In many congregations this
will be Rally Day or the beginning of the church school year. In the USA it is Labor Day Weekend, but
everyone is still in the Back to School mode settling into new commitments and
disciplines. Many of the themes of
today’s texts speak clearly to both children and adults at this time. The people standing on the edge of the
Promised Land are not unlike children and adults stepping into the beginning of
the school year. Especially those who
have been in school for a week or two are beginning to realize that there will
be choices to be made and that some disciplines will require more work than we
might wish. But, we also remember as we
settle into all the work that God made us and is with us always. In short, there is lots to work with this
Sunday.
Texts for
the Day
Jeremiah 18: 1-11
> Even with all their experience with clay, children
– especially the younger ones – need a little help with this image. Literal thinkers that they are, children
imagine God punching and pulling us into the right physical shape. (Visualize God pulling out three arms, then
mushing one back in knowing that two in the right places are enough.) The challenge is to help them imagine instead
God working grabbiness into sharing or meanness into kindness. God has to work hardest on the invisible
parts of us. Also, be specific about how
God reworks us. God does not punch us
down, but gives teachers, books, even experiences that help us learn and grow
into the people God means for us to be.
> Working with clay is the best accompaniment to a sermon on this
text. Either set up a potter working at
a wheel while you preach. Or, give the
children (or all worshipers) egg size lumps of clay to work with as you
preach. You might even work with a lump
as you preach pondering the process as you work the clay.
Playdough is probably clean enough for most sanctuaries. But if you are worried about clay bits on
plush pew cushions, get plasticene, polymer clay or sculpey
at a craft store. It costs a little
more, so give out smaller lumps.
Whatever kind of clay you use, provide buckets to which it can be
returned upon leaving the sanctuary. Any
of these clays can be recycled!
If you cannot have actual clay and/or a potter, read
about a potter to help children understand Jeremiah’s message.
> Start by asking what a potter does. Show the photograph of jars Dave made on the
last page of Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill. Use the picture to note that this is a real
story about a real potter. Then, read
the story (or selected pages from the story) which describes Dave’s loving
creation of one large pot. (4 minutes to
read it all thoughtfully aloud.) Then, encourage
children to listen to what Jeremiah said when he said that God is like a
potter. Challenge them to figure out
what God makes.
> James Weldon’s Johnson’s poem “The Creation” pictures
God very physically making the whole universe.
To get the feel of God shaping and forming everything read the entire
poem. Or, start with “God thought and
thought, until He thought, ‘I’ll make me a man.’” To read just about God
shaping people out of the clay. Find a
copy HERE.
> “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” is an old hymn that is not in many newer
hymnals. But, if it is in yours it
almost demands to be sung with this text.
Since the second verse adds the totally separate washing image and the
third verse is about healing rather than molding, either delete them or
introduce the hymn by focusing attention on the first and fourth verses. Read through them and introduce them as an
important prayer asking God to keep working on us.
If you are displaying quotes
from prophets today add
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
> Explain that when Middle Eastern people write poems they
rhyme ideas rather than sounds. A poem
is a collection of ideas that may repeat each other or build on each other or
say the opposite of each other. Psalm
139 is a poem about how well God knows each one of us. To help children hear
each rhyming verse and to emphasize that God is with us at every age of our lives
have the passage read by a collection of readers
of all ages using the script below. Readers stand in a line stepping up to a microphone to read
their verses if amplification is needed. There are enough verses for 11 readers. Smaller groups of readers could read two or
more verses each if needed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Reader
1: Lord,
you have examined me and
you know me.
you know me.
You know everything I do;
from far away you understand all my thoughts.
Reader 2: You see me, whether I am
working or resting;
you know all my actions.
Reader 3: Even before I speak,
you already know what I will say.
Reader 4: You are all round me on
every side;
you protect me with your power.
Reader 5: Your knowledge of me is
too deep;
it is beyond my understanding.
Reader 6: You created every part
of me;
you put me together in my mother’s womb.
Reader 7/1: I praise you because you
are to be feared;
all you do is strange and wonderful.
I know it with all my heart.
Reader 8/2: When my bones were being
formed,
carefully put together in my mother’s womb,
when I was growing there in secret,
you knew that I was there-
you saw me before I was born.
Reader 9/3: The days
allotted to me
had all been recorded in your book,
before any of them ever began.
Reader 10/4: O God, how difficult I find your
thoughts;
how many of them there are!
Reader 11/5: If I counted
them,
they would be more
than the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
Good News Bible (TEV)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> To further explore this idea, share St.
Patrick’s Prayer. Children savor
all the concrete places Christ is around us.
