Year B - Proper 16, 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 13th Sunday after Pentecost (August 26, 2012)

This week’s dominant themes of deciding whom to serve and being prepared to serve well are great back to school themes.  We often assume (unwisely) that when we speak about making decisions in everyday life using examples drawn from adult life children will understand and apply them to their lives.  This is a good Sunday to use school applications assuming that adults will be able to appreciate them and apply them to their work and community lives (a wiser move since every adult in the room has experience with going back to school).  If it is actually the Sunday before school begins in your community, check out Back to School in 2012 for more general ideas.  If school is still ahead, you can be sure children and their parents are already thinking about and preparing for it.  If school started days or weeks ago, children and their parents are more aware of the challenges of this new year and may be even more open to these messages.

I Kings 8: (1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43

The not back to school text for the day!

Church of the Sacred Heart, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49973 [retrieved August 1, 2012].

Church of the Sacred Heart, from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49973
[retrieved August 1, 2012].

N  Display or project a picture of Solomon’s Temple and several of a variety of churches today.  Go for variety - maybe St. Basil’s domes in Moscow, a huge gothic cathedral, a modern suburban church, a storefront church, even your own building.  ( Go to Art for Proper 11 for a collection of pictures available for your use.)  Compare all the ways these buildings differ (colors, size, shapes) and are alike (planned for worship, usually built using best available materials).  Then go to Solomon’s admission in verse 27 that no building is big enough to hold God.  List what can be done in church buildings and their limits – God and God’s plans are bigger than any building can hold. 

N  Instead of thinking about many church buildings, focus on two:  Solomon’s temple and your own building.  After briefly telling about Solomon building a temple, recall the building of your own church building.  Show pictures of the dedication if available.  If your church has lived in more than one building, bring pictures of all of them.  After telling some stories about important things that happened in your congregation’s building/s, go to verse 27 and ponder the reality that God is bigger than that building or any of those buildings.

N  Use this story to do a little worship education about your sanctuary.  Start with the big word sanctuary (maybe printed on a poster).  Then review the names of pulpit, Table, font, and anything else that is important to your congregation.  Point out why the building is shaped as it is, why the windows are as they are, etc.  If there is art that has special meaning, point it out and briefly explain its meaning.  This meditation on your sanctuary could be a large part of the real sermon.  One conclusion is to compare the words sanctuary and church.  A sanctuary is a place where people gather to worship.  But, a sanctuary is not a church.  A church is the people wherever they gather to worship God and do God’s work. 

N  Invite children to draw pictures of the interior of your sanctuary.  Challenge them to be thoughtful about it.  From whose point of view will they draw it?  Who will be the people in it?  What will the people be doing?  What pieces will they be sure to include – Table?  Font? Organ? What else?  Before worship cover and title a bulletin board near the sanctuary and invite children to add their drawings to the display after worship. 

Psalm84

This was likely a song that pilgrims sang or chanted as they walked toward Solomon’s Temple for annual celebrations such as Passover.  Few families today make any such trek.  Some youth feel close to this way about going to a summer conference grounds for annual denominational youth conferences.  So, describe the experience of a family walking together on a long trip toward the Temple and singing with all the other families walking the road too.  Open the big Bible on your lap to this psalm, invite the children to imagine they are on such a trip, and ask them to echo each phrase of verses 1, 10 and 12 as you read them.

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

N  Invite the whole congregation to take the part of “the people” in this story.  The usual liturgist serves as the Narrator.  A second reader is Joshua.  The congregation will need a copy of the entire script.  This could be done as an Old Testament Reading or it could be done as an affirmation of faith after a sermon exploring this story and the call to serve God alone.

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Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Narrator: Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem.  They stood before Joshua and before God.  Joshua retold the whole story of their people.  He started with Abraham, reminded them of the hardships of slavery in Egypt, and recounted the way God led them out of slavery.  He reminded them that God had been with them while they wandered in the wilderness and had given them their new homes in the Promised Land.  Then Joshua said to all the people,

Joshua:  Now therefore honor the Lord, and serve God sincerely and faithfully.  Put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Narrator:  Then the people answered,

People: Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight.  The Lord protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed.  And, the Lord drove out before us all the peoples who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for the Lord is our God.

Narrator:  This in the Word of the Lord.

People:  Thanks be to God.

