Parables of the Kingdom: A Curricular Unit for Language Arts on the New Testament Parables

© 2012 by Melissa Lynch. All rights reserved.

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The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1965, 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Good Country People from A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND AND OTHER STORIES, copyright © 1955 by Flannery O’Connor and renewed 1983 by Regina O’Connor, reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Cover artwork titled Saint Joseph the Worker by Michael O’Brien. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author’s portrait by Linda Pelk.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/20/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1762-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-1763-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910819

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Parables of the Kingdom

The Place of the Parables

Cognitive Development, Education and the Inheritance of the Mind

The Parables of Jesus of Nazareth in First-Century Palestine

The Literary Parables

From Parables to Roman Catholic Teaching

Curriculum Materials

New Testament Parable Unit Curriculum Map-Lesson Schedule (one-hour sessions)

Extension Activities:

Specification Chart-Parable Unit Assessment

Learning Resources

Journal prompts

Socratic Circle Guidelines

Course Assignments—grade weighting

Goals and Objectives

Introduction and Diagnostic Moral Test Lesson Plan: Session One

The Parable of the Empty Jar

Theological themes study guide on The Parables

Comprehensive essay question Rubric

Journal prompt Rubric

Diagnostic Moral Test

Literary Qualities of the Parables Lesson Plan: Session Two

Four Literary Qualities of the Parables of the Kingdom

Four Literary Qualities of the Parables—graphic organizer

Four Literary Qualities of the Parables—graphic organizer Key

Principle Theological Terms: Kingdom of God, God’s Grace and Judgment Lesson Plan: Session Three

Kingdom Of God Lesson Plan: Session Four

Parables of the Kingdom

The Wedding Feast Lesson Plan: Session Five and Six

Parable of The Wedding Feast

Parable of The Wedding Feast

Literary Techniques for Parable Unit Lesson Plan-Session Seven

Literary Techniques for Parable Unit

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Literary Techniques in Song: Lesson Plan: Session Eight

Narrative structure, story-mapping: The Weeds Among the Wheat Lesson Plan: Session Nine

The Parable of The Weeds Among the Wheat

Parable Story-Map!

Parable Story-Map!

The Good Samaritan Role Play and artwork Lesson Plan: Session Ten

The Good Samaritan! Role Play! Action!

Characterization and Character Analysis Lesson Plan: Session Eleven

Characterization:

Characterization: Key

Character Analysis:

Character Analysis: Key

Theological Term: God’s Grace Lesson Plan: Session Twelve and Thirteen

The Parable of The Lost Sheep

The Grace of God

The Grace of God Key

The Literary Parables Lesson Plan: Session Fourteen

Theological Term: Judgment in the parable of The Two Foundations Lesson Plan: Session Fifteen and Sixteen

Judgment and Responsibility

Judgment and Responsibility Key

Parable projects: list, rubric and guidelines Lesson Plan: Session Seventeen

Biblical Parable Book

Original Parable Project

Storytelling Rubric

Story-mapping of the Parables Lesson Plan: Session Eighteen

Parable-Outline of the narrative/dramatic points (events)

Biblical Parable Book Project Lesson Plan: Session Nineteen

Parable Book—performance task

Modern Parables: The Giving Tree and Break Your Heart Lesson Plan: Session Twenty

Catholic Teaching and Review of Parable unit Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-one

Similes Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-two

Similes are vibrant like a . . .

Similes are vibrant like a . . . Key

Your mind is as sharp as . . .

Your mind is as sharp as . . . Key

Your words are as historic as . . .

