Year C - Trinity Sunday (May 26,2013)

Trinity Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays of the liturgical year.   As I read blogs and preacher helps I was surprised to learn that not all worship planners share this love.  In fact most worship leaders seem to rather dread it or knock it as “the only festival of the church year that celebrates a doctrine.”  I suspect the reason for this is that many begin planning thinking about the sermon and so start by feeling the need to preach a sermon on the Trinity that would wow their seminary theology profs and also be meaningful to the people in the pews in front of them.  Old tapes about impossible term papers start playing - and it goes downhill from there.  Not having to preach a trinity sermon, I begin by saying “It is God Sunday, the call is not to explain God but to celebrate God’s mysterious, more than we can ever explain presence.  What could be better!”  Of course it is a chance to do a little worship education about the Trinity, but since even the Trinity is an inadequate definition of God, I suggest that this may be a better week to celebrate God to explain God.

 

p Introduce the trinity.  Most children know “God and Jesus,” but fewer hear much about the Holy Spirit – unless they heard the word during Pentecost celebrations last week.  So the task is to add the Holy Spirit and to tie all three together.  One way to begin is with Trinity images.  Point to those in your worship space.  Identify the three separate parts that are bound together, e.g. each circle of the intertwined circles.  Name the three persons of the Trinity and briefly mention things we know about each one.  Early in the service challenge worshipers to be alert for “father, son, and holy spirit” in your songs, prayers, and stories today.  Even fill your pockets with wrapped candies for anyone who can tell you as they leave the number of those references in today’s worship.  

God is like a clover leaf???

p Warning:  Images of the Trinity feature three things that together make one thing, e.g. clover of 3 leaves, egg (yoke, white, shell),apple (either tree, food, seed or peel, core, flesh), even Neapolitan ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry).  Grasping these images requires the ability to transfer qualities of one thing to something unlike it – which is easier for adults than for children.  Children have an easier time exploring different names of a single person, e.g. a person who is Granny, Mama and a Darling (wife).  The transfer is easier because children are asked to relate qualities of people rather than qualities of inanimate objects to qualities of God who is more like a person than like an inanimate object.  One way to do this is to identify all of your names, including your full name and your nicknames.   You may want to identify times when you are called by different names and note that no matter which name is used, you are still you.  Also hear the full names of several worshipers and make similar comments.  Then ask if anyone knows God’s full name.  From there discuss the three names for the Trinity. 

p If you regularly use musical congregational responses that name the Trinity (The Doxology, Gloria Patri), interrupt after they are sung today.  Ask, “What did you just sing?”  Then, briefly walk through the words defining difficult words and explaining the meaning of the whole song as sung where it is.  Then, invite the congregation to sing it again.  (Do warn the musicians of your plan.)

p Celebrate God who is more than we ever understand.  Many children assume that the adults all know everything there is to know about everything – including God.  If during their childhood they are told repeatedly that this is not true, when they begin asking important questions about God they will know they are not being outrageous, but doing what everyone does and has done for years.  That makes a big difference.  So, today celebrate both what we know about God and the God who is more than we can ever fully understand. 

As you do, cite the unanswerable questions people of all ages ask about God, such as but definitely not limited to

• What was God doing before God created the world?
• How can there never be a time before or after God?
• How can God pay attention to each person in the world all the time?
• Why did God create rattlesnakes and mosquitoes?

 

 

p If there is a conversational time with children, gather “I wonders” about God.  Begin by telling some of the things you wonder about.  Invite them to tell some of the things they wonder about.  Be sure all worshipers knows that no honest “I wonder” is too funny or too bad to be pondered.

p To explore the fact that our understanding of God changes and grows, share some of your “used to thinks” about God and tell what you now think and how the change occurred.  For example, I used to think God was a very old man but now think God is neither a man nor a woman.  Also, express the expectation that what you now think may become a “used to think” in the future.  (This could be done in a children’s time, but if it is done as part of the real sermon, children realize that you are talking to the adults too and expect their ideas about God to change and grow.)

