Year B - Proper 27, 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 24th Sunday after Pentecost (November 11, 2012)

Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17

 

I This is the second of two readings about Ruth.  If you used the All Saints readings on November 4, you will need to tell the whole story of Ruth today.  For a concise telling of the story try ”Two Brave Women” in The Family Story Bible, by Ralph Milton.  It covers the main movements in the story, but summarizes the harvest festival with “Soon Boaz and Ruth got to know each other and to love each other.  They got married ...” and (like the RCL) omits the sandal transaction entirely.  It can be read aloud in 5 minutes.

I If you are devoting two Sundays to Ruth or if you want to explore in more detail the harvest festival and the sandal transaction, review the story from last week then read “Ruth Finds “Work” and “Happy Endings” in The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories, by Mary Batchelor.  (They can be read in a total of 5 minutes.)

 

My drawing: feel free to use

I If you focused on family love last week, expand that love to the love of the stranger or outsider this week.  If you did not do so last week, begin with a display of a map of the Old Testament lands.  Point to Bethlehem identifying it as the place Naomi started out and the place to which she returned with Ruth.  Then point to Moab and note that people who lived in Bethlehem thought the people who lived in Moab were dirty, dumb, and “not as good as we are.”  They ignored people from Moab when they came around and treated them poorly.  Imagine aloud how people in Bethlehem might have treated Ruth when she appeared with Naomi.  Then, read what actually happened.  Repeat and revel in the last verses' claim that the great King David’s great grandmother was a woman from Moab. 

 

Identify and ask worshipers to identify who gets treated like Moabites today.   DIfferent groups are the "Moabites" in elementary school, high school, college, and at work or in the larger community.  Ask what the Bible is telling us about all those people.  Pray both for those people and for those who mistreat them.

Identify groups of foreigners that tend to get treated like Moabites today.   (In my area that includes migrant farm workers.)  Insist that these people are God’s children and pray for them.

Introduce the word hospitality defining it as welcoming strangers.  Describe some of your congregation’s ministries of hospitality to strangers or outsiders.

I Another way to explore this story with children is to point out after reading it that three people each did more than they had to in order to help others.  Ruth could have stayed in Moab with her family, but she moved to Bethlehem with Naomi and worked in the field to feed them.  Naomi could have sat in a corner and felt sorry for herself, but she carefully thought out a plan for Ruth to find a husband.  Boaz could have said that Ruth and Naomi were not his responsibility, but he went to the man who was responsible for them and offered to take them into his own home.  Children struggle to learn to “do more than they have to do” to make life better for people around them.  These three are models promoting such loving care and pointing out that such care often works out for those who care as well as those being cared for.

This theme also runs through the story of the widow who fed Elijah.

I To present this story with all the rather unfamiliar details, devote the sermon to a dialog between an older Ruth and Boaz recalling it and musing over it together. 

 

Psalm 127

The psalmist here reminds worshipers of something most children assume, that they can trust someone else to provide for them.  Children usually begin by trusting their parents, but trusting parents leads them to trust God like the psalmist does.  This is not something children can articulate, so I’d skip this psalm for the children.

 

1 Kings 17:8-16

I This story is simple and simply presented.  To get the attention of the children before reading it, produce a bottle of cooking oil with only a little bit left in the bottom and a bag of flour rolled down indicating there is not much left in it.  Display them and tell worshipers that today’s story begins with a mother and son who have only that much oil and flour left in their kitchen – nothing else, no eggs, no meat, no peanut butter, nothing – and no hope of getting anything else.  Then read the story.

I Children, like people of all ages, think they will share when they have more than enough for themselves.  AND, they tend to think they never have quite enough.  This story (and the gospel story about the widow dropping her last coins in the offering plate) insists that even when you are down to nothing, you can still share.  Eleven days after Halloween, the candy stashes are beginning to run low.  Talk about when it is easier to share, the day after Halloween when you have LOTS of candy or when you are down to your last two pieces.  The answer is that it is just as easy either time.  All you have do is decide to share.  Do be careful to avoid implying that if they share all their remaining Halloween candy, the stash will miraculously never run out!

