Year B - The Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 18, 2012)

In highly liturgical churches the fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday (or Rejoice Sunday) because of its focus on God’s grace.  To highlight this and look forward to Easter in just three weeks, take a peek at the buried “Alleluia!” and note that it is still there.  Even practice an alleluia song (Praise Ye the Lord Alleluia?) in whispers.

There are at least two crosses that might be featured this week:

This comes from the web page of a
Catholic diocese.  I suspect they would be
 glad for any of us to use it in our worship.  

A crucifix (cross with Christ hanging on it) reminds us that God loved us enough to live among as Jesus and to forgive when we killed Jesus.  Every time we look at it we remember how very much God loves us and all people.  In many protestant congregations this is an opportunity to introduce a cross that is important to Catholic and many other Christians.  If you don’t have one, borrow one (crucifix jewelry is an option) or display a picture of one (I found this one Googling “crucifix images").  If the crosses in your church are empty, compare them with their message that God raised Jesus from death to the crucifixes noting the valuable message in each one.

This is my photo.
Feel free to use it.

Artists in Central America paint crosses with pictures of lots of people on them.  Display one of these crosses and ponder John’s insistence that when Jesus was raised up (on the cross) he drew all the people of the world to him.

Numbers 21:4-9

U  This is a very simple healing story AND when combined with the other readings for the day is an invitation to identify all the snakey things in our lives.  Display a stop sign and a warning sign and a danger sign noting the mean of each. Next, show a picture of a snake and explain that for many people just seeing a snake says warning, danger, stop!  Recall the snake in the Fall in Eden and note that from then on snakes have been symbols of bad things, evil.  The snakes in this story are sent by God because the people were not trusting God and were complaining to Moses that God wasn’t doing enough for them.  God sent snakes, symbols of evil, to bite them and remind them of their snakey evil.  Identify some of the snakey things we do to ourselves and each other today.  Then recall the end of the story.  God saved the people.  He healed them from both the snake bites and their complaining.   That will set the stage for John’s comments about Jesus being like the snake on the pole.  Jesus saves us from all the snakiness.

Do remember that some children, especially some boys, really like snakes.  Assure them that snakes are not bad, but that they are used as a symbol of evil.

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22  (RC = Psalm 137:1-6)

U  This is a psalm pilgrims sang as they climbed the long steep hill to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.  It was like some of the songs we sing on long car trips today.  Point out the introduction and the format of each verse.  Identify the people in each stanza: travelers lost in the desert, prisoners, the sick, and sailors on the sea.  Then invite worshipers to read with you the parts the whole group of pilgrims traveling together would have sung with one reader reading the verse about the sick.  To really get into the road trip aspect of the psalm have the congregation stand and walk in place as they read.

All:       verses 1-3

One:    verses 17-20

All:       verse 21-22

U  Read these verses after reading the Numbers story.  Suggest that some of the pilgrims might have thought about the snake-bit people looking at the bronze snake on the pole and being healed.  It is also a psalm those snake-bit folks  might have recited after being cured.  And, a good prayer for us when we recover from illness.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (RC = 4-10)

Needless to say children will not follow this as it is read.  It is filled with abstract words that are connected in long complicated thoughts.  But there are ideas in it older children appreciate when unpacked for them by worship leaders.

U  Even children know what it feels like to be “stuck,” to feel like or wish you were dead, to be hopeless.  They get stuck in ongoing arguments with siblings, caught in the crossfire of changing friendships, listen fearfully as parents fight, worry about finances if the main money maker is unemployed, survive an endless difficult school year, sense that everyone else is somehow “more” than me, and more.  Without being suicidal, they can say “I wish I was dead.”  With help older children can even recognize that their deadness is as much their own fault as the fault of those around them.  And, they can admit that they can’t make the changes needed. 

Try a confession in which ways we are stuck in evil and feel dead are described one by one, e.g. the lies we tell, the mean things we say without even meaning to, etc.  After each one, the congregation responds, “It makes us feel dead.”  The assurance is “God, loves us and brings us new life, new possibilities, ways out.  Thanks be to God.”

U  Two child-accessible hymns that capture this text and the general theme of the day are:

“There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy” – This short hymn includes difficult words for children.  Point out the very similar words mercy and love asking worshipers to find them in the song.  Then put the verses into your own words and invite everyone to sing.  With this introduction, children are able to follow and begin knowing this hymn.

