A Peace Focused Curriculum:

It is extremely difficult for youth and adults in the Church to be witnesses to the peace of Christ when we leave in a culture that sucumbs to the myth of redemptive violence. We often look for complicated rationale for participating in societal institutions that advocate the use of coercive force. At various points in the curriculum, we ask our youth to name for themselves how they wish to participate in this culture and at what point they believe they have violated their own convictions, because we recognize that our youth no longer belong to a community that is separate from the world and that they must exercise their own conscience. Nevertheless, there is a simplicity to biblical teaching that we pray will form the core of their convictions and help them maintain the sort of discipline of earlier generations who witnessed to the Peace Church tradition and the nonviolent way of Christ. The following lesson is designed to help students grasp and own two fundamental principles of Christ-centered peacemaking.

Introduction: What is a peacemaker?

Many students will have seen the 1997 film, The Peacemakers, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman in which a nuclear expert, Dr. Julia Kelly, and a Special Force Intelligence officer, Colonel Thomas Devoe, save the world from the threat of terrorism by unmasking a plot to detonate a dirty bomb. You might begin by having one or more of them recount the plot. If you have seen a more recent film in which the violent suppression of a villian by a military "peace keeper" saves the day, you might ask students to recount that plot. While the details of these films may vary, the basic message stays the same. There are evil people out there who seek to harm innocent people and we must stop them at all costs. If the film is fresh on youths' minds, you might have them do a collateral body count.

These films reflect what our society habitually thinks of when they speak of peacemakers. These lesson seeks to draw a contrast between this concept and what it means to be Christ centered peacemakers.

On a blackboard or whiteboard, draw a large circle on one side and write Christ Centered in the middle. On the other side of the board, draw a large pyramid.

Ask: What do you do to keep your life Christ centered?

If students are quiet, write WWJD on the board and they will begin to talk about imitating Christ.

The second concept that you want them to get at is an awareness of Christ knowing or recognizing us. Modern evangelical Christians often use the language of having a personal relationship with Christ. You can prompt this discussion by looking around the room to see who is wearing a symbol of this relationship. As him or her why he or she wears a cross or a t-shirt with a Christian message. I encourage you to get youth to think of this relationship as a blessing or a gift.

Exploring specific aspects of the imitation of Christ and being blessed in Christ will help youth become Christ centered peacemakers.

Imitation of Christ: In the Anabaptist tradition, one of the key components of imitation of Christ is summed up with the German word, Gelassenheit, letting go. This word has signified many things over the centuries, but I understand it to signify what is meant by the Greek word, kenosis, used in Philippians 2:6-11 to signify the act of emptying of self. Have someone read Philippians 2:1-11. If your class is interested in the composition history of the Bible, explain to them that 2:6-11 is considered one of the earliest Christian hymns. Many Pauline scholars think that Paul composed this for Christian worship and then inserts it into his letter to the Philippians.

21-5 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6-11 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited [grasped]
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Write on the board: imitation of Christ, letting go, emptying self, humility

Ask youth what sorts of honors do we try to grasp? Write their answer next to the top of the pyramid. After letting the students answer this question broadly, focus their answers upon the prizes, laurels and awards of our culture, by asking them to name the most coveted prizes in our culture. Anticipate answers like the Oscar and olympic gold medals.

Ask: What makes these so sought after?
Anticipated answer: Only those at the top can get them.

Ask: Where on this pyramid are royalty? Do the people at the top know us or recognize us?

