As I read commentaries and
worship planning helps for these texts, I was impressed with how many people
were calling on worship planners to think beyond surface interpretations and to
dig deeper to more significant messages that challenge us. They tended to point out the “surface
interpretations” and instruct “don’t go there.”
But, most of those “surface interpretations” are the ones that make
sense to children. I wonder if rather
than skipping those interpretations of the texts, we can explore them in ways
that can both satisfy the needs of children and provide a base for more complex
explorations with adults. For example, when
we start with the story of David dancing before the ark and a glorious
processional and praise songs, both children and adults get the story AND the
scene is set for the exploration of the political complexities of the story
that adults will grasp more fully than children do.
The Texts
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
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| Public Domain re Wikipedia |
> To most children an ark is Noah’s ark. So before reading this story, redefine ark as box. Point out that Noah’s ark was huge, big
enough for all the animals. In today’s
story David takes care of an ark that is small enough for four men to carry it. If possible show a picture of it. Explain that inside this ark were the stones
on which the Ten Commandments had been carved.
Simply insist that this was the most holy object God’s people had. They had carried it as they walked through
the wilderness and kept it in a special tent in the center of their town. Image how they felt when the Philistines
captured it and carried it off to their country AND how they felt when they
felt when they got it back. Then read
the story.
> Worship built around this story requires a grand processional. But, the processional won’t make sense to
worshipers until they have heard the story.
So…
…begin
by telling the story before worship begins, perhaps inviting children forward
to hear it on the steps as preparation for worship and then urging them to join
singing the processional song with the same vigor with which David danced
before God.
Or,
have your usual processional at the beginning of worship. Then after the sermon do a children’s time
comparing the processional at the beginning of worship each week with David’s
procession with the ark. Then restage a
processional with the whole congregation singing.
Whenever you do this, make it
a grand processional. Include praise
banners and even streamers on poles that are waved as they enter. The congregation may stay in their seats or
may join the processional walking around the perimeter of the sanctuary and
returning to their seats. Remind them to
take their song books with them so they can sing as they walk.
> David felt God’s presence when he danced (among other
times). Olympic
runner Eric Liddell (“Chariots of Fire” movie) said “God made me
fast” and claimed that he could feel God’s pleasure when he ran well. Tell stories of other people who sense God
with them while they do certain activities, e.g. I know a woman who says she
“knits before God.”
> Teri posted on revgalpals.blogspot.com when this text
came up in 2009 the possibility of a children’s time using the “Hokey Pokey” to explore the truth that we
have to put more than just our left hand or our right foot in. We must put our whole selves into worship,
life, prayer, everything.
> Choose hymns of praise
in which children can join and explore rather than just sing at least one. Sing with all of creation using “All
Creatures of Our God and King” or go scientific with “Earth and Stars.” Capture the attention of older children for
the latter by inviting them to listen for the modern science and technology
references as they sing. Add a “we are
dancing in the light of God” verse to “We are Marching in the Light of God.”
> ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING is one way to invite all of creation to join David
praising God and to seeing ourselves joined in that praising. So, I was totally into creating an
illustrated word sheet for this hymn, then discovered that three hymnals had
three different sets of words. Even the
refrains differ! That makes it hard to
create one sheet we could all use. Given
that, you either have to make your own illustrated word sheet OR get a child to
create an illustrated page of your version to copy and distribute (Could it be
a bulletin cover?) OR give children the words down the middle of a page with
lots of margin in which to draw pictures of all who are called to praise
God. If they work on the latter during
worship, plan to sing the hymn (again) near the end so they can sing from the
illustrated sheet AND invite them to post their work on a prepared bulletin
board.
> Invite children to illustrate
their own songbook from which to sing Lord of the
Dance. Hand out the starter books and markers at the
beginning of the service, flipping through the verses to identify the stories
about Jesus featured in each verse. Plan
to sing the song closer to the end of the service so the artists have plenty of
time to work. The starter is two legal
sized sheets folded in half and nested.