 

Psalm 146

This psalm is suggested for both last week and this week.  In the US there is a hotly contested election between the two readings of it.  On November 11 some, including children, will be happy about the outcome.  Others will be despairing.  Verses 3-4 speak to both groups.  For the children add presidents, vice-presidents, senators, etc. to “the princes.”  Note that no matter who won or lost, we still depend most on God’s power and love.  It could be read in unison or responsively using the script below.  The script replaces all the “hes” with “the Lord”

d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d

Psalm 146

 

LEADER:    Praise the Lord!

                        Praise the Lord, my soul!

ALL:           I will praise him as long as I live;

                        I will sing to my God all my life.

LEADER:   Don’t put your trust in human leaders;

                        no human being can save you.
                      When they die, they return to the dust;
                        on that day all their plans come to an end.

ALL or ALTERNATING GROUPS or

ALL READ “THE LORD” WITH LEADER COMPLETING THE SENTENCE

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

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Hebrews 9:24-28

I The Hebrews readings are getting quite repetitive to me.  I also am finding as I get toward the end of the series that the Christ words poster/banner that I envisioned at the beginning is proving hard to keep fresh.  Actually as I dug into some of the texts and connected them to other texts for the day, I changed the words – without checking as carefully as I should have to see how the change impacted future words.  The good news is that next week’s word is clear, “Lord!” – as in “Jesus is Lord!”  That is our response to all the other words.  This week is a bit murkier.  Depending on what you have done to date, there are a few possibilities:

ETERNAL or FORVER - as in Christ is present with us always. This word was used in Proper 25, so check there for ideas related to alpha and omega symbols in the sanctuary and singing “the time hymn” – Our God Our Help in Ages Past.  Or, practice and explain what it means to sing “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be” in the Gloria Patri.

FORGIVING - as in the reason Christ died was to forgive us.   Unpack this by exploring the petitions about forgivenes in the Lord's Prayer.  Jesus forgives us.  Jesus also asks us to forgive each other.   

ONCE AND FOR ALL  - as in Christ died to forgive every one of us.  We are safe in Christ’s loving forgiveness.  (See Proper 26.)

Do remember all the previous cautions about children being offended by all the Hebrews talk about killing animals in order to get God to forgive them.

 

Mark 12:38-44

I To grab the attention of children and to emphasize the comparison of the teachers of the Law and the widow, read verses 38-40 in proud tones and with arrogant gestures from the lectern.  Then, taking your Bible with you, move to the offering plates to read verses  41-44 about the widow’s gift in simpler more straight-forward tones.

I Why the Chimes Rang, by Raymond MacDonald Alden, is usually read at Christmas time, but it fits this story well.  Two young brothers who are poor set out to go to the cathedral on Christmas Eve to see the great service and all the rich people bring their grand gifts in hopes of hearing the chimes that are said to ring when great gifts are given.  On the way they come upon a woman dying in the snow on the side of the road.  The older brother sends the younger to the cathedral with a single coin to put in the offering while he stays behind to help the dying woman.  The younger brother is in awe of what he sees.  Before he leaves he slips near the altar to leave their coin and the chimes ring.  The story can be read in about 10 minutes.

I Many commentators insist that this more about the church’s tendency to recognize the rich and powerful while ignoring those on the margins than it is about the significance of the widow’s small gift.  They connect it with God responding to Ruth and Naomi on the margins in their day.  Build on their theme by describing one or two of your congregation’s ministries to people (especially women) on the margins of your town. 

I Challenge children to put at least some of their very own money in the offering plate.  Suggest they think about their birthday money, money they have earned or money they have been given to spend as they wish.  Be clear you are not talking about the money parents give them to put in the offering or about money they are given for other specific purposes – just money that is theirs to spend however they wish.  Point out that it may not be much, but that by giving some of their very own money now they are being real givers.  Insist that it is no easier to give money when you have lots of it than it is when you have little.  Use the widow as an example.

Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Week, by Judith Viorst, describes one little boy (yes, the same Alexander who stars in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day) spends money given him by his grandparents in a series of very silly ways.  In the end he is left with nothing of value.  Read it today to explore using money on things that are important rather than just spending it on anything we think we want at the moment.

A Shared Theme Possibility

I The heroes and heroines of today’s stories put love into action.  They do not just feel love, they do love.  Illustrate and explore the fact that loving involves using our bodies by helping the children form the letters for the word LOVE with their bodies.  You might have each child take the shape of each letter in order.  If you do this after shaping and discussing each letter cahllenge the children to spell out the whole word with their bodies as you spell it for them.  Or, shape different children into each letter until you have the whole word. 

L          Each person sits up straight on the floor with legs out straight and

             arms above the head

Look where we are sitting – on the floor.  Love means being willing to get down wherever needed with people.  Ruth sat with Naomi in Moab. We can get down on teh floor to play with our little brother. 

O       Form big Os with arms in front of you like a big hug

Loving begins with caring about/ hugging people.

V        In pairs put feet toe to toe and lean back to form the letter V holding
             hands or arms as support

Point out that people have to trust each other to love each other, Ruth trusted Naomi’s plan, the widow in Zarephath trusted Elijah’s promise…

E        Each person sits on floor with legs straight out, one arm bent

            at the elbow then straight out at the waist and the other arm

            straight out at shoulder height.

This is harder to get into position than the hugging O.  Loving is hard work.  We have to be willing to glean in the hot sun, share our last meal, maybe even drop all we have in the offering plate.

Year B - Proper 25, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost (October 28, 2012)

N This is the Sunday before Halloween.  Invite children to join Job praising God who is greater and more powerful than any monster, evil or scary thing they will encounter this week.  Also pray with them for help remembering that even in our costumes and behind our masks we are still ourselves.  We are still God’s children and often need God’s help to act like that.  Find a few text-specific Halloween connections scattered below.

_ This is also Reformation Sunday.  That is a lot less interesting to children than Halloween is!  Still there are a few suggestions here that might be useful in a service celebrating that day.  Next year, after I have made my way through the lectionary cycle, I’ll add a post on the texts generally used for a Reformation Sunday celebration.

$ There is a lot of talk about seeing in today’s texts.  Blind Bartimaeus is healed after he outshouts a crowd that is blinder than he to who Jesus is.  Job “sees” God in a new way.  This will lead to lots of metaphoric talk about seeing.  Since such “seeing” is often part of worship this is an opportunity to introduce it to children.  Several ways of seeing include

Ø Being physically blind then getting healed – like Bartimaeus

Ø “Now, I see” as in Job saying to God, now, I understand or I get it

Ø “I see you” even when others are ignoring you – like Jesus hearing Bartimaeus through the crowd that was telling him to be quiet and calling him forward

Ø   “I see you” – the real you.  I know who you are and see past what people are saying about you or what you just did that was not really like you

Ø “I see what you mean” means I understand with my mind what you are saying with your mouth. 

Ø “I see why going to the beach with your friend is important to you” means I understand with my heart why going to the beach with your friend is important to you.

$ To help children watch for “seeing words” in the readings, songs, and prayers of the day, try some of the following. 

Ø Display a poster or banner with an eye on it at the beginning of worship.

Ø Before the call to worship introduce “I see” as the sponsor of today’s worship ala Sesame Street’s sponsoring letters and numbers.

Ø List some of the words related to vision that will appear in today’s worship and explore some of the literal and metaphorical meanings of seeing.

Order these eyes from
Discount School Supplies

Ø Give children a row of eye stickers with which to mark their printed order of worship every time they hear a vision word.  Or, give them a sheet of paper with a list of vision words that will be used in worship urging them to circle each word every time the hear, sing, say or pray it.  Check in with them on their work as they leave the sanctuary.

Today’s Texts

Job 42:1-6, 10-17

_ This is a somewhat complexly presented conversation between God and Job.  Job is actually the only one speaking but as he speaks he is recalling what God said to him.  The TEV offers a much clearer translation of the verses, but blunts this internal conversation.  Choose the TEV for clarity or choose the NRSV to emphasize the conversation using a narrating liturgist and two readers (God and Job).  The dialogue reading offers an opportunity to explore the text by reading God’s voice several different ways.