To emphasize them and the closeness of Christ, have worshipers follow
hand motions you add as you read. Turn
your hands to the various directions as they are named. Then point to the parts of the body as they
are listed. Or, have a partner make the
motions for the congregation to echo as you read. Because it is a simple prayer, print it on
card stock, perhaps featuring a cross or picture of Jesus. Give cards to children to put some place they
will see it often – maybe in their backpacks or lockers at school or in their
room at home.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
Christ
Be With Me
Christ
with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ
in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ
on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ
where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise,
Christ
in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ
in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ
in every eye that sees me,
Christ
in every ear that hears me.
Saint
Patrick
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Two somewhat similar ways to read this passage in worship:
> Tell the
back story. Imagine Moses with all the
people on the edge of the Promised Land.
Recall the escape from Egypt, the 10 Commands, the 40 years in the
wilderness. Point out that Moses is old
and has appointed a new leader to take the people into the Land God promised
them. This is Moses’ goodbye
speech. Then read the text, or ask an
elderly man who is well known in the congregation to read it.
> Invite
children forward and meet them on the steps with the big Bible. Ask how many of them have been told to make
good choices. After briefly talking
about what people mean when they give you “the good choices lecture,” point
out that the first “good choices” lecture is in the Bible. Briefly tell the story of Moses leading the
people out of Egypt and through the wilderness.
Recall God’s opening the sea for their escape, providing food and water
when it was needed, and giving them the 10 Commandments to show them how to
live. Explain that the people are now
right on the border of the Promised Land.
Before he hands leadership over to Joshua, Moses gives the people some
advice about living in their new homes.
Then read the Deuteronomy text using your voice and facial expressions
to emphasize the choices Moses is offering the people. This is better as the “real” reading of the
text for the entire congregation rather than as a children’s time.
> Behind all this talk about making choices is the fact that what
we do matters. Children need to
hear that message repeatedly. It matters
when they do good things that make life better for the people around them. And, it matters when they do selfish, mean
things that cause trouble. What they
choose to do and not do does make a difference.
Knowing this is one of the building blocks of self-identity and healthy
self-esteem.
> The hard part about “choosing life” is that instead of making one
big choice that you make once and then go about your business, you have to
choose life in lots of little choices that you make every day. For
example, given the choice between getting an A or an F on your report card,
most people would choose the A. But to
get that A requires lots of choices every day, like, "should I do my
homework or play a computer game?"
The only way to get the A is to choose to study every day. In the same way, if we want to live in a
happy family, we have to choose to help out sometimes rather than do we want to
do all the time. Likewise, if we want to
choose God’s ways, we have to make that choice over and over again every day.
Psalm 1
> The over simplification of the difference
between good people and bad people in this psalm appeals to children
who do not yet realize that almost no one wears a totally white or black
hat. So direct the psalm to
children. The adults, who struggle with
the nuanced differences between the good and evil, will listen and get the
psalmist’s point too.
> To make the comparison
visual, have the psalm read
by two readers. Reader 1 (the “good”
reader) wear light or white clothing and Reader 2 (the “evil” reader) wears
dark clothing. They begin standing back
to back in the center of the front of the sanctuary. Each one turns to read or recite their verses
facing the congregation then returns to the starting position. This is most effective if the readers recite their
verses from memory, but good readings are OK too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Psalm 1
Reader
1: Happy are those
who do not follow the
advice of the wicked,
or take the path that
sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of
scoffers;
but their delight is in
the law of the Lord,
and on his law they
meditate day and night.
They are like trees
planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in
its season,
and their leaves do not
wither.
In all that they do, they
prosper.
Reader 2: The
wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that
the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will
not stand
in the judgment,
nor sinners in the
congregation of the righteous;
Reader 1: for
the Lord watches over
the way of
the righteous,
Reader 2: but
the way of the wicked will perish.
NRSV
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
NOTE: I used the NRSV in the script because this psalm is well known in
this version. For a translation with an
easier vocabulary for children look at Today’s English Version.
> Scornful, scoffers, and chaff are unfamiliar words to most children, so choose your translation
carefully and point out the strange words before reading if needed. (There is no translation that includes none of
these words. So, choose the one that
fits your congregation and introduce its “hard words.”)
> Alice in Wonderland is not all that familiar to children today. But, Alice’s problems with choosing the bad
advice of signs that said “EAT ME” and “DRINK ME” could be explored as examples
of what happens when we follow the advice of the wicked.
Philemon 1-21
> Consider reading the whole book in worship for the sheer joy of having read a whole
book of the Bible. Invite worshipers to
follow along in their pew Bibles as you read.
> Before reading the book, introduce it and set the
stage so children can follow:
Name
the characters briefly describing their relationships to each other
-
Paul who wrote
the letter.