 

p Sandy Sasso’s beautifully illustrated book In God’s Name notes that after creation all animals and people had names.  But God did not.  So, each the animals and people came up with its own name for God, none of which was complete without the others.  The book is a bit long.  To shorten it, read only pages 5 and 16-31.  (Read only the names on page 29 that you have read aloud.) 

p Invite children (or all worshipers) to write a poem about God during worship using a simple format.  You might offer it on a worship worksheet and then invite folks to post theirs in a set spot with or without their name or to take it home to post where they can read it and talk with God about in the coming week.

p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p

God

2 words that describe God                                  __________, __________

3 ing words that God does                                  _______, ______, ______

What you want to say to God today                   _____________________

A name for God                                                                     ____________

 

By YOUR NAME                                             by__________________

p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p p

 

p Offer children a Trinity coloring sheet composed of a big triangle divided into three sections titled something like -

Something Jesus did.

A favorite places in the world God created.

A time I felt very close to God.

 

p Celebrate the three persons of the Trinity by singing one familiar hymn about each one.  “For the Beauty of the Earth” or “This is My Father’s World” are good choices for creator.  (To stretch worshipers’ understanding of God, challenge them to sing this is my mother’s world.)  “Jesus Loves Me” is of course the most child friendly Jesus hymn.  Select the Holy Spirit that is most familiar and uses the simplest language.  This might even turn into a lessons and carols service honoring the Triune God.

p “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” is filled with long complicated words that describe God who is more than we can fully understand.  If this is pointed out, children enjoy all the impossible words praising God who is more than we can fully understand.

The Texts for Year C

This year’s texts are mostly beyond children.  That makes it a good year to focus more on celebrating God using the ideas above than on exploring these texts.  Still, a few words about them….

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Reid, Robert, 1862-1929. Wisdom Mural,

from Art in the Christian Tradition,

a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library,

Nashville, TN.

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54178

[retrieved April 24, 2013]. Original source:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:

Wisdom-Reid-Highsmith.jpeg.

 

p If you want to stretch all worshipers’ understanding of God, this is a great text with which to start.  Before reading it display this image of Wisdom noting that we all say God is neither a man nor a woman and that this is a picture of God as a woman.  Explain that the reading from Proverbs that we are about to hear describes God as a woman at work caring for the world.  Challenge worshipers to see God in this reading.

p After introducing Wisdom as a picture of God as a woman, have a woman read the text.

p Big Momma Makes the World, by Phyllis Root, tells the creation story in its biblical seven days featuring Big Momma with a baby on her hip as the Creator.  It is a wonderful way to challenge worshipers to think about God in the feminine.  Though it takes at least 8 minutes to read aloud, the easy dialect makes it will worth the time.  It would, however, be possible to select just one or two days to read during the sermon to make your point.  (FYI, I learned of this book by searching for Trinity on Children's Literature: A Resource for Ministry and found a copy in my public library.)

 

Psalm 8

p This is the most child friendly text for today.  The language is simple and it enjoys God rather than explains who God is.  That may make it a good day to preach the psalm rather than one of the more esoteric texts.

p To respond to the psalmist’s call to celebrate God’s majesty, invite the whole congregation to echo the worship leader in reading this psalm with interspersed comments, song snippets, and hand motions.  (It is improvisation based on the old practice of lining out scripture readings.)

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Psalm 8 Echo Reading

O Lord, our Lord,

your greatness is seen in all the world!

“This is my father’s world” (sing this )

Your praise reaches up to the heavens;

Praise the Lord!  (LOUD)

It is sung by children and babies.

Praise the Lord! (LOUDER)

You are safe and secure from all your enemies;

You stop anyone who opposes you.

When I look at the sky (sweep the sky with arm),

which you (look up) have made, 

at the moon (form circle around your head with arms) and the stars (sprinkle the sky with stars with your fingers), which you set in their places -     

What are human beings, that you think of them; (make a questioning gesture)

What are men that you think of them? (point to boys)

What are women that you think of them? (point to girls)

mere mortals, that you care for them? (hands out to include all)

Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;

You crowned them (make yourself a crown with your hands) with glory and honor.

You appointed them rulers over everything you made;

In charge of everything you made

Responsible for everything you made,

You placed them over all creation:

sheep and cattle,

and the wild animals too;

the birds and the fish and the creatures in the seas.