  

Ø A disembodied voice from “up” in the sound system.

Ø A person standing right beside Job as if sitting with Job on the ash heap

Ø A voice from inside Job (maybe a person reading just behind Job)
   

      As you hear it read in these different voices, talk about what each one says about how close God is to Job (and to us) and how each voice might feel to Job (and to us).  There are no right or wrong answers just a chance to explore different ways we sense God with us.

D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D

Job 42:1-6

Liturgist:          Then Job answered the Lord:

Job:                  I know that you can do all things,

and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

God                  Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?

Job:                  Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

God:                 Hear, and I will speak;

I will question you, and you declare to me.

Job:                  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

but now my eye sees you;

                              therefore I despise myself,

and repent in dust and ashes.

(Liturgist may read verses 10-17.)

                                                            NRSV

D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D 

$ If you have been reading Job for the whole month, talk about what Job has learned about God as the story unfolded.  At the beginning of the story Job thought God rewarded people who were good and punished people who were bad.  After he endured lots of bad experiences, he knew that understanding was mistaken.  After God spoke to him, he knew that he did not know the answer to why bad things happened to people – even good people like him.  He understood how little he knew about how the world works AND he knew that God understands exactly how it works and is in charge and can be trusted.  Those are important things to know.

_ Older children find the ending as odd as adults do.  If they are reminded that this is a made-up story that people created to ask an important question, some of them appreciate the possibility of a storyteller who added to the ending “to make it better.”  Children often encounter stories that offer several possible endings from which to choose, so multiple endings are familiar.  Suggest that this story teller wanted a happy ending for Job and since the story of Job was a made-up story, he or she made up this new ending.  Get a show of hands on who likes the happy ending and who thinks it is better off without that ending.  Again, no right answers, but another chance to talk about the issues in the story.

N$  The Job story helps us ask about one mystery – why does bad stuff happen to good people.  Halloween, which is on Wednesday of this week, is a holiday on which we think about all the things we don’t understand about death.  We dress up as ghosts and skeletons.  We dare ourselves to go into graveyards and handle scary goopy stuff.  All this is a way to laugh at the things we don’t understand and to remind ourselves that we can trust God who understands all the mysteries and with us no matter what happens.

N On the Sunday before Halloween, celebrate Jesus’ presence with us as we face all the scary stuff in the world by singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  The words of the hymn are very hard for children.  So, before singing have all worshipers follow along in their hymn books as you put one or two verses into your own words.  Verses 2 or 3 would be my first choices for this week.

Verse 2:

If we trusted in ourselves alone, we would be in big trouble.

If we did not have a strong person chosen by God on our side

        we’d be losers. 

Who is that strong person?  Jesus, of course. 

He is the Lord and will win every battle with all evils.

Verse 3:

Although the world is full of really scary stuff

We will not get TOO scared because God is in charge of the world

We don’t have to worry about even the worst villain

     because we know that in the end God will win.

_ If you have not checked out the suggestions for the previous readings from Job do go to Proper 22 (Yr B), Proper 23 (Yr B) and Proper 24 (Yr B).

Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)

_ David was afraid that the King Achish/Abimelech would put him in prison or kill him so he did crazy things like doodling on the city gates and drooling.  The king was disgusted and told his servants to send David away.  David went.  This alphabet psalm celebrates his escape, his sanity, and mostly God’s care for him in a tight situation.

_ To imagine him safely back at his camp creating this psalm with his men, briefly tell the story then have a different person call out each letter to which David responds with the appropriate verse.  The alphabet readers could sit with a microphone on the first row or be gathered on the floor around David.  In the latter case, rehearse yelling the letters loudly enough to be heard.  For simplicity, I’d stick with the first eight verses and eight letters.

