Acts 8:26-40
t Display a map or globe on which to locate
Ethiopia. Display pictures of Ethiopia
and Ethiopians. Note your congregation’s
or denomination’s connection to Ethiopia.
And, pray for people of Ethiopia today.
t Without Philip to explain what he was reading in the
Isaiah scroll, the Ethiopian would never have understood it or learned about
Jesus. Teachers ARE important. As the end of the school year ends, children
are ready to recognize how important their teachers/coaches/mentors have been
to them. After exploring the difference
Philip made, invite children (and all worshipers) to identify the teachers who
have made a difference to them. Offer
prayers of thanksgiving for teachers, especially those who help us learn about
God.
t When Philip met the Ethiopian, he faced a
challenge. He had to introduce this
stranger to Jesus. He started with what
the man was reading in Isaiah, but went from there to tell the story of
Jesus. Give children paper, pencils and
crayons with which to write or draw what they would tell someone
who asked them “Who was Jesus?” Take time to talk with them about their work
as they leave the sanctuary.
t To honor Philip and the Ethiopian sing an African hymn. “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love” is one
good choice.
Acts 9:26-31 (Reading from the Roman Catholic
Lectionary)
t I was caught by this difference on Textweek.com. This is the story of Barnabas introducing
Saul to the Christians in Jerusalem who were very reluctant to welcome him. It is not included in the Revised Common
Lectionary at all. Instead, on The Third
Sunday of Easter (Year C), Saul’s conversion is included with the follow-up
story about Ananias’ taking him in as optional reading. It is a real Easter story. An old enemy becomes a friend and is welcomed
ushering in an era of peace in the church.
The church in Jerusalem even arranges his escape when his preaching
creates trouble for him. There is also a
connection to today’s texts about abiding in Christ and love within the
community. If you use it, I’d read the
Damascus road story from a children’s Bible story book, then invite children to
hear what happened next.
If
most of your children are younger elementary schoolers, try “Saul Learns About
Jesus” in The Family Story Bible, by Ralph Milton. If most of the children are older read the
more detailed account in The Children’s Illustrated Bible omitting the
last two paragraphs.
Psalm 22:25-31
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t 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 imbedded in the sermon – even the
practicing!)
t Add congregational “alleluias” to make this psalm an
Easter responsive reading.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Psalm 22:25 - 31
All: Alleluia!
When your people meet,
you will fill my heart
with your praises, Lord,
and everyone will see me
keep my promises to you.
All: Alleluia!
The poor will eat and be full,
and all who worship you
will be thankful
and live in hope.
All: Alleluia!
Everyone on this earth
will remember you, Lord.
People all over the world
will turn and worship you,
because you are in control,
the ruler of all nations.
All: Alleluia!
All who are rich
and have more than enough
will bow down to you, Lord.
All: Alleluia!
Even those who are dying
and almost in the grave
will come and bow down.
All: Alleluia!
In the future, everyone
will worship and learn
about you, our Lord.
People not yet born
will be told,
“The Lord has saved us!”
All: Alleluia!
Psalm
from Contemporary English Version
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Alleluia!
1 John: 4:7-21
Last week’s epistle insisted
that love is not what we feel but what we do.
This week John adds a few more ideas about love. Pick one or two to explore to highlight for
the children.
t God is love. Concrete thinking children (and
lots of the rest of us) are more likely to hear this as “God is the most loving
being in the world.” Children are
willing to accept this as a simple fact and move on to implications.
 |
| Used with permission of illustrator Margaret Kyle of The Family Story Bible, by Ralph Milton |
t John uses a couple of arguments to get us to love
others.
We
love because God first loved us.
Children hear this as “it is only fair if God loves us that we should
love others.”
We
love in order to become like Jesus and God.
No
one can see God, but they can see us.
Our job is to be so loving that people look at us and see what God’s
love is like.
t Verses 20-21 are clear and important to children. “Those who say ‘I love God’ and hate their
brothers or sisters are liars.” The
first step to exploring this with them is to define and name their familial
brothers and sisters AND add everyone in the church as brothers and sisters AND
add everyone in their school and community as brothers and sisters AND add
everyone in the world as brothers and sisters.
Then, ask or ponder what it means to love each of those groups.
t “There is no fear in love….” (verse 18) is probably the hardest idea to explore
with children. I’d save that one for the
adults.
t Before reading the epistle, point out that it is all
about love and tie a ribbon festooned with hearts or a ribbon with a heart at one end
and a cross at the other end to the paschal candle. Encourage worshipers to listen for all the
love in this letter. Light the candle if
it is not already lit. Then read the
passage.
Next
Sunday, love is the gospel (rather than the epistle) theme. So if you use the heart ribbon today, know
that you are stealing a possibility for next week. Use the vine ribbon that goes with today's gospel.
t Most children, especially most girls, have seen the new
movie “Cinderella” this spring.