Your words are as historic as . . . Key

Greek and Latin Word Roots Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-Three

Greek Words

Latin Words

Greek word roots I

Greek word roots I Key

Greek word roots II

Greek word roots II Key

Greek word roots III

Greek word roots II Key

Greek word roots IV

Greek word roots IV Key

Latin word roots I

Latin word roots I Key

Latin word roots II

Latin word roots II Key

Latin word roots III

Latin word roots III Key

Latin word roots IV

Latin word roots IV Key

Biblical Greek Etymology Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-Four

The Fruit of the Spirit

Etymology of Biblical Greek

Etymology of Biblical Greek

Literary Terms Test Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-five

Literary Terms Test

Literary Terms Test Key

Parable Book Project Presentations Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-six

Prodigal Son Socratic Seminar/Original Parable Creation Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-seven and Twenty-eight

The Grace of God

The Grace of God Key

Prodigal Son plot line and role play Lesson Plan: Session Twenty-nine

Prodigal Son! Role Play! Action!

Original Parable Projects Introduction Lesson Plan: Session Thirty

Parable Story-Map!

Parable Story-Map! Key

Original Parable Projects Lesson Plan: Session thirty-one

Original Parable Presentations Lesson Plan: Session Thirty-two

Theological Themes Test Lesson Plan: Session Thirty-three

Theological Themes Test

Theological Themes Test Key

Bibliography

For my mother

The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and for your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:13 and 16).

~Attributed to Jesus of Nazareth

Preface

I began creating this curricular unit in the midst of my school teaching years in 2007. Though my schedule was demanding as a full-time teacher and graduate student, this project enlivened my heart and mind and helped me carry through each day with an intention I could believe in. School teaching provides an endless list of social problems that beg all of us for a resolution. These problems, most often, will unpretentiously stand up, ask, yell or trip you over for help, rather than quietly endure through. As one opens oneself up to the many needs of their students, one may make the mistake of trying to relate to them only through one’s own experience. However, I realized that my own experience, even in my most humble moments, would fail me. Everyday, my students would show that their lives were more difficult and complex. While the students were being solicited by the most aggressive marketing campaigns ever, trying to convince them to ignore the boundaries of their own bodies and others, while at the same time, insisting that the are not-quite-lovable unless they do what the campaign suggests, they are also dealing with their own serious, everyday problems. One of my student’s, Josh, went home with his best friend everyday. His friend’s parents picked him up, fed him, and made sure he completed his homework before his dad came by in the evening, after work, to pick him up. From there, he and his father would go to the assisted living facility where his mom was cared for 24-hours a day after her severe stroke. When I asked Josh how his mom was doing, he would give a small smile, and with tears in his eyes, softly say something like, she looked really sexy yesterday, knowing of course that this comment might let us both laugh through the tears for just a moment. Many of my twelve-year-olds students extended their strength, intelligence and love with such powerful honesty and resiliency that my heart overflowed with their demonstrations of goodness and humanity. John, and many students like him, would go through the effort of trying to make me smile or laugh (in irony, or in song, or whatever they had to give) as they suffered through loss, poverty, divorce, and their feelings of failure that they fought to rise through.

Then, there was Martha. She came to my class one week after school had begun, and immediately got in trouble for wearing make-up, her hair styled up like a rock star, and for altering her skirt. Needing to diagnose her literacy and cognitive ability, I asked her to write the standard paragraph on ‘how she spent her last summer’. So, she came into my classroom during her lunch break, sat quietly, and wrote about how she and her sister got up early everyday to clean houses with her mom. And, how she began the school year late, because she was still helping her parents at work. She also revealed her Hollywood dreams through her binder photos of celebrities, and she took great effort to show that like every girl, she wanted to look pretty, and be pretty, even when she spent her summer cleaning homes and doing other kids chores. She did have difficulty connecting with the other students at first, and she was behind the others both academically and socially. But, as they learned her story they embraced her, and she was able to grow and mature with them. Her classmates wanted her to know that she was loved, that she belonged there, and that they were there for her, even when she refused to accept her more seasoned peers’ teachings on the essential precepts of being cool, calm and collected in California classroom (which they knew very well). She would wear her oversized pink and purple bows and sparkle socks anyway, and carry her rhinestone backpack, faux patent leather purse, glitter pencil case and even a stuffed animal to school everyday. And more, our mademoiselle would enter the classroom with an enormous smile of love and gratitude. She was communicating, I know your going to forgive me for my personal parade and let me get away with breaking the dress code again. And of course, there was nothing to forgive. But, through all of this, I still had to convince her that her own literacy development would be more important to her than any movie star, and I had to firmly insist on this, when her mind and imagination had already given way to fantasy and myth because her reality was just too laborious.

