This is one of those too many possibilities
Sundays. You will have to make
choices. I have tried to include a
little of everything.
This year All Saints Day falls
on Saturday November 1. If you celebrate
All Saints Day on Sunday November 2, go to Year A - All Saints Day (2014) for ideas based on the All
Saints texts. There are also All Saints
ideas based on this day’s texts in this post.
And, in the
children’s lectionary Friday was Halloween. The younger children are all about costumes
in which they see themselves as other people (an obvious opportunity to push
for seeing themselves as saints). Older
children have been gathering courage for scary stories and trips through
haunted houses (maybe a connection to the courage to step into the dry Jordan
River and enter the Promised Land).
No matter what
else is explored in worship remember children’s Halloween activities in the church’s prayers. Thank God for all the costumes and Halloween fun
and for the courage to hear scary stories and visit scary haunted houses. Ask God to help us remember that no matter
who we pretended to be on Halloween, we are always God’s loved and loving
people.
Today’s Texts
Joshua
3:7-17
This lection omits the part of the story that
is of most interest to children - carrying 12 rocks from the middle of the dried
river bed to make a pile that children could ask their parents about in the
years to come. So, I would add Joshua 4:1-7
to the reading (FYI it appears nowhere in the NRSV). There are two ways to prepare worshipers to
pay attention to the text.
~
Have 12 men carry one fairly big rock each
down the aisle and pile them near the worship center. As they do, instruct worshipers to listen for
12 men doing the same thing in the reading.
During the sermon recall other structures that have been erected to
remind people of their shared stories, e.g. national monuments. Talk about the importance of knowing these
stories. Encourage families (both the
parents and the children) to tell and talk about faith stories (e.g. read Bible
stories).
~
Introduce the Ark of the Covenant. Note that unlike Noah’s ark, the Ark of the
Covenant is not a boat. Show a picture
of the ark and explain how it was used.
If you have the tablets from the Moses display (Moses Display), show them, wonder
where the people kept them as they moved around the wilderness. Put them in a golden box (wrap any box with
gold wrapping paper) and tell about the Ark of the Covenant. Finally, encourage worshipers to listen for
the ark in the reading.
~ Two
days after Halloween, this story tells of two acts of bravery that every single man,
woman and child had to do – they had to walk the dried up path across the middle of the Jordan River and they had to leave the wilderness where they had lived all
their lives to enter the Promised Land.
They had heard and loved the story about their grandparents walking
through the divided sea to leave Egypt.
But, now they had to do the pretty much the same thing. It is like walking into a haunted house. You have heard other people have done it, but
now it is your turn – and it is scary.
~ It is also
like moving today. Check out Alexander Who's Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!)
Going to Move, by Judith Viorst, for a light-hearted but honest look at the
feelings of a child who does NOT want to move.
(Yes, the same Alexander as in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No
Good, Very Bad Day.) Rather than read
the entire book, you might just read the first page and show the picture which
sums up the situation.
~ One BIG problem! The list of the names of all the people who
were to be driven out of their homes immediately reminds adults of today’s
Palestinians. Children may miss this
entirely. Or, if they are caught by the
list of unusual names, older children may wonder who they were. Those who tend to root for the underdog may
ask what happened to those people and question whether it was fair of God to
give their homes to other people. Unless
you see an easy answer to this, I’d avoid getting in conversations with
children (especially in front of the congregation) in which the question could
be raised.
Psalm
107:1-7, 33-37
~ Psalm 107 is a road
song.
Pilgrims climbing the steep, hot road up to Jerusalem to worship at the
Temple, would recite it as they walked in groups, rather like some of the songs
families sing in cars as they travel today (think “Banana-nana-bo bana”). It has a clear pattern of verses describing
the trouble some people faced and were saved from by God and a chorus calling
on them to “thank the Lord” for their deliverance. Today’s lection cuts across the pattern. Just for fun and to connect to the Joshua
story, I’d stick with the pattern and read verses 1-9 instead. They can be put into a congregational reading
as below. Before reading it, tell
worshipers to imagine themselves in a crowd singing on the hot, steep road to
Jerusalem. For maximum effect have the
whole congregation stand and walk in place as they read the psalm together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Psalm 107:1-9
People: O
give thanks to the Lord, who is good;
whose steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those God redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Solo: Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town;
hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their
trouble,
and God delivered them from their
distress;
The Lord led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town.
People: Let
them thank the Lord for this steadfast love,
for these wonderful works to
humankind.
For God satisfies the thirsty,
and fills the hungry with good things.
Based
on the NRSV
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Micah
3:5-12
~ Today’s English Version of this text makes its
meaning “in your face” for the adults and the children. The heart of it is verses 9-12. Its message for children is “what we do
matters to God.” (Before
unpacking that here, know that Joshua’s “Choose this day whom you will serve”
is next Sunday. You may want to save
this idea for then.)
Listen to me, you rulers of Israel,
you that hate justice and turn right into wrong. You are building God’s city, Jerusalem, on a
foundation of murder and injustice. The
city’s rulers govern for bribes, the priests interpret the Law for pay, the
prophets give their revelations for money—and they all claim that the Lord is with them. “No harm will come to
us,” they say. “The Lord is with
us.”
And so, because of you, Zion will be
ploughed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple
hill will become a forest.
Today’s
English Version
~ If
you frequently use the traditional prayer of confession
below, pray it today. Before praying it
point out the highlighted lines. Put “offended against your holy laws” into
your words. Cite examples of sins of
omission and commission. Then point to
the end of the prayer putting it into your own words.
