Year C - Proper 24, 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost (October 20, 2013)

Today’s texts cluster around two major themes that are very important to children.  So, I have organized this post around the themes.  The texts are all there but not in the usual order.

 

The Importance of God’s Word, the Bible

 
Jeremiah 31: 27-34, Psalm 119:97-104, and 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

The key verse of the Jeremiah text for children is verse 33.  The day will come when God’s word will not be on stone tablets or in books, but written into our very hearts.   A few children will have experience with learning something by heart, i.e. memorizing it.  Timothy is instructed to be a faithful student and teacher of the Word.  Under that is the belief that to be a strong, true church a congregation must be made up of people who know their Bible well.  Psalm 119 celebrates the Law (the Bible).  Explore the importance of Scripture using some of the following: 

& Show a Bible that you have all but used to death.  Tell how you got it into this state and note that most of what has made this book so ragged is now so much a part of you that if the book fell apart completely, you’d still have most of it inside you.  Encourage others to use a Bible to pieces.

& If there is a large Bible displayed and read from in the sanctuary that has a history, tell that story and bring it to where worshipers of all ages can see it during or after the service.

& Identify all the places the Bible is used in worship.  Print a clip art Bible beside each Bible based item in the order of worship.  Or, give children Bible stickers to place beside those elements as you come to them.

& Encourage family Bible story reading.  Ask how many families read a story each night at bedtime.  Suggest that they start reading two stories, one of the usual ones and one Bible story.  Tell parents that they can usually trust their instincts selecting a Bible storybook.  Those with sweet cartoony illustrations will likely tell sweet stories.  Those with violent action in most pictures will lean that way in story selection.  More damage is done by waiting to find the right Bible storybook than by starting in with one that you later abandon.  Getting started is what is important.  Two Bible story books that I often suggest to families are:

The Family Story Bible, by Ralph Melton

The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories,

                               by Mary Batchelor

& Pray for all the study groups and church school classes for students of all ages in your congregation.  Do so in a way that obviously includes children’s and youth classes.

& Before singing “Be Thou My Vision” invite worshipers to look at the verse “Be thou my wisdom…”  Put it into your own words.  Then sing the entire hymn.  (Below is a set of more inclusive words than appear in older hymnals.)

Be thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word,

I ever in the and thou in me, Lord

Thou loving parent, Thy child may I be,

Thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.

& Offer a charge and benediction something like this:

• 
  

          Raise a Bible above your head saying,

          Go home, find your copy of God’s word. 
  

          If you don’t have one, buy one.

   

          Open it in front of you

          Read it.  Think about it.  Talk about it.

   

          Hug it to your chest.

          Let it be written on your heart. 
  

          Let the story in it become your story. 

          Let it become your guide for living every day.

  
  

          Raising your other hand in blessing

          And as you read, may God be with you and speak to

          you and call you.  May God’s Spirit work through 

          these words to direct you, empower you, even

          comfort you. And, may the peace of God be with
          you always.

  
  

Jeremiah 31:27-34 

& Verse 33’s “God’s word written on our hearts” will need to be explained to literal thinking children.  Laugh at the misunderstanding of God digging your heart out of your chest and writing on it with a pen.  Then work toward Jeremiah’s message by reminding them of what it means to put your hand over your heart when you say the Pledge of Allegiance, recalling the oath “cross my heart” that says “I really do mean this,” and exploring what you are saying when you give friends paper hearts on Valentine’s Day.  Children working through this quickly understand that having a Bible isn’t worth much.  It is only when you read it and use it that it becomes yours.

& This text appears again on the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year B).  Go to Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year B) for more ideas.

Psalm 119

& Psalm 119:103 compares scripture to the sweetness of honey.  So, before reading it give everyone a honey flavored hard candy to enjoy and as a reminder of the sweetness of what they are hearing read.

