TRUTHSEEKERS
Truthseekers for grades 6-12, is designed to engage and inspire, ensuring that spiritual growth is both fun and meaningful! We meet each Sunday at 9am and tackle provocative and challenging questions about our faith that students will face and sometimes struggle to address. We encourage questions and challenge students to think critically about their faith...discussions are supportive, fun and donut-fueled!
Weekly Lesson Summaries:
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January 5, 2025
This week we built on our discussion regarding royalty and the view as Jesus’ role fulfilling the covenant God made with David in the Old Testament, and then spent some time on the historicity of Jesus. Many developed countries are not only becoming increasingly more agnostic or atheistic, but they are much more inclined to question whether Jesus was even a real person (e.g., a survey in the UK indicated that 40% of British believe Jesus is a mythical figure who didn’t actually live). We highlighted the reasons virtually no serious historian, including those who don’t practice Christianity, would suggest that Jesus didn’t exist. We used the telephone game to highlight how important it can be to have contemporary manuscripts to have accurate history as well as the value of corroboration of sources. There were more than 5 times the amount of contemporary writings and more independent and corroborating manuscripts documenting Jesus’ life than there were for Julius Ceasar. Using the “embarrassment criterion” (the idea that authors would likely not include actions or events that could undermine or embarrass an authoritative figure), many historians would point to Jesus’ death by crucifixion, a degrading and humiliating form of execution, as a point in support of a likely highly probable historical fact about Jesus. We began to cover other facts about Jesus that are generally accepted…his Jewish faith, his language, his family. We even reviewed the story covered in Deacon Martha’s sermon of 12-year-old Jesus getting separated from his family in their annual trip to Jerusalem, remaining behind to speak with Jewish leaders. It paints a picture of a brilliant, educated, and independent boy who already had a good sense of his purpose and relationship with God. During the next two weeks, the students preparing for confirmation will meet with Father Ryan. On 1/26, we will pick back up with our study of the historical Jesus, taking a look at aspects of his life that are less widely accepted as historical facts but very important to our Christian faith. December 22, 2024
In anticipation of Christmas, this week we talked about royalty, including kings (and queens) and what this has to do with Jesus. We spent a little time discussing some of the most powerful monarchs in history, comparing the basis for power (money, land, military prowess, cultural/religious impact). This list had some familiar names, including Ramses II, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, but we also discussed King Solomon, who might have been one of the wealthiest rulers and at least for a time, the wisest as well. Solomon inherited his kingship from his father, David. King David would not make any “history’s most powerful” lists, but he would likely be near the top of the Old Testament’s most important figures. We touched on David’s plans for the temple (and why he wasn’t allowed to do the actual building) and connected this previous classes’ discussions of the importance of the temple for Jewish people along with the role of Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant. In spite of David’s many failings, God saw David’s extraordinary love and trust for him and made a covenant with him that “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:11 Christians believe that this covenant was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus whose familial lineage (and even place of birth) tied him to David. However, as we all know the Christmas story, he came to us in very different circumstances expected of royalty. Similarly, though he was repeatedly referred to as “the son of David,” Jesus would be a very different kind of king of a different kind of kingdom. Jesus’ life and death represents God’s desire to restore a relationship with us in a new kingdom. We watched this short video from The Bible Project to provide more perspective on God’s fulfilling the Davidic covenant and the Kingdom of God. Just a reminder, there will be no class (Truthseekers or Confirmation) next week. We will resume Truthseekers on the following week (1/5/25) at 9am in the Guild Room. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! December 15, 2024
This week Father Ryan joined our class and conducted a very interesting discussion on Angels. We spent time in the Bible to learn about the role and nature of angels and quickly learned that the image that comes to many of us when we think of angels is not Biblically based. Ezekiel 1:15-17 has a particularly challenging one very much unlike the image currently hanging on Christmas trees. 
