Letter to the Editor,
To follow up on my question of religious education, I had an experience while picking blueberries. No worries, no burning bushes involved, though we were in the midst of that heat wave.
We were at a local pick-your-own-berries field when some families joined the rows of plump bushes. While I could not see the group, I could listen to their conversation. By the vocal tones, topics, enthusiasm, and “I found a bigger, bluer, riper blueberry” banter, I would guess that the children in the group were in the late elementary school age category.
Father’s talked sports and news; mother’s shared anticipated baking recipes (muffins versus zucchini-blueberry breads) and listings of who at church was on what trip this summer. Children recounted stories from VBS.
One feature that I found amusing, was that the children when they called each other by name had a variety of Hebrew prophets’ names. They did not seem to be channelling their namesakes that morning though.
The other feature was the narrative that they took away from the VBS story about David and Goliath (I Samuel 17): killing bad people was okay; I should be strong; I should be better than you. Somehow each better blueberry was a source of reiterating these themes in their conversation.
Granted, the David and Goliath story was probably what I was introduced to in my VBS days, though where I grew up we picked cherries and apricots. But, I wondered, “will they get a fuller telling of the life of David?”. Will their sources fill out the character of David, who showed compassion by not ambushing Saul while arrogantly cutting off a corner of his robe (I Samuel 24); disregard for religious rituals by demanding the show-bread from the alter to feed him and his troops (I Samuel 21, also see Matthew 12, Mark 2, and Luke 6); and the envious adulterer who would even set up the cuckold husband to be killed in battle (2 Samuel 11)? May they progress from their VBS introduction to David’s complex character as they mature to understanding of our flawed nature.
The Hebrew and Christian scriptures are full of stories. Most are pretty poor examples of how we might live our lives. Most (my narrative) illustrate God’s frustration at repeated failures to build a relationship with his self-absorbed, anxious, fickle creation.
But, our legacy is to use the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Our failing is to only pick what we consider to be the biggest, bluest, ripest fruits from that tree.
“The greatest teacher failure is.” – Yoda, “The Last Jedi”
Oscar Larson,
Baker, WV
