For congregations that follow the Revised Common Lectionary, the first lesson during Eastertide comes from the book of Acts. Most of the year the first reading is from the Hebrew Scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament, but for the period between Easter and Pentecost, it is traditional to read from the Book of Acts for that reading. Interestingly, today’s reading from Acts is about a controversy in the early church about whether the new faith movement would be extended beyond the community of Jewish believers. Jesus was a Jew and much of his early ministry was based in synagogues and other places where faithful Jews gathered. After his death and resurrection, early church leaders struggled over whether or not to welcome Gentiles as Christians.

The congregation we are currently serving generally only reads one text from the lectionary each week, and most commonly the reading of the Gospel is the chosen text, so we haven’t been spending much time or energy learning about the dynamics of the interplay between the multiple readings of the lectionary. If I were preaching on this text to adults, I would probably spend a bit of time and energy explaining a bit about the complexities of Jewish dietary laws and customs and how decisions about what to eat were a part of the distinctions between people in the time of the early church. Those who didn’t follow the traditions about what to eat and what to wear and how to spend their time were labeled Gentile and identified as non believers by those who adhered to Jewish laws. The thought that the two groups could come together in the same religion was a challenge for many people. There were faithful followers of Jesus who argued that Christians should be required to follow all Jewish customs and traditions including circumcision. Others argued that one need not be Jewish to be a part of the emerging Christian community.

I, however, am not going to preach to adults today. I am responsible for the time with children in our worship service. Children are capable of understanding complex ideas, but they need to be presented with care and with understanding of the psychosocial, faith and moral development of children. For preschoolers and younger elementary children, we generally focus our attention on the universality of God’s love. God loves people whose traditions and customs are different from ours. In today’s text, Peter speaks of his vision in which he comes to understand that all foods come from God and that all that God creates is good. While other faithful Jews are taught that some foods are clean and some are unclean, Peter declares that all good things come from God and that everything that comes from God is good.

Even very young children know the sensation of thinking that some foods are good and others are less desirable. Every parent knows the feeling of having prepared good food and watching a child reject it. “I don’t like this food. It is yucky!” Helping a child remember times when they have rejected a certain food can be a key to helping them understand that dietary laws can create hard feelings between people.

Of course the 5 or so minutes that we have for “Time with Children” in a worship service is not enough time to deliver a complete lesson to our children. We will expand our teaching through additional activities. One of the planned activities for children in our church today is the planting of our children’s garden. The eight raised garden beds will be planted with food and flower crops that will grow over the next few months. The children will be involved in caring for the plants and will be able to witness harvesting plants for food. Some of the herbs or other plants in the gardens will not be recognized by the children as food and there will be opportunities for teaching and learning through the season.

Today, making connections between the rather obscure arguments about dietary laws in the Acts text and the activities of planting the garden is a pretty long stretch for us as teachers. I’ve been working with children (and adults) long enough to know that not every lesson results in immediate understanding. We all learn from repetition. Hopefully one of the lessons that we repeat over and over regardless of which text the lectionary hands us is about the goodness of God’s creation. The Psalmist writes that the earth is Gods and the fullness thereof. Every place we go is holy ground. We are called to provide care for all of the bounty of the earth. Planting seeds and caring for plants is a sacred calling.

Interpreting the lesson with adults is no less challenging. On a day when the news headlines report yet another horrific mass shooting that appears to be a hate crime aimed at African Americans, texts that challenge us to reach beyond the divisions and distinctions we make between ourselves and other human beings are critical. Our faith calls us to reject racism in both its obvious and more subtle forms. We sing hymns and proclaim a faith in Christ who transcends the distinctions we make between ourselves and others. Yet racism and sexism and homophobia and many other forms of discrimination persist in our society. Clearly we have a lot of work to do to teach our children and ourselves about the pain caused by discrimination.

We are planting more seeds with our children today than just the ones that will produce a small harvest from a few garden beds. Children always learn more from how we behave than from what we say. They watch how we treat other people. They observe the biases we display. They learn lessons, both good and bad, from the lives we live. It is a great honor, but also a great responsibility to be entrusted with part of the teaching of the children of the church. The time we have with children, even the few moments designated in each worship service as “time with children,” is precious. Sometimes, we can use them to teach lessons to adults as well. And every teacher knows that we learn from every act of teaching.

May God bless the seeds we sow today.