Air we breathe and pollute (take a deep breath)

Food for many or a few (lip your lips with satisfaction)

Energy to keep us warm and moving (hug self to keep warm)

O Lord, our Lord, Throw hands up toward the sky)

your greatness is seen in all the world!

Amen.

                       Based on the TEV translation

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

p If you focus on this psalm to explore the partnership between God and people, read “Partners” from Marc Gellman’s story book, Does God Have a Big Toe?  “Partners” retells the creation story ending with a conversation between God and Adam and Eve in the garden in which they agree to be partners in “finishing the world.”  When asked, God defines partner thusly…

"A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone.  If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you.  O the days you think I am not doing enough and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world.  That’s the deal.”

Romans 5:1-5

Children will not understand this passage as it is read.  They depend on the worship leader to describe in their own words how God acts through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Even when this is done, it is meaningful to children only as a summary of the three persons of Trinity.  Connect it to Trinity images in the sanctuary or to frequently-used liturgical responses that mention the Trinity.

John 16:12-16

This is another passage that children will not understand until they are older.  The language and ideas about the Holy Spirit are simply too abstract for them at this point in life. 

J J J J J J J J J J J J J J

p And again, a reminder that the end of the school year is coming up.  That event is hugely more important to your children than any ideas about the Trinity at this point in their lives.  So, go to School Is Out!!!! for ideas for recognizing it in the congregation’s worship on the appropriate Sunday.

WORSHIP ART

Alison Wyld asked a key question about worship bags last week– what can you put in them that will truly help children connect to the content of that day’s worship?  There are lots of answers to that question ranging from bookmarks for marking hymns and scripture readings to subscription children’s lectionary-based activity sheets.  One of the most useful, interesting, and easy to do possibilities is to use the bags to equip children to create “worship art.”  WORSHIP ART is anything children draw or write in response to whatever is happening in worship that day.  It can include drawings, poems, stories, diary entries for people in the Bible story or sermon, scribble prayers, and more. 

Worship leaders initiate worship art when they …

• Challenge children to draw what they hear as a specific scripture is read or an important story in the sermon is told, 

• Highlight a phrase from the regular liturgy (e.g. a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer), discuss it, then ask children to draw or write what they think about it,

• Invite children to illustrate one verse of a hymn that has lots of concrete ideas (e.g. hymns praising all the things God created),
• Identify the key theme word for the day near the beginning of worship, helping children write it on a page, and urging them to draw or write ideas about that word they think about during worship, and 

• Teach children how to draw a scribble and then turn it into a prayer by writing or drawing each of their prayer concerns into one space in the scribble and decorating it while they talk silently to God about it.

Obviously, you would do only one of these in any given service.  At first children will do exactly what you direct for that day.  As they catch the hang of it, they will surprise you by using instructions from another week to draw or write about what is important to them at the moment. 

To enable this work, fill worship bags with artists’ tools:  a small clipboard, several sheets of paper that fit the clipboard, and a grand collection of markers, crayons, or colored pencils and a pencil for the word artists.  Be sure the materials are freshened each week. 

Most children will quickly lose interest in WORSHIP ART if it ends up on the floor of the van to be trashed.  But, if their work is respected and valued by worship leaders and parents as part of the morning’s worship, they will stick with it.  To ensure this,

• (if you are the worship leader and greet people at the back door) watch, even ask for, children’s art as they leave.  Briefly talk about what they drew or wrote. 
• Make time to talk with children about their art during the service.  This might look like a children’s time or could mean meeting children as the offering is collected to receive and speak briefly with them about their art offerings.  

• Provide a place where their art can be displayed.  Turn your office door into a child-height bulletin board on which you communicate with the children about worship.  Or, set up a bulletin board close to the sanctuary especially for WORSHIP ART.  Or, place a roll of tape in an established place where children can use it to tape their work to the communion rail.  
• Save children’s WORSHIP ART to use as bulletin covers, to illustrate newsletters, to use as sermon illustrations, etc. Put all children’s worship art in a file folder for possible future use. 
• Use the term WORSHIP ART frequently in worship and speak about what the children are doing with respect so that all the adults in the room know that all the children who are drawing and writing are worshiping in their own way. 