“Help Us Accept Each Other” expresses Jesus’ and Paul’s ideas in terms of acceptance rather than salvation.  Every child knows about the desire to be accepted by God and other people.  Point out “acceptance” everywhere it appears in the hymn.  Or, direct people to verse 3 which summarizes the rest of the song.  Read it together and/or walk through it putting it into your words.  With this help children will try to sing at least verse 3.

“Let Your acceptance change us.

So that we may be moved

     in living situations to do the truth in love;

to practice Your acceptance until we know by heart

      the table of forgiveness and laughter’s healing art.”

John 3:14-21

U  John 3:16 may be the most famous verse in the Bible, but unless your congregation encourages children to memorize verses, don’t count on them recognizing it.  

U  Today’s crosses are most helpful in unpacking these verses for children. 

The crucifix invites us to explain that there was nothing magic about the cross, but that God loved us so much that Jesus died on a cross and forgave us for it. 

Display a Central American cross to talk about how God loved and drew to God all the people in the world. 

Give each worshiper a paper featuring a large empty cross shape.  (Maybe it is the back page of the order of worship handout.)  During the sermon invite them to draw pictures of or write the names of people Jesus died for on the cross.  Identify and challenge them to identify a variety of people including themselves and some people they don’t particularly like.

U  Children feel judged by many adults in their lives – coaches, parents, teachers, even worship leaders.  Especially this late in the school year students who do not do well in school feel trapped and judged by many of their teachers.  It is a very “stuck,” hopeless place to be.  John assures children that God is not interested in judging them.  That is very good news.

U  Children’s literature explores unlimited love in several classic books in which children repeatedly ask a parent whether the parent would still love them if they did a variety of bad deeds.  The parents, like God, all insist that they would love the children no matter what.  That is grace.

The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown, is a conversation between a young bunny and his mother in which the child threatens to run away in all sorts of ways.  To each plan the mother describes how she would come after him.  In the end the child decides that he might as well stay home.  (Reading time: 3 minutes).  I once heard a fine preacher give a very erudite sermon about God’s grace which he concluded by reading this story and saying “That is grace.  Amen.”

In Mama, Do You Love Me? , by Barbara Joosse, an Inuit girl describes all sorts of terrible things she might do and her mother insists that she would love her.  The same story is told in the Maasai culture between a father and son in Papa, Do You Love Me?.  (For some reason, I prefer the Inuit version – maybe because I read it first or love the art.)

U  Children understand about hiding under the covers or in a dark closet to do something they should not do.  In North America on the first Sunday after the change to Daylight Savings time they are also aware of being able to be outside in the evening light longer they could during the winter.  All this gives them good connections to the light and dark in verses 19-21. 

Year B - The Third Sunday in Lent (March 11, 2012)

Remember today is Time Change Sunday in the USA.  Prepare to lose an hour’s sleep and get to the church on time!

Zurbarán, Francisco, 1598-1664.
Crucifixion, from Art in the Christian Tradition,
project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=47447
[retrieved February 22, 2012].

Today’s cross is a plain wood, nail cross (if you will not feature it on Good Friday) or a picture of the crucifixion.  (The one here comes from the Vanderbilt Divinity School library with permission to use non-commercially.  You may have other images hung on the wall in the church or in great art books.)  Display the cross in order to talk about the facts of crucifixion and to highlight Jesus’ courage in facing crucifixion.  Facts need not be as gory as Mel Gibson’s film, but do need to insist that this was a very painful way to be killed and was meant to make fun of the person being killed.  If you are using a wooden or nail cross, pass it among worshipers to handle as you talk about crucifixion.  If you use a picture, point to details in it, describe what they meant and how they felt to the one being crucified.  (In the posted piece I’d point to the nails in the hands and feet, the fact that most of the crucified one’s clothes have been removed, and the sign over Jesus head.)  All this information helps children understand crucifixion in general and today impresses them with Jesus’ standing up to people (the Temple authorities) who could do that to him.  One preacher said to children, “Jesus loved you so much that he would die rather than stop loving you.”  That is love and courage children can respect.

