Lectionary Links (NL): May 19, 2019

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Year 1: May 19th, 2019

(Written for ages 2-6)

Comment: In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that he wants to come visit them, and at first says he wants to strengthen them with a spiritual gift, but then adds, “or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine”. The goal is not only Paul strengthening them, but them mutually encouraging each other. We see this mutual encouragement in Wolf In The Snow. The pictures show us the story of a little girl who gets lost in a blizzard on her walk home from school. She meets a baby wolf who is also lost, separated from its pack. She carries the baby wolf through the snow until she finds the other wolves who welcome it back. But the girl is still lost. Then, the wolves, in appreciation, begin to howl and bark to call attention to her, so that the people searching for her are able to find her. They are attracted by the noise and bring the girl home. The girl helped the wolf, and then the wolves helped the girl: mutual encouragement. What Paul’s letter tells us is that the purpose of a faith community is not merely for us to be encouragers or to be encouraged, but both. Like the girl and the wolves, who mutually encouraged each other, in a community of faith we are called to be both encouragers and to be encouraged, together.

Thanks to Sara Anne Berger, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Nachitoches, LA, for writing the Year 1 Narrative Lectionary Links.

Lectionary Links (NL): May 19, 2019 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.