For our Advent Podcast series this year, we’re looking at how the good news of Jesus is bringing comfort and joy today. We sat down with Jill Miller, our Adaptive Curriculum Writer, to hear about the comfort and joy Jesus is bringing in the Bethesda ministry, particularly to “the gang,” as she lovingly calls the local group of adults impacted by disability. In the last year, we’ve released two new resources written by Jill, an Advent Bible Study for Bethesda and Tully’s Christmas Mess, a children’s book. In this excerpt, Jill chats with us about the Advent Bible Study.
Liz: What was the need you saw for an Advent study in Bethesda?
Jill: I think a lot of times we limit the information we share with “the gang.” But the gang absolutely loves to learn. It's one of those secrets about them. So I thought, let's teach them the whole story of Christmas. Many of them get the nativity story, the stable with Jesus born, Mary and Joseph, but we extended that.
We start with Isaiah, the prophet, explaining what a prophet is. I'll hold up a puppet, and I'll say a sentence through the puppet, like, “Hello, how are you?” and I'll ask the gang, “Who's talking?” They'll say, “Well, it's really you.” And I share how that is the job of a prophet! We talk about Isaiah. We talk about how the scrolls were found in Israel, and that the scrolls predicted the birth of the baby Jesus Christ 700 years before it happened. We emphasize how every word of God proves true. Talk about comfort!
Liz: It strikes me that to only know the nativity moment is like coming in at the end of a movie. You miss all that that stuff that helps you feel the climax. Have you seen that as you’ve shared the wider story with the gang?
Jill: Oh yes. It’s so fun! We actually have a drum roll. The kids bang a drum and it starts out really soft. As they go through the story, it gets louder and louder until Jesus comes.
Liz: Yeah, you really need a whole percussion set to do the last.
Jill: At the end, it's the trumpet. We’ve got the whole orchestra here, you know!
Jon: What are some of the responses by the gang that you have experienced as they make these discoveries on their own in scripture through the lessons?
Jill: It's really interesting, Jon, when people use Bethesda, many of the teachers who organize the Bible study are kind of amazed at what the gang gives back to them, the leader.
Jesus taught in such simple ways. We are ‘the gang’ to God. We really are... He adapted the majesty that he came from so we can get a grip on it, a tiny grip.
I just love ending on the second coming, especially when you're teaching a group with lots of physical disabilities -- wheelchairs, inability or difficulty in communicating. They're almost jumping out of those chairs at the thought of a new body. It's a beautiful thing to see. And I say to them, “700 years before Jesus was born, God said this. Everything God says is true!” It's so simple, yet it's so deep. It's so easy to comprehend, yet it's so difficult to comprehend. God's word is so rich, and the gang just grabs onto morsels many times that we don't grab onto.
Jon: At seeJesus, we often talk about how Jesus says we need to become like children to enter the kingdom of God. I picture the way that you're describing the response of the gang being the way we should respond. We get so overly complicated and self-righteously sophisticated that we miss the joy of Christmas that you're describing. And the gang gets it. They grasp it. I can only imagine how glorious that is.
Jill: That is so true, John. We've just started to get into group homes, which is very exciting for me. Some of them do not even know Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth. Everything is so new and fresh to them.
Jesus taught in such simple ways. We are ‘the gang’ to God. We really are. We're just sitting here like trying to get it, and he adapted the majesty that he came from so we can get a grip on it, a tiny grip.
Liz: I love that! The original incarnation is adapted majesty. Majesty, glory, holiness – adapted and made comprehensible. The drum roll is getting louder!
Hear more of the conversation, and explore the studies here.
