If you are celebrating All Saints Day on November 6, go to Year A - All Saints Day.
If you are following the lectionary for November 6, keep reading.
Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25
F Invite all worshipers to join in the
reading of this text. Take the role
of the Narrator, introduce the Joshua reader, and call the congregation to
imagine themselves among the Israelites who had come out of the wilderness and
were beginning to settle in the Promised Land.
Tell them that Joshua has called a meeting. Instruct them to stand in place as the people
would have stood. Then, read the text together.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????
Joshua 24:
1-3a, 14-25
Narrator: Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of
Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the
officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people,
Joshua: Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve God in sincerity and in
faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and
in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord,
choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in
the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are
living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
People: Far be it from us that we should forsake the
Lord to serve other gods; for
it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of
Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.
The Lord protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples
through whom we passed; and the Lord
drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land.
Therefore we also will serve the Lord, who is our God.
Joshua: You cannot serve the Lord, who is a holy God. The
Lord is a jealous God; and will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign
gods, then God will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done
you good.
People: No, we will serve the Lord!
Joshua: You are witnesses against yourselves that you
have chosen the Lord, to serve him.
People: We are witnesses.
Joshua: Then put away the foreign gods that are among
you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.
People: The Lord our God we will serve and will obey.
Based
on NRSV
???????????????????????????????????????????????????
F Children get the “make good
choices” lecture repeatedly.
They enjoy hearing Joshua give it to the adults. The text also lets them know that making good
choices is something they will not outgrow.
They will be facing hard choices and trying to make good choices when
they are parents, even grandparents. So,
they might as well start perfecting their choosing skills now.
F “Choose Your Own Adventure” is a classic series of books for older children. On every page readers face choices and are
sent to different pages to continue the story based on the choice they
made. Each book contains many, many
stories dependant on the readers’ choices.
To explore one of these books in worship, read the introductory page to
set the scene. Then read several of the
ending pages. (They are easy to find
because they each bear THE END in large print.)
Be amazed at the very different endings and ponder the choices that
would bring the reader to them. The
point of this is to emphasize the importance of choices.
Some
story-based children’s video games also
require choices that effect dramatically how long you can play, how many points
you accumulate, and where you end up. Again, choices matter. Or, choices have
consequences.
F One of the difficult choices many children and parents
face is whether a child will participate in travel
team sports. Being on a
travel team brings more advanced competition and coaching. It also takes over the whole family’s weekend
and wipes out church participation for the season. This is such a hard choice because it a
choice between two good things rather than between good and evil. You’ve got to decide what your stance on
these decisions will be.
IMO,
the church has copped out by not giving families guidance on this. It is a clear, “choose this day who you will
serve” decision. When families choose
the travel team, especially if they choose the travel team repeatedly, children
get the clear message that sports are more important than being among God’s
people on a regular basis. While you
might not want to say that choosing travel team is always a bad choice, you
might want to suggest that families include worship (either in their rooms or
visiting churches in the towns where they play) in their weekends. It might also be a once-for-each-child
choice. A church might also provide “on
the road” worship resources for families to pack with their gear.
Psalm 78:1-7
Go to Rumors: Sermon Helps for Preachers with a Sense of Humor and scroll down to a paraphrase of Psalm 78:1-7 by Jim Taylor. He sets it around the ancient campfires with
women gathering the children to hear their wisdom. Ask one or more women to gather the children
around them (possibly around a set, but unlit campfire) and read the paraphrase
there.
Amos 5:18-24
The heart of this reading is
verse 24, “Let justice roll down like water.” If you do projections, this calls for a video
of a river. Try this one from You Tube
Or go to http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/video1.htm
for a wonderful video of a rushing river carving rocks in Canada. Personally I prefer this video, but am not
sure it can be easily captured and projected clearly. If anyone finds another rolling water video,
please share with the rest of us.
Wisdom of Solomon 6:12 – 16 or Wisdom of
Solomon 6:17-20
 |
| "Figure of Wisdom," stained glass window in Unity Church, North Easton, MA. Copyright ©2005 by Daniel P. B. Smith and released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license. |
Introduce children to the
personified Wisdom before reading either of these psalms. Use the picture to talk about the fact that
Wisdom is often pictured as a wise woman with quiet strength and
authority. It might help American children to compare her to the Statue of Liberty which pictures Liberty and a strong tall woman. Encourage worshipers to
listen for other adjectives that describe Wisdom as you read one of the
texts.
Psalm 70
With so much richness in the
other texts for the day, I’d skip this psalm with the children – and probably
all worshipers.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
F The Christians in Thessalonica, who believed that
Jesus’ return was eminent, were worried about the fate of the Christians who
died before Jesus returned. Largely
because Paul so clearly settled that question in this text, children today do
not ask that particular question. But
they do ask the question, "what happens to us when we die" – more likely, "where is Grandpa now that he has died?"
This text can be used to assure them that when we die we go immediately
to be with God and Jesus and are safe there.
F This text also provides an opportunity to speak with
children as well as adults about “the rapture” as it appears in lots of current
literature. This text is not so much a
calendar of events at the end of time as it is assurance that the dead are safe
with God. Much current literature, e.g.
the Left Behind series, however uses this text to build a time line. Be aware
that there is a Left Behind series of books for pre-teens
that has been widely read and discussed among older children. This is another situation in which if their
church does not speak up about what they are reading and hearing from other
children, children are left to draw whatever conclusion they can. So speak up.
Matthew 25:1-13
F Children need help with a couple of the details in this
parable.
Unlike
today when the bridesmaids escort the bride to her wedding, in Jesus’ day the bridesmaids escorted the groom to meet the
bride for the wedding. Instead of
carrying flowers, they carried oil lamps so that everyone could see how
handsome and well dressed (rich) the groom was and the groom could see his way
to his bride.
F If you are going to build on the idea that we are
called to keep our spiritual lamps burning so that we are always ready to
illuminate Christ the Bridegroom, take time to explain oil lamps, specifically
list ways we keep our spiritual lamps burning, even sing
a few light songs:
Give
Me Oil in My Lamp
This
Little Light of Mine
No comments:
Post a Comment
Click on Comments below to leave a message or share an idea