We also reviewed the hierarchy of angels from the Orthodox Christian tradition. It surprised most of us to learn that archangels that include the named angels from the Bible (including Gabriel, Michael and Raphael) are only the second lowest ranked angels in the hierarchy!
Father Ryan’s presentation works well as a stand-alone summary so we are attaching it below to provide Bible references and some provocative illustrations. The class will be meeting again next weekend (12/22) before taking a break in between Christmas and New Year’s. 
November 24, 2024 This week we finished covering the concept of atonement and why this is such an important idea in the Christian faith. We built on our discussion from last week with the practice of sacrifice in different religions (including a couple of disturbing historical practices of human sacrifice!) and discussed the role of sacrifice in ancient Judaism. This led us to touch on the role and design of the temple, including the holy of holies which housed the Ark of the Covenant. It was so holy and sacred that the high priest could only enter the room once per year during Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. On that day, the priest would go past the curtain that otherwise separated the room from the rest of the temple and sprinkle the blood of sacrificial animals on the Ark, symbolically atoning for the Jewish people’s sins. We discussed the idea of how our sins separate us from God and the role of Jesus’ death in atoning for us. When Jesus died, the curtain that separated the people from the Holy of Holies split in two, symbolizing a new covenant, access, and relationship with God enabled by Jesus’ sacrifice. We finished class talking about the holiness of God. We used the sun as a metaphor for God’s holiness. It is a critical life-sustaining force in our solar system, but it must be respected because of its awesome and dangerous power. We watched this video from the Bible Project on the topic. November 10, 2024
This Sunday we returned the CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity to try to answer a relatively challenging but critically important question that is central to our faith: “Why did God send his son to die for us?” We watched and talked through his Chapter, “The Perfect Penitent.” We talked about penance, a word that isn’t commonly used today (and used a scene from the Indiana Jones series to help!). And then we watched the first 10 minutes of a Lewis doodle video to help us work thru the main points of the chapter. Lewis references different theories on atonement, using an analogy with food to make the point that getting or understanding the right theory isn’t necessary. In the same way humans know they need to eat whether or not they understand the science behind nutrition, we don’t need to find or even understand the right atonement concept to appreciate God’s grace and love for us. Next week we will spend a little more time on atonement before shifting our focus to advent, including looking at some interesting prophesies about Jesus and addressing some related questions about God’s nature. 
November 3, 2024
This week we recapped our discussion about our mind/body, soul and spirit (see last week’s notes) and moved back to our study of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity with some background topics to set up a review of “The Perfect Penitent” chapter. We walked through a view of Christianity expressed in this summary:
We used the analogy of our understanding compared to a dog’s (or a toddler’s)…the dog may feel aggrieved that it is kept on a leash and not allowed to eat chocolate, but humans know this is for their own good. If God is viewing our relationship with him as eternal, it is conceivable he views our pain and suffering in our extremely short (relative to eternity!) time on Earth differently than we do. In fact, there are numerous times of objectively evil human behaviors that God seems to tolerate in the moment that even we might see in a different light with the benefit or historical perspective…e.g., the 400 years of Jewish slavery in Egypt, Christian martyrs whose death impacted millions (e.g. we briefly referenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer), or even Jesus’ crucifixion. We then briefly highlighted some of the very high-level points of the world’s major religions, comparing and contrasting with Christianity. We also spent a little time talking about how Jesus shows up in the Quran. Some were surprised to know that Muslims revere Jesus. He is mentioned more often that Muhammad, and the Islam faith shares many of the same beliefs about Jesus’ life as Christians (virgin birth, performed miracles, a great and wise prophet, will return in end times). However, the Quaran is clear that Jesus is not the son of God and that he was not crucified and resurrected. While many hold onto the idea of relativism when it comes to others’ religious beliefs, we talked about the logical challenge of reconciling one faith saying a Jesus was just a prophet, but not the son of God with another that said Jesus is one with God, existing before the creation of the world and the way to eternal life. Logically, it is not possible that both of these beliefs about Jesus can be true. Just looking at what Jesus said about who he was and his relationship with God, C.S. Lewis held out a logical framework that many today refer to as “Lunatic, Liar or Lord” argument. The idea is that for someone to claim to be the son of God and the only way to eternal life, that this person is wrong…either he wrongly believes this and is mentally unstable or he knows it is untrue and he is lying. Or he is correct and accurately claiming what otherwise seems like an outrageous identity. Jesus was by all counts, wise, knowledgeable and stable…not likely to be mentally ill. And would a liar allow himself to be crucified when all he had to do was back off his claims? We will start next week by revisiting this argument before digging into a very interesting chapter in Mere Christianity. We will explore the idea of penitence starting with a climatic scene from Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade and then finish with a discussion around atonement. 