Arrange the verses as follows
Outer
Page
Side
1: Blank (left side of page)
Title (right
side of page)
Side 2: Verse 1, lines 1 & 2 re creation (left)
Verse 5 and
refrain (right)
Inner
Page
Side 1: Verse 2 and refrain (left)
Verse 3 and
refrain (right)
Side 2: Verse 4 and refrain (left)
Verse 1,
last 2 lines re birth and
refrain (right)
> After presenting the story of David dancing before the
ark, add either a “Praise God always!” speech
balloon or sandals (dancing shoes) to your David image.
Psalm 24
> Eugene Peterson in The Message makes “Lift up
your heads, O gates!” “Wake up you sleepy
headed people! The king is coming!” That begs to be further edited for children
to “Wake up you sleepy heads! It is time
to worship. God is here!” Turn the sequence of three of the phrases
into a Call to Worship.
Leader: Lift up your heads, O gates!
Group 1: Wake up you sleepy headed people!
The king is coming!
Group 2: Wake up you sleepy heads!
It is time to worship. God is here!
All: Let us worship God together!
> “Lift Up the Gates Eternal”
sets Psalm 24 to a familiar Israeli folk tune.
Capture the feel of David dancing before the ark by singing each verse a
little faster than the one before. If a
soloist or choir sings the refrains, he/she/they can set the pace for the
congregation. For added energy, bring in
streamer twirlers on the last verse.
> To bring the psalm
to life as the call to worship it
probably was have it read by two groups. “One” could be a worship leader or a choir in
place at the front of the sanctuary.
“Two” could be a class/choir/group standing at the rear of the sanctuary
or could be the entire congregation.
ggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
Psalm 24
All: The
earth is the Lord’s and all that
is in it,
the world, and those who live in it;
for
he has founded it on the seas,
and established it on the rivers.
One: Who
shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
Two: Those
who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false,
and do not swear deceitfully.
One: They
will receive blessing from the Lord,
and vindication from the God of their salvation.
Two: Such
is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Organ
chord, trumpet ta-ta, or other music
Two: Lift
up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
One: Who
is the King of glory?
Two: The
Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle.
Organ
chord, trumpet ta-ta, or other music
Two: Lift
up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
that the King of glory may come in.
One: Who
is this King of glory?
Two: The
Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.
Based
on NRSV
gggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
Amos 7:7-15
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| Wikipedia GNU Free Documentation License |
> Before reading the text introduce plumb lines to the
children: Demonstrate plumb line against
side of pulpit or building OR against both a straight, sturdy tower of blocks
and a crooked, easily toppled one. Then,
note that Amos says God has used a plumb line to measure the goodness of the
people of Israel. God wanted to judge
whether they were straight or crooked people.
Then, read the passage from the Bible.
> Present this scripture scene with 3 readers: a narrator (probably a worship
leader), Amaziah (wearing a worship leader’s robe with the fanciest available
stole), and Amos (wearing jeans and a tee shirt)
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Amos 7:7-15
Narrator: Amaziah was the king’s prophet. He was the main leader at the main worship
spot in the kingdom. The king paid him
well. One day Amos, stood up in the
worship center to speak God’s message.
Hear the Word of the Lord.
Amos:
I had another vision from the Lord. In it I saw him standing beside a
wall that had been built with the help of a plumb line, and there was a plumb
line in his hand. He asked me, “Amos,
what do you see?”
“A plumb line,” I answered.
Then the Lord said, “I am using it to show
that my people are like a wall that is out of line. I will not change my mind
again about punishing them. The places
where Isaac’s descendants worship will be destroyed. The holy places of Israel
will be left in ruins. I will bring the dynasty of King Jeroboam to an end.”
Narrator:
Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, then sent a report to King Jeroboam of
Israel:
Amaziah:
Amos is plotting against you among the people. His speeches will destroy
the country. This is what he
says: ‘Jeroboam will die in battle, and the people of Israel will be taken away
from their land into exile.’
