On the Sunday after Christmas children who come to worship
(not unlike the adults who come to worship) will not be many in number and will
be coming in many moods. Some will be
basking in the rosy glow of a happy Christmas.
Others will be deeply disappointed either because they did not get what
they wanted or gatherings were less than peacefully cheerful. Some will have landed with a thud in
post-Christmas and are waiting for things to get back to normal. Others are just tired – and maybe
cranky. Christmas is so very over and
won’t come again for a year. But,
because numbers are low and expectations are not what they were for earlier
December worship services, it is a relaxed Sunday with the possibility to try a
few somewhat different ways of praising God and responding to the Christmas
story.
Speaking of post-Christmas dumps,
remember to pray about them specifically. After weeks with parties and gifts to
anticipate, there is nothing to look forward to – except maybe going back to
school and that is probably a week off.
The week after Christmas can be BORING.
Children also may have not gotten the gifts they wanted or found what
they thought they wanted was not all they expected. And, in the northern hemisphere weather may
keep them cooped up inside.
*
The first task in planning
for the next two weeks is to sort through available texts. There are four sets of readings for two Sundays:
the First and Second Sundays after Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Epiphany. Start by deciding which to use on January 4
when many families will be back and getting ready to return to school
tomorrow. It is a good day for both New
Year’s Day and Epiphany. People are
ready for the New Year and the Epiphany call to “Rise and Shine.” If you use one of them, you might want to use
the Second Sunday of Christmas which includes John’s prolog on December
28. Lots of good possibilities!
*
Some congregations devote this Sunday to an after-Christmas
Day lessons and carol service.
Often before Christmas we focus on the details of the stories the carols
tell. Just after Christmas Day explore
messages the carols give us to take into the year before Christmas comes
again.
Before singing “Good
Christians Friends, Rejoice” point
to the three reasons to rejoice in the last lines of the verses – “Christ is
born today,” “Christ was born for this,” and “Christ was born to save.”
Interrupt the congregation’s
singing of “Joy to the World” after the
second verse. Note that we know the
first verse and the second is a simple call to sing our praises. Then insist that we often stop paying
attention to the words of the later verses in a song and walk worshipers
through the last two verses. Verse 3 is
another task (harder than singing) for us – “No more let sins and sorrows
grow.” Verse 4 is a promise to us as we
work on verse 3 – “He rules the world with truth…and wonders of his love.” This done, invite everyone to sing the song
from the beginning.
“Once
in Royal David’s City” tells the big story in words that many
elementary readers know. Help them get
the message by walking through the verses with open books (or the words on the
screens). Verse 1 tells the story of Jesus’ birth. Verse 2 reminds us that Jesus was God living
among the poorest of us. Verse 3 insists
that because he was a child (and later a teenager and a grownup) he knows what
we go through. Verse 4 echoes verse 2
insisting that this little baby so like us is the Lord of the whole universe. Connect this to the last verse of the Luke
reading.
Sing “What
Child Is This?” with one group singing the questions in the
verses and another singing the answers in the chorus. A choir could sing the verses with the
congregation responding with the chorus.
Or especially if it is a choir-less Sunday, two halves of the
congregation could be the two groups.
Direct children to the last verse
of “In the Bleak Midwinter” that refers to
the gifts the shepherds and magi brought Jesus and identifies the gift we can
bring Jesus – “our hearts.”
The repeated chorus that even
non-readers can join in on when invited makes “Angels
from the Realms of Glory” a fun carol to sing loudly (following
Isaiah’s instructions) as a Call to Worship or opening hymn. If you have a crèche and very small numbers
of children, give the angel to one child to carry (fly?) around the front of
the sanctuary or down the center aisle and back up as the congregation sings
verse 1. Another child (or group if you
have several shepherds) does the same with a shepherd/s on verse 2. Three others do the honors for the sages in
verse 3. All these children stand with
you at the front with hands raised above their heads on verse 4.
“O
Sing to the Lord! O Sing God a New Song!” is not often thought
of as a Christmas song, but it makes sense to sing it on the Sunday after
Christmas to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Drum and/or rattle accompaniment makes it even livelier.
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
*
All the poetic metaphors make this a hard text for children
to follow. For children I would read
only verses 61:10-11 and put them into my own words as below.
I will celebrate and shout to the
Lord!
My whole being will praise my God!
God has dressed me with saving love
and covered me up
with righteousness
In God’s clothes, I am as well
dressed as a bridegroom and bride
wearing their very
best clothes, jewels and flowers.
Just as the earth makes plants
grow,
God makes justice and praise grow
for all to see.
From Forbid Them
Not, Year B
* The Jacket I Wear in the Snow,
by Shirley Neitzel, is a humorous, cumulative list of all the things a child
wears to go out in the snow. Like the
Twelve Days of Christmas, each page relists all the other items. Storypath lists it as a companion for Isaiah’s talk of clothes. Much as I enjoyed the book, I’m afraid it
would be hard to get from laughing about the book to all the spiritual clothes
God provides. But it does make me wonder
about bringing in a pile of all the clothes we wear to go outside in the
wintery north or all the stuff we take to the beach in the summery south and
then simply to say that Isaiah says that God gives us invisible clothes to add
to these and name them. Only older
children will “get it.” But, all
children will have one more exposure to the poetic images that show up so often
in the Bible.
Psalm 148
* On the Sunday after
Christmas recall the Christmas story, then imagine the psalm as a grand cheer
for God yelled out to God by all God’s people of all times and ages. Instead of having one reader,
invite as many as possible in the sanctuary to get involved in this call to
praise. Set the scene and encourage
worshipers to use their outside voices to cheer for God as if they mean it. It might help to practice the opening “Praise
the Lord!” together a few times to get into the spirit of the psalm. Below are two
scripts. In the first one, the lines are
shorter and so easier for young readers. The second version of the psalm follows the
psalmist’s division of calls to those above the earth and those on the earth
with one group reading each set of calls.