October 27, 2024
It was great to be able to meet again and after sharing hurricane stories, we reviewed our discussion from the last class - what makes a human different from other intelligent animals? We touched on the idea of free will vs. operating strictly from instinct as well as the role of our body/mind, soul and spirit in making us who we are. We discussed two Hebrew words to help us understand what the Bible says about our soul. Interestingly, some people would argue that many of the references to a “soul” in the Old Testament is an incomplete translation. The Hebrew word “nephesh” is often translated as soul, but it literally means “throat” and usually in the Old Testament, it is intended to mean a person’s whole self or life. While the Bible isn’t clear on the distinction between a person’s body, soul and spirit, it is clear that who we are is not limited to just our body or that our lives are limited to just the time that we have on Earth. We watched this informative video from the Bible Project that took us a little deeper into this idea and what nephesh means. The second word, “ruach”, can mean breath or wind or spirit. It is often used to illustrate God’s life-giving breath. We talked about our spirit potentially being the part of us that can be connected to God through his Holy Spirit. We talked a little about what it might mean to our nephesh or humanity to be spiritually dead (e.g., Hitler) or even what it could mean for someone in a permanent coma or suffering from something like Alzheimer’s disease. We finished with a brief discussion on whether animals might have souls and for some added fun for next week, we all agreed to start the next class sharing each other’s results of this “what animal are you?” test. | |||
September 22, 2024
Today we picked back up on our discussion of the distinction of something being right or wrong due to cultural norms (e.g., removing shoes before entering a Japanese home) or something being intrinsically true (e.g., 2+2=4).
We then watched segments of the animated reading of the second chapter of Mere Christianity, addressing objections to the idea of universal moral truths. One of the examples C.S. Lewis used was the sometimes conflicting impulse to both run away and run towards a dangerous situation to help another person. Both of these impulses could reflect evolutionary instincts (the first is survival of the individual and the second is a communal survival), but Lewis holds that the feeling that we “ought” to help is a separate force representing the “Law of Nature” or truth as it relates to what is right and good.
He went on to challenge the logic that just because we were taught something by our parents, schools or even churches, it doesn’t follow what is taught is just a cultural practice or human convention and therefore not objectively true. Noted that driving on the right side of the street is a human convention, but math exists apart from human invention or design. Lewis argues that morality exists apart from human conventions. He notes that evidence for this can be seen in the fact that some societal or cultural practices are better (or worse) than others. For example, almost everyone would agree that the behaviors of leaders and people in Nazi Germany or Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are worse or just wrong compared to those in most other modern societies. If we say this, we must be appealing to a common standard of right and wrong.
For the second half of class, we connected what we learned with one of the students’ top questions: What is a soul? Do animals have souls? We talked about the high intelligence of certain animal species and learned about bonobos, an emotionally intelligent endangered primate that along with chimpanzees, are the closest living species relative to humans. Humans however, have a wider range of capabilities than even our closest animal relatives. Why? We began to discuss the idea of the human body, soul, and spirit. In our next class we will continue our discussion and learn about a Hebrew word that was generally translated as “soul” in the Bible but might have a slightly different meaning from how we typically view it and tackle whether animals other than humans have souls.
