Isaiah 1:1, 10-20
_ Before reading
Isaiah’s message make two lists. First list for worshipers all the worship
terms in the text briefly noting how they were part of worship in that day: sacrifices,
burnt offerings of rams, blood of bulls, Sabbaths, new moon festivals, and
incense. Next list things that are part of
your usual worship: banners, music, choirs, beautiful prayers, scripture
readings, offerings, even sermons. Only
then challenge worshipers to listen for what Isaiah was saying to people worshiping
at the Temple in his day AND to us worshiping here today.
To
be more dramatic have someone interrupt after the reading
from the Bible walking down the center aisle to deliver the same message
replacing Isaiah’s list of what happens in worship with one reflective of worship
today.
_ Forbid Them Not
(Yr C) includes a prayer
of confession in which the choir, ushers, preachers, and the congregation
confess ways it is easy for them to fail to do in everyday life the tasks they perform in worship. For example, the ushers confess that they are not as polite and welcoming to people they meet during the week as they are to the people they greet at the door to the sanctuary. Either get
permission to use a copy of that prayer or create a similar one that
particularly fits your congregation.
_ The Charge
and Benediction are the gate between what we do in the sanctuary and
the way we live in the world. Point this
out before pronouncing them at the end of the service. List a few of the themes and events of the
service. Charge worshipers not to forget
them when they walk out the door, but to remember them every day this week and
to try to live like they believe them.
Then promise worshipers that hard as this is on some days, doing this is
possible because God is with them always.
(This could be a children’s time at the end of the service with the
children then echoing phrases of the charge and benediction as the worship
leader says them.)
“Go
Forth for God” would be a good
final hymn leading to this charge and benediction. Children will miss many of the phrases in the middle of each verse. But if the phrase that is repeated at the beginning and end of the verses are pointed out even young children will sing them and catch any of the other phrases they can.
_ Verses 16-17 offer a series of generalities that make more sense
to children when fleshed out with examples from children’s world.
cease
to do evil
learn to do good,
seek
justice
rescue the oppressed
The last two offer most
potential for both examining the prophet’s teaching and building children’s
familiarity with words they will hear often in worship - “justice” and “the
oppressed.”
To
seek justice for children means to play fair. Children are
quick to cry “that’s not fair!” That cry
can be both affirmed and also directed.
Children can be encouraged to notice when someone other than themselves
is being unfairly treated. They can even
be challenged to seek justice for others when it might not benefit them, e.g. when
we are invited to sit with friends at lunch, but someone else is told to go
away or insisting that everyone gets a turn before we get a second turn – even
when we are the biggest and oldest in the group.
“The
oppressed” who children meet
regularly are the kids who are always chosen last for games, who everyone
laughs at, who dress oddly, who bring different food to lunch, who have trouble
with English, who are slow students at school, etc.
Though your sins be as scarlet…
_ If your congregation
frequently prays prayers of confession that use language about sins being scarlet,
then washed white as snow, it is a good day for some worship education about
that phrase. Begin with talk about the
color red. Cite several other names for
red being sure to include scarlet and crimson.
Since most children like red, they don’t understand “though my sins be
as scarlet.” To help them get it, talk
about murder as maybe the worst sin you can do. Imagine with the children a
murderer with blood dripping from his or her hands. Then reread the phrase about scarlet going on
to the promise “they shall be white as snow.”
Remind worshipers how white, white, white fresh snow is and how
different it is from bloody scarlet. Then put the whole phrase into less
colorful words, “there is no sin so bad, that I will not forgive you when you
say you are sorry.” If you will pray one
of the traditional prayers of confession featuring this phrase, read the prayer
and translate it into such words. Then
pray the prayer together.
_ If it is Back to
School Sunday, blessing the backpacks is a great way to emphasize the
connection between worship and daily living.
Go to Back to School - 2013 for specific suggestions.
One way to include more than just children in this is to invite everyone
to bring something they carry every day (backpacks, briefcases, laptops,
purses, even diaper bags) to this service to be blessed. If this week is a little early for students
to have book bags ready, consider swapping this week’s texts with those for the
Sunday before everyone goes back to school.
Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23
This psalm is very like
Isaiah’s message. The way it is
presented makes it harder for children to understand. The omission of vv. 9-21 may work for those
who know all about Temple worship, but it leaves children in the dust. And, even if you read the entire psalm
children may get the idea that God didn’t need the sacrificed animals, but they
can hardly get from that idea to what it says about worship today.
FAITH
FAITH is one of the big words
in worship. It is also abstract and hard
for adults to define. Introducing it
well to children actually helps the adults well as the children. The key is that faith is not something we
think but the way we live. It is more a
verb than a noun. Faith is a lot like
trust. When we trust our parents we jump
into their arms in the swimming pool knowing they will catch us and we will be
safe. When we trust God we follow God’s
rules faithing that God is in charge and is working things out for good in the
world. To explore this try some of the
following.
_Present a big poster or banner featuring FAITH
at the beginning of worship. Before the
call to worship give a brief definition of faith and challenge worshipers of
all ages to listen carefully for what we sing, say and hear about FAITH in
worship today. Give children markers
to write FAITH in their bulletin every time they hear it or strips
of small star stickers to use in marking the word as they hear it. Comment on well-marked or stickered bulletins
as children leave the sanctuary.
