Pentecost Sunday

LPTW Pentecost, Year C, Younger Childen
LPTW Pentecost, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Pentecost, Year C, Adult
LPTW Pentecost, Year C, All

Seventh Sunday in Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 17:20-26

One. Not diluted to a monotonous sameness. One. The abundance of diversity and people choosing to be together. One. Each of us, all of us, with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, sufficiently huge, invites each one of us in.

Download the Lesson Plans for the Seventh Sunday in Easter

LPTW Easter 7, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Easter 7, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 7, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 7, Year C, All Lesson Plans

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 14:23-29

Letting go of the companionship of Jesus to receive him in a larger way. Letting go of certainties to be open to the promised Holy Spirit. Letting go of our need to be in control to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Download the Lesson Plans for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C

LPTW Easter 6, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Easter 6, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 6, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 6, Year C, All Lesson Plans