• (if you are a parent) take an interest in your child’s art.  Encourage him to draw during worship – even creating some of your own worship art.  Talk with her about what was drawn in the car on the way home.  If the art doesn’t get posted at church, post it on the refrigerator door at home. 

When a worship leader becomes the curator of children’s WORSHIP ART, he/she gives the children a comfortable-to-them way to participate in the congregation’s worship and in so doing makes a place for them that they can value and claim.

And, Alyson, summer would be a great time to introduce both the worship bags and WORSHIP ART as experiments.  I’ll bet they will rapidly become part of “how we do it” and you will have a new way to connect with the children of your congregation.

JUST FOR THE SUMMER!

In the northern hemisphere, summer is coming.  We can almost feel it out there and are longing for the more laid back season – or at least hoping it will be a more laid back season J.  Summer is a great time for worship experiments.  People are more relaxed and ready to give something new a chance.  The 2 ½ to 3 months of summer is enough time to give something new a fair trial and still have a graceful out for everyone if it just does not work as you hoped.  So, as you think about summer worship this year, what about identifying one experiment that will make worship more child-friendly.  You might….

• Commit to presenting the scripture reading for the day creatively every Sunday.  Invite folks of all ages to join a scripture reader’s team for the summer.  Meet every week to turn texts into several person readings, pantomimes, responsive readings between different parts of the congregation led by team members, or readings by the most appropriate person (reader of an age or gender that fits the text).  Not everyone will have a part every Sunday (which is good in the summer).  Still, because all will be in on the planning and rehearsing they will pay more attention to scripture as it is read each week.  And, other worshipers will pay attention to the changing readers and presentations.
• Invite music readers of all ages to join a pick up choir for the summer.  Meet before worship to learn a piece for that morning and maybe to rehearse sung responses.  You may find new choir members or give those who can’t sing in the choir during the school year, a chance to sing in the summer.  Encourage parents to sing with children, older brothers or sisters to sing with younger ones, even grandparents to sing with visiting grandchildren.
• Invite young musicians to play preludes and offertories.  Feature soloists and small groups.  Meet with each soloist or group shortly before “their” service to prepare them to play as a way of leading worship rather than just performing.
• Invite children or families to serve as ushers and greeters.  It is easiest to start with experienced adult ushers and greeters bringing their own children.  But, older children also appreciate being paired with an adult beyond their own family for this service. 
• Provide worship bags for children.  The bags can be small canvas bags or simply plastic zip top bags.  Fill each one with paper and markers, a printed puzzle related to the day’s worship, a small Bible picture card or book (check out church school curriculum leftovers), plastic clay to mold (unlike play dough or clay it does not leave a mess on pew cushions), even a single hard candy to enjoy with the sermon.  (Find more details at What Goes into Worship Bags.) Put the bags in clearly marked boxes or racks near each entrance and encourage ushers to direct families to them.  Be sure they are cleaned out and resupplied each week. 

Now is the time to get started on summer worship plans.  So, talk with the key people and groups.  Then, go for it!

And - if you have another experiment to add to the list, please leave the rest of us a comment.

Year C - The Day of Pentecost (May 19, 2013)

HAPPY PENTECOST!

You will realize as you read through this post that I am really into Pentecost.  It is a holy day filled with potential for children.  I have gathered ideas from my Years A and B posts and added some fresh ideas here to create my up-to-the minute list of Pentecost ideas.  So, enjoy and add any of your own in the comments section.

 

' Pentecost is a birthday party for the church.  Since children are the pros on birthday parties, it is a good Sunday for them to be involved in lots of ways.  Go to Celebrating Pentecost for a list of 27 ways to do this – everything from everyone wear red that day to having readers scattered throughout the congregation read the Pentecost story in different languages at the same time.  To that list, I add:

1. If you have birthday party at the fellowship hour, ask the children to host it.  Preschoolers add stickers (church buildings, flames, “Happy Birthday”) to the usual white napkins.  Elementary schoolers decorate an iced sheet cake or cupcakes.  (White cake is fine, but Red Velvet Cake is more liturgically correct J and interesting.)Write “Happy Birthday Church” and add flames, crosses or other symbols with red icing tubes.  Older elementary children can serve the red punch.  Children can also lead the congregation in singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles.
   

    

2. 