Today we picked back up on our discussion of the distinction of something being right or wrong due to cultural norms (e.g., removing shoes before entering a Japanese home) or something being intrinsically true (e.g., 2+2=4).
We then watched segments of the animated reading of the second chapter of Mere Christianity, addressing objections to the idea of universal moral truths. One of the examples C.S. Lewis used was the sometimes conflicting impulse to both run away and run towards a dangerous situation to help another person. Both of these impulses could reflect evolutionary instincts (the first is survival of the individual and the second is a communal survival), but Lewis holds that the feeling that we “ought” to help is a separate force representing the “Law of Nature” or truth as it relates to what is right and good.
He went on to challenge the logic that just because we were taught something by our parents, schools or even churches, it doesn’t follow what is taught is just a cultural practice or human convention and therefore not objectively true. Noted that driving on the right side of the street is a human convention, but math exists apart from human invention or design. Lewis argues that morality exists apart from human conventions. He notes that evidence for this can be seen in the fact that some societal or cultural practices are better (or worse) than others. For example, almost everyone would agree that the behaviors of leaders and people in Nazi Germany or Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are worse or just wrong compared to those in most other modern societies. If we say this, we must be appealing to a common standard of right and wrong.
For the second half of class, we connected what we learned with one of the students’ top questions: What is a soul? Do animals have souls? We talked about the high intelligence of certain animal species and learned about bonobos, an emotionally intelligent endangered primate that along with chimpanzees, are the closest living species relative to humans. Humans however, have a wider range of capabilities than even our closest animal relatives. Why? We began to discuss the idea of the human body, soul, and spirit. In our next class we will continue our discussion and learn about a Hebrew word that was generally translated as “soul” in the Bible but might have a slightly different meaning from how we typically view it and tackle whether animals other than humans have souls.
September 15, 2024
This week we reviewed the concept of objective truth and then continued to discuss the first chapter of Mere Christianity. A reminder of the main theme of this foundational chapter:
Everyone has a shared sense of right and wrong that isn’t cultural and doesn’t need to be taught.
• There are objective truths
• Morality is an objective truth and universal
• This reality is a strong argument for a creator/God
This is a meaty/challenging Bible verse (like much of the letter to Romans!), but Paul summarizes the idea that Lewis calls the Law of Nature:
“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Romans 2:13-15
A much more accessible idea, we talked about how Homer Simpson’s regular struggle with his shoulder angel and devil illustrates Lewis’ point that we know right/wrong but often do the wrong thing.
We then pivoted and discussed potential objections to the idea of objective morality. One is that our sense of right and wrong are really just a result of culture, societal conventions, and evolution. This mistake is in viewing it in a binary/all-or-nothing lens. Cultural norms and even laws certainly play a role in what we view as right or wrong (e.g., taking a hat off for the national anthem, driving on the right side of the street). We talked about how human herding can be part of this (see long lines for iPhone releases and Germans supporting the Nazi regime). On the other hand, there are certain things that have always been viewed as wrong across history and cultures.
Setting up next week’s discussion where Lewis addresses some common objections, we watched the “we found a witch, can we burn it?” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Beyond illustrating some hilarious logical fallacies, we will use this to help us understand Lewis’ use of witch burning as an example of something that was culturally acceptable in the 17th century but not now. We will start next week’s discussion with learning how he addresses this!
This week we reviewed the concept of objective truth and then continued to discuss the first chapter of Mere Christianity. A reminder of the main theme of this foundational chapter:
Everyone has a shared sense of right and wrong that isn’t cultural and doesn’t need to be taught.
• There are objective truths
• Morality is an objective truth and universal
• This reality is a strong argument for a creator/God
This is a meaty/challenging Bible verse (like much of the letter to Romans!), but Paul summarizes the idea that Lewis calls the Law of Nature:
“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Romans 2:13-15
A much more accessible idea, we talked about how Homer Simpson’s regular struggle with his shoulder angel and devil illustrates Lewis’ point that we know right/wrong but often do the wrong thing.
