Hope is a common theme in today’s texts. So fill the sanctuary with symbols of hope
such as paraments featuring alpha and omega (God was in charge at the beginning
and will still be in charge at the end), rainbow banners (God will not destroy
the world again), Easter banners featuring bulbs and butterflies, maybe even an
Easter lily. Also point to the baptismal
font (hope for God loving each one of us) and the Table (hope of God’s
forgiveness and the coming feast). Use
them as sermon illustrations and introductions to parts of worship that deal
with hope. Or, point them out at the
beginning of worship, note when they generally appear in the sanctuary, and
encourage worshipers to listen and watch for signs of hope in worship today.
Wealth is also a recurring issue in today’s texts. Amos’ condemnation of the wealthy is hard to present
meaningfully to children. In the gospel
wealth has made the rich man blind to Lazarus’s needs. His guilt is not so much that he has much,
but that he refuses to use it to alleviate the suffering of others around him.
The Texts
for the Day
Jeremiah 32: 1-3a, 6-15
> Most children know very little about the details of
buying and selling of property and even less about the problems of impending
conquest by foreigners. It is hard for
them to get from the details to any meaningful-to-them message. So, for children, simply hearing the story
and learning a little of what it meant to people in Jeremiah’s day is enough. To do that, try one or more of the following:
> Introduce the props before reading the story. Show two
paper deeds (one to file publicly and one to keep for your own records), a
check, and a glass jar big enough to hold the deed. Explain what a deed is and why there are two
of them. Compare today’s buyer writing a
check to give the seller of the property with Jeremiah’s weighing out gold
coins. Then, drop one of the deeds into
the jar and put the lid on. Note that
Jeremiah used a clay jar because that is what he had. But that either glass or clay the jar makes
sure the deed will last a lot longer than just putting it in a drawer. Then, read the story encouraging your
listeners to listen for the props. (This
could be a discussion addressed to the whole congregation or a children’s
time.) If possible display these props
for the remainder of the service.
> Illustrate a way current building can produce hope by
describing your congregation’s involvement in Habitat For Humanity or other home
building missions. Many of the storybooks
describing the process are a little long to read in worship. You might read all or parts of A Castle on
Viola Street, by Dyanne DiSalvo. You
might tell it in your own words. Or, you
might show photographs and tell the story of a family with whom your
congregation has built or rehabbed a house.
In either case focus on what a difference the house made for the family
rather than on the building process.
> Have 3 people act out the story as it is read. The king
(maybe wearing a crown) takes his place off to one side (verse 1). A big man wearing a fierce expression with
his arms folded menacingly across his chest takes his place in the center aisle
(verse 2a). And, Jeremiah stands beside
a table (verse 2b). Hanamel enters on
verse 8 and he and Jeremiah act out the sale.
For added impact Jeremiah might speak verses 14-15 from memory. If a response to scripture is your practice,
all actors and the reader then say together, “The Word of the Lord” to which
the congregation replies “Thanks be to God.”
> The closest I can come to putting Jeremiah’s message into terms
that are meaningful for today’s children goes something like this: Even when you get an awful teacher who
doesn’t like you, even when you feel like you don’t have a single friend, even
when you don’t make the team or get the part you wanted in the play, even when
you feel ugly and dumb and hopeless, remember that is not the last word. God is looking further ahead than you
are. God is planning for you. You’ve got to wait and be patient and trust
God. It isn’t easy.
> Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very
Bad Day, by Judith Viorst,
describes such hopelessness in a series of things that go wrong for Alexander
on a single day. At the end his mother
insists that some days are just like that.
It is possible to read some or all of the book including the ending then
insisting that even on those days we know that God is in charge and God is
planning good things. So we wait, we are
patient, we trust that better days will come.
> Another short book is The Quarreling Book,
by Charlotte Zolotow. It is really not
about quarreling. Instead it recounts
how a number of unhappy incidents in a family escalates the unhappiness until
the dog responds to a shove off the bed with playful tail wagging and starts a
reverse series of incidents that lead to peace and happiness. It is a parallel for Jeremiah’s land purchase
and calls us to imitate both Jeremiah and the dog in the book. (Reads aloud in 4 minutes. If I were reading it, I’d leave out all the
“he thought she was UNPLEASANT ADJECTIVE” phrases which feel a bit heavy and
unnecessary to me.)
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
All the unfamiliar words
(snare, fowler, pestilence, pinions, buckler, refuge) make this a hard psalm
for children. Several familiar hymns
communicate the message better.
> “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past” is based on Psalm 90 instead of 91, but carries the
same message. Before singing it point
everyone to verse 3 and note that God takes a much longer view of our lives
than we do. “A thousand ages are like an
evening.”
 |
| Give children an illustrated wordsheet that will help them sing along on this hymn. You may copy it for non-commercial purposes. |
> “A
Mighty Fortress is Our God” is
also based on another psalm (Psalm 46), but carries the message of this one
too. The words are difficult for young
readers, but the music communicates brave confidence and most congregations
sing it with that feeling. Before
singing it, tell the story of its writing.
