School’s out tomorrow! – at least if you’re a second or third grader in Columbus City Schools.  Schools in the area are letting out, and many graduations have already happened.  Students are about to skip into the glory of summer, parents are about to adjust their routines, and teachers, God bless them, are about to finish their grading and enter into a much needed summer Sabbatical.

In church life, this Sunday will be our last session of spring Sunday school.  We will have a teacher appreciation time half way through the Sunday school hour.  A tremendous thank you to the teachers and organizers who have given their time and energy toward the spiritual and intellectual formation of children and adults.  This summer’s Sunday school hour will be a time informal fellowship with games and snacks available for all.

In the Gospel of Mark class I have encouraged participants to write haikus about the passages we’ve been discussing.  A few years ago I heard a Terry Gross interview with John Paul Lederach,  a Mennonite who has worked extensively in conflict zones around the world to bring groups together to work out their grievances.  He talked about how he has developed the practice of writing haikus to better understand the essence of a conflict situation.  He believed that if he could boil it down to this simple three line, 5-7-5 syllable format, it would give him better insight into what was really going on.  Plus it was kind of fun.  I love that idea and so have invited the Gospel of Mark class to do the same.  So, as the Sunday school year comes to a close, here are a few selections that one class has written about their subject matter:

Crossing between shores

Mending what we have broken

Son of Man, Seamstress

Five loaves five thousand

Seven loaves for seven thousand

And there was plenty!

The teacher is tired

The woman breaks in, pleading

Even dogs eat crumbs

Cross the Galilee!

Wake up the haves and have-nots.

Cross the sea again!

Teaching, then trouble.

Agony, death, empty tomb…

But no tidy end.