_Talk about people we trust and don’t trust such as the people who make our cars or bicycles,
teachers or coaches, people who make and deliver food we eat, the person who
dares us to do something dangerous. From
there talk about trusting that God is in charge of the world and loves us and
is working to make the world a better place for everyone. Because we trust God to do those things we try
to follow God’s rules and be part of building the better world. That is living on FAITH.
Genesis 15:1-6
_ Many children
today have little experience with sitting under starry skies. There is just
too much light. But, they do have a keener
sense of our place in a universe of stars than earlier children had. So before reading this story, have a brief
starry night experience. Project
pictures like this one that give a
sense of the vastness of the universe and the numbers of the stars.
_ Children (and many
adults) need a fuller telling of Abraham’s story than these six verse
provide. Try something like this.
God
told Abraham to pack up his family and leave his home for “a land I will show
you.” God also promised Abraham and
Sarah that though they were
already
really old they would have a son and that son would have children and those
children would have children until there was a huge family that “would bless
all the earth.” With these two promises
Sarah and Abraham packed up all their stuff, said good-by to their family and
friends knowing they’d probably never see them again and started out across the
wilderness. God did give them one thing
they could see as a reminder of the promise.
That was all the stars in the sky.
God told them, “Try to count to stars in the sky. You can’t, can you. Your family will one day have as many
children in it as there are stars in the sky.”
Abraham and Sarah kept moving and waited for the baby. It was hard to keep believing it was
true. When they were 100 years old and
were told that Sarah would have the baby that year, Sarah laughed. But, she had the baby and she happily named
him Isaac which means “Laughter”. They
did love their little Isaac. And, they
still wondered about the children and grandchildren he would have. Finally,
they died. While they were alive, they
never owned the land God promised to their family and never saw more of the
family than their one son. Still, they
still believed it would come. They knew
it deep inside themselves. They counted
on it. They lived like it was true.
_ After reading this
story. Give the children large metallic
star stickers that they can put on the inside cover of their notebook, inside
their locker, or on a flap on their backpack as a reminder that they are part
of God’s huge family. Insist that as
such they are loved always (even when it doesn’t feel like it at the moment)
and that they are called to live like Gods people/stars.
Psalm 33:12-22
This call to praise and trust
God is simple and straightforward, but there is nothing in it that particularly
grabs the attention of children.
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
_ Paul assumes that all
his readers know the story of Abraham in detail. Most children (and many adults) do not and
will need
a condensed version of Abraham’s story maybe just before this passage
is read in worship. Use the one printed
above in the Genesis section.
As
an example, describe a sports team that believes it will win the championship
this year. They know they are good and
love playing the games together. Because
they want to win that championship so badly, they practice hard. When they win games, they cheer loudly not
only because they just won a game, but because they are that much closer to the
championship. When they lose a game,
they think carefully about everything they did wrong and make plans to avoid
doing those things in the next game.
After all if they are going to be champions they must play like
champions. Nothing they can see or touch
or hear or smell proves that they will be champions, but they hope they
will. They believe they will. They work hard so that their championship will
come true.
_ Younger children will
only grasp that things we cannot see are important and shape our lives. Older children may be ready to explore the
words “faith” and “believe,” something that is not seen, but shapes our lives
in the most important ways. The sports
team believed they were champions. That
is faith. Abraham and Sarah believed
that God was going to make their family huge and make them a blessing to all
the earth. That is faith. We believe that we are God’s children and
that God loves us and has work for us to do.
That is faith, too.
Luke 12:32-40
_ The Roman Catholic
lectionary offers as an alternate reading only
verses 35-40 which focuses on watchful waiting, i.e. being ready to respond
as Abraham did with faith. This more
focused reading is easier for children to follow.
_ To help
children separate the three alert servants, ask three people to come forward with their props
and stand facing away from the congregation.
As their turn comes each turns to face the congregation and follow the
italicized directions below.
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
Luke 12:35-40
Be
dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those (first person picks up lantern and steps
forward watching out toward the congregation) who are waiting for their
master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for
him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves
(second person lifts a candle and stands
ready with a towel over one arm) whom the master finds alert when he comes;
truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he
will come and serve them. 38 If he comes during the middle of
the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
39 “But know this:
if the owner of the house (third person
picks up big flashlight and shines it just over the heads of the congregation
with a serious facial expression and maybe shading his eyes with a hand) had known at what hour the thief was
coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You (narrator points to congregation as this is
read) also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected
hour.”
NRSV
' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
_ Most children are in
their last days of summer vacation.
Summer no longer looks endless. The
return to school is on the horizon and many are focused on getting in as much
freedom and “summer” as they can before it ends. (This is true whether they are looking forward
to or dreading going back to school.) To
them this text says, even at the end of summer, you are on the
job as God’s disciples. Just as
God is with us always loving us, taking care of us, forgiving us when we need
it, so God expects us to be with God always living like God’s children. That means that at the swimming pool, in the
back seat of the car on that last trip to the beach or mountains, even when
there is nothing to do at home, you are still Jesus’ disciple. You need to be Jesus’ hands and feet taking
care of people around you, being kind and loving (even when you don’t feel like
it), and even forgiving brothers, sisters and friends when they need it.
In
the congregation’s prayers, include prayers for the last days of summer
vacation. Pray for safe and
happy trips that draw us closer to each other.
Pray for alertness to the needs of people around us and the wisdom to
find ways to take care of those who need our care.
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