Powerful people wanted Martin Luther dead. So, his friends were hiding him in a
castle. He and his friends were very
scared. While he was there he wrote this
song to help his friends and himself remember that God was with them.
 |
| This word sheet highlights all the problems in the world in black and all God’s presence with us as we face those problems in gold. Point this out as you invite children to sing along using it. You may copy it for non-commercial purposes. |
> “God
Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again”
sung at the conclusion of this service is an opportunity for a little worship
education about benedictions. Explain to
worshipers that the benediction (the very last words in every worship service)
is a reminder that we can trust God to be with us no matter what comes our way. Put the words of the verses into your own
words, something like:
May God guide you.
Trust God to care for you like a shepherd.
May God protect you.
May God provide you physical and spiritual food.
When life gets tough may God’s arms be wrapped around you.
May God’s love be your motto and may God be with you at your
death.
Encourage
children to at least sing the repeated beginnings and endings of each
verse. Even older elementary readers
will be able to read the short words of the verses.
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
This echoes the teachings
about the dangers of wealth in the other texts of the day but in a way that is
not very accessible to children.
Psalm 146
>
The script for reading Psalm
146 below calls for 2 readers and the congregation. It would be possible to use only one reader
and the congregation for simplicity.
Point out all the “the Lord”s before reading it and challenge even
non-readers to join in on them.
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * !
Psalm 146
Leader: Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!
All: I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
All: I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my
life long.
Reader
1: Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals,
in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they
return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
Reader
2: Happy are those whose help is the
God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God,
who made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the
oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry.
All: The LORD
Reader
1: sets the prisoners free;
All: The LORD
Reader
2 opens the eyes of the blind.
All: The LORD
Reader
1: lifts up those who are bowed down;
All: The LORD
Reader
2: loves the righteous.
All: The LORD
All: The LORD
Reader
1: watches over the strangers;
he upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked he brings
to ruin.
All: The LORD
Reader
2: will reign forever, your God, O
Zion,
for all generations.
All: Praise the LORD!
NRSV
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * ! *! * ! * !
1 Timothy 6:6-19
> Before reading this text, tell the back story. Paul is writing to encourage Timothy, a young
minister who is having a hard time.
> Paul’s message to Timothy is that he needs to remember
what is important. He needs to pay
attention to what is important and ignore what isn’t that important. One way to help children identify the
difference between the important and the not important is to name some of the
things that we feel we gotta have, gotta do, gotta be only
to learn after a bit that they were really not that important. Display an article that you thought you
gotta have at some point, but quickly discovered wasn’t worth much (clothes or
shoes that once seemed essential, a video game or gadget that I had to have,
etc.) Tell about wanting it, going to
great effort to get it, and finding it wasn’t that cool. Or, tell about some group you thought you had
to be part of or some award you thought you had to win, but did not.
> Check The Quarreling Book and other
references for acting hopefully at the beginning of this post.
> If your congregation frequently sings “Be
Thou My Vision” (and did not sing it last week), walk through the verse
about riches before singing the hymn.
Point out and briefly define the wealth words (riches, inheritance, and
treasure) and put the phrases into your own simpler words.
I
don’t care about money or people thinking I am cool
Your
love is all I will ever need.
I
care about you more than anything else, God.
You
are my real treasure.
Luke 16:19-31
> The rich man’s sin was that he ignored Lazarus and his
needs. Lazarus was right there in front of him,
hungry, sick, plagued by dogs and the rich man did nothing to help him. Psychologists tell us that infants perceive
only themselves and their needs. They
see themselves not as the center of the universe, but as the whole
universe. Everything around them exists
only in relation to them. If all goes
well, children grow beyond this throughout their childhood until they see
themselves as one among many and as people who are called to help other
people. Our culture complicates the
process because it allows us, even encourages us, to remain oblivious to
certain others. The challenge in this
text is for listeners of all ages to identify some of the people around them
who are regularly ignored, even treated as if they are invisible, and then to
reach out to them. For children these
ignored ones include the outcast kids at school, at times even members of their
own household, people of all ages in their neighborhood who are looked down on,
people in certain racial, ethnic, or religious groups, etc.
> To help children (and other worshipers) follow this
rather long story, prepare three male readers to read it while moving around the
front of the sanctuary to follow the movement in the story. Place their scripts inside black choir
binders for esthetics. Below is a
script.
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Luke
16:19-31
Reader One (from center): There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine
linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
Reader Two (below and off to one
side): And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with
sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s
table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away
by the angels to be with Abraham. (Move
to opposite side and up a step or two if possible.)
Reader One: The
rich man also died and was buried. (Move to side opposite Reader Two and down a
step or two if possible.) In Hades,
where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with
Lazarus by his side. (Third Reader stand
beside Reader Two.) He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy
on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’
Reader Three: Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime
you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now
he is comforted here, and you are in agony.
Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so
that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can
cross from there to us.’
Reader Two: ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my
father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they
will not also come into this place of torment.’
Reader Three: ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to
them.’
Reader One: ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the
dead, they will repent.’
Reader Three: ‘If
they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
All:
The Word of the Lord!
New
Revised Standard Version
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> If you featured intercessory prayer last week, fine
tune the emphasis this week by brainstorming together a list of “invisible
people” or “Lazarus people” at school, in the neighborhood, at work,
and in the larger world. Pray through
the list together. If you did not explore
intercessory prayer last week, introduce it this week and do the brainstorming
as a part of collecting prayer concerns.
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