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Christmas Pack #14
Gifts of Peace: Youth

Welcoming the Prince of Peace

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Welcoming the Prince of Peace

A Four-Session Activity Guide

For Leaders of Youth Groups (Ages 12 -14)

by Cheryl Collins Patterson

Introduction

Obtaining peace is the deepest challenge of the heart. Keeping peace is the most difficult task of any nation. Will there be peace for the Serbians at the cost of Muslim lives? Will there be peace in Korea at the cost of nuclear holocaust? Will there be peace in our communities at the cost of ignoring what needs to change? Will there be peace in our neighborhoods at the cost of segregating races and cultures? Will there be peace in our families at the cost of broken bones and bloody noses? How can peace take shape in our lives and in our world so that all may experience the love of God?

The peace offered by Jesus Christ demands an exchange of our old ways of solving conflicts. No longer can we afford to spill blood and demean spirits with the assault from our artillery and our words. Loving our enemies is a commandment, not a request to be acknowledged when it best suits us.

During the four weeks of Advent, we will explore the nonviolent application of peace within ourselves, in our families, our communities and our world. The Child born at Christmas brings peace, but that peace comes packaged in a box that can only be opened with love. Guns and knives are not the stockpiles of the Prince of Peace.

PURPOSE: These sessions are designed to help youth groups explore the meaning of peace, to experience the peace promised at Christmas, and to share that peace with others.

DESIGNING THE SESSIONS: These one-hour sessions are designed to be used during the four weeks of Advent. You can use them during regular church school classes or during special Advent gatherings. With some adaptation, they can be used at other times during the year.

EARLY PREPARATION: Read over all of the sessions before week one. Reserve a meeting room and invite participants to join your group. Gather any background information or resources you think might be helpful.

Session One: Peace With Self

INTRODUCTION: Peace is waged one person at a time. It begins in the heart of each receptive individual and flows out upon the world, catching peacemakers as it goes. Learning the ways of peace is hard work. Turning swords into plowshares will take everything you have. This lesson will help youth explore their inner needs for peace and how this affects the world around them.

GOALS:

MATERIALS NEEDED: Newsprint or chalkboard; markers or chalk; masking tape; Bibles; index cards; pencils

PREPARATION: Label three separate sheets of newsprint or the chalkboard with the titles: PEACE: A DEFINITION; SHALOM; and PHRASES OF PEACE. Write the following Scripture references on three separate index cards:

Card #1 - Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 52:7

Card #2 - John 14:27; Luke 24:36; Luke 7:50

Card #3 - Mark 9:50; Acts 10:36; Acts 12:20

Read the excerpt from Dandelion Wine included later in the session.

SESSION PLAN:

Opening (5 min.): Welcome the group and ask participants to introduce themselves. Give an overview of the four sessions.

Discussion (15 min.):

1. Ask the participants to define the word, "peace." Write their responses on the newsprint labeled PEACE or under that title on the chalkboard. (Definition should include "absence of war.")

2. Tape the newsprint entitled SHALOM next to the one on PEACE (Or write the SHALOM ideas on the chalkboard next to the PEACE ideas). Ask if anyone has ever heard the word "shalom." Where? Explain that this is the Hebrew word for peace. It is used as a greeting among the Jewish people. Explain that Jesus defined shalom as the presence of love, not the absence of conflict and struggle. Jesus, the Prince of Peace/Shalom, is the leader of fulfillment, health, happiness. Discuss: How does this definition differ from what the participants have noted? Is the shalom Jesus spoke of possible? Why or why not?

3. Display the newsprint labeled PHRASES OF PEACE. Ask the group to think of ways we use the word "peace" in our everyday language. Write the responses on newsprint. Some suggestions include: go in peace; peace offering; hold your peace; peace of mind; die in peace; come in peace.

Scripture Research (15 min.): Divide the group into three small groups. Pass out pencils and the index cards with the Scripture references. Distribute Bibles and instruct the participants to read the references and determine the usage and meaning of "peace." Bring the small groups back together and discuss the findings.

Discussion (10 min.): Invite the group to consider the following questions as you read them aloud. (Note: These questions are designed to encourage thought and reflection; participants may not be ready to voice their responses.)

Guided Meditation (10 min.): Meditation is a vital ingredient in leading a peacemaker's life. In the midst of turmoil, Jesus took time to meditate and to pray. It takes time to calm the restless mind and body long enough to meditate. For many, this will be an introduction to meditation.

