Not really a book

books:


	• Beneath The Cross: Letters from a Good Friday World Sermons and Take Home Kits Scott Bryte CSS Publishing Company, 2008 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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BENEATH THE CROSS

I want to thank you for the "beneath the cross" series. The response has been great, not only because of the little take home handouts, but because of your gift of bringing the message alive through the letters. We began using it the Wednesday after Ash Wednesday. I asked a member who has a strong voice to read and not what one would call a "warm" or one to show emotions woman. She took the material home and asked me a couple days later if she could cry during the service because that's what happened reading it at home.

That has been the case to date - each of the readers has been overwhelmed themselves during the reading -

I can't wait for next year's follow up J

Thanks! And blessings as you share Jesus in Pittsburgh

Earl J. Pierce, pastor

St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Valley

Bullhead City, AZ

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Not really a book

When I opened my box that came today, it contained not a book but a whole assortment of goodies. First was a plastic-encased set of 15 loose pages: the "book." This contained the scripts for 7 letters and suggestions for discussion of them.

Then there were 7 "prop" letters: a sympathy card on which was written a letter from Mary the Mother of Jesus to HER mother; a scroll from the Centurion to his commander; a suicide note on 6-column accounting pages written by Judas Iscariot; a memo in an inter-office mail envelope from Caiaphas to the Sanhedrin; a letter from Simon Peter to the Acme Fishing Supply Company; a note on purple paper from Mary Magdalene to her sister; and a letter from Joseph of Arimathea to his brother, explaining why he had allowed an outsider to be buried in the new family tomb. It would be very effective, though not necessary, to have the person reading the letter be costumed as the sender or recipient.

Also in the box was a packet of miniatures of the letters, meant to be given to people to take home to engender more discussion. You would have to order additional ones of these in order to use them, as they are not reproducible. And there were a couple pages of explanation.

The letters are very imaginative and promote discussion of all sorts of issues that we normally don't think about. We can only imagine: What did Mary's own mother think of Mary's pregnancy and her grandson born of that? Did Judas expect Jesus would die as a result of his betrayal, or did he have other ideas? In so imagining, we can discover more about our faith and about ourselves as the biblical characters come to life in a new way.

The point of all of these letters is to show what a difference the resurrection makes. Since all were "written" between the time of Jesus' death and resurrection, they were written from desperation or despair or deep grief; however, the whole world changed a few days later. It is now a world of hope.

I can't wait till till next year when the opportunity will come to share these wonderfully written, thought-provoking "letters" with the people in my church. They would be good as part of a worship service as well as in a class or other type of discussion. The box I opened was actually a treasure chest.

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