N “The fear of the Lord” is an interesting phrase to explore on the day before Halloween.  For children Halloween is about facing fears (ghosts, gory stuff in haunted houses, even being out after dark for the youngest).  They fear the things that they think are too powerful for them.  The psalmist claims that the one to fear is God.  God is definitely more powerful that any of us.  Fortunately God loves us, cares for us, and is with us when we are in scary situations.  The underlying message is to fear (to acknowledge as more powerful than we are) the right things and people.  So we do not have to fear ghosts, the dark, walking past the cemetery at night, or anything else.  Instead we, like David, fear/trust God’s loving power.

$ If you celebrate communion today and use the phrase “O taste and see that the Lord is good” in the liturgy regularly, point out the phrase in verse 8.  Together list all sorts of things we can taste and see that show us that God is indeed good – including the bread and cup of communion.  And, yes Halloween candy does taste good and can remind us that God is more powerful than the monsters and scary places.

Jeremiah 31:7-9

Even the seminary professors whose podcast I follow, suggested passing over this text.  It is way out of context here .  Too much background work is required before a worship leader could get to a significant point.

Psalm 126

Verses 1-3 praise God in a good time – when they are returning home from being captives in Babylon for 70 years.  Verses 4-6 praise God in a time when things are not going well – when people weep as they sow seeds and there is not enough rain.  Point out these differences and the possibility of praising God in both.  Then have one half of the congregation read the first 3 verses and the other half read the last three verses.  

BTW: This psalm is one of the texts for Thanksgiving this year.

ETERNAL

Hebrews 7:23-28

_ The poster word for today is ETERNAL, as in Jesus is our eternal, lasting forever, always High Priest and Lord.  Such unending dependability is important to children.  Especially if they must move frequently or move back and forth between the homes of their divorced parents, children place a high value on who/what is always there, no matter where, no matter what.  It is less important to them that Jesus is the High Priest than that Jesus is eternal.  He never ends.  That is good news!

If you have Alpha and Omega stitched, painted or carved into your sanctuary, point it out.  Identify the first and last letters in several alphabets.  Then explain the meaning of the symbol that Jesus was there at the beginning and will be there at the end.  Jesus is eternal, always….

Before singing “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past” walk through it with open hymn books.  Invite worshipers to raise their hand whenever they read a word about time.  There are lots of them – ages, years, eternal, before, everlasting, endless, ages, evening, watch, time!  Pause as you come to each one and put what that phrase is saying about time into your own words.  

N At Halloween we think about monsters and the scary parts of death.  The fact that Jesus is eternal tells us that even after we die Jesus will be with us.  We will be safe.  So we can laugh at all the monsters and ghosts and dead pirates we see this week.

_ One job of the High Priest is to intercede for the people.  That makes this a good day to feature intercessory prayer in your worship service.  Just as Christ prays for us, we pray for each other.  If your congregation gathers prayer concerns, walk through the process with the children just before doing it.  Hear their prayer suggestions and be sure to include them in the church’s prayers near the beginning in simple words that they are likely to hear.

Mark 10:46-52

$ This story can be easily pantomimed by children as it is read.  The liturgist who rehearses this with the children then reads for them in worship not only invites them to one time worship leadership, but builds a relationship with them that will lure them into listening to their friend at the front during the weeks that follow.

_ Children enjoy the fact that Bartimaeus did what they are constantly told not to do – and was rewarded for it.  Bartimaeus called out his need even when people told him to be quiet.  He was very determined.  Jesus said his determination and trust that Jesus could heal him were laudable and healed him.  It is possible to both savor this with the children and to explore the difference in Bartimaeus’ determined insistence that Jesus hear him and a greedy whiny insistence that you get your own way.  Sorting this out is a lifelong challenge.  Children can begin to understand it and start working on it now.

$ This story leads to using words about being blind and seeing metaphorically.  (See the suggestions at the beginning of this post.)  If you introduce seeing at the beginning of worship, return to it after reading the gospel to talk about what Bartimaeus could see about Jesus even when his eyes were blind and what the crowds around Bartimaeus were blind to even though they had seeing eyes. 

$ “Open My Eyes That I May See” with all its body parts is the first choice hymn for this story with children.  If you are paying attention to “seeing” language in worship today, point out the first line and put it into your own words before the congregation sings it.