Based on the NRSV

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N  Point to one of the “big choices” people make to serve God in your tradition – maybe believer’s baptism or confirmation.  This is a chance to present a familiar ritual the children look forward to as a choice they must make rather than just a celebration in which they will star.  Outline the choice and the work that goes into making that choice.  Then, insist that we practice for those big choices by “little choices” we make every day.  Choosing to include outsiders or say kind words (even when angry words want to come out) or be a peacemaker among friends are “little choices” we make to serve God every day.  They are the way we get ready for or live out the “big choices” we make in believers baptism or confirmation.

Psalm 34:15-22

This is psalm offers an overly simplistic view that God takes care of the good and punishes the evil.  Rather than try to explain your way beyond that on a day with so much else to offer, I’d go elsewhere with the children.

Ephesians 6:10-20

N  Some use Paul’s Armor of God image as an opportunity to insist that there is danger out there and Christians should prepare to meet it.  Others maintain that this is not a call for spiritual warfare, but a call to trust God as we live each day.  Depending on which way you go, different of the following may be useful.

N  If you point out the dangers in the world, recall the dementors in the Harry Potter books.  They are huge dark creatures that fly through the air, capture you, wrap you in cold darkness and suck all the happiness out of you.  They can suck your soul out of you, leaving you like a vegetable.  We don’t encounter dementors at school or around town, but we do encounter greed, fights between friends, hateful words etc. that are just as effective at sucking all the happiness out of life and can leave us feeling like a dried up vegetable.  We need to be as ready to deal with these horrible situations as Harry and his friends had to be to deal with the dementors.

N  Paul used the image of a soldier’s weapons to urge Christians to be ready to meet the challenges of living every day.  At the beginning of the school year use the equipment of students to urge the same preparedness.

Dress and equip yourself for school with such things as

-          A backpack of truth  - discuss all the good and bad things we can carry around with us in addition to our school books and homework and urge students to keep in their backpack only things they would be glad for God to see

-          A locker of righteousness – warn about all the trouble especially girls cause each other decorating their own lockers and leaving notes for each other in their lockers

-          Pencils, pens, markers to communicate God’s word – make every word you write with them a word you would say to God

-          Shoes that proclaim peace – connect to biblical verses about the beautiful feet of those who come bringing peace with them to whatever shoes we wear back to school being beautiful not if they are cool but if we bring peace wearing them. 

Warning:  This is for the older children.  The younger ones see books as books and pencils as pencils.  You can give them a pencil with a Christian message on it to remind them of who they are at school, but don’t expect them to see their pencil as a tool of God or Sword of the Spirit.

Dress your insides for school.  After noting some of the new clothes being bought for school, encourage the children to gather two invisible things to carry to school inside themselves.

1.      Fill their brains with good questions so that they learn everything they possibly can – What? Where? Who? How? Why?

2.      Fill their hearts with gentle words, kind deeds, forgiveness, and peacemaking because Jesus is depending on them.  They may be the only way Jesus can love some of the kids and teachers they meet in class, in the locker room at the gym, at the table in the cafeteria, and for sure on the bus.

Either of these preparedness messages will stay with children longer if you give them something to add to their school gear – a pencil printed with “God loves you,” a Christian symbol sticker to put inside the flap of their backpack or in their locker, a trinket to hang on their pack (if they are allowed).  The possibilities are endless.  Visit a local school supply store or Bible bookstore.

N  Prayer is one of the best preparations/armor for Christians.  Urge families to add a prayer discipline to their day. 

Some families have a one line blessing or prayer that they say to each other as they part each morning.  Some are delivered with a hug, others with a high five - maybe “God be with you all day.” 

If parents do not already include prayer in bedtime routines this is a good time to add it.  Suggest that together parent and child think back over the day to identify things for which they want to praise and thank God, things about which they need to tell God they are sorry, and things for which they need God’s help.  The parent then voices these prayers with and for the younger child.  Older children take over the praying first in the parent’s presence, then on their own as they get older.  Some parents conclude by signing the child’s forehead with a cross or a kiss and saying something like “Remember always, God loves you and I love – no matter what.”

John 6:56-69

N If you haven’t done it already in this long series on the bread of life, unpack the image for children today.  Start with food that is needed to keep us physically alive.  Then point to someone who says some activity is food for them, e.g. church musicians often say their life would not be worth living without music.  Music is their bread.  With the children identify other things people claim as essential to worthwhile life – sports, being out of doors, etc.  Finally, say that John is telling us that knowing Jesus is the bread of life.  Name activities of your congregation such as worship, church school, kids clubs, ministries in which children can participate, etc. and describe each one of them as a source of bread that will make life worth living.  Point out that they don’t always feel like life savers, but insist that over time they are.  Encourage children and all worshipers to eat regularly of the bread of life by participating in these activities.