& Psalm 119 might be titled “The Law (or the Bible) and Me.”  It is an alphabet poem with all the verses in each section starting with the same Hebrew letter.  Each verse says something about the Bible and why it is important.  To explore this poem …

• Prepare a children’s class to read the psalm with one child reading each verse.  The children stand in verse order across the front of the sanctuary and read from paper scripts laying across Bibles which are open in their hands.
  

   
• After reading what the biblical poet said about the Bible, make up verses of your own.  Start each verse with “The Bible…”  Ask children questions such as “Why is the Bible important?”  “What do you like about the Bible?”  “When do you hear the Bible read?” to help them create verses.  (This could be a children’s time or an expanded reading of the psalm that includes all worshipers.)

God’s Wrestlers

Genesis 32:22-31, Luke 18:1-8, and 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5

a Wrestling with God is an intriguing idea to most children, especially most boys.  The story of Jacob wrestling with God all night not only gives them permission, it invites them to ask their toughest questions, argue with God about what seems “not right,” even fight back.  The idea that we can expect to wrestle with God and God’s direction all through our lives is probably new to most children.  Details in the story that are important to children are:

• Jacob was strong enough and determined enough to wrestle all night long.  It would be great to be that strong.
• At the end of the night God gave Jacob a name that praised him for struggling with God and being able to keep up the fight until dawn.  That means wrestling with God is OK.
• Jacob is left with a limp for the rest of his life.  That demonstrates that struggling with God can be hard on you – but it is worth it.



Delacroix, Eugène, 1798-1863. Jacob Wrestling with the Angel,
from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the
Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48070
[retrieved September 19, 2013]. Original source: www.yorckproject.de.
 

a Before reading this story display or project this or some other picture of Jacob wrestling the angel.  Children will be so surprised to see someone fighting an angel that they will not believe what they think they are seeing.  It is important to look at the details with them so they understand what is going on. 

Point out Jacob and ask children to describe him.

            Ask who Jacob is fighting with.

How hard is Jacob fighting?

How hard is the angel fighting?

Then read the story and ask “was it OK for Jacob to wrestle with the angel?”  (The answer is yes – and amazes children.)  Point out to older children that even though few of us physically wrestle with an angel, we often struggle with God.  Things happen that we don’t understand or like.  We get angry with God.  We think God owes us an explanation.  That is OK.  God understands that. 

a Jacob wrestled with God all night.  The widow struggled with the unjust judge until he gave her justice.  Both had to stick with it in a long struggle.  Every kid who has asked repeatedly for something and been told “That is enough!” is drawn to Jesus using the woman who pestered the judge until he did what he did not want to do just to get rid of her.  Jesus’ message is that there are times when being a pest is exactly what is needed.  This is an opportunity to tell stories about the church being a pest working in the community on behalf of those whose needs are being overlooked by people in power. 

a Timothy is to be as persistent as Jacob and the widow.  He is to stand up for what he knows is important and right even when it is hard.  Children need to hear this message too.  They, like Timothy, often face hard choices and situations in which it is tempting to say, “I can’t do anything, I am just too young.”  Paul tells them that they can be disciples right now – even when it is hard.

a Persistent is a big word.  Introduce it at the beginning of worship with a poster or banner displaying the word.  Define it and alert worshipers to listen in worship for people who were persistent and people who needed to be more persistent.  Challenge them to think of situations in which they need to be persistent.

a Outline all the wrestling that goes on in the process of a church mission project – maybe a Hunger Walk, a Habitat House Build, or a mission trip.  Point out the decisions that have to be wrestled with to get started, the problems that have to be resolved in planning, the strength required to carry it out, and the wrestling with what it might lead to next.  Note the many kinds of strength that are needed.  (It would be possible to link to today's Bible theme here by exploring the importance of knowing our Bibles in these struggles.) 

a If it is Stewardship season, explore the way many of us wrestle with our money by reading all or part of Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, by Judith Viorst.  (Yes, this is the same Alexander of the Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.)  The book describes all the foolish ways Alexander spent the dollar his grandparents brought him until he was left again with no money, only two bus tokens.  He struggles over every purchase.  Reading the whole book takes about seven minutes.  Since it gets repetitive, reading the first several pages is all that is needed to get everyone “into” the subject.  Reading it as part of the sermon teaches children that money is one of the things people struggle with at all ages.