If you have a personal story that illustrates an encounter with someone at the top of the pyramid in which you were invisible, share it with the youth. If you pause to think for a moment, you will come up with many examples. Perhaps a few of my own stories will help prompt memories. Every year, I attend two academic meetings, one in May/June and one in November. When I began my career as an academic and I attended receptions, I would run into one particular member of both societies and each time, she would introduce herself as though we had never me. She was a young scholar who had risen to the top rather quickly, while I struggled with shyness and the fact that I did not seek early publication. An ironic reverse side to this story, happened several years ago when I attended a publisher's reception. I entered the room, painfully aware that no one knew me and that I needed to fit myself into some conversation. I had it in mind that I would make myself introduce myself to a scholar who had recently published what I considered to be a very significant contribution to the study of the Gospel of John. I looked about for name tags in my effort to locate him when I was interrupted by a very tall, handsome man who said, "Hello Jo-Ann." I looked at his name tag and, to my surprise, this was the scholar I was seeking. I looked puzzled, and he said, "you don't remember me." He then explained that we had met six years earlier at a special conference at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto. Needless to say, I felt foolish.

I can also tell the story of how I was passing out pamphlets on a Victoria street when I spied Bruce Cockburn, a rather famous Canadian musician heading my way. As soon as he spotted me, he jaywalked across the street to avoid the encounter. Of course, I can tell the flipside of this story, by recounting the kinds of occasions when I do the same thing to avoid panhandlers or people who seem threatening.

From a focus upon what it means to be on top, turn to the New Testament's description of what it means to be on the bottom of this pyramid.

Read the beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12. My son thinks that we study these verses too often, but I think that we need to fix these in their memory and cannot repeat them often enough.

Have students attend to the final verse's promise that for those who are blessed their reward is great in heaven. We tend to think that this verse signifies that any suffering now will be compensated by an afterlife in heaven, but this may not be Jesus' intent. When I read this verse in the context of the imagery of Paul's letters and the Revelation of John, I take this to me that our prizes and honors are not earthly awards but heavenly awards. Jesus is not talking about compensation, he is talking about prizes.

Ask: Where are the blessed on our pyramid?

Ask: Is God's blessing limited to a few?

Ask: Where does Jesus stand on this pyramid? If time permits explore the various aspects of his life that put him at the bottom of the pyramid: a poor Galilean, suspect birth, crucifixion.

We think of Jesus as our king, we call him Lord, a title that puts him at the top of the pyramid. Jesus proclaimed the coming of the "Reign of Heaven," but he seldom spoke about kings. His stories of the kingdom are filled with agrarian imagery. Have the youth read one story in which Jesus describes the king of the Kingdom of Heaven: Matthew 25:31-46.

Ask: Where does this king fit onto the pyramid? If we are to have a personal relationship with this king what do we need to do?

Anticipated answer: youth will probably focus upon serving others. Try to get them to add another dimension to their answer by asking if it is easy to have a relationship with those at the bottom of the pyramid if you are at the top of the pyramid.

Activities: The following two activities are designed to help fix these concepts in youth's minds.

Activity One: Introduce the first activity by explaining who Paul worked very hard to help the people in the Churches in Asia Minor and Greece understand how to let go and not grasp for the prizes at the top but to receive the blessings that one gets when one is at the bottom of the pyramid. This is an exercise based upon Philippians 3:4-9. You will want to read this to yourself in advance but wait to have youth read it until after they have done the exercise.

Hand out long strips of toilet paper. Cheaper paper works best because it doesn't tear easily. In groups of four write down the names of all the things that we are tempted to grasp after using felt pens. Have each youth tear off three or more pieces of paper. Then read Philippians 3:4-9. Pause after reading verses 5-6, Paul's list of things that he use to count as gains. When you finish, explain to the youth that the translators of the Bible tend to be very pruddish and that the word rubbish in verse 8 ought to be translated excrement.

Suggest to the youth that they might symbolically treat the things that they have written on the toilet paper as excrement by using the paper or simply flushing it the next time they use the toilet.

Activity Two: This activity takes some preparation. I insert rolled up pieces of paper with the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 into 1 1/2 inch tube beads. I supply youth with string, a variety of beads and one tube bead with the blessing and let them make necklaces or key fobs and I encourage the youth to keep the blessing bead as a reminder that they are blessed by God not for being cool, or for being rich, or for beating others in competition, but for serving others and for running the risk of being humiliated in the process.

One idea that we have explored is keeping peace journals. While we have found it difficult to maintain these journals, perhaps this is a project that will work for your youth group.