Conference Day 3 - Reminded of Playfulness

This morning started out with a Godly Play story. We had a choice of seven circles to join, each telling a Parable, but in six different languages. I went to hear the Parable of the Great Pearl told in Spanish.

I know that our storytelling can (and indeed should) be rather playful, but that does not always come naturally to me. It is certainly helpful to see how others do it. I remember in training watching Rebecca Nye as she put materials away, playfully flicking a rolled-up underlay back and forth a bit, unrolling and re-rolling it a bit. It was playful but also emphasised that we should roll those underlays back up as we put them away.

This morning, I watched David Pritchard playfully act out how heavy the merchant's bags of money were, and mop his own brow as he "struggled" to carry all the possessions across to pay for the pearl. 

During our Response Time, therefore, I felt encouraged to be a little playful with the figures on the focal shelf, and brought the shepherd and sheep from the Holy Family across to interact with the Good Shepherd and his sheep:

two parables, in two programs

Another thing that we did today, at Level 1 training for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, was to see and hear two Parables of the Kingdom - the Precious Pearl and the Mustard Seed.

(CGS Pearl materials)

Godly Play presents these same parables, but very differently. My very first reaction was that I preferred the CGS version of the Mustard Seed, but the GP version of the Great Pearl.

CGS won the Mustard Seed hands-down by letting us look at, touch, even taste a real mustard seed. It was a particular variety found in Israel - which might well be the one Jesus was talking about. These seeds were MUCH smaller (or rather, much smaller) than the ones I grew up with.

That black dot on her middle finger - that's a mustard seed!

GP and CGS differ, in the Pearl parable, in how they interpret the phrase, all that he had. (I've written about this before, saying Normally I think we understand the merchant to have sold "everything he could spare". The version of this parable found in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas has him selling all his merchandise for the pearl. But in Matthew 13 the words are "everything he had", and the Godly Play presentation encourages us to wonder about that wording.)

(GP Pearl materials)

In other respects, though, GP remains noncommittal about how the parable is to be interpreted. CGS, on the other hand, takes it for granted that the pearl represents the Kingdom of God. The catechist may choose whether or not to emphasize that, but it's very different from the Godly Play situation in which the storyteller asks questions like, I wonder what the pearl could really be? I wonder who the merchant could really be? I wonder where all of this might really be? If you believe the pearl is the Kingdom, that's fine, but if you believe that actually Jesus is the merchant and the pearl of great price is the hundredth (lost) sheep, that's also acceptable.

It strikes me as very "Montessori" to let children interpret parables for themselves, as indeed the Gospel reader has to do!



UPDATE: In our discussion the following day one participant noted that the parable does not say the Kingdom is like the pearl, but like this story or this situation. The trainer said that children in CGS will, over time, begin to wonder about other interpretations. I wonder if *I* am the pearl? ... Maybe the pearl is the Eucharist... and she emphasized that that was good! But the doctrinal statement we were given for this lesson took it as a given (presupposition) that the pearl was the Kingdom, so in that sense I think I can stand by this post as written... for now at least.

still wondering about the pearl

I am still wondering about the Parable of the Great Pearl (aka the Pearl of Great Price).

I wonder how you'd feel about someone spending his grocery money - or rent money - on illegal drugs...

... or designer clothes... 

... or gold jewelry. 

I wonder if you watched the video I linked to here, and how you responded to it.

I wonder how you'd feel about someone giving her life savings to a televangelist? 

I wonder how that's different - *is* it different? - from the story in Mark 12:41-44.

I wonder how much God really expects us to give. 

I wonder what God really expects us to give. 

I wonder what it is that we get in return. 

"Pearls being removed from oysters" by Keith Pomakis

I wonder if we are supposed to identify with the merchant (in the parable of the Pearl of Great Price) or not. 

If not, I wonder who the merchant could really be.

the parable of the Great Pearl

Warning: spoilers ahead. If you haven't had the Parable of the Great Pearl presented to you by a Godly Play storyteller, and you think you might get that chance - stop reading.

photo, used by permission, from Explore and Express

If you already know the lesson, and would like to read about my experiences with it, carry on. 

sacrificing everything

Ian Ruhter, a former pro-snowboarder, spent all his savings to create the world's largest camera and set off on a road trip across America. Using a collodion wet-plate process which costs him $500 a shot, he photographs landscapes, cityscapes, and the people he meets along the way. Delightfully, he is equally respectful of the homeless man with a drinking problem as he is with the seven-year-old "miracle" girl who survived a very premature birth.

This film draws a deliberate and unsettling parallel between Ruhter's total commitment to his project and a drug addict's single-mindedness.

SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter : Alchemist on Vimeo.

As soon as I this question from Ruhter in this video, I knew I wanted to post it here:

If you had been searching your whole life for something you love, what would you be willing to sacrifice?

You'll surely guess what my immediate association with that question was!

When he found the great pearl...
he went...
and exchanged...
everything for the great pearl.

Rebecca Ramsey gave her kind permission for me to reproduce this photo,
taken from her blog, The Wonder Circle.

I wonder... What, if anything, might you be willing to sacrifice everything for?