There are countless student stories that I could tell, to share my own education in school teaching, but these were just the first two that came to mind. Certainly, I am grateful to all of my students and I send my love to each of you. As their teacher with limited resources, I often thought I had nothing to really give them except academics, repetitive grammar lessons, and maybe, a lesson on writing a solid thesis statement. Therefore, due to my insecurity, I would try to discover and create ways to reach their imagination, heart and mind so that they might be drawn into learning, into reading and writing, and then I would align everything with the state’s requirements. But, first I needed to learn about them, so I could construct my plans for them. My experience in both Catholic and public school showed me that, as uncool as it might seem, students like Jesus of Nazareth. And though they are not shy about expressing their love for him, however they are also not dealing with the gravity of his teachings because they have not yet been exposed to them. They still have a child’s understanding of a permissive, benevolent love, when they are thinking and acting like critical adolescence. Therefore, their understanding of Jesus needed to mature with their brain, and natural human development. My background in literature, fine art, theology and education gave me the tools and background I needed to write this unit, which I believed would inspire the students in practical learning applications like, reading (literacy) and writing (composition) as well as creative (brain-storming) and logical (outlining and story-mapping) thinking, perspective-taking, problem-solving, as well as context-learning, but further, it also might inspire their developmental thought and skills in social and social justice issues.

This curricular unit applies the philosophy of the great educators like Socrates, Aristotle, John Dewey, Paulo Freire and the beloved, Jesus O’Nazareth. Furthermore, I drew from the masters of human development and cognitive science: Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg and Benjamin Bloom, to connect the lessons with the adolescent mind and higher order thinking skills. This unit was specifically designed to correlate with the state standards for seventh grade language arts; however, it also meets many of the standards in social science, and it can be used for junior high students and upward because the framework of the standards and outcomes is not altered throughout the grades, but rather it is developed. Therefore, these lessons can be simplified for the younger students, and intensified for the older students, just as all lessons of all kinds are commonly differentiated for each classroom. It is my hope that this unit will breath inspiration and development, both academic and personal, into the heart and mind of each student, just as these stories have breathed life into so many people across the globe, and throughout the generations. The parables have a long, effective history in teaching the core foundations of thinking and learning; and, like no other tool; they close a social achievement gap. They deserve to be given the chance to continue educating, both formally and informally, for literacy, language and culture, as well as in the social sciences of history, economics and geography, for the benefit of everyone who will be able to listen and visualize through them, and have their cognitive capacities awakened, strengthened and ultimately, lived.

I would like to thank Father Ronald Nuzzi, Julie Dallavis and the Alliance for Catholic Education teachers at the University of Notre Dame for teaching and reviewing this unit in their classrooms. Additionally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Harold Horell of Fordham University for his thoughtful revision, given with great expertise and care. And last, I thank my mother who has supported me in every way, from the very beginning. Thank you Mom.

