Unit Overview

This unit introduces and explores Biblical images of God that help us know and discover God. Students will become familiar with the different images of God in the Old Testament through the Psalms and the prophets. They will also explore the image of God as a loving Father through the Gospels. The unit also explores the Genesis account of creation with an emphasis on every person being made in God’s image and likeness. Students will reflect on the importance of spending time with our loving God in prayer.

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Enduring Understanding

The Bible helps us come to know and discover what God is like and how all people are made in his image.

Objectives

A student will

  • value and appreciate the breadth and wisdom of the Scriptures, their significance for life, and the impact Jesus and his teachings can have in shaping attitudes and values
  • develop an understanding of the nature of Scripture and its portrayal of the story of the people of God with particular emphasis on the significance of the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 
  • use and interpret the Scriptures; think critically and reflectively on the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection

Outcomes

A student

  • recognises the importance of spending time with God in prayer. (RECVA2)
  • identifies ways people reflect God’s image and likeness. (RECKA2)
  • describes the images of God as expressed in the Bible. (RECSA2)

Essential Questions

  1. How does the Bible help us know what God is like?
  2. What does the Bible reveal about people being made in the image and likeness of God?
  3. Why is it important to spend time with our loving God?

Learning Focus, Statements of Learning & Course Content

  1. Students develop an understanding of what the Bible tells us God is like by
    • exploring the Psalms.
    • Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Part 1 Images of God p4 and reflect on the image that describes God as a shepherd.
    • Define the word ‘Psalm’ and identify where they are found in the Bible.
    • Explore the following Psalms and reflect on how these important songs describe God:
      ○ Psalm 23:1-3 The Divine Shepherd
      ○ Psalm 29: 3-4 A Psalm of David.
    • exploring the prophets.
    • Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Part 1 Images of God Part 1 God is Like p5-7 and reflect on the names and images that describe what God is like.
    • Define ‘prophets’ and explore the importance of their role.
    • Explore Jeremiah 18:1- 6 The Potter and the Clay (Storytelling approach).
    • Explore Isaiah 49:15-16 I will never forget you and reflect on the ways God is like a mother.
    • exploring the Gospels.
    • Explore KWL Big Book, The Prodigal Son p4 and compare the ways God’s love is like a father.
    • Explore Luke 11:1-4 The Lord’s Prayer and discuss the image of God as our Father.
    • Celebrate a prayer service using KWL Book 2 p9, the Psalms, Scripture passages and music reflecting on the Biblical images of God.
  1. Students explore how we are made in the image and likeness of God by
    • recognising that they are unique.
    • Define the word ‘unique’ and identify the qualities that make them unique.
    • Identify that all people are unique and are made in the image of God.
    • reflecting on scripture from the Bible.
    • Explore Genesis 1:26-27 In the Beginning (Storytelling approach).
    • Explore KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Images of God Part 2 in God’s Image p10-13 and identify ways people reflect God’s image and likeness.
    • Identify the ways we can reflect God’s image towards others.
    • Describe how family, friends and other members of their community reflect God’s image.
    • Celebrate a prayer service using Genesis 1:26-27 and KWL Book 2 p15, reflecting on the ways people are unique and are made in God’s image and likeness.
  1. Students recognise the importance of spending time with God in prayer by
    • exploring how Jesus prayed.
    • Explore KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p166-167 and identify the times Jesus prayed to his Father.
    • exploring how Jesus taught his followers to pray.
    • Explore KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p168 and reflect on why Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God.
    • Identity why Jesus taught us to call God, our Father.
    • exploring the different ways we pray.
    • Explore KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p169 and identify the ways we spend time with God.
    • Reflect on how we prepare ourselves to spend time with God.
    • Celebrate a prayer service using KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p171, The Our Father, Scripture from the unit and other forms of prayer reflecting on the importance of praying to God, our Father.

Unit Content 1:
Psalm 23:1-3 The Divine Shepherd
Psalm 29:3-4 A Psalm of David
Jeremiah 18:1- 6 The Potter and the Clay
Isaiah 49:15-16 I will never forget you

Unit Content 2:
Genesis 1:26-27 In the Beginning

Catechism of the Catholic Church

40 – Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking.

41 – All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures – their truth, their goodness, their beauty – all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking his creatures’ perfections as our starting point, “for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.”

64 – Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations. Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the hope of Israel’s salvation. The purest figure among them is Mary.

369 – Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. “Being man” or “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity “in the image of God.” In their “being-man” and “being- woman,” they reflect the Creator’s wisdom and goodness.

370 – In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.

381 – Man is predestined to reproduce the image of God’s Son made man, the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first-born of a multitude of brothers and sisters (cf Ephesians 1:3-6; Romans 8:29).

534 – Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God, or the petition of good things from Him in accord with His will. It is always the gift of God who comes to encounter man. Christian prayer is the personal and living relationship of the Children of God with their Father who is infinitely good, with His Son Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit who dwells in their hearts.

754 – The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ.  It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.

2559 – Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart?  He who humbles himself will be exalted;  humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.

2562 – Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

2584 – In their “one to one” encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, but rather attentiveness to The Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history.

2586 – The Psalms both nourished and expressed the prayer of the People of God gathered during the great feasts at Jerusalem and each Sabbath in the synagogues. Their prayer is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying and all men. The Psalms arose from the communities of the Holy Land and the Diaspora, but embrace all creation. Their prayer recalls the saving events of the past, yet extends into the future, even to the end of history; it commemorates the promises God has already kept, and awaits the Messiah who will fulfill them definitively. Prayed by Christ and fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church.

2587 – The Psalter is the book in which The Word of God becomes man’s prayer. In other books of the Old Testament, “the words proclaim [God’s] works and bring to light the mystery they contain. “The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaim the Lord’s saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God’s work and man’s response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.

2596 – The Psalms constitute the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament. They present two inseparable qualities: the personal, and the communal. They extend to all dimensions of history, recalling God’s promises already fulfilled and looking for the coming of the Messiah.

2799 – The Lord’s Prayer brings us into communion with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. At the same time it reveals us to ourselves.

2801 – When we say “Our” Father, we are invoking the new covenant in Jesus Christ, communion with the Holy Trinity, and the divine love which spreads through the Church to encompass the world.

Unit Content 1:
Read KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Part 1 Images of God p4
KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Part 1 Images of God Part 1 God is Like p5-7
KWL Big Book, The Prodigal Son p4

Unit Content 2:
KWL Book 2 Chapter 1 Images of God Part 2 in God’s Image p10-13

Unit Content 3:
KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p166-167
KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p168
KWL Book 2 Chapter 17 Time With God p169

Prayers of Tradition
The Our Father

Australian Curriculum

Cross Curriculum Priorities

The General Capabilities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-ahc.gif

Critical and creative thinking   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-cct-1.gif

 

Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia  

Ethical understanding   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-eu.gif

 

Sustainability  http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-se.gif

Information and communication technology capability   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-ict.gif

Other important learning identified by the NSW Educational Standards Authority (NESA):

Intercultural understanding   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-iu.gif

   

Civics and citizenship http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-cc.gif

Literacy   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-l.gif

Difference and diversity http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-dd.gif


Numeracy   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-n.gif

    

Work and enterprise http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-we.gif

Personal and social capability   http://news.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/images/content/icon-k10-psc.gif