Both the Ten Commandments and Psalm 19 appear on World Communion Sunday in the lectionary.  Go to Year A World Communion Sunday for a children’s version of the commandments, suggestions for children reading both in worship, directions for making a set of tables to display in worship, an idea using honey flavored hard candies, and notes about how children understand rules.

Exodus 20:1-17

U  Go to the World Communion Sunday helps at the link just above.

U  Turn the Ten Commandments and 1 Corinthians 1:25 into a responsive reading with leader reading each commandment individually and the congregation responding to each one with the Corinthians verse (For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.)  Practice the verse with the congregation before the reading.  Briefly explore how wise or foolish it is to keep one of the rules (maybe one about telling lies).  Then challenge worshipers to listen for how wise or foolish each of the other rules are.

This could be the Old Testament reading for the day or could be done at the beginning of the sermon as an interactive part of the sermon.

U  Create opposites for the Ten Commandments and imagine a world lived by those rules.  This connects to the Epistle question about what is really wise and foolish.  The list below is a starter, suggest others in comments.

X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X

1.      You are your own boss.  Do whatever you want to do whenever you feel like it. 

2.      Decide who and what is important to you.  Pay attention only to those people and things.

3.      It does not matter when or how you say God’s name.  You can use it to swear or cuss or to get what you want (as in “God is on my side” statements).

4.      It doesn’t matter if you worship with God’s people on Sunday/regularly.  If there are other things you’d rather do, go do them.

5.      Parents don’t get it.  Ignore them whenever you can.

6.      Kill whatever or whoever gets in your way.  The strongest live longest.

7.      Don’t worry about your family.  Think only about yourself and what you want.

8.      Finders keepers! 
Toddler’s Rule of possession:  I see it, I want it, it’s mine! 
If you want it, figure out how to get it.

9.      Lie if you have to get out of trouble.

Lie to get what you want.
Lie to make yourself look good – even if it makes someone else look bad.

10.  The one who dies with most toys wins. 

The world is full of wonderful things.  Get your share.

X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X  X

U  If you are recognizing Scout Sunday, talk about the importance of the scout laws to scouts.  Living by rules or laws helps us know who we are and how we want to live. 

To take it to another level that will be a stretch for younger children:  Just as scouts do not have to earn the right to become a scout by proving they can live by the scout laws but work at living by the laws because they are a scout and want to be a good scout.  So, God’s people don’t live by the 10 Commandments to earn God’s love, but live by them because they show them how to be God’s happy, loving people.

Psalm 19

See the note and link at the top of this post for ideas about using the psalm linked with the Ten Commandments.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

U  See the cross suggestions at the top of the page and the suggestion for a responsive reading intermingling the Ten Commandments with verse 25.

U  Children are intrigued by Paul’s discussion about what is wise and what is foolish.  Is it wise to share the fries or to keep them all for yourself?  Is it foolish to risk being laughed at by the popular kids if you sit with an outcast?  Linking this text with the Ten Commandments to explore the wisdom and foolishness of individual commands draws children’s attention.

U  Go back to the featured cross of the week to ask whether allowing Jesus to be crucified was a wise or foolish move on God’s/Jesus’ part.  After looking at the details of crucifixion, ask “What was God thinking?  Was God nuts? People wanted a leader, someone who can get through any situation and get us through any situation, not someone who gets killed!  On a cross!” 

John 2:13-22

John is always working on several levels of meaning.  In this scene one level is about the moneychangers.  Another is about Jesus replacing the sacrificial system of the Temple, and even the Temple, entirely.  The first makes more immediate sense to children.  The second requires some care.

U  To unpack what was going on with the moneychangers at the very beginning of John’s gospel.

Two specific things about the Temple scene made Jesus so angry that he went into action.  The first was that the Temple had been divided into sections for different types of worshippers.  The Jews got the best section.  The foreigners got the section furthest from the altar.  Imagine with worshipers different parts of your sanctuary set aside for different kinds of worshipers.  If you are an old Southern US church, this is a good opportunity to point out the history of a slave balcony and slave doors.  To make matters worse, Temple leaders had allowed business people to set up booths in the foreigners section – really disrupting their ability to pray in peace!