   If not stoles to wear,
   what about streamers to shake
   while singing spirit songs?

   Children’s classes can prepare red crepe paper stoles for all worshipers to wear during worship.  Precut the red streamers and ask children to add a Pentecost sticker (church, flame, dove, “Happy Birthday”) to each end of each stole.  Children may give these stoles to worshipers as they enter the sanctuary or distribute them during the Call to Worship as a worship leader explains the meaning of wearing stoles and briefly introduces Pentecost.
   

    

   
   

   NOTE: Flame stickers and decals today are most likely to be those that go on hotrods or motorbikes.  And that is just fine.  Those are powerful flames that appeal to children more than a warm campfire flame.  They say to the wearers, “ladies and gentlemen, start your engines” – or get on the move for God empowered by the Holy Spirit.

    

   
   
3. Instead of draping worshipers with red crepe paper stoles, mark each one with a flame sticker on the back of a hand or forehead.  An older children’s class could work with greeters to put one on each worshiper as they arrive.
   

    
4. Meet with a congregation from a different ethnic background.  Share languages, choirs, and even a picnic with all kinds of foods – and the same Lord!
   

    
5. Give worshipers red candles to light from the Easter candle.  Notice that the light these candles make during daylight is not as impressive as the light of candles lit on Christmas Eve.  But, it is a fact that God shines through us every day.  Sometimes we don’t feel it makes a big difference, but it does.
   

    
6. Many denominational logos feature flames.  Point to those flames and connect them to the flames of Pentecost.

 ' If the youngest children simply enjoy the birthday party aspect of the day’s worship, that is enough.  Older children are ready to hear a little about the Holy Spirit.  On Pentecost, there are two points:

1. Even though Jesus has ascended, God is still with us.  We are not on our own.
2. God gives us power that enables us to do God’s work on earth.  God inspires us, gives us gifts (talents), and works through us.  God expects us to “do something in God’s name.”  This is a powerful self-image.  We are powerful and God has work for us to do.  Impress it on the children, encouraging them to identify and practice their gifts.  Tell stories about people and churches doing this.  Look forward to seeing what each of them do for God.  Celebrate that fact with amazed joy.

' Create a flame poster or banner that features all the names for Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, Advocate, Counselor, God’s Spirit, etc.) that you will use in worship today.  Present it at the beginning of the service and challenge children to listen for each one.

' The best Pentecost songs for children are often familiar short choruses.

“Spirit of the Living God Fall Afresh on Me”

“Every Time I Feel the Spirit”

Consider singing only the chorus since the verses refer to unfamiliar to children Bible stories and the River Jordan.

“I’m Gonna Sing When the Spirit Says Sing”

Make up new verses that match the ideas or illustrations in the service, e.g. I’m gonna serve, walk (fund raiser walks), etc.

“Breathe On Me Breath of God,”

Even with its Elizabethan English, children like it.  They savor the repeated first phrase of each verse and figure out the rest of the verses over the years.

' It is a good day to sing hymns from different countries.  Many current hymnals include Spanish and Asian hymns with words printed in that language and English.  If each hymn is introduced with a simple “our next hymn comes to us from the Christians in NAME OF COUNTRY, children will enjoy all the variety and learn that the church includes people who speak many different languages.

' If you regularly use the traditional form of The Apostles’ Creed in worship, this is a good day to do some worship education about “I believe in the Holy Ghost , the holy catholic church.”  Interrupt the congregation as they say the creed saying “hey wait a minute do you hear what we just said – ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church?’  That is so today, so Pentecost!”  Then connect the phrases with the Pentecost story.  You may also want to translate Holy Ghost to Holy Spirit and explain what catholic with a small c means.  Finally, invite the congregation to start from the top again and say this phrase like they know what they are saying.  (Instead of interrupting the creed, you could hold this conversation as an introduction to the creed – even as a children’s time – but it has more impact with worshipers of all ages as an interruption.)

The Pentecost Texts

Acts 2:1-21

' The Roman Catholic Lectionary cuts this reading after verse 11 which omits the Joel prophecy and Peter’s sermon which is rather difficult for children sermon.  It is also shorter. 