Ask the participants to sit in their chairs with their feet flat on the ground and their backs straight. Have them place their hands in their laps with palms facing up. With eyes closed, they should breathe in deeply and release air slowly. (They should do this three times.) Ask them to continue breathing in this manner as they listen to a portion of a story called Dandelion Wine. Read the following:

Imagine two twelve-year-old boys wrestling on the ground. The one named Douglas is knocked out. When he comes to he realizes that he has discovered who he is and shouts, "I'm alive!" Then,

The grass whispered under his body. He put his arm down, feeling the sheath of fuzz on it, and, far away, below, his toes creaking in his shoes. The wind sighed over his shelled ears. The world slipped bright over the glassy round of his eyeballs like images sparked in a crystal sphere. Flowers were sun and fiery spots of sky strewn through the woodland. Birds flickered like skipped stones across the vast inverted pond of heaven. His breath raked over his teeth, going in ice, coming out fire. Insects shocked the air with electric clearness. Ten thousand individual hairs grew a millionth of an inch on his head. He heard the twin hearts beating in each ear, the third heart beating in his throat, the two hearts throbbing his wrists, the real heart pounding his chest. The million pores on his body opened.

I'm really alive! he thought. I never knew it before, or if I did I don't remember!

He yelled it loud but silent, a dozen times! Think of it, think of it! Twelve years old and only now! Now discovering this rare timepiece, this clock gold-bright and guaranteed to run threescore and ten, left under a tree and found while wrestling. . . .

[The two boys] spilled downhill, the sun in their mouths, in their eyes like shattered lemon glass, gasping like trout thrown out on a bank, laughing till they cried. . . .

[Tom, Douglas' friend, asked,] "Doug, you're not mad? . . . . [And Douglas responding, said] "No, no, no, no, no!"

Douglas, eyes shut, saw spotted leopards pad in the dark.

"Tom!" Then quieter, "Tom . . . does everyone in the world . . . know [s/] he's alive?"

"Sure. Heck, yes!"

The leopards trotted soundlessly off through the darker lands where eyeballs could not turn to follow.

"I hope they do," whispered Douglas. "Oh, I sure hope they know." 1

(Pause)

Continue to breathe deeply three more times. Now open your eyes. Over the next several weeks, we will learn more about peace and practice various forms of meditation.

Closing (5 min.): Pray for the courage to discover oneself and to celebrate the gift of life God has given each person.

Session Two: Peace in the Family

INTRODUCTION: The family unit is a basic and critical structure for our society. Violence at home, whether verbal or physical, leads to violence in our communities. Finding ways to peacefully confront violence in the home or to walk away from it is a task that youth need to address. Communication that is constructive is a major component for peace within the family. In this lesson, youth will examine nonviolent alternatives for relating to family members.

GOALS:

MATERIALS NEEDED: Newsprint or chalkboard; markers or chalk; masking tape; Bibles; index cards; CD player or tape player; copy of "The Magnificat."2

PREPARATION:

SESSION PLAN:

Opening (5 min.): Welcome the group. Ask each participant to share an experience s/he had this past week that made him/her feel peaceful.

Activity (10 min.): Ask participants to name families on different television shows (i.e., Roseanne; Leave It to Beaver; Married With Children; The Simpsons; Full House; The Cosby Show; Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, etc.). Write the responses on the newsprint or chalkboard under the column labeled "TV Shows."

Now ask participants to name the members in the TV families. Place a check mark in the columns where the response applies. (Example: Leave It to Beaver has a mother, father and two brothers. You would place a check mark in the column labeled "Mother," another in the column labeled "Father," and two check marks in the column labeled "Brother".)

When the chart is completed, tell the participants that you will come back to it later.

Discussion (15 min.): Explain that for many families, adolescence brings an added stress to everyday life. Youth are beginning to need more independence while parents are wanting to keep their children safe from the harms of the world. The conflict of who is in charge or in control can explode at any time in any situation, leaving parents and youth wondering what went wrong. Pass out index cards with the three sentences written on them, one card to each person. Read each sentence aloud and offer the following examples. Encourage participants to offer other examples.

1. Make your needs and desires known in a manner that can be accepted by others. Example: Instead of yelling at your sister because she wore your favorite sweater without asking, try saying, "I know you like the sweater, but I would like you to ask me before you take it."

2. Be honest about your feelings, but don't be cruel. Example: If your dad was unable to attend your ball game, say, "I was disappointed that you couldn't be there to watch me." Statements should communicate how you feel. You should try not to place a string of accusations at his feet - "You always break your promises;" "Your work is more important than me;" etc. (Changes can't be made if you hide behind accusations and don't share your feelings.)