~Melissa Lynch

Introduction

The Parables of the Kingdom

The Parables of the Kingdom have been the milk and honey of classical storytelling since they were spoken by Jesus of Nazareth two-thousand years ago. The New Testament Parables have been taught throughout the centuries, and their themes and moral teachings have permeated billions of minds to identify and denote the foremost teachings of virtuous humanity. Nourishing hearts, minds and bodies, the parables form and ripen who we are to become. The engagements of these inspired thoughts move outward to words, choices and actions. All sensory observations encountered and pondered initiate a response (neurologically, verbally and ultimately through the body). The parables interconnect and order the mind by directing thinking, decision-making, and action. They affect perspective and personality—they give both confidence and humility. To study the parables in an academic context, certain aspects of these literary works should be more pronounced over others. For the educator of history, the parables offer insight into first-century Palestine. They teach the circumstance and concerns of the Jewish peasantry living within the feudal system, as the socio-economic life transitioned from independent family farms and trades into the acquisition and imperial reign of the Roman Empire. The people of first-century Judea experienced their independent-communal, agrarian village society turn into foreign-owned, big-business agriculture. The parables demonstrate the trials and tribulations of the monotheist Jewish peasantry as they navigated through these challenges, while maintaining and reconciling their cultural virtues of purity, community and hospitality to their encounters with an imposing pagan jurisdiction. For the teacher of Literature and/or Language Arts the parables may demonstrate storytelling structure and artistry of an era, Greek and Latin word roots, and literary techniques like symbolism, metaphor, allegory, etc. The setting and moral problems of the parables are always true to life, and grounded within everyday conditions of the peasants. Rather that restating a myth of divine right that locks in hierarchy, the parables open the door to heaven, provide a new vision of what could be, and therefore, forge a path of opportunity by inspiring the imagination. The parables do not create a stagnant world that remains staged and ordered, but rather, these stories demonstrate that life is a participatory process; life is relational, ever-changing and open. For the Religion instructor, the parables may demonstrate the pervasive power of authentic faith, hope and charity. For the prayerful, the parables nurture morality, authentic virtue and love. They remind to remain secure while resting in mystery, graceful amidst unrest, indicate boundaries for freedom, and courage to make choices and sacrifices that may never be fully understood. They teach how to treat each other, live together, and love. The moral themes of the New Testament Parables relate to every precept of Roman Catholic social teaching, and therefore their influence may be traced for epistemological foundations in practice and application. Through the parables, Jesus of Nazareth attaches and reconciles each scattered part to an innate wholeness, and to a complete end. His teaching style demonstrates an inherent trust in the human imagination, and the development of time; his audience crosses culture, class, and era, and these memorable narratives are anchored in the minds of each generation. For the experienced and inexperienced to the Christian tradition, the New Testament parables are the moral nutrients that continually form and develop us; they are the childhood, adolescence, adult and aged eternal wisdom wiring neurological connections and interweaving the social-networking of Christian thought.

The Place of the Parables

The Parables reside in the New Testament gospels of the Bible, and therefore submit to the interpretive principles of the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritue of Pius XII, written in 1943 for Roman Catholicism. This encyclical standardized the traditional Catholic exegesis method, which previously applied language studies and linguistics of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, to include new scholarship from the emerging social sciences including: anthropology, archeology, psychology, geography, economics, natural sciences and sociology, within the historical critical method of interpretation. Divino Afflante Spiritue outlines five precepts of hermeneutics in the study of Biblical scripture of Roman Catholic recognition and the primary precepts will be explained here. The first, historic-grammatical, is the foundational method of interpretation which all social scientific applications of exegesis should fall within. This primary method identifies that the Bible is a literary expression of history, and therefore should be understood through language studies of the original texts, historical-criticism and literary theory. The historic-critical literary interpretive method is the foremost method applied in biblical scholarship. It studies the context: the literary landscape, historic circumstances, archeology, literature and social scientific information of the era, and investigates scripture in the light of these resources. This method analyzes scripture next to other literary documents of the same period and responds to questions concerning circumstances, anthropology, archeology, epistemology and origins, the writers and editors of the work, as well as the audience it was constructed for. Therefore, the historic critical method highlights how generations before found meaning and meaningfulness within sacred text, and may reveal how and why these words continue to inspire and enliven today, bringing generations of people and a great diversity of cultures in dialogue with each other. The historic-critical method includes knowledge of the people’s way of speaking, language, various customs, laws, economics, habits, national issues, etc. that would have influenced and inspired the writers. This initial precept states that the Bible is a literary document rather than a direct, word for word revelation of timeless truths. This distinction makes the Bible quite different in study and practice from the sacred scripture of other religions and denominations. The encyclical teaches that sacred scripture is God’s message for humanity, applying finite language and words, and admits to all the limitations that this fact implies. Pope John Paul II and the Pontifical Biblical commission clarify, Addressing men and women, from the beginnings of the Old Testament onward, God made use of all the possibilities of human language, while at the same time accepting that his word be subject to the constraints caused by the limitations of this language. Proper respect for inspired Scripture requires undertaking all the labors necessary to gain a thorough grasp of its meaning.¹