Use some play money or foreign coins and some daily coins to demonstrate what the moneychangers did.  Show the “different” coin and explain that the Temple leaders had decided that only this money could be put in the offering boxes at the Temple.  Act out the purchase of these special coins from money changers who charged “a small fee” for each coin. 

After setting this scene in Temple take time to identify what about it made Jesus so angry.  (Don’t count on the children getting it on their own.)  Point out that Jesus did not just “lose it” and act out in way he would later regret.  He knew exactly what he was doing and he knew that it would make powerful people very, very angry with him.  But, he still did it.  Describe Jesus’ actions not so much as wildly angry, but brave and courageous.

Before singing “God of Grace and God of Glory” point to the “Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage” chorus noting both the repeated words and the words that are different in each verse.  Practice singing it together.  Then invite worshipers to sing it.  The vocabulary of the verses is difficult for children to follow, but even the youngest can sing the repeated “grant us wisdom, grant us courage.”

U  If you want to explore John’s insistence that Jesus is turning over the whole Temple sacrifice system, talk about the sellers of animals rather than the money changers.  Name some of the animals sacrificed and very briefly describe the altar ritual in which they were killed as an offering to God.  Most children are deeply offended by the idea of killing an animal to show that you love God or to ask God to forgive you for the bad things you do.  They are happy to hear Jesus insist that the whole idea was wrong.  All we need to do is praise God with words and songs and the way we live every day.  When we mess up, God will forgive us when we say you are sorry. 

WARNING:  John sets up Jesus as the new sacrificial lamb for all times.  This made sense in John’s world.  In today’s world, especially among today’s children, it makes God look highly suspect.  If God needs some animal or Jesus to die a painful death in order to forgive us, God looks a little weird and rather mean.  I know it is the base of classical atonement theology, but I’d stay away from it.  It makes more sense to simply say Jesus said killing animals to communicate with God was nuts.

Year B - The Second Sunday in Lent (March 4, 2012)

Today’s featured cross may be metal crosses on communion ware or the verbal ones in the communion liturgy.  Or, it may be cross stickers reminding wearers to take up their crosses to follow Jesus.  Look for them all below.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Have this text read by the oldest member or by the oldest man (vss 1-7) and oldest woman (vss 15-16) in the congregation.  If needed take a Bible and microphone to him/her/them in the pews so that they can read from there.  If you had a boy read the story of Samuel a few weeks ago, ask that boy to come forward.  Recall God’s call to Samuel while he was a young boy.  Then call the elder/s forward or send the boy to hold the microphone for them as they read about God’s call to some very old people.  Thank all three of them and send them back to their seats.  This sets you up to explore God’s call to us at all ages of our lives.

Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct, by Mo Willems, tells of a loving dinosaur who bakes cookies for everyone and is generally happy and loved.  Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie, however, insists to everyone that she is extinct.  No one will listen to him – except gentle kind Edwina, who hears him out and says he is right, but simply doesn’t care.  The two leave together to bake more cookies.  This might be the beginning of a sermon about faith.  Abraham and Sarah should have known they couldn’t have a baby at 100.  And, we should know that God can’t change this world into a kingdom of peace and love.  Some people say the church is extinct – but…. Abraham, Sarah, and we move on in faith.  From this light hearted start, a preacher could delve into more complicated concerns.  But it is one good starting place.  (Reading time: a minimum of 4 minutes, but probably a bit longer because some of the pictures have no words but do tell part of the story.)

This is the second covenant for Lent.  (Recall what a covenant is bringing out the word poster from last week.)  In today’s covenant God promises Abraham and Sarah that they will be parents of a great family that will actually grow into many nations.  For children the promise is that we will always be part of a family or community.  We will not be on our own.  Point out some of the ways the church is a family welcoming babies, telling and celebrating the stories, taking care of each other when life gets hard (casseroles, visits, driving help, and other specifics make this real), being with us and our families when we die.  God promises this big family is always there for us.  The only way we can end up totally alone is to choose not to participate. 

Abraham and Sarah are featured the second week of Lent each year.  Go to Year A - The Second Sunday in Lent for additional ideas about their faith.

