Friday, July 27, 2012

Holy cow (or bear): it's the Sacred Sweater!

 

 

Knitting 103 - Teddy Bear

Sweater


Contributed by:

Trinity Lutheran Church, Eau Claire, WI



Knitting 103 "Teddy Bear

Sweater"



The purpose of Knitting 103
“Teddy Bear Sweater”
is to educate the class about
all the steps
required in knitting a sweater.
The pattern was designed to
include all the parts of a regular s
ized cardigan, including a small
increase pattern on the sleeves,
a ribbed crew collar and button
plackets. They will learn the
importance of determining gauge
and blocking.
The goal is to encourage the
class: if you can knit this teddy
bear sweater, then you can knit a
person sized sweater, too!
It is a four week class.
The sweater is small enough
that they should easily be able to
finish the work from week to week








Teddy Bear Sweater,
Week One
Before people have arrived
to this
class, they should have
determined
what size needles they need to
achieve
the correct gauge.
Talk to them about gauge.
Gauge doesn’t matter so
much 
if you’re knitting a dishrag or a
scarf or even an
afghan. But if you’re making
something which needs to
be a certain size, like a
garment or a pillow cover,
then you need
to make sure that your
gauge in knitting
will achieve the proper
dimensions.

After you’ve explained all that,
then it’s time to get started!
Hand out the pattern
for week one, and get them
started.
The Bible Study is centered
on the topic of measuring
gauge,
Romans 3:19–26.
I. Introduction

Questions:
•What’s the purpose of a ruler?
•Is an inch the same on one
ruler as it is
on another ruler, or are there
different
standards for the length of
an inch?


In religion, what would be
our “ruler”?
What do we measure
ourselves against?
(The Law, or the 10
Commandments)
We measure our lives against
the standard
of God’s Law. But a funny thing
happens
once we start to measure our
gauge.
Have someone read
Romans 3:19–20







II. The Law’s Gauge
Question: What is Paul saying
here
about when we try to
make the gauge”
against the Law’s standard?
(Nobody will
measure up.)
Paul is saying that we can
never make
the gauge of God’s law.
There are things you can
do in knitting
to manipulate the outcome of
your product.


Question: What are some
things
you can do? (Use a different
size
of needles; knit more tightly or
loosely;
use another yarn)
But Paul is saying that there’s
nothing
we can do in our lives to
manipulate our
 gauge to fit God’s standard!
We will not
measure up!
Let’s suppose:
You knit a sweater, but you never
check
your gauge. And you have a
great time
knitting it up. But when you
get finished,
your sweater will be too large
or to small.





The same think applies with
our lives. You
may go through life never
comparing yourself
against God’s “gauge.” And you
might be as
happy as a lark. But your
gauge will still be
off! Being ignorant of the
truth doesn’t make
our true reality go away.
In fact....look at verse 20.....
it’s precisely in
measuring our gauge that we
become
conscious of our shortcoming.
The gauge
standard is what points
out to us the truth
about ourselves, that we
can never meet the
gauge.





III. Another Gauge
Sounds like bad news, huh?
But it isn’t!
Let’s read on. Have someone
read Rom. 3:21–26.
Verse 21—A righteousness from
God apart
from the Law. Aha! There is a
new standard!
Question: And what is this
new standard of
righteousness? (Jesus)
Jesus has measured up to
the gauge of
righteousness. And the
good news is
that we’re not measured
against our gauge.
We’re measured
against his.







Vss. 23–24—Question:
Does anyone
make the gauge on their own?
No! The product of our own doings
will always
fall short. All fall short, and all
“make the gauge”
in the same way: through the
product of Jesus’
doings.
This is the good news: We don’t
make the grade. Jesus makes it.
He has “made the gauge”
and in him we meet the standard.




Teddy Bear Sweater, Week One

Romans 3:19-26
Now we know that whatever
the law says,
it speaks to those who are
under the law,
 so that every mouth may be s
ilenced, and
the whole world may be held
accountable to
God. 20 For “no human being
will be justified
in his sight” by deeds prescribed
by the law,
for through the law comes the
knowledge of
sin.
21 But now, apart from law, the
righteousness of God has been
disclosed,
and is attested by the law and t
he prophets,
22 the righteousness of God
through
faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe.
For there is
no distinction,
23 since all have sinned and
fall
short of the
glory of God;






24 they are now justified by his
grace as a
gift,
through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a
sacrifice of
atonement by his blood,
effective through
faith.
He did this to show his
righteousness,
because in his divine
forbearance he had
passed over the sins previously
committed;
26 it was to prove at the
present time that he
himself is righteous and that he
justifies the
one who has faith in Jesus.


3 comments:

  1. This was so freakin' bizarre! A knitting lesson suddenly turns into a very self-righteous Biblical screed on how wretchedly unworthy we all are. I've never heard Jesus called a "gauge" before. Sounds a bit mechanical. I think these poor women just wanted to learn to knit and ended up being totally sucked into this toxic shit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, as they say, Gawd knits in mysterious ways. (I think that's how it goes...)

    ReplyDelete

Comments