-
The runaway slave
Onesimus who had
become a Christian and a friend of Paul, and
-
Philemon, the
Christian owner from whom
Onesimus had run away.
Explain
the punishment for runaway slaves
Then read the book with
dramatic inflection to emphasize the greetings and all the ways Paul tries to
get Philemon to do what he wants.
> A preacher friend pointed out that this letter is
filled with family words (including love).
Paul wants Philemon to treat Onesimus not as a slave but as family. Before you read challenge worshipers to listen
for family words and ideas. Even
invite them to raise a hand every time they hear one, thus alerting others to
the word. (Particularly in the USA right
now, seeing everyone as family is one way to get past the racism that divides
us too often.)
> Enjoy the fact that we do not know how this story ended. List reasons
Philemon might welcome Onesimus back but still as a slave or welcome him back
and free him or punish him as a runaway slave.
Help children understand how much money Philemon would lose if he freed
Onesimus. Imagine what Philemon’s slave
owning friends might say to him if he welcomed Onesimus. Be sure the children know that this was a
very hard choice.
> This story might be presented as a case study in the
choice making called for in Deuteronomy or for the discipleship described in
the gospel. Just as Philemon is called
on to make a hard choice, we can expect to face similar hard choices. It is just part of being a follower of Jesus.
Luke 14:25-33
> Children hear little else in this passage as it is
read beyond the call to hate your mother and father, wife and children, sisters
and brothers. That call scares them even
more than it scares adults because children are so very dependent on their
families – especially on their parents.
The challenge is to find a way to recognize their fear without saying
“Jesus didn’t really mean that.” One way
to do this is to introduce the reading as one of the scariest things Jesus ever said. Tell them in advance that Jesus said that if
we want to be his disciples we must put Jesus first even it first before our
families, our own safety, or our stuff.
Admit that people have struggled with this ever since Jesus said
it. Suggest that everyone hold hands for
courage as you listen to Jesus’ words.
Promise that you will talk together about what they mean.
> Use this passage to insist that being a disciple is not easy. It is NOT about just being nice or
sweet. It is about loving people, even
enemies, and forgiving people who do awful things to you and people you love,
and taking care of people who are not nice to you. Disciples must be brave and strong. Sooner or later every follower of Jesus has
to do something hard. We don’t often
tell children this. But it is true and
they need to know it.
> It is a good Sunday to tell the stories about brave
disciples making hard choices.
> Rosa Parks
sat down on a bus in Montgomery Alabama and went to jail for it. For 382 days black and some white people
refused to ride the Montgomery buses until the Supreme Court ruled that bus
segregation was illegal. Rosa, by
Nikki Giovanni, is a Caldecott Honor book about this. It takes about 10 minutes to read. To shorten it, delete some of the early pages
starting with “I said give me those seats” and shorten pages with extraneous
details here and there. (Another book
that would be more appropriate with younger children is Rosa’s Bus, by
Go S. Kittinger, which tells the story about the bus on which Rosa rode.)
> Eric
Liddell was an Olympic runner who
refused to run the race he trained for because it was scheduled for Sunday
morning and he believed running on Sunday would dishonor God. (I am writing this before the Olympics and
suspect that some of the athletes will have to make hard choices. They usually do. The 2012 Summer Olympics took place during
the fasting month of Ramadan. Muslim
athletes had to decide whether and how to keep the fast as they competed.)
> If you did not do this on July
31 (Proper 13, 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 11th Sunday
after Pentecost), today totally cover the Table and the usual symbols displayed
on it with all sorts of stuff – clothes, hats, electronics, sports
equipment, books, video/CD, board games, fast food containers and fancy cooking
equipment, and whatever else are “hot items” in your congregation this
summer. Be sure to include things that
appeal to worshipers of all different ages.
At some point in the service, remove the items one at the time
discussing ways we get too attached to them.
Leave a clear Table dominated by the appropriate symbols. Savor it publicly noting that everyone
probably feels a little relieved to have it cleared of the stuff that got in
the way of the symbols we love. This
could be done as a call to worship (a call to clear away all the stuff to focus
on what is really important), the lead up to prayers of confession about our
misuse of our stuff, a children’s time, part of the real sermon, even as a
response to the scripture and sermon.
One worship leader did this at the beginning of the service by moving
the entire sermon there. All the liturgy
then was response to the experience and conversation about all the stuff on the
Table.
Back to School !
Some children do not go back
to school until the first week in September, so there are a few Back to School
ideas here, but not many. For more
general ideas for recognizing the return to school in the congregation’s
worship, go HERE. And, expect this to be the
last Back to School post of this year J.
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