N Or, check out the “food” trays idea in "You are what you eat" in Proper 15.

N Focus not on the bread but on the difficulty of following Jesus.  Lots of folks gave up on Jesus.  Especially if this is the beginning of your church school year and more intense activities for children, talk straight with families about the difficulty of sticking with church.  Lots of people have already given up on it.  Some will start with good intentions to stick with it this year, but will fizzle out.  Encourage families to work together to make sure they stick with Jesus by sticking with church.  (There are obvious ties to Joshua’s “choose you this day…”)

Year B - The First Sunday in Lent (February 26, 2012)

  

For children and adults who do not attend Ash Wednesday services, this is the beginning of Lent.  So take time to define the word Lent (sounds a lot like lint, but is not), identify its purpose, point to Lenten paraments and highlight ways your congregation will keep Lent as a congregation and individuals of all ages.  If you haven’t checked out Year A - Observing Lent and Celebrating Easter click on it now for ideas.

Children enjoy all today’s 40 days – 40 days of rain on the ark, Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, and the 40 days of Lent.  A well read child might even make the connection to the 40 years in the wilderness.  Savor the 40s and invite worshipers to remember the 40s each day of Lent and to think of everyone still on the ark and Jesus still in the wilderness on each of the days between now and Easter. 

As we settle into the 40 days of Lent the texts of Year A and C are sober and rather demanding.  The texts for Year B are basically good news.  God saves us from the flood, claims us in baptism, and is with us in the wilderness.  That is a good place to start Lent.  We are not earning God’s love with our disciplines with fear of failure.  We are responding to God’s love by being the very best we can. 

A couple of weeks ago in Sunday School I said, “when Jesus was killed…” and a first grader who is a regular went wide-eyed and said in alarm “Jesus is dead?”  I quickly told her that “yes Jesus had been killed, but that God had not let him stay dead.  He is very alive – we’ll be hearing more about that as Easter comes.”  This conversation reminded me that many children have not heard or at least not caught the Passion stories.  Featuring a different cross tied to the gospel reading each week during Lent is one way to help them understand the central symbol of our faith and its story.  There are several crosses and ways to explore them this week:

U With the children’s help identify all the crosses in your sanctuary.  If there is a cross closely tied to your denomination or congregation, display it and explain its meaning in simple terms. 

U Give each worshiper a cross trinket to carry in a pocket, a cross bookmark to use in their Bible, or a paper cross to display on a mirror or the refrigerator door during Lent.  Tell the whole crucifixion resurrection story in the briefest of terms – maybe something like this…

God has kept the rainbow promise.  People, however, have done all sorts of evil things and ruined the world in many ways.  Still, God  has not destroyed the earth again.  Instead God became Jesus and came to live among us to show us how we are meant to be.  Some people got so very angry with Jesus that they killed him on a cross.  Even as he was dying on their cross, Jesus forgave them for what they were doing to him.  The day Jesus was killed was a horrible day.  Jesus’ friends thought nothing in the world ever be right again.  Then, on the third day Jesus was alive.  They saw him and talked to them.  He told them that he would always be with them and would love them and forgive them.  Every time you see or touch this cross during Lent, remember that story and God’s great, forgiving love.

U And yes, in the article about keeping Lent and Easter during Year B, I did suggest an anchor cross “for the fishing disciples” for today.  I wrote that weeks ago and have no idea what I meant then.  All I can figure is that I read too far and met the fishing disciples there. Duh.

On the first Sunday of Lent, undertake Lenten disciplines singing “Here I Am Lord.”  If it is not familiar in your congregation, learn or practice the chorus together before singing the whole hymn.  Even non-readers can learn and sing this simple important promise to God. 

Genesis 9:8-17

To present the whole Noah story rather than just the rainbow ending, turn to children’s literature.