The Parables rest in the three synoptic gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark and Luke, and like the entire New Testament, they were originally written in koine Greek (or street Greek). The gospels of Matthew and Luke are suggested to have had access to Mark and another written source, Q, for reference when they wrote their gospels, because of the overlay in content. However, each gospel author composed for a unique community and tailored their book for their specific region and reception. Though some stories are retold in the separate gospels, each gospel has a distinct personality that reveals the nature of the author, their communication skills, educational level, influences, concerns, and the community they were addressing. The gospel of Matthew was written for a Jewish community around 85 A.D. and it is inferred that the author was a Jewish convert to Jewish-Christianity. Matthew links the life story and teachings of Jesus with significant Jewish traditions, prophecies and sacred writings that would have been meaningful for his Jewish-Christian community. In addition to this, Matthew traces Jesus genealogy all the way back to David and Abraham, uniting him within the great tradition of Old Testament laws, prophets and events, which Jesus, according to the Christian tradition, completes. Mark was the first gospel scribed in 65-70 AD, and it was written for the new Christian community, possibly in Rome, who were being persecuted for their beliefs. This community needed encouragement to trust in God before the actions of the state; therefore, Mark wrote of Jesus’ trials, tribulations, deceptions, manipulations and persecution so they would see the commitment required of Christians who surrendered to God, as Jesus did; and then further, to the tradition itself. Mark addresses two fundamental questions for his community: Who is Jesus Christ? And, what does it mean to be his follower? Indeed, when Jesus first gathered his disciples many hoped for moral authority, prestige and importance as his appointed leaders and teachers in the church (and they still do). However, as some matured, they found that suffering amidst human arrogance and oppression to the extreme of execution, are the expected attributes of Christians who surrender to God’s will, when the divine law does not correlate with the state. This quality, when pulled into unstable extremes becomes fatalistic. The gospel of Luke was written in 80 to 85 AD for a Greek community, and Luke’s education and literary skill are the most developed among the synoptic gospel writers. Luke was a gentile, writing for a Greek gentile audience; therefore, his book implores compassion for people outside the Jewish tradition, adopting them into Jewish-Christianity. Luke emphasizes the foreigner, the stranger, the vulnerable and the silent, including them in the story and life of Jesus. He includes stories of the , women, the poor, sinners, outcasts, tax collectors and prostitutes, attaching and bonding all of them to Jesus. A common metaphor in Luke’s gospel is the image of fishermen catching their fish in a vast sea. Jesus demonstrates compassion for those lost and alone; he catches them and brings them inward. Furthermore, through the parables and teachings of Jesus, Luke beautifully articulates the immediate reality and present life of the Kingdom of God and encourages his disciples to carry the message to other lands for the life of the world. In these three gospels, we find the treasures of the parables told by Jesus of Nazareth. These stories, for the ancient and new world, hold hearts, nurture minds and guide perspectives and decisions. They provide edification for maturity in the unfolding mystery before God. These memorable stories are inherited from family members and culture for the morality and development of each generation, in the passing of time.