3. Learn to listen without judging. When you are in the heat of an argument with your brother about who will wash the dinner dishes, listen to him while he is talking rather than thinking what you will say when he is finished.

(Encourage them to take the cards home at the end of the session as reminders of ways to deal appropriately with conflict.)

Scripture Research (10 min.): Explain that the word "family" rarely occurs in the New Testament. When it appears in Ephesians 3, it refers to the whole family of heaven, not people on earth. "Family" in a biblical definition tends to mean the entire human race or the entire group of people related to each other by bloodlines (parents, siblings, cousins, great-nieces, distant cousins, etc.). Encourage participants to take a look at Jesus' family, those who surrounded him in his early years. Break the class into three groups. Hand out Bibles and one index card listing a Scripture reference to each group. Ask them to determine how they would relate the people in the passage to Jesus. Gather and share findings.

Discussion (10 min.): Ask participants to take a closer look at their own families by answering the following questions. (Refer them to the TV families chart made earlier.)

Guided Meditation (5 min.): Using the preparations addressed in Session One, invite the group to relax and participate in a meditation. Play "The Magnificat" as you read the following meditation in a slow, yet soothing voice:

Remember the last conflict you had with a family member. (Pause.) It may have been last week or this morning. It may have been with a parent or a sibling. What was the conflict about? Did it become heated or were you able to sit down and discuss the problem? What did you do? Was the conflict resolved? If not, how would you like for it to end? Do you think your way will work? Do you think the other person's way will work? What steps do you need to take now to resolve the conflict? Will you share your feelings? How will you listen without placing judgment?

Continue to breathe three more times. Now open your eyes. Conflict is a natural way of life and of families. Finding ways to resolve conflicts takes work. Peacemaking is sometimes hard work.

Closing (5 min.): Encourage the group members to pray for understanding and honesty in living with their families.

Session Three: Peace in the Community and Church

INTRODUCTION: It is not enough to be aware of the crime that squeezes the life out of our people and our cities. Peace in the church and the community demands that we put aside our differences and focus on working together. When peace is the priority then people will change. This lesson will enable youth to explore what their own church and community are doing to bring about peace.

GOALS:

MATERIALS NEEDED: Several copies of different weekend newspapers (if possible, obtain newspapers in foreign languages as well); scissors; posterboard; glue sticks; Bibles; newsprint; markers; masking tape; copies of St. Francis' Serenity Prayer

PREPARATION: Label one piece of posterboard "Acts of Violence" and the other "Acts of Kindness."

SESSION PLAN

Opening (5 min.): Welcome the group. Ask each participant to share one way s/he worked for peace in his/her family this past week.

Activity (15 min.): Divide the class into two groups. Instruct one group to look through the newspapers and to cut out all the articles dealing with acts of violence or turmoil. Instruct the second group to look through the newspapers and to cut out all articles announcing acts of kindness. (If using some foreign language newspapers, encourage youth to interpret articles based on photos.) Then, tell each group to glue their articles to the appropriate posterboard. Place the completed boards where everyone can view them.

Compare the two boards. Discuss:

- Was it easier to find acts of violence than acts of kindness?

- Do we participate more in bringing others down than in building them up?

Discussion (10 min.): Invite the group to discuss the acts of kindness they see in their lives each day. Make a list on newsprint as they offer names and examples of those who have worked for peace in their communities (those who are attempting to solve racial differences, teen violence, drug use, etc.).

Scripture Research (15 min): Read Matthew 2:1-18 aloud. Ask participants to note acts of violence that appear in the reading. List responses on a sheet of newsprint. Raise the following questions for discussion:

Guided Meditation (10 min.): Using the preparations addressed in Session One, invite the group to relax and participate in a meditation. Read the following aloud:

Listen to these words written about Edith Stein, a woman of Jewish descent who became a Carmelite nun as an adult. Imprisoned at Auschwitz during World War II, she was one of six million Jews who died in the Holocaust at the hands of Nazi Germany. She brought peace to her fellow prisoners, her community, by caring for their physical and spiritual needs. This account, written by Father Hirschmann, a Jesuit priest, reflects the life of Edith Stein.

. . . Edith Stein was not only a Jew lovingly united to the Jewish people; she was also a German united to the German people. And as such, she was constantly faced with the question, "Who will atone for what is happening to the Jewish people in the name of the people of Germany?" It caused her intense suffering that baptized Christians like Hitler and Himmler were taking the guilt of such awful crimes upon themselves. "Who will turn this enormous guilt into a blessing for both peoples?" Ultimately, the answer she came to was that only the victims of hatred could do it, if instead of letting their wounds produce new hatred, they would be willing to carry the suffering of their fellow victims and their tormentors.