Psalm 121

a This psalm about God’s persistent dependability is recognized for what it is by children only if you take time to look at some of the word pictures in detail with them.  How dependable is God?  As dependable as the hills which stand in place for centuries.  Actually God is more dependable than the hills because God MADE the hills.  Also, God never sleeps and is always “on.”  God protects us from bad things and pays attention to all our coming and going today and every day for the rest of our lives.  After walking through it this way, read it or sing it.  (If you will sing it, have worshipers follow you in their hymnals and use the words there.)

Year C - Proper 15, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 13th Sunday after Pentecost (August 18, 2013)

Most of today’s texts are very mature discussions of God’s judgment and the difficult divisions that arise as we try to live as God’s people.  They are a stretch for children.  Mainly the message for children is that God cares about what we do.  Yes, God loves us always, no matter what we do.  But, anything we do is not OK with God.  Beyond that worship planners do well to focus on exploring pieces of the texts with children.  Doing this gives them building blocks with which to build their understanding and enriches the understanding of adult worshipers at the same time.

The difficulty of the other texts and the connection to going back to school, makes the Hebrews reading an attractive choice for this week.

Isaiah 5:1-7 

 

Eastern Orthodox icon of Jesus Christ as the True Vine, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55553 [retrieved July 16, 2013]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_the_True_Vine_icon_(Athens,_16th_century).jpg.

 

 

I Show this icon.  Point to Jesus first and then to the figures at the edge.  Guess together who some of these people might be.  (There are no right or wrong answers here.  They are mainly friends of Jesus.)  Then point to the vine behind them.  Point out that Jesus is the trunk of the vine and all the people are branches.  Briefly explain that a vine with branches is a very old symbol for the church or God’s people.  Finally, challenge children to listen for the vine in this passage.  Point out that in this passage, the vine is a grape vine which grows in a vineyard.

Rather than use this icon, find a family tree with a tree drawn in the background.  Search “family tree images” on the internet for LOTS of these.



I This text and Psalm 80 deal with vineyards.  So take time to provide detailed information about vineyards.  For the children it will be new information.  For the adults it will be a review that will lead them to pay closer attention to the details of the passages.  Show a large picture of a vineyard.  Then briefly note that all the vines must be planted, wired to the trellises as they grow, pruned, weeded, watered, protected from hungry animals and human thieves, then harvested.  Mention the need for the fence and the watchtower.  Then urge worshipers to listen for vineyards in today’s readings.  Do not expect this explanation to enable children to grasp all of the rather complicated messages about vineyards in today’s readings.  Know that you are laying a foundation for understanding as they grow.

For greater impact give children small clusters of grapes to eat while you talk about the vines on which the grapes grow and read the text.

Psalm 80: 1-2, 8-19

I If you have introduced vineyards and maybe eaten some grapes, a few older children will begin to get the psalmist’s prayer.  But, all the imagery and biblical history references make this a really hard psalm for children.

I This psalm appears frequently among Advent readings as a way of exploring how very lost we are as a people.  Go to Advent 1 (Year B) for a few ideas that may be adaptable for today should you be following a similar theme.

 

Jeremiah 23:23-29

This warning about listening carefully to and evaluating the messages of prophets demands way more mental maturity and life experience than children possess.

Psalm 82

I Bring this psalm to life with two readers.  One, maybe the usual reader, reads the first and last verses from the lectern.  This person also sets the stage describing the heavenly courtroom where God is seated in front of all the gathered people.  The other reader reads God’s part standing in the middle of the chancel and reading with great drama. 