Cognitive Development, Education and the Inheritance of the Mind

Children are foremost responsive to story and metaphor as the way of interpreting incoming observations of the world which saturate early development. A child applies the immense variety of primary resources and experiences, swallowed up by their senses, to connect meanings within the created and social order. Throughout space and time, language and narrative has remained the key tool of humanity to impart knowledge and wisdom, culture and tradition. Consciousness begins in the nascent stage and receives information endlessly through the senses, until one’s dying breath. Adults quest questions and answers just as children do, however the brain matures and changes, prunes and slows, settles and imparts. We learn, research and commit to ideas, people and institutions that respond best to personal questions and resolve what one thinks is the most benevolent way of life, for oneself and hopefully, for others. We commit to institutions that reflect our values, or our values are reflected in our work. For those of the Christian tradition, the parables of Jesus of Nazareth are the banquet with real bread. They respond to one’s observations, endless concerns, and ultimately implore and incarnate the Kingdom of God. Therefore, by studying the parables, one may become a parable. These stories (and the people who embody them), destroy myth and the powers structures supported therein, and focus on the everyday tasks of home life, farming, and shepherding (basic sustenance of the peasantry), which occur in ordinary time, and relate to the extraordinary. These pastoral responsibilities keep sight focused and grounded on the earth and one’s own life experiences rather than the myths used to manipulate and perpetuate the assumed divinity of the elite, which validates indulgence (both in the ancient and new world). Through the lens of story-reality one may see the power structures of elite human construction and deception that may keep one from their personal potential, oppress and distract them. The parables never forfeit the heavenly realm, but retain that the hereafter is a mystery of God the Father. Therefore, heaven remains forever beyond the reach of human manipulation and corruption, and this beckons a personal response from each individual. This fairness before the all-knowing Creator gives hope. As humans we exist in a finite circumstance; we are limited to observations of reality embraced by mystery, like a boat drifting above a dark sea. For purpose and meaning we need to learn how the boat works. The faith of the devout, trust that working and navigating the boat effectively, finding direction and intention, will somehow teach and draw humans closer, or at the very least, it will show responsiveness and gratitude to the mystery that supports us. In regard for working the boat, Roman Catholic philosophy anchors itself in natural law; and in the field of education the social science of cognition steers the ship.

Daniel Siegel, MD supports that storytelling and interactive communication forms and orders the mind (1999), Storytelling may be the primary way in which we can linguistically communicate to others—as well as to ourselves—the sometimes hidden contents of our implicitly remembering minds. Stories make available perspectives on the emotional themes of our implicit memory that may otherwise be consciously unavailable to us (p. 333).² Oral memory and written record summons and reminds the child of its inherited knowledge. Furthermore, personal denotations and connotations of words are shaped by our individual life experiences—for better or worse—which develop and enrich the meaning of the words; therefore, words are used differently—in varying degrees—by each and every person. For the Christian tradition, the gospels narratives are written in our hearts; however, the tradition is learned in a context, and both inside and outside of the tradition there are a maze of ideas, complex and simple, pure and polluted, to be identified, appreciated, resolved and even, corrected. Some ideas survive the tests and criticism of time and persecution—in strength and weakness. Depending on the advantage position, some views achieve homogeny status through bullying and corruption, or though the persuasion of truth and beauty; the finest bestow the authenticity that people naturally seek to nurture and to heal the mind (Siegel, 1999, p. 337).³ Christianity, in its great age of 2,000 years, is guilty of all methodology for influence and reach, having often lost sight of its sacramental vision in its great age of opportunity. The nature and temperament of a religion depends on the minds and hands that carry it: hostile or gentle, disobedient or obedient, indulgent or disciplined, coarse or thoughtful, healthy or diseased. Certainly, Jesus of Nazareth remains the ultimate teacher-the truth-for those who follow him, and for many who work in education and ministry. The Christian tradition has persevered through all trials and tribulations in its historic development, and keeps the wisdom of past generations for best and for worst. Deception, misuse of power, scandal and criminal activity do not maintain the living Christian community; but rather, the community is held captive to the same core stories and teachings spoken by Jesus, which would be embedded in the minds of a small, first-century Roman community by Paul, amongst the dominate pagan and hedonistic ideas of conquering power and ownership of bodies. The parables teach and realize an authentic way of being that is beautiful in its humility, simplicity, purity, goodness and their origin of love. The stories were from, of and for the peasantry, the vulnerable have-nots, the orphans, elderly, widows, lost boys, sick and the impaired. They spoke to the peasant majority, used and oppressed by the