Read “God Sends A Rainbow” from The Family Story Bible, Ralph Milton. It starts after the flood and assumes knowledge of the ark story, but explains covenant and focuses on the rainbow.  (3 minutes to read aloud)

Noah’s Ark, by Peter Spier, tells the story in a poem at the front.  The rest is all pictures.  I’d skip the poem and use some or all of the pictures to tell the story in my own words at my own speed.  Avoid the pictures of the animals left behind.  (The elephants up to their tails in water is too sad and raises questions you probably don’t want to deal with in front of the whole congregation.)  Because the pictures are so detailed, this book is best used with a small group so everyone can see.  This Caldecott Medal winner is available in many public libraries.

Noah’s Ark, by Jerry Pinkney, is a Caldecott Honor Book.  Start with the words about creation on the inside cover, then read through the next to the last page to “Noah and his family turned their faces p to the sun and sang praise to God.”  (4 minutes to read aloud)  Instead of reading the last page about the rainbow (the weakest page in this fine book), announce that the story did not end there.  Go to the pulpit Bible or pull out a Bible where you are to read Genesis 9:8-17.

Covenant appears six or seven times in this passage depending on your translation.  Covenants will also appear in the next two Old Testament readings (covenant with Abraham and Sarah and the 10 Commandments).  But the word is unfamiliar to most children.  So print it on a large poster to help people say and own the word. 

For children a covenant is a set of promises.  The Bible is full of covenants between God and people.  God always promises first. Then people respond with promises.  God promises to keep that promise, even if we don’t keep ours.  We can count on God.

The rainbow promise God makes is not to destroy the world again, no matter how bad people are. 

Invite the children to listen for the word covenant as you read from the Bible keeping count on their fingers.

Children love rainbows!  Add a rainbow to the sanctuary for the day.

Cover the doors into the sanctuary with rainbows of crepe paper streamers.  Simply tape the streamers in rainbow color order on a tension curtain or shower rod.  They might fall all the way to the floor requiring worshipers to enter through them or be cut into a high rainbow-y arch under which worshipers enter.

Ask a children’s class to make a large rainbow banner.  They can sponge paint or brush paint or chalk between lightly drawn penciled stripes of the rainbow on paper or blue cloth.  They might bring it in as part of the open processional or after the reading of the story. Or, it might be in place at the beginning of the service.

The following prayer came from “God’s Big Story Box” (Faith Alive Christian Resources, Dwell Curriculum).

Dear God, thank you for promising to never again destroy the world with a flood.  Thank you for sending Jesus to take away our sins instead.  We ‘re sorry for times we are mean and selfish.  Please forgive us through Jesus. Amen.

Remember the camp song “Rise and Shine” that retells the whole Noah story with lots of humor.  Even if you don’t want to sing the whole song during worship, you might mention one or more of the verses.

 Psalm 25:1-10   

On the first Sunday of Lent verses 4-5 or 10 make most sense to children.  If you make a rainbow banner, add some brown foot prints under the rainbow either before or during worship.  Then read the selected segment of the psalm to celebrate living as God’s loving, good people under the rainbow.

1 Peter 3:18-22

Needless to say, children will not make any sense of this complex reasoning as it is read – no matter which translation is read.  Even the comparison of baptism in which people get wet and Noah who was saved from getting wet is not obvious to children.  If worship is built around this text there are a few baptismal connections that children might get.

If Noah is mentioned in the prayers over the water at baptisms, read those phrases, put them into your own words, and explain what they mean when said over water to be used in baptism.

After the prayers of confession but before the assurance of pardon, pour a pitcher of water into a big bowl near a microphone.  Before praying, tell worshipers what will happen and urge them to listen and remember the water of their own baptism and even the water raining on the ark in which God kept Noah, his family and the animals safe.

OR, since this is the first Sunday of Lent, consider skipping this text in favor of 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 which is filled with athletic training images that help children understand Lent and Lenten disciplines.  Go to Year B - Sixth Sunday After Epiphany and scroll down to this text for detailed ideas.  

Mark 1:9-15

Mark’s terseness is obvious here.  Two big stories (Jesus’ baptism and his 40 days in the wilderness) are reduce to a few phrases and the beginning of his ministry is a generality.  That makes it not very attractive to children.  So what to do?

Save the wilderness story for Year A or C in which Matthew and Luke tell detailed interesting stories.

Read the gospel for the Baptism of the Lord (especially if you had to skip that day because of the calendar crunch this year).  Go to Year B - Baptism of the Lord  for ideas.

If you read this text, subtitle it “how Jesus got his start.”  He was baptized and spent time thinking about who he was and what he needed to do.  Connect this to your congregation’s confirmation practice noting the similarities to what Jesus did as he started.