September is being celebrated as the
Season of Creation in some congregations.
There is a lectionary for this season.
I hope one day soon to post ideas for this important season. For now find resources at Seasons of Creation.
It is amazing how big an
impact the calendar has on how we use the lectionary. Last time around in 2012, these texts came on
the second week in September which in many North American congregations is the
beginning of the program year. In that
situation all the texts about care of the poor were less useful than the gospel
with its call to Open Up! This year the
texts fall on the first Sunday of September which in the USA is Labor Day
Weekend. The texts about the poor
challenge business people to rethink how they employ and treat the poor. To meet these different emphases I have
included suggestions that would fit each calendar. Gives you lots of choices.
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> If you worship focus is on treatment of the poor, it
is hard not to use pictures of marginalized people. They remind the adults of all the people they
overlook every day and they provide the children with specific examples of the
general terms (the poor, the oppressed, etc.) that appear in many of the
texts. They also translate biblical
terms such as “the beggar at the gate” into today’s images of beggars along the
highway. So, I suggest using pictures in
a variety of ways and hope you will use one of them or be led to use such
pictures in a different way.
> The central prop for this service is
tattered clothing. A set of tattered clothes could be hung on a
hanger on a clothes rack at the center of the worship area. Several sets of worn out holey shoes and
boots for people of all sexes and ages could be lined up on the floor in front
of the Communion Table.
The Texts
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
> This is a collection of sayings. Today they might be tweets or sound
bytes. To separate them have each one read by a different reader. The readers might be from a youth church
school class or the members of the mission committee.
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| http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: WLA_nyhistorical_James_Henry_Cafferty_ Sidewalks_of_New_York.jpg |
> Adults easily follow the threads connecting these
sayings. But since each saying includes
details that must be explained to children, it is better to select one or
two sayings to highlight with them.
Verse 2 is one good choice. To
explore it display the painting of the rich and poor girl. Discuss the differences in the two girls and
the similarities. Conclude with both
being made by God, loved by God, God’s daughters. Or, choose more contemporary photographs of a
rich and poor child with which to hold the same conversation.
> To emphasize the importance of noticing people and
animals around you who need your help, read only the beginning of How To Heal a Broken Wing, by Bob Graham.
Read about the bird hitting the window and falling to the sidewalk where
it is ignored by all the passersby. Stop
with “Will saw a bird with a broken wing.”
Even taking time to look at the pictures, this will take less than a
minute. To avoid parental concerns about
handling a wild bird in your home, do not read the rest of the book. Simply report that it tells about Will and
his family caring for the bird, then redirect attention to the fact that their
care began with Will noticing and responding to a bird with a need. Encourage worshipers to be as alert as Will.
> God’s eyes are usually displayed as a reminder that
God is keeping watch. Today, use it to
encourage worshipers to look at all the
people they meet every day with the same eyes God does. When we do that we see people God created and
loves.
Psalm 125
This psalm includes lots of
historical references that need explaining and several theologically complex
ideas. I’d work explore the other texts
for this day with the children in mind.
Isaiah 35:4-7a
> The TEV replaces the lines about “vengeance”
and ”recompense” with “God is
coming to your rescue, coming to punish your enemies.” That change alone makes it the first choice
translation for children to follow.
> Before reading this text, gather a small group of
worshipers around you each holding up a poster size picture of a person who is
marginalized today. Then
read the verses for the pictured people, the woman who insisted that Jesus heal
her daughter, and the deaf man. (This is
probably more effective when done later in the service.)
Psalm 146
> The Roman Catholic lectionary suggests focusing the
reading on verses 7-10 which is the list of ways
God cares for the marginalized.
That keeps the focus on the theme of the service. I would add verses 5 and 6 simply to complete
the list without going into the description of human leaders in the early
verses.
> Verses 5-10 list what God
does with emphasis on the care of the marginalized. To make the list even clearer, replace all
the he’s with “The Lord” or “God.”
Include the congregation in reading the psalm by either having different
halves of the congregation read alternating statements saying “the Lord” with
great emphasis or having the congregation say “The Lord” with a leader
completing each phrase. To really share
the psalmist’s praises, read the psalm early in a service exploring God’s care
of the marginalized then reread it near the end of the service – with feeling.
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! *
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * !
What God Does
Psalm
146:5-10
ALL: Praise the Lord!
LEADER: Happy are those who have the God of Jacob
to help them
and who depend on the Lord their God,
The Lord created heaven, earth, and sea,
and all that is in them.
The Lord
keeps every promise;
The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed
The Lord
gives food to the hungry.
