Lectionary Links (NL): November 3, 2019
21st Sunday After Pentecost
Year 2: November 3, 2019
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
(Written for ages 3-6)
Comment: This story, in which Elijah calls down fire from heaven to set a soaking wet altar ablaze, is the first honest-to-goodness miracle that we’ve encountered in this cycle of the Narrative Lectionary. As such, it will be easier for younger children (who haven’t yet learned not to believe in miracles) to accept than it will be for many of their parents. This may be a good opportunity to delve into the very subject of miracles, sharing with children that miracles are things we wouldn’t expect to happen and can’t explain. In Extra Yarn, Annabelle is a knitting enthusiast who runs across a box of yarn that never runs out. She uses this yarn to clothe her entire town (indeed, even the animals, trees, and houses!). When a nasty archduke arrives in town to obtain this magical box. He steals it from Annabelle but soon discovers that, for him, the box is empty – he only wants to make things for himself. Just as the prophets of Baal were unsuccessful in calling down fire, the archduke can’t get the yarn to work because his heart isn’t devoted to the right things. We can’t explain how the fire burst forth from soggy logs, just as we can’t explain where Annabelle’s yarn comes from. At the end of the day, the only thing we can explain about miracles is what the witnesses proclaim: everyone confesses that, “the Lord indeed is God!”
Thanks to Union Presbyterian Seminary alumnus Joshua Andrzejewski for writing the Year 2 Narrative Lectionary Links.
Lectionary Links (NL): November 3, 2019 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