In either, Group 1 could be the choir and Group 2 the congregation. Or, Group 1 could be the left side of the
congregation and Group 2 the right side.
Invite children especially to join in the reading since the words are
words they are likely to know.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Psalm 148 – Let all praise God!
All: Praise the LORD!
Group
1: Praise the LORD from the heavens;
praise
the LORD in the heights!
Group
2: Praise
the LORD, all you holy angels;
praise
the LORD all host!
Group
1: Praise
the LORD, sun and moon;
praise
the LORD, all you shining stars!
Group
2: Praise
the LORD, heaven of heavens,
and
you waters above the heavens!
Group
1: Let them
praise the name of the LORD,
who
commanded, and they were created.
Group
2: the LORD
made them stand fast forever and ever
And
gave them a law which shall not pass away.
Group
1: Praise
the LORD from the earth,
you
sea monsters and all deeps,
Group
2: fire and
hail, snow and frost,
stormy
wind obeying God’s command!
Group
1: Mountains
and all hills,
fruit
trees and all cedars!
Group
2: Wild
animals and all cattle,
creeping
things and flying birds!
Group
1: Kings of
the earth and all peoples,
princes
and all rulers of the earth!
Group
2: Young men
and women alike,
old
and young together!
Group
1: Let them
praise the name of the LORD,
for
the name of the LORD alone is exalted;
and
the glory of the LORD is over earth and heaven.
Group
2: the LORD
has raised up strength for the chosen people,
And
praise for all loyal servants,
for
the people of Israel who are close to the LORD.
All:
Praise the LORD!
Adapted from Book
of Common Worship @1993 Westminster/John Knox Press and The New Revised Standard Version
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Psalm 148
Let
All Above the Earth and On the Earth Praise God!
All: Praise
the Lord!
Group
1: Praise
the Lord from the heavens;
praise
God in the heights!
Praise
God, all you angels;
praise
God, all the heavenly host!
Praise
God, sun and moon;
praise
God, all you shining stars!
Praise
God, you highest heavens,
and
you waters above the heavens!
Let
them praise the name of the Lord,
for
God commanded and they were created.
God
established them forever and ever;
and
fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.
Group
2: Praise
the Lord from the earth,
you
sea monsters and all deeps,
fire
and hail, snow and frost,
stormy
wind fulfilling his command!
Mountains
and all hills,
fruit
trees and all cedars!
Wild
animals and all cattle,
creeping
things and flying birds!
Kings
of the earth and all peoples,
princes
and all rulers of the earth!
Young
men and women alike,
old
and young together!
Let
them praise the name of the Lord,
for
God’s name alone is exalted;
God’s
glory is above earth and heaven.
God
has raised up a horn for his people,
praise
for all his faithful,
for
the people of Israel who are close to God.
All: Praise
the Lord!
Adapted for more inclusive
language from
The New Revised Standard Version
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
.jpg) |
| Feel free to copy this for use in worship. |
* Give children a coloring page with
words from the psalm calling all creatures on the earth to praise God printed
in the middle. Challenge them to draw
around the “earth” things mentioned in the psalm and some ideas of their
own.
* “All Creatures of Our God and King” sets
the words of St. Francis of Assisi to music.
St. Francis was surely remembering Psalm 148 as he wrote it. The repeated “Alleluias” are easy for even
non-readers to sing and recall all the Christmas “alleluias.” Other hymns based on this psalm are harder
for children to sing.
Galatians 4:4-7
Paul’s theological words sail right past children today –
and most days. The image that makes most
sense to children is that they are God’s children. But, that fact is better presented in
different texts on other days. So,
working with the other texts today is the way to go.
Luke 2:22-40
 |
| JESUS MAFA. Presentation of Jesus in the temple, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48303 [retrieved November 17, 2014]. |
*
Before reading this rather long story display this
picture. Point to the five people in
it. If the setting is relaxed let people
guess who the people are. Help them get
started by asking who the baby might be.
Then, encourage children to listen for each of them in this story. Who were these people and what did they do?
*
To help children separate the stories within this story, have
it read
by three readers.
Narrator (probably a worship
leader): verses 22-24
Simeon (an elderly man – maybe the
oldest in the church?): verses 25-35
Anna (an elderly woman – maybe 84
years old?): verses 36 - 38
Narrator: verses 39-40
*
Or, keep the Christmas pageant going. Ask adults (and maybe one infant) of the
appropriate ages to pantomime the story as it is read. Simeon may take the baby from his parents and
address his “Nunc Dimittis” to God before handing the baby back to the
parents. Anna comes near to see the baby
the lifts her arms in praise. This is
one story that works better with adults rather than children doing the
pantomiming.
*
If your congregation
practices infant baptism or dedication, simply introduce this story as
the story of the day Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple for a
very similar ritual.
*
Most children have near magical relationships with their
grandparents or with other older people who are almost like grandparents to
them. They often feel that these older
folks know them or understand them better than their parents do. So, especially if the holidays have included
visits with such older folks, children are ready to believe that two old people
“recognized” Jesus. Anna and Simeon become “like
grandparents” for Jesus.
*
Light all the Advent
candles and the Christ candle today for Anna and Simeon who saw what
they had waited for all their lives.
After reading the gospel lesson, simply say,
(As
the four candles are lighted) Anna and Simeon waited for more than four
weeks. They waited all their long lives
to see the Christ. And when they saw him
he was a just a baby. (Light the Christ candle) But it was enough. They knew that everything they had ever hoped
about God acting in the world to put it right was coming true. Thanks be to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Click on Comments below to leave a message or share an idea