Psalm 22:23-31

Verses 27-31 provide a worship education opportunity.  Read the verses stopping as you go to put into your own words who will praise the Lord (all the families of all the nations living on the earth today, those who have died, generations yet to be born).  Then, point out that during the prayers before communion we re-enact praising God with all those people.  If you follow a prayer book, point out

“We praise you, joining our voices with the heavenly choirs and with all the faithful of every time and place, who forever sing to the glory of your name:”  Then practice the song or spoken chorus your congregation will use this morning.  Urge worshipers to listen for the phrase and to imagine themselves singing with all people who have ever praised God, praise God today, and will praise God in the future.  (This could be done as a children’s moment just before the sacrament or be embedded in the sermon – even the practicing!)

Romans 4:13-25 or 8:31-39

There are two big words GRACE and FAITH that preachers tend to use in combination in single sentences while unpacking this text.  Both are complex, abstract theological concepts and are hard for children to understand.  Help them by picking one to define and use today.  (You’ll have opportunities to use the other later.)   

If you choose grace, remember that to children grace is first a girl’s name, the prayer said before eating, or the ability to move beautifully.  You will have to introduce the biblical definition of grace as God’s love as a free gift with no strings attached.

If you choose faith, remember Edwina the dinosaur described under the Genesis text.  She lived on faith.

The Episcopalian and Roman Catholic lectionaries set Romans 8:31-39 with its insistence “that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither……”  It is a good balance to Mark’s call to carry our crosses. 

Mark 8:31-38 or 9:2-9

Talk about the crosses
worn in worship with robes
AND those worn everyday

Because children think literally, they need help with Jesus’ call to take up our cross and follow him.  Cross jewelry and cross tattoos are good discussion starters.  Wearing them is one way of saying that I am a Christian.  But, simply wearing them, doesn’t make me a Christian.  I have to live like Jesus.  I have to love God every day and love the people around me even when it gets hard.

Go to Let The Children Come - Second Sunday in Lent Year B for a children’s sermon that uses riddles as a set up for exploring what it means to lose life in order to find it.  Children may not fully understand what the preacher says, but they will get glimpses of it and they will hear her admit to not fully understanding Jesus’ instructions either.

For older children Harry Potter and Voldemort are the most familiar examples of giving up your life.  Voldemort kills others in an attempt to gain everlasting life and power for himself.  He ultimately fails and is killed by his own killer curse.  Harry Potter on the other hand, willingly dies in order to save the lives of his friends.  His love saves him and he lives.  Go to Harry potter and the July Worship Planner for more details and/or read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in the series in which the final confrontation between the two takes place.

This text and the celebration of communion on this day provide several crosses to feature:

U After recalling that it was Valentine’s Day last month and that we celebrated love with cards, candy, and flowers, offer each worshiper a cross sticker pointing out that love is not always sweet and easy.  God loved us so much that Jesus was whipped and killed on a cross.  God calls us to love each other even when it is not easy.  It is one thing to give our brother a valentine card and another to give up playing your video game to play his stupid little kid board game.  This could be done during the offering time with some ushers passing plates to collect our money love gifts and others (maybe a children’s class) passing out the cross stickers reminding us to love God and others even when it hurts. 

U If you serve communion to people in their pews, there is often a cross on the lid of each stack of cup trays.  Point to that cross or lift one of the lids to display it to the whole congregation.  (This could be the cross of the day.)  Briefly recite what is said about what is in those cups – the blood of Christ – and what is actually in those cups – wine or grape juice.  Briefly explain that there is nothing magic about what is in the cups.  We drink it to remember that God loved us enough to get beat up and killed on a cross for us. 

Barbara Brown Taylor tells of a polite six year old at the altar rail who responded to her priest’s words about the body and blood of Christ by saying, “I don’t want any, thank you.”  This is your chance to avoid any such misgivings among the children in your congregation.

U Another worship education opportunity would be to point to the cross on the communion trays and then to introduce the congregation’s chorus “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.”  Practice it together.  Briefly recount the whole crucifixion-resurrection story and encourage worshipers to sing/say the words when they come up in Eucharist.

Transfiguration,
from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library,
 Nashville, TN.
 http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49145
[retrieved February 15, 2012].Add caption

If you read Mark 9:2-9 (the transfiguration story) today, go to Year B - Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday for ideas about sharing it with children.