We then pivoted and discussed potential objections to the idea of objective morality. One is that our sense of right and wrong are really just a result of culture, societal conventions, and evolution. This mistake is in viewing it in a binary/all-or-nothing lens. Cultural norms and even laws certainly play a role in what we view as right or wrong (e.g., taking a hat off for the national anthem, driving on the right side of the street). We talked about how human herding can be part of this (see long lines for iPhone releases and Germans supporting the Nazi regime). On the other hand, there are certain things that have always been viewed as wrong across history and cultures.
Setting up next week’s discussion where Lewis addresses some common objections, we watched the “we found a witch, can we burn it?” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Beyond illustrating some hilarious logical fallacies, we will use this to help us understand Lewis’ use of witch burning as an example of something that was culturally acceptable in the 17th century but not now. We will start next week’s discussion with learning how he addresses this!
September 8, 2024
We kicked off our new semester with a recap of some of the big questions we covered last year and the role of logic, problem solving and an understanding of history in Christian apologetics. We also reviewed the importance of objective truth in our faith but also in society using Tiananmen Square and the Jewish holocaust as examples where the government (and others) have tried to use propaganda and the control of historic information to influence how large populations understand the truth (with a brief break to calculate the amount of sodium one of our chip-loving students consumed in the first half of class!).
We quickly recapped the top arguments for God’s existence before turning to one of our areas of focus for this semester. And if God exists, is Christianity our best explanation for his role in creation and relationship with people?
One of the ways we will explore this is to “read” together parts of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity.” We reviewed a little of Lewis’ interesting biography (including why everyone called him Jack) and highlighted that the content of Mere Christianity was originally delivered to the British people during WWII as part of a radio program. We found a neat animated video series that recreates the radio addresses and accompanies this with hand drawn images to reinforce the message. Given all the background we covered, we only got through the first half of the first chapter/video that sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Lastly, the group voted on their top big questions they’d like to cover or revisit this semester so we will plan on covering the following in the coming weeks:
- What is a soul? Do animals besides humans have souls?
- Can people who have never heard of God go to heaven? What about cavemen? Aliens?
- Angels and Demons/Devil
- How to respond to the toughest arguments against God’s existence
We kicked off our new semester with a recap of some of the big questions we covered last year and the role of logic, problem solving and an understanding of history in Christian apologetics. We also reviewed the importance of objective truth in our faith but also in society using Tiananmen Square and the Jewish holocaust as examples where the government (and others) have tried to use propaganda and the control of historic information to influence how large populations understand the truth (with a brief break to calculate the amount of sodium one of our chip-loving students consumed in the first half of class!).
We quickly recapped the top arguments for God’s existence before turning to one of our areas of focus for this semester. And if God exists, is Christianity our best explanation for his role in creation and relationship with people?
One of the ways we will explore this is to “read” together parts of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity.” We reviewed a little of Lewis’ interesting biography (including why everyone called him Jack) and highlighted that the content of Mere Christianity was originally delivered to the British people during WWII as part of a radio program. We found a neat animated video series that recreates the radio addresses and accompanies this with hand drawn images to reinforce the message. Given all the background we covered, we only got through the first half of the first chapter/video that sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Lastly, the group voted on their top big questions they’d like to cover or revisit this semester so we will plan on covering the following in the coming weeks:
- What is a soul? Do animals besides humans have souls?
- Can people who have never heard of God go to heaven? What about cavemen? Aliens?
- Angels and Demons/Devil
- How to respond to the toughest arguments against God’s existence
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St. Thomas Episcopal Church
1200 Snell Isle Blvd NE St. Petersburg, FL 33704 727-896-9641 office@stthomasstpete.org Temporary Mailing Address: PO Box 7177 St. Petersburg, FL 33704 |