The Lord
sets prisoners free
The Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord
lifts those who have fallen;
The Lord
loves righteous people.
The Lord protects the strangers who live in
our land;
The Lord
helps widows and orphans,
but takes the wicked to their ruin.
LEADER: The Lord
is king forever.
Your God, O Zion, will reign for all time.
ALL: Praise the Lord!
Based on TEV
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! * ! *
! * ! * ! * ! * ! * !
> Find pictures depicting the people in each phrase. Project them as the phrases are read. Or, print them poster size and write the
phrase that goes with the picture on the back of it for readers to read as they
display the phrase to the congregation.
The reader could be a worship leader or a collection of worshipers of
all ages enlisted as readers.
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
> The somewhat hokey choice of reader for this is of course
a man dressed shabbily.
Adults will snicker and see past it.
But it helps the children get the point visually and clearly.
> The Hungry Coat: A Tale from Turkey, by Demi, is a colorful parallel to this story. Nasrettin Hoca, a wise old man, stops to help
people deal with a goat and so has no time to go home and change clothes before
a feast. When he goes to the feast in
his patched, smelly coat, everyone ignores him and he is offered no food. So he goes home, cleans up and dons a
magnificent coat. When he goes back to
the feast and is welcomed in grand style and offered the best food, he begins
putting pieces of food inside the coat saying “Eat coat, eat.” Asked about this, he says that when he came
in his old coat he was given nothing but when he came in this coat he was
offered food. He can only assume that
his kind host felt that this coat must be hungry. Everyone at the feast laughs at themselves
and praises Nasrettin Hoca’s great wisdom.
The book is too long to read in its entirety, so briefly tell the simple
story in your own words and start reading with “A servant ushered Nasrettin
into the banquet hall, and his smiling host…” continuing to the end. Even taking time for dramatic flair this part
of the book can be read in fewer than five minutes. Though it could be shared in a children’s
message, it is worthy of the “real” sermon and its presence there suggests to
children that the sermon is for them too.
> A shorter but less precisely matched book is Is There Room on the Feather Bed?, by
Libba Moore Gray. On a stormy night
animals one by one ask to be let inside to join a farmer and wife in their warm
dry bed. All are welcomed though the bed
does get crowded. When a skunk arrives
and is admitted, all the animals and the farmer flee. Back out in the storm, they decide to join
the skunk where it is warm and dry.
(Reads aloud in 8 minutes). Some
adults will see the feather bed as a metaphor for the church. But, most children will simply take in the
wisdom of including everyone, especially in a storm.
> James is not so much encouraging people to buy the
shabbily dressed man a new coat, as he is asking them to treat the man with the
same respect they would offer a well-dressed man. Learning to do that in a culture that
separates and creates fear between the richer and the poorer requires
practice. Highlight
ministries of your congregation that families can share in to get this practice. In my community all the churches take turns
hosting homeless men overnight during the cold months. Families are urged to cook and serve together
and to stay to play board games and visit with the men. It is scary the first time, but the fear soon
evaporates. Telling stories of such ministries
in detail, maybe asking a family including children to tell about their
experiences, prods others to get involved.
Mark 7:24-37
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| This is my sketch. Feel free to use or edit for use in worship. |
> If you are observing Rally Day (I know,
not likely on Labor Day Weekend) or the beginning of programs for the academic
year this week, this is your passage. You might even want to juggle
texts to move this gospel reading to the Sunday on which you WILL begin the new
church school year. It includes two
healing stories. Both include the
healing of Gentiles. In healing the
deaf-mute man, Jesus uses the Aramaic word “”Ephphatha!” which means “Open
Up!” Jesus was telling the man’s ears to
open up. But, Mark was telling his
readers to open up to the possibility that Jesus was the messiah and that Jesus
reached out to more than just other Jews.
It would also be possible to suggest that the Syro-phoenician woman was
telling Jesus to open up to caring for her and her daughter. All that leads to calling church members
today to open up to new possibilities for learning and growing at the church
and in other parts of their lives.
Ephphatha! Enjoy
the impossible to pronounce but fun to say word. Turn it into a large decorative poster or
banner. Use it as a congregational
response in litanies or prayers about opening up to the world around us.
Use opened and closed motions in prayers. Closed motions include clenched hands, arms
folded across chest, hands over ears (or eyes), frowny facial expressions
illustrate ways we refuse to open up.
Open hands, arms opened out or forward, hands cupped behind ears to hear
or over eyes to see better, and open facial expressions illustrate ways we open
ourselves to God’s word and each other.
These motions and matching prayers could become the prayer of confession
or could be used to craft petitions for more openness.