Narrator:
Amaziah then said to Amos,
Amaziah:
That’s enough, prophet! Go on back to Judah and do your preaching there.
Let them pay you for it. Don’t prophesy
here at Bethel any more. This is the king’s place of worship, the national
temple.”
Amos: I am not the kind of prophet who
prophesies for pay. I am a herdsman, and I take care of fig trees. But the Lord took me from my work as a shepherd
and ordered me to come and prophesy to his people Israel.
Narrator:
This is the Word of the Lord.
Based
on the TEV
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+ + + ++ +
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Psalm 85:8-13
This psalm in which steadfast
love and faithfulness meet and righteousness and peace kiss generally leads to
giggles among literal-minded children.
So, on a Sunday with so much else that speaks straight to them, I’d omit
it or address it mainly with the abstract thinking adults.
Ephesians 1:3-14
> The Roman Catholic lectionary ends this reading after verse 10. With such a long complicated reading, this
might be a good idea. It leaves us with
a less repetitive reading. Shorter is
often better.
First
Baptist Wesley UMC St John Catholic
> Introduce Ephesians as a letter that was written
not to one church but to many churches in one area. As he greets
everyone, Paul outlines the most important thing they all share – Jesus. With the children or all worshipers, identify
other churches in your area. Children
might name people they know in some of the churches or tell about going to
scouts or playing on a sports team at another church in the area. Point out that all of these churches worship
differently and have different ideas about many things, but all of them agree
on one thing – Jesus is Lord. That makes
us all brothers and sisters in God’s big family. Mention some of the things you do together as
God’s family – maybe a community soup kitchen or food pantry. Conclude with prayers for all the churches in
your area. (This is one way to help
build recognition and appreciation of other churches among the children. It is too easy for them to see others as
different from us and therefore “less” than we are.)
> What all the churches have in common is all proclaim
that Jesus is Lord. Paul spells out this
lordship in rather complex theological language. Behind that language is the story of Jesus’
birth, teaching, crucifixion, resurrection, and reign. In the middle of the summer one way to
rehearse this story is to enjoy a hymn sing singing your
way through Jesus story – possibly with some brief reflections
on the way. To encourage children to
join the singing, include some of the songs below.
“When
Morning Gilds the Sky”
Briefly
walk through the verses before singing it and point out the repeated chorus
“may Jesus Christ be praised.” Encourage
the youngest to sing that phrase if nothing else.
“O Sing a Song of Bethlehem”
Point
out Jesus the baby, child, teacher and savior in this hymn.
“Jesus
Christ Is Risen Today”
Tie
this to the Easter story and enjoy all the alleluias.
“Jesus
Loves Me”
This
says simply what Paul says complexly.
Instead of asking children to sing it alone (older children view this as
a baby song and generally resent being asked to perform it), ask the entire
congregation to sing it together.
Mark 6:14-29
> This story of the abuse of power and being trapped by
power is hard to preach to adults and even harder to preach to kids. Children are extremely interested in power
and its use, but other biblical stories help them explore it more easily. If you do explore this story in their
presence remember that children are as horrified by this messed up family as
adults are. They are appalled that
Herod’s wife used her husband’s offer of a special gift to his daughter to have
an old enemy murdered, disappointed that the daughter went along with her
mother, horrified that Herod was so afraid of what his guests thought about him
that he would do the awful thing his daughter asked, and sad that a good person
could be killed in the crossfire of this evil family.
> Mark wants us to know that when
you stand up against the powerful people, they are going to come
down on you hard. John the Baptist is
like Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus, and others who were killed because people
did not want to hear their message. Even
for children being a follower of God is dangerous, people won’t like what you
do sometimes. At those times we need to
remember John the Baptist and others.
> Go to The Painted Prayerbook to see how Jan Richardson used this story as an
opportunity to trace the whole of John’s life
without the Advent/Christmas emphases.
She offers a very adult version of his life, but her idea is a good one
for use with children. She insists that
even when his life ended weirdly being beheaded at someone else’s party, he was
still being the person God created him to be and his life still counted.
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