One writer titled an essay about
this set of texts, “Just a Kid, Just a Seed, Just a Church”
and pointed out that the texts insist not only that God CAN use small things to
do big things, but that God’s preferred method of operation is small
things. While many commentators insist that Jesus is more interested in the surprpising places God is working than in the possibility that God can use our small gifts, children appreciate the former for at least two reasons.
First, children who are often sent
to eat at the kids table and are shuttled aside at interesting looking events
often feel over looked and undervalued.
They, like David, have been left behind when the rest of the family went
off for a sacrifice and feast. So they
appreciate God’s making everyone wait until David can be included and God’s
insistence (in front of all his big brothers and father) that David is “the
one.”
Second, children are growing up
with superheroes and heroines who “save the world” with splashy deeds. They admire real life people who make the big
plays in sports and other parts of the real world. They long to do something “special,”
“important,” “big,”… . They sense in the
question, “what will you do/be when you grow up?” the need to have a plan or at
least a wish to do something important that will “save the world.” So they tend to devalue what they can do here
and now, every day. Jesus’
small-seeds-that-grow parables challenge them to value and to seek out
opportunities to do small deeds of kindness and justice knowing that God will
work in them to do big things.
> The Quarreling Book, by
Charlotte Zolotow, tells of a day made miserable for everyone by a cascading
series of little hurts people inflict on each other in turn. The day changes when the dog licks the hand
of a boy who had just pushed him off the bed.
That begins a reverse cascade of small kindnesses that rescue the
day. Read it in about five minutes to
remind worshipers how small things can make a big difference for either good or
bad.
The Texts
1 Samuel 15:34 –
16:13
> Bring this story to
life, by having it read and pantomimed by a group of men
and boys. The seven
brothers can simply step forward and stand in place (maybe in the military “at
ease” pose) as the story is read. Old
Samuel looks at each one shaking his head with surprise. Finally, younger David is brought in (or Jesse goes to the side door to open it and whistle for David who then
appears), kneels to be anointed, then goes back to the sheep. A rehearsal will be needed to get all actors
sure of their movements and to work with everyone on using their faces to react
to what is happening. This should be a
fun connecting time for the group.
NOTE: As I write this the
week before Mother’s Day for use on the Sunday before Father’s Day, I am aware
of all the sensitivity to women who are not mothers on that day. I suspect there are also men who do not need
another reminder that they are not a father or who know they have been less
than a fine dad. So, include among these
readers some fathers, sons, and even grandsons, but also some men of all ages
who do not have children.
> The story as presented
in the Bible is fairly easy for children to follow if they are invited to
listen with an attention grabbing introduction
like, “Today’s reading is the story of a boy named David who has seven, count
them – seven, older brothers.”
> If you want a shorter version of the story turn to
“King David Is Anointed” in Children of God Storybook Bible, by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
> Hiccup (How To Train Your Dragon – animated
movie from Pixar) is the son of a Viking chief, who expects him to me the next
chief. Because Hiccup is not the brawny,
warrior his Dad is, Dad and everyone else looks down on him and belittles
him. Hiccup however is paying attention
to the dragons who attack the town.
Rather than kill the young dragon he finds, he befriends it and uses
what he learns about dragons from it to befriend all the dragons. Turns out he was just the leader the Vikings
needed.
> If your congregation
uses anointing in worship, this is a good
chance for some worship education. Name
and even walk through the different kinds of anointing you do. Then, introduce anointing a king as practiced
in the Old Testament. You might even
anoint children (or all worshipers) with a dab of good smelling lotion or
simply olive oil saying to them something like, “God chose David to be a
king. God has work for you to do
too.” This could be done during a
children’s time, as worshipers leave the communion rail, or as they leave the
sanctuary.
> If you focus on the
anointing, sing “Here I Am.” Help young readers by having the congregation
sing the chorus only in response to a soloist or choir singing God’s questions
in the verses.
> To
focus on Samuel rather David, preface the reading with brief
remarks about Samuel the great prophet who had anointed Saul the first
king. Read 15:34 – 16:2a. Pause to reread “Saul will kill me!” with
feeling and note why Samuel might have been scared to do what God wanted. Read 16.2b -4. Pause again to note why the town leaders were
trembling. Read 16:5-6. Stop and remind
worshipers that Samuel was called “The seer” and what that meant. Read the remaining verses using your voice
and facial expressions to emphasize the fact that “the Seer” was not seeing
well here. Then comment on God’s seeing
and human seeing. This could be a
children’s time, the reading of the day, or the beginning of the sermon.