 

' Before reading the story, alert worshipers to the list of homelands of people in the Pentecost crowd.  Project or display a map of the region and point out where each named place is.  When possible name the language spoken in each place at that time.   Laugh about how hard it is to pronounce some of the names.  Get show of hands from the congregation to learn who has visited which places.  Note the places that are in the news today.  The goal is not that the children know and pronounce all the names, but that they realize that these were real places and the people who lived in them were real people visiting in Jerusalem.
 

' Pentecost is the birthday of the church.  Every birthday includes some wonderful birthday surprises.  The church’s birthday surprise on the first Pentecost was that even though Jesus had died, been raised, and then gone to heaven, his disciples were not alone.  The Holy Spirit, the very power of God, was with them giving them the power to be the body of Christ in the world!  What was true for them on the day the church was born is also true for us today on the church’s 2,013^th birthday. 

' Wind and fire are metaphors.  Point out that Acts does not say there WAS wind and fire but that something strange and mysterious and powerful happened.  The only way people could describe what happened was to say it was LIKE wind and fire.  Note that the important thing was not the wind or the flames, but that people knew for sure that God was with them in a very powerful way.  Knowing that gave disciples (who were hiding out in fear) the courage to run into the streets and tell everyone they met about Jesus.  Knowing that gives us the courage to follow Jesus today.

' We Are One, by Ysaye M. Barnwell, is a short picture book to read and savor with children on Pentecost.  Each page features a short phrase that recalls Joel’s prophecy and the realities of Pentecost illustrated beautifully.  Rather than point out those connections, simply read the book and speak briefly about one or two of the pages.  I found a copy in the local public library.

Genesis 11:1-9

' Adults grasp and enjoy the pairing of this story with the Pentecost preaching in all the languages, but children don’t get it easily.  If they do get it, they tend to shrug their shoulders.  They also tend to worry about the fact that God seemed to be threatened by human efforts at something they understand and enjoy – tower building – and can be offended that God thought it was not a good thing for people to be able to do whatever they wanted to do.  So, I’d tend to focus on the Acts story today.

Psalm 104:24-34,35b

' Give out puzzle pieces and markers with which to illustrate one verse or draw one picture of something God created for which you praise God.  Assemble the pieces fitting them together near the end of the service and sing a final hymn of praise to God of creation.  (Be sure the back side of the pieces in clearly marked so all the pieces go together with the picture side showing.)

' Or, simply provide children with a worship worksheet.   Print the text in the middle of a page and frame it with empty blocks.  Invite children to illustrate a word and phrase they find in the psalm in each block.

 

 

Romans 8:14-17

' The story texts have more to offer children than this one does.  But if you do read it use the TEV translation which is the easiest for children to follow.  It calls children to be the happy, unafraid children of God.  Omitting verse 17 makes the reading even more focused on the power of being God’s children.

¹⁴Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory.

' Children are often quite aware and fascinated by who is adopted and who is not.  If you know your children fairly well and feel a conversation about adoption would put no one on the spot, begin unpacking these verses by identifying those worshipers who are adopted and those who are not (or letting them identify themselves).  Then insist that actually we are all adopted by God.  Read the verses celebrating this fact.

 

John 14:8-17, (25-27)

' If you have already read and explored the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts, point out that in this passage “the Advocate” and “the Spirit of truth” (or whatever terms are used in the translation you read) are other names for the Holy Spirit.  Jesus is talking to his friends about what is important about the Holy Spirit coming.

' In many ways this discussion sets the stage for celebrating the Trinity next Sunday.  Jesus says that while he was alive on the earth, God was with people in him.  But, now that he has died and risen, God will be with them as the Holy Spirit.  They will feel God’s love burning in them and God’s power will enable them to do amazing things. 

Introduce two symbols for God with us today, then use them again adding a third next week.  Today introduce a simple cross to remind us that God is with us in Jesus and a lighted candle to remind us that God’s Holy Spirit burns within us.  Display both symbols prominently.

J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J

 

And last but not least, a reminder that the end of the school year is coming up.  The children in my area had so many snow days this year that they will be in school well into June.  But yours may be getting out within days or at least a week or two.  Whenever your children finish school, it is a HUGE event for them.  Go to School Is Out!!!! for ideas for recognizing it in the congregation’s worship.