Cinderella’s mother teaches her “to have courage and be kind” and
insists that her kindness is more powerful than any magic. Throughout the movie she works to be kind to
her unpleasant step family, she has compassion on a stag being hunted by the
prince and thus wins the attention of that prince, and breaks through her own
unhappiness at not going to the ball to respond to an old woman’s request for a
bowl of milk and thus meets her fairy godmother. She even tells her stepmother that she
forgives her as she leaves the house with the prince. (The last one is sort of a throw-away line
that can probably best be ignored.) One
reviewer noted that this Cinderella’s only super power was her ability to love,
to be kind. It all suggests exploring
the ability to love even unlovable people as a super power to be cherished and
developed.
t There are lots of children’s books about love. A few that might fit today are:
Horton
Hears A Who, by Dr. Seuss,
describes the love an elephant lavishes on Whos who live on a speck of
dust. The other animals at first
ridicule him, then try to destroy the speck of dust, and finally cage him. In the end, the Whos on the speck of dust
make enough noise that the other animals hear them and tumble to the truth that
“a person’s a person no matter how small.”
The book is too long to read in worship.
I’d briefly tell the story opening, then turn to the pages about Horton
chasing the bird across the hills and working though all the clovers in a huge
clover field to find the Whos. That is
love.
Miss
Tizzy, by Libba Moore Gray,
describes what an elderly eccentric lady did with the children of the
neighborhood each day of the week. Each
day ends with “And the children loved it.”
When she gets very sick and must stay in bed, the children figure out
how to do each of the things for her.
The book then concludes, “and she loved it.” The book features a multi-racial cast of
children around an African American Miss Tizzy.
Read it in a little over five minutes.
Read it to explore the ways Miss Tizzy loves the children and the
children return the love.
And
of course there is The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams. It is trite from overuse, but fits this text
exactly. “'Real
isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to
you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but
REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'"
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t One of the ways we love each other is to pray for each
other. To help children pray for people they
are concerned about, invite them to make a loopy scribble that has big
spaces. In each space have them write
the name of one person or group they for whom they wish to pray. Then, instruct them to go back and decorate
each person’s space with details and key words for that person. This can be done with a pen or pencil, but
colored pens add a strong dimension.
Give children a sheet of paper on which to work during the worship
service. Invite them to drop their
prayer sheet in the offering basket as it is passed, tape it to a rail at the
front, pin it to a bulletin board set aside for that purpose, or take it home
as a prayer reminder for the week.
For
a fuller description of the practice of praying with colored pens, see Praying
in Color: Drawing A New Path to God, by Sybil MacBeth.
John 15:1-8
 |
| Find ribbon with vine printed on it, a vine/flower trim, even a real piece of vine. |
t If you are adding ribbons to the paschal candle, present today’s vine-y ribbon before reading the
gospel. Introduce the idea that we are
like branches on a huge vine and Jesus is the trunk. Insist that we are each branches and that all
sorts of different groups of people all around the world are branches. Encourage worshippers to listen for what John
says about this big vine and its branches.
Tie the ribbon in place. Light
the candle if it has not yet been lit.
Then read the gospel
t Urban children do not know much about pruning, unless
their parents are gardeners. The easiest
way to help them get this story is to present a dead branch and ask if
leaves or fruit will ever grow on this branch.
Pursue the discussion to the point that branches have to stay attached
to the tree to stay alive. Note that the
same thing is true of vines. The
branches of vines curl up and die when cut from the vine. Then challenge listeners to figure out what
Jesus was trying to tell us as you read the text.
ABIDE
t Children don’t often hear the word ABIDE in everyday conversation. If you will use it frequently in the sermon and
liturgy today, introduce it at the beginning of worship as the word of the day
- ala Sesame Street. Display it on a
large poster. Translate it as “stay
close to me” and/or “hang tight with me.”
Illustrate it with reference to reading everything you can and learning
all the stats for a favorite athlete to learn to be like him or her, or hanging
out with an aunt or uncle you want to grow up to be just like. Briefly suggest that today we will be talking
about ABIDING with God and Jesus.
Encourage children to listen for it in the songs and prayers and
readings today and to figure out what it means in each place it appears.
t Try a variation on the scribble prayer described
above that is based on the vine and branches.
Invite children to scribble the top of a fine, large tree. Challenge them to write the names of people
and groups in your church who are part of their church tree who they want to
pray for today. Encourage them to decorate
each name with colored pens as they talk to God about that person or
group.
t If you show film clips in worship:
Find
the scene in “The Empire Strikes Back”(1980) in which Yoda is training Luke
Skywalker to be a Jedi. Yoda says, "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?
Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful
ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds
us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force
around you; between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes, even between
the land and the ship." Yoda speaks
of the Force, but the parallels to abiding in Christ are clear.
When
Rafiki, the baboon, finds Simba in hiding, he shows him a reflection of himself
in the lagoon and insists that he sees Simba’s father there. Simba refuses to see his father, dismissing
it as just a reflection of himself. Rafiki pushes on "Look harder, he
lives in you." When Simba looks again he hears the voice of his father
saying, “Simba, you have forgotten who you are.
You are more than you have become.
Remember who you are..."
t Songs about love
that children know may be from the hymnal or
may come from campfires. All worshipers
may enjoy singing them today.
“Love, Love, Love, the gospel in one word is
love….”
“We
Love Because God First Loved Us”
“For
the Beauty of the Earth”
Point
out the love in verse 3 and challenge singers to listen for other references to
love as they sing.
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