Year B - The First Sunday in Lent (February 26, 2012)

  

For children and adults who do not attend Ash Wednesday services, this is the beginning of Lent.  So take time to define the word Lent (sounds a lot like lint, but is not), identify its purpose, point to Lenten paraments and highlight ways your congregation will keep Lent as a congregation and individuals of all ages.  If you haven’t checked out Year A - Observing Lent and Celebrating Easter click on it now for ideas.

Children enjoy all today’s 40 days – 40 days of rain on the ark, Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, and the 40 days of Lent.  A well read child might even make the connection to the 40 years in the wilderness.  Savor the 40s and invite worshipers to remember the 40s each day of Lent and to think of everyone still on the ark and Jesus still in the wilderness on each of the days between now and Easter. 

As we settle into the 40 days of Lent the texts of Year A and C are sober and rather demanding.  The texts for Year B are basically good news.  God saves us from the flood, claims us in baptism, and is with us in the wilderness.  That is a good place to start Lent.  We are not earning God’s love with our disciplines with fear of failure.  We are responding to God’s love by being the very best we can. 

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday School I said, “when Jesus was killed…” and a first grader who is a regular went wide-eyed and said in alarm “Jesus is dead?”  I quickly told her that “yes Jesus had been killed, but that God had not let him stay dead.  He is very alive – we’ll be hearing more about that as Easter comes.”  This conversation reminded me that many children have not heard or at least not caught the Passion stories.  Featuring a different cross tied to the gospel reading each week during Lent is one way to help them understand the central symbol of our faith and its story.  There are several crosses and ways to explore them this week:

U With the children’s help identify all the crosses in your sanctuary.  If there is a cross closely tied to your denomination or congregation, display it and explain its meaning in simple terms. 

U Give each worshiper a cross trinket to carry in a pocket, a cross bookmark to use in their Bible, or a paper cross to display on a mirror or the refrigerator door during Lent.  Tell the whole crucifixion resurrection story in the briefest of terms – maybe something like this…

God has kept the rainbow promise.  People, however, have done all sorts of evil things and ruined the world in many ways.  Still, God  has not destroyed the earth again.  Instead God became Jesus and came to live among us to show us how we are meant to be.  Some people got so very angry with Jesus that they killed him on a cross.  Even as he was dying on their cross, Jesus forgave them for what they were doing to him.  The day Jesus was killed was a horrible day.  Jesus’ friends thought nothing in the world ever be right again.  Then, on the third day Jesus was alive.  They saw him and talked to them.  He told them that he would always be with them and would love them and forgive them.  Every time you see or touch this cross during Lent, remember that story and God’s great, forgiving love.

U And yes, in the article about keeping Lent and Easter during Year B, I did suggest an anchor cross “for the fishing disciples” for today.  I wrote that weeks ago and have no idea what I meant then.  All I can figure is that I read too far and met the fishing disciples there. Duh.

On the first Sunday of Lent, undertake Lenten disciplines singing “Here I Am Lord.”  If it is not familiar in your congregation, learn or practice the chorus together before singing the whole hymn.  Even non-readers can learn and sing this simple important promise to God. 

Genesis 9:8-17

To present the whole Noah story rather than just the rainbow ending, turn to children’s literature.

Read “God Sends A Rainbow” from The Family Story Bible, Ralph Milton. It starts after the flood and assumes knowledge of the ark story, but explains covenant and focuses on the rainbow.  (3 minutes to read aloud)

Noah’s Ark, by Peter Spier, tells the story in a poem at the front.  The rest is all pictures.  I’d skip the poem and use some or all of the pictures to tell the story in my own words at my own speed.  Avoid the pictures of the animals left behind.  (The elephants up to their tails in water is too sad and raises questions you probably don’t want to deal with in front of the whole congregation.)  Because the pictures are so detailed, this book is best used with a small group so everyone can see.  This Caldecott Medal winner is available in many public libraries.

Noah’s Ark, by Jerry Pinkney, is a Caldecott Honor Book.  Start with the words about creation on the inside cover, then read through the next to the last page to “Noah and his family turned their faces p to the sun and sang praise to God.”  (4 minutes to read aloud)  Instead of reading the last page about the rainbow (the weakest page in this fine book), announce that the story did not end there.  Go to the pulpit Bible or pull out a Bible where you are to read Genesis 9:8-17.