Almighty and
merciful God,
We have erred and
strayed from your ways like lost sheep.
We have followed
too much
The devices and
desires of our own hearts.
We have offended against your holy laws.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have
done;
And we have done those things which we ought not to have
done.
O Lord, have
mercy up on us.
Spare those who
confess their faults.
Restore those who
are penitent,
according to your
promises declared to the world
in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
And grant, O merciful God, for his sake,
That we may live a holy, just, and humble life
To the glory of your holy name.
Book of
Common Worship (PCUSA)
Psalm
43
~
Verse 11 is the heart
of the psalm for children. Much of the
rest of it requires life experience and understanding that is beyond them. But, when they list together times when they
feel hopeless – everything from playing on a team that ALWAYS loses to feeling
no one at all loves you to feeling that horrible things are about to get you or
that you are no good – children can then hear these words as a prayer for such
times. So walk through the words with
them, then pray them together.
1
Thessalonians 2:9-13 and Matthew 23:1-12
The Christian Century article “Saints and Their Source” (go to Saints and Their Source )
pulled these texts together in such a helpful way for me that I find all my
suggestions grow from it. The authors
insist that saints are people tied to God’s word and that God’s word (1) comes
from God (2) through others, and (3) works in us. Read the article to get their full meaning.
~ To
introduce the idea of saints to the children display one of the following
pieces of art.
“Gathering of the Spirits” (at Painted Prayerbook) is non- literal art and will challenge children. Some “I wonder” questions will help them
understand the picture:
I wonder what
that round thing is? the sun? the moon?
the light of God?
I wonder who the
gold things are?
Can anyone guess
what the square things are? (You may have to talk briefly
about halos here.)
This should get
to a discussion about all the people/saints who we are always aware of, who
show us about God by just being there, and who help us live well.
Or, go to Supper and Saints to see Jan's collage
of many different “saints” gathered around the Table . Identify what makes each figure at the table unique. Then, ponder what holds them together. What do they share and what do they gain from
being together “at the Table?" (This is
especially effective if communion will be celebrated during this service.)
~ Just
before the Communion liturgy highlight the congregation’s claim to be joining
with at the saints of all times and places praising God. Put the phrase you will use into your own
words. Practice saying or singing it
with the children or the whole congregation.
Then pause and look up to get everyone’s attention before saying or
singing it in the liturgy.
1Thessalonians
2:9-13
~ One way God’s word comes to us is through the
Bible and preaching about the Bible. Give
the children strips
of small Bible stickers at the beginning of worship and
challenge them to listen for all the times we read or sing or pray the Bible
today. Invite them to put a Bible
sticker by each reading, prayer, or song in the printed order of worship that
comes from the Bible. Take a moment to
look at and compliment children on their sticker covered papers as they leave
the sanctuary. (Print the biblical
source beside Bible-based readings and verbally point out Bible based hymns as
you sing them.)
~ In
his letter to the folks at Thessalonica, Paul is recalling his ministry with
them, “the Gathering of the Spirits” that they were together. If you did not do so last week, tell stories of
previous pastors in your congregation to explore how God worked in them and the
people in the congregation at that time. If you have photographs or paintings of past
pastors that are usually hung in public spots, bring them to the
sanctuary. Ask who knew, was baptized by
or married by the more recent ones. Then
move onto points about God’s word working in relationships in churches. Children may miss some of your points, but
they will be more connected to pictures they hardly noticed before – and even
add some of those people to their personal community of saints.
~ Paul
encourages the Thessalonians to do what they can with what they have to serve God and take care
of each other. If you have 10 minutes to
devote to it, read Clever Jack Takes the Cake, by Candace Fleming. Worshipers of all ages will enjoy the story
of poor little Jack who responded to an invitation to the Princess’s birthday
party by selling the few things he has to make a cake for the Princess. As he carried it to the party it was
destroyed piece by piece. Confronting
the Princess empty handed, he offered her the story of the cake. That story is her favorite gift and the beginning
of her friendship with Jack. Introduce
it as the story of Saint Jack who had very little to work with but the
determination to give all he had to answering the Princess’s invitation. The story could be the conclusion of a sermon
about sainthood or a children’s time story to enlarge the theme of sainthood.
Matthew
23:1-12
~ Children, maybe even more than adults, are urged to be the best, the most, the winner. Jesus’ call to servant living flies in the
face of all this pressure to succeed.
Acknowledge that openly. Explore
the differences in the coach who wants the team to be number one no matter what
and the coach who wants every member of the team to learn and grow in the game
and for the whole team to have a good time playing together. What is practice like with each one? What about games? Which coach would you rather play for?
~ If worship leaders
in your congregation wear robes, talk about why
they do today. Begin by pointing out all
the people wearing robes – ministers, choir, acolytes, etc. Ask: what is the difference in the people
wearing robes and those not wearing robes?
Are the people wearing robes any more or less important than the people
not wearing them? If you are wearing a
robe, take it off and ask what difference that makes. The point of all of this is that the robes do
not make people more important or make what they say mean more. The real reason for worship leaders to wear
robes is to cover all the different clothes they wear. Worshipers can pay more attention to what
they say or sing than in what they are wearing.
~ Good hymns for young
saints wanting to be humble servants of God
include:
“Lord, I Want to
Be A Christian”
“I’m Gonna Live
So God Can Use Me”
“Take My Life and
Let It Be Consecrated”
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