Psalm 20
> This is a prayer for the
king to be sung at a Temple ceremony.
Invite worshipers to imagine
themselves in the crowd welcoming David when he was finally crowned king
many years after being anointed. Groups
1 and 2 may be two sides of the sanctuary, the choir and the congregation or
some other division of worshipers.
Challenge them to call out their prayer for the king with feeling.
! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! *
! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * !
Psalm 20
Leader: May the Lord answer you in the day of
trouble,
the name of the God of Jacob
defend you.
Group 1: May God send you help from the sanctuary
and sustain you from Zion.
Group 2: May God remember all your offerings
and accept your burnt sacrifices.
Group 1: May God grant you what your heart
desires
and fulfill all your plans.
Group 2: May we shout for joy over your triumph
and in the name of our God
wave our banners.
Group 1: May Yahweh grant all your requests.
Group 2: Now I know that God saves the anointed,
answering from the holy place in
heaven
with saving might.
Group 1: Some put their trust in chariots and
some in horses,
but we boast in the name of out
God.
Group 2: They have bowed down and fallen,
but we have risen and stand firm.
All: Save us, Yahweh;
answer when we call.
My paraphrase based on
several other versions.
! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! *
! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * ! * ^ ! * !
> Instead of reading this
psalm, read Psalm 23, connecting the
line “he anoints my head with oil” to David and
imagining David singing this psalm when he is back in the field looking out for
the sheep – and nothing much has changed yet.
In this situation it becomes a way to remember happily being singled out
and wondering what the anointing will mean for him in the future.
THINKING AHEAD: We assume that everyone knows Psalm 23, but
in this day that is not always true, especially for children. This summer’s stories about David invite
worship leaders to connect different verses in the psalm to events in David’s
life. You might even
- give children small notebook
journals with one line of the psalm printed on each page. These pages could be illustrated or journaled
on during worship for the whole summer.
(They’d be a good beginning-of-summer addition to worship bags.)
- challenge children to learn the
psalm by heart during the summer. Offer
a small prize for any child (or any worshiper) who can do it. If an older worshiper already knows it,
invite him/her to recite it for the congregation and say briefly why they are
glad they know it by heart. (Google "Psalm 23 bookmark" for sources.)
Ezekiel 17:22-24
> This is a parallel to
the parables about growth in the gospel.
God plants a noble cedar tree on the top of the mountain as a symbol for
his people Israel. For children it
requires another round of explanations and does not add anything to the
parables. So, I’d read it for the adults
or skip it entirely.
> If you are going to
explore the tree image, prepare a large banner
or bulletin board turned on its side featuring a large nicely shaped, well
branched, leafless tree. Title
it “I will plant my tree… under it all birds shall rest.” Invite children (all worshipers) to write the
names or draw pictures of people who are part of God’s big tree and to add them to the tree using double-sided tape. They might be able to quietly add more leaves
birds throughout the service. To carry
it further, include in the church’s prayers a reading of as many of the leaf
and bird names as possible asking God’s care of these people.
Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
> Turn the beginning of this
psalm into a responsive Call to Worship.
Leader: It is good to give
thanks to the Lord,
Choir: to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
People: to declare your steadfast love in the
morning,
and your
faithfulness by night,
Musicians: To praise you with the music of the lute and
the harp,
with
the melody of the lyre.
All: For you, O Lord,
have made me glad by your work;
at the works of your hands I sing
for joy.
This is based on the NRSV with some changes to verse 3 for
clarification. It would also be possible
to bring the psalm into the present by naming instruments used in your congregation
rather than the lute and harp.
2 Corinthians 5:6-10,
(11-13), 14-17
> This complex logic about
life beyond death is for the adults.
Children’s ideas and questions about death tend in other
directions. I’d wait to address those
concerns with texts that raise them in ways that catch their attention more easily.
A NEW CREATION
> In a season of graduations
remember that children see themselves as new creations as they graduate from
one grade to the next. Last week they
were a second grader, now they are third graders. Last week you were a middle schooler, this
week you are high school student. Even last
week you were a mighty high school senior, next fall you will be a lowly
college freshman or the newest person on the job. New creations with new possibilities and new challenges!
