Grade 12 Lesson 3

Grade 12 Lesson 3: The Presence of Christ

Learning Outcomes

Diversity and Inclusion

• G12.LO24 - Acknowledge and affirm that our Orthodox Faith embraces all people including those beyond our community as we see and know today.

Christian Ethics

• G12.LO12 - Defend the Orthodox stance on ethical issues when the society we live in may not have the same foundation that we have.

Textbook Lesson

• USA & Canada: Lesson 3 Textbook PDF
• UEA: Lesson 3 Textbook PDF

Expanding Thoughts on Lesson

• Introduction
  • There is a seed of truth in everything. C.S. Lewis (Book 1 Chapter 1 of Mere Christianity): "I know that some people say the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behaviour known to all men is unsound, because different civilizations and different ages have had quite different moralities. But this is not true. There have been differences between their moralities, but these have never amounted to anything like a total difference. If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say, the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own. Some of the evidence for this I have put together in the appendix of another book called The Abolition of Man; but for our present purpose I need only ask the reader to think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him."
• Living in a Pluralistic Society
  • (Abouna Anthony Messeh) "She showed up at the well one way, but she left a completely different way – completely transformed on the inside and the outside. Her life took on new meaning ever since that day at THE WELL and that’s why to her, THE WELL is the most important place on earth. It’s the place where she met Jesus and her life was changed forever."

Lesson Resources

• Share your resources! Please email resources@talmido.org

Connecting Materials

• Articles
  • Moralistic Therapeutic Deism—the New American Religion, Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. (Minister, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
  • God’s People Israel, Fr. Stephen De Young (AFR)
  • Revisiting the Woman at the Well in John 4, Gail Wallace (The Junia Project)
  • https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uw1KCUZXJsT7iiQ0ksLQj-2HJVanTc3T/view?usp=sharing

• Books
  • Dean, Kenda Creasy (2010). Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531484-7.

• Church Fathers
  • Homily 6 on 1 Timothy 2:1-4, St. John Chrysostom
  • Commentary on John 4, St. Cyril of Alexandria

• Videos
  • Samaritan Woman, Fr. Anthony Messeh