“Open My Eyes That I May See” and “Lord, Speak to
Me, that I May Speak” are the most child-friendly hymns for this
theme.
> If you read both stories in this passage, have them
read by two different readers, maybe even reading from two different places,
to highlight their separateness. Verses
24-29 are read by a woman, possibly a woman with different ethnic background
than the majority of the congregation.
Verses 30-37 are read by a man.
> If you work with both healing stories and are not
following the Ephphatha theme, this is a good opportunity to highlight the ways
your congregation makes its buildings accessible to
people with handicaps. We may not be able to cure them, but we can
make sure they can be full participants in everything the church does
together. For the children demonstrate
as well as simply name the accessibility equipment. Put a child in a wheel chair and roll her to
worship leadership area. Ask someone
using a hearing device to prove that he hears you from where he is
sitting.
Jesus heals the woman’s daughter
> Children need to be told that in Jesus’ day people had
not yet learned about mental illness. When people acted strangely and seemed crazy,
they thought little evil demons had taken over their minds. Today we know that our minds can get
sick. We are just beginning to learn
about how that happens and how mind illnesses can be cured. This mother’s daughter was doing and saying
things that were not normal. Imagine how
happy she was to go home and find her child sitting up in bed and greeting her
as any child greets her mother.
> Most children (and many adults) assume
that Jesus always knew everything and always got everything right. This
story suggests that part of being fully human meant that Jesus had to learn and
grow. With the children list some of the
things Jesus had to learn how to do, like walk, read, use a saw in his father’s
carpenter shop, the rules games kid’s played.
Then, dig into this story. Maybe
Jesus had had a bad day, maybe he was still living on a prejudice he had grown
up with. In either case, he had to
change his thinking in order to respond to the mother with a sick
daughter. Insist that what is important
is not that Jesus got it wrong at the beginning, but that he listened to the
woman, changed his mind about helping her and stretched himself into a more
loving person. Our challenge is keep
growing like Jesus did.
> Think about the woman and her daughter
in this story rather than Jesus: This
woman was fierce, she did not let anything or anyone get in her way to get her
daughter healed. She was on a
mission. Her fierceness
and determination impressed
Jesus. They got her what she most needed
and wanted – healing for her daughter AND they may have changed Jesus’ mind
about who he was sent to save. We don’t
often encourage children to be determined and fierce in their faith, but fiercely
determined faith sometimes changes the world.
This is an opportunity to raise up that fact.
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| I took this picture at a Maori cultural center in New Zealand and include it here to give you an idea of how to make the face. |
> Start a conversation about fierce faith by making fierce Maori faces. To express their determination the Maori
tribes of New Zealand bug out their eyes and spread their tongues as wide as
possible. Have fun making such a face
and inviting worshipers to do likewise.
Then describe the fierceness of the woman who did not make such a face but
was just as fierce when she wanted Jesus to change his mind about healing her
daughter. Conclude by listing some
issues over which fierce faith is needed today – maybe protection of the
poorest, justice for all, racism, etc. – and challenging worshipers together to
make fierce faces supporting their determination to be fiercely faithful about
each issue.
> At a community Halloween gathering last year I saw a Grandmother - Granddaughter duo wearing matching Wonder Woman
costumes and the most serene, self-confident smiles you can
imagine. They were African Americans and
clearly knew themselves to be Wonder Women.
I suspect there is a connection between them and the mother and daughter
in this story. That biblical mother was
definitely Wonder Woman for her daughter.
I suspect she also taught that healed daughter that she too was by
nature a wonder woman and could rise to any situation needed. They were fierce, capable wonderful women
created by God. And, of course they lead
me to remember all sorts of Wonder Women I hear of around the world and know in
my own life. Little girls and mothers
need to soak up these women.
> Horton the elephant in Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who is like the woman
in that he persists in getting protection for the tiny whos only he can
hear. The biblical mother refused to let
others discount and brush aside her and her sick daughter. She knew that each of them were real live
persons and that they counted. Like that
Mother, Horton does not give in. Even
when others tease him and then try to forcibly stop him, Horton fiercely stands
up for the whos because “a person’s a person no matter how small”. The book is too long to read in worship, so
check it out of the library and tell itin your own words. Or, set the tone and enjoy the verse read the
first 5 pages (ending with “and placed it down safe on a very soft
clover.”) Describe the response of the
kangaroo and her child. Then, read the
page “in the high jungle tree tops, the news quickly spread…” Recall the plot in your own words. Conclude by reading the last two pages starting
with “Finally at last from that speck on the clover, their voices were
heard!...”
> Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love and Jesus’ Hands
Were Kind Hands are very child friendly hymns to sing today.
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