Covenant appears six or seven times in this passage depending on your translation.  Covenants will also appear in the next two Old Testament readings (covenant with Abraham and Sarah and the 10 Commandments).  But the word is unfamiliar to most children.  So print it on a large poster to help people say and own the word. 

For children a covenant is a set of promises.  The Bible is full of covenants between God and people.  God always promises first. Then people respond with promises.  God promises to keep that promise, even if we don’t keep ours.  We can count on God.

The rainbow promise God makes is not to destroy the world again, no matter how bad people are. 

Invite the children to listen for the word covenant as you read from the Bible keeping count on their fingers.

Children love rainbows!  Add a rainbow to the sanctuary for the day.

Cover the doors into the sanctuary with rainbows of crepe paper streamers.  Simply tape the streamers in rainbow color order on a tension curtain or shower rod.  They might fall all the way to the floor requiring worshipers to enter through them or be cut into a high rainbow-y arch under which worshipers enter.

Ask a children’s class to make a large rainbow banner.  They can sponge paint or brush paint or chalk between lightly drawn penciled stripes of the rainbow on paper or blue cloth.  They might bring it in as part of the open processional or after the reading of the story. Or, it might be in place at the beginning of the service.

The following prayer came from “God’s Big Story Box” (Faith Alive Christian Resources, Dwell Curriculum).

Dear God, thank you for promising to never again destroy the world with a flood.  Thank you for sending Jesus to take away our sins instead.  We ‘re sorry for times we are mean and selfish.  Please forgive us through Jesus. Amen.

Remember the camp song “Rise and Shine” that retells the whole Noah story with lots of humor.  Even if you don’t want to sing the whole song during worship, you might mention one or more of the verses.

 Psalm 25:1-10   

On the first Sunday of Lent verses 4-5 or 10 make most sense to children.  If you make a rainbow banner, add some brown foot prints under the rainbow either before or during worship.  Then read the selected segment of the psalm to celebrate living as God’s loving, good people under the rainbow.

1 Peter 3:18-22

Needless to say, children will not make any sense of this complex reasoning as it is read – no matter which translation is read.  Even the comparison of baptism in which people get wet and Noah who was saved from getting wet is not obvious to children.  If worship is built around this text there are a few baptismal connections that children might get.

If Noah is mentioned in the prayers over the water at baptisms, read those phrases, put them into your own words, and explain what they mean when said over water to be used in baptism.

After the prayers of confession but before the assurance of pardon, pour a pitcher of water into a big bowl near a microphone.  Before praying, tell worshipers what will happen and urge them to listen and remember the water of their own baptism and even the water raining on the ark in which God kept Noah, his family and the animals safe.

OR, since this is the first Sunday of Lent, consider skipping this text in favor of 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 which is filled with athletic training images that help children understand Lent and Lenten disciplines.  Go to Year B - Sixth Sunday After Epiphany and scroll down to this text for detailed ideas.  

Mark 1:9-15

Mark’s terseness is obvious here.  Two big stories (Jesus’ baptism and his 40 days in the wilderness) are reduce to a few phrases and the beginning of his ministry is a generality.  That makes it not very attractive to children.  So what to do?

Save the wilderness story for Year A or C in which Matthew and Luke tell detailed interesting stories.

Read the gospel for the Baptism of the Lord (especially if you had to skip that day because of the calendar crunch this year).  Go to Year B - Baptism of the Lord  for ideas.

If you read this text, subtitle it “how Jesus got his start.”  He was baptized and spent time thinking about who he was and what he needed to do.  Connect this to your congregation’s confirmation practice noting the similarities to what Jesus did as he started. 

A very simple Easter Play

Even if you do not usually check out the Facebook page, check it now if you are looking for a simple Easter pageant/play.  Bonnie McCubbin turned my Easter monologue/story (Sharing the Easter Faith With Children) into a simple pageant for the children of her small church.  There are few speaking parts and most parts can be acted by one or more children. The main prop is a cave tomb.  Costumes can be as simple or elaborate as you wish.  Bonnie is using it to let the children tell the Easter story to a community that does not know it that well.  She also posted it on the church's website (http://deercreekcharge.wordpress.com/media/) with an invitation to the rest of us to use it and maybe give it another adaptation.  Thank you for sharing, Bonnie.