> Create a prayer of confession in which the leader
offers a number of prayers describing ways we are stuck and hopeless. The congregation responds to each one with “But
in Christ we are new creations. The old
is in the past. Everything is new and
possible.” To the confessions below, add
others about other people and groups in the world and your community who we
need to see as “new creations.”
God of all people, too often we
give up on the people around us. We expect
some people to always treat us kindly and we expect others to always cause
problems for us.
Loving God, we even give up on the
people we live with. We think we know
them so well that we know what they will do and say in any situation. We hardly give them a chance to do something
new and different and wonderful.
God who created and called each one
of us, we also give up on ourselves. We
think we will never be able to do any better than we have done in the past. We worry that we will always do and say the
wrong things. We feel like junk.
Mark 4:26-34
> During summer God shows up all over the place in surprising ways
– not just at church but also at the pool, on the field, at the beach, even in
the back seat of the car! Alert young
worshipers to watch for God this summer!
> Celebrate
the truth in these parables with the old children’s folk song “Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow.” The song tells what the farmer does but admits
in every chorus “you, nor I, nor anyone knows how….” See the lyrics at Oats , Peas, Beans and Barley Grow
There are several ways to explore
the seed metaphor with children. If you
use any of them take time to work with both sides of the metaphor. Children have trouble getting the “teaching
point” in metaphors.
>
Show or give each child a seed of one of
the flowers being displayed in the sanctuary today. Ponder how such a small, dull little thing
becomes such a colorful, wonderful flower.
Make Jesus’ point that just as the flower grows from the seed, God’s
Kingdom grows from all the little gifts and deeds people everywhere do every
day.
>
Display a single mustard seed (found in the spice section of grocery
stores) and a photo of a mustard tree.
Be amazed that such a small lump can turn into such a big shrub. Make Jesus’ point that every small thing we
do can make such a big difference. Then,
inform worshipers that one little mustard seed doesn’t just produce one
bush. Mustard bushes are weeds. One quickly becomes several and several soon
take over the whole field. That tells us
something else about God’s Kingdom – it is unstoppable. It is going to fill the whole world.
>
John Stevens explores the unstoppableness of the Kingdom of God
using bubbles instead of seeds. Check out what he does at
> Cut open an apple.
Slice it and core it with the children.
Together count the seeds in it to figure out how many trees could come
from this one apple. (There were five in
the one I ate for lunch.) Then point to
one of the seeds and ask, ”If we planted this seed and it grew into an apple
tree, how many apples would that tree produce?”
Enjoy wild guesses and the possibility of this many apples every season
for lots of seasons. Marvel at what
comes from one little apple seed. Then
go to Jesus’ point that just as much comes from each of our words, deeds, and
gifts. If you have a small number of
children, give each child an apple slice to eat. (I got this idea from someone who couldn’t
remember where it came from. If anyone knows,
let the rest of us know.)
Two picture books that explore the parable from children’s point of
view
> The Carrot Seed,
by Ruth Krauss, is the simplest of stories about a little boy who plants a seed
a waits for it to grow. Everyone tells
him it will not grow, but he keeps tending it, and it does grow into a carrot. The book can be read aloud in about 2
minutes, but enjoying the pictures might add another minute. Today it is a child’s version of the growth
parables and proof that when small things are done by small people with
commitment, wonderful things can happen.
> The Tiny Seed is a retelling of the scatter of the seed. It tells about a
tiny seed that is caught in the wind with lots of other seeds one autumn. As the seeds are blown across the continent,
one or two falls in each place or is eaten by a bird. The tiny seed however finally falls in good
soil with a couple of other seeds. The
other seeds grow faster and so are stepped on by a barefoot child or picked as
a flower gift to a friend. The tiny seed
slowly grows into a huge sunflower.
People come to see it and be amazed.
Birds visit it. Finally in the
autumn the wind blows the petals off all its flowers and shakes the seed pod
until all the seeds are born aloft. this would be a good story to follow up with the question, "I wonder where God is in this story?"
> Not much in today’s
texts speaks directly to end of school. But, The Big Wish,
by Carolyn Conahan, based on wishing on the seeds of a dandelion would
be a good way to think about God’s Kingdom in the coming summer. See details at School Is Out!!!.
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