I will never forget the conversations I had with this genuinely Christian philosopher when time and again she would insist that hatred must never be given the last word. Somehow it had to be possible - through prayer and atonement - to obtain the grace of conversion for those who hated. Hadn't Jesus, when he prayed for those who hated him, those who crucified and pierced him, turned his wounds into the symbol of love that proved to be stronger in the end?

There is no question that Auschwitz will always remain for us a terrifying revelation of the destruction potential of human lovelessness. But there is another revelation at Auschwitz, infinitely transcending the first: that the love which endures the Cross and wounds ultimately overcomes all lovelessness. This is the love that says to the Cross: For the sake of the love which has come to [humanity] through Jesus' Cross and wounds, I love you and I testify - hate is not stronger than love. 3

Closing (5 min.): Pass out copies of St. Francis' Serenity Prayer. Pray for the willingness to become instruments of peace. Pray together the Serenity Prayer of St. Francis.

Session Four: Peace in the World

INTRODUCTION: Peace, like war, is waged. Genuine peace requires the strength of the nations. It is much easier to lash out in violence than to confront in love. Can you see the face of the "enemy"? This is the face, the people God has commanded that we love. This lesson will help youth examine alternatives to war.

GOALS:

MATERIALS NEEDED: CD player or tape player; the song "Rosa Parks" by the Neville Brothers on their album, Yellow Moon; white shelf paper; bright markers; Bibles; newsprint; masking tape

PREPARATION: Using white shelf paper (one side has adhesive), cut out enough bumper stickers for each participant to have two or three. Write the following Scripture references on large sheets of newsprint: Revelation 21:1-6a; John 1:1-14; Psalm 98; Micah 6-8; Matthew 5:44; Isaiah 2:4.

SESSION PLAN

Opening (5 min.): Welcome the group. Ask each participant to share one way s/he worked for peace in his/her community this past week. Or ask them to share one act of kindness which occurred in their communities this past week.

Activity (15 min.): Pass out the strips of shelf paper and markers to each person. Ask participants to think of a "peace" slogan (such as "Arms Are For Hugging;" "Wage Peace;" etc.) and to design a bumper sticker.

Discussion (10 min.): Ask the participants to listen quietly as you read the following:

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks got off work and waited at the bus stop for a ride home. When the bus arrived, she got on and took a seat. The bus driver was shocked! Rosa Parks was sitting in a section of the bus that had been declared off limits to her because of the color of her skin. No matter what the bus driver said, Ms. Parks would not move. She had decided that the law was not fair and that she had every right to sit anywhere on the bus. Rosa Parks' actions made headlines around the country! Ten years later, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act, an important Congressional action outlawing discrimination against a person because of the color of their skin.

Ask the participants to name other people whose work for peace reached beyond their own families and local communities (i.e., Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.). Write their responses on newsprint. Ask, "How did their work for peace affect the world? How does it continue to affect the world?"

Scripture Research (20 min.): Break the group into smaller groups and assign one Scripture reading to each small group. (Hand out the passages written on newsprint.) Ask each group to read the passage and to answer the following question, writing their answers on their sheet of newsprint.

Now gather the class together and discuss findings. Raise the following questions:

Guided Meditation (5 min.): Using the preparations addressed in Session One, invite the group to relax and participate in a meditation. Play the song, "Rosa Parks."

Closing (5 min.): Gather the group in a circle. Ask each person to voice a prayer for peace by mentioning a place, situation or person who is facing chaos. Close the prayer with a petition to wage peace.

footnotes

1 This excerpt from Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury was reprinted with permission of Don Congdon Associates (New York, NY), copyright © 1957, 1975. All rights reserved.

2 There are several versions of "Magnificat" available. One is by John Rutter, composer and conductor; sung by the Cambridge Singers (available from Collegium Records, P.O. Box 31366, Omaha, Nebraska 68131). Another is by Vivaldi, composer; sung by the New Philharmonia Chorus; conducted by Riccardo Muti (available from EMI Records, Ltd., Hayes, Middlesex, England).

3 This excerpt was taken from Edith Stein: A Biography, by Waltrud Herbstrith, copyright © 1985 by Harper and Row Publishers (New York, NY).

Author

Cheryl Collins Patterson is the editor of Lydia's Cloth, a worship resource written by women, and lives in the desert community of Fallon, Nevada.

Make copies of this resource under the Creative Commons attribution, not-for-profit license.

Page updated 11 Sept. 2015

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