Sunday School

For my sins, I teach three- and four-year olds in Sunday School. There are only three of us who do it, so there's quite a lot to do. And it's a distinctive group of children too, very few of them given to paying much attention. Isabella and Millie are very happy to listen to the stories, play the games by the rules, and do the colouring in. Beri, Lawrie, and twins William and Daisy - we-e-ell, less so. So far, the only instructions they will reliably follow have to include the words 'run', 'fast', 'shout' and 'loudly'.

So far, it's been fine. We've had Solomon building his temple for the people to worship in - 'So how did the people worship? That's right! By dancing around wildly and shouting loudly PRAISE THE LORD!' We had Elijah who was good for a few sessions - 'King Ahab was so cross with Elijah that Elijah had to run away, very fast, and shout loudly HELP ME LORD!' And of course the priests of Baal were a gift - 'What did the priests do? Danced wildly around the altar shouting loudly BAAL! LIGHT OUR FIRE!'

This morning it was blimmin' Nicodemus. What did he do? Tip-toed, is what he did. Tip-toed in the middle of the night to visit, undetected, that undesirable rabble-rouser, JESUS. Tip-toed extremely quietly. Had a whispered conversation with The Man, then tip-toed away, equally as quietly, to have a Good, Quiet, Think.

The shout for us to pack up and go back to Church came as a bit of a relief, to tell you the truth.

I think we need to emphasise Muscular Christianity more in our teaching.