I If you are challenging worshipers to celebrate people who have witnessed to them and encouraging them to witness to others, use this psalm to explore God’s concern that all people be treated fairly and that those who are least likely to get what they need will get it.  Children will not hear that as the psalm is read, but they are all for it when it is presented to them in simpler language.  So, imagine with them the scene in verse 1 with God as the judge, then read verses 2 - 4 counting off on your fingers God’s instructions.  Close by reading God’s address to people in verse 6 insisting that they can do what is asked.  After all they are “children of the Most High.”

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

I Witness is a tricky word.  In today’s world it is most often someone who can say, “I was there and this is what happened.”  Witnesses are usually identified as witnesses in court rooms and occasionally on news broadcasts.  The people described here are more than that.  For children these witnesses might be more recognizable as faith heroes and heroines.

I Few children will recognize any of the biblical witnesses named in this text.  Telling the story of one of them helps children get the message and adds a new witness to their cloud.  I’d choose Daniel.  I’d start with the story of Daniel’s brave stand about following religious food laws while a captive in a king’s court, then tell the story of the lion’s den.  I’d note that Daniel reminds us that it IS possible to choose to do hard things when we face choices about following God’s rules when it is really, really tempting not to do so. 

This leads to the challenge to not only pay attention to those who witness to you, but also be a witness to others – especially as you meet new kids in your new school classes and fall teams and clubs. 

I Display a baseball (or other sports) card explaining that this is a picture of a baseball hero.  Describe how people use the cards to remember what that sports hero did and to feel close to that person.  Then show a homemade card about one of your faith heroes.  On the front draw a picture of the person with some identifying props or action.  On the back list important facts (“stats”) about that person.  Share both sides with the children telling why that person is important to you.  Finally, give children index cards and markers which to create their own faith hero cards.  Together brainstorm some possibilities before sending children to their seats to work during the sermon.  Tell them you will be interested in seeing their cards as they leave the sanctuary.

 

 I For stories of faith heroes try one of the following books:

Faith the Cow, by Susan Bame Hoover, tells the story of one person with a vision founding the Heifer Project.

Follow the Drinking Gourd, by Jeanette Winter, is a story of the Underground Railroad.  Challenge listeners to identify all the people acting heroically (or as witnesses) to together do a great deed none could do on their own.  It took a “cloud of witnesses” to free the slaves!

I Before worship prepare a large white “cloud” (maybe a bed sheet?) to be displayed as a banner or a cloth on the central Table.  Spread it on the Table or floor and invite worshipers of all ages to come forward to write on the banner the name of one of their faith hero/ines using colored marking pens.  Do this after having thought together about such heroes.  It could be done after the sermon as an affirmation of faith or before the gathering of prayer concerns.  When the cloud is complete, lift into place if it is a banner or stand back from the Table if it is a tablecloth so all can see it.  Reread Hebrews 12:1-2 and perhaps pray for those who are our hero/ines and for the courage to be hero/ines to those around us.

I “For All the Saints” is the hymn most closely tied to this scripture.  Verse 2 is most easily understood by children.  Walk through this verse with them putting it into your own words as you go and identifying saint and another word for either witness or faith hero/ine.   Then, encourage them to think about their saints/witnesses and sing the Alleluias to thank God for them.

I “I Sing A Song of the Saints of God” has a similar theme but is even easier for early readers.   Ask a children’s choir to sing it.  Or, sing it as a congregation.  If projected pictures are part of your worship life, illustrate this hymn with pictures of people of all ages in your congregation doing the work of the church. 

Before singing either of these hymns introduce the word saints which appears in both of them.  Saints is another word for witnesses or hero/ines.

PERSEVERANCE

I Display a poster featuring the word “Perseverance.”  Introduce perseverance as a big word.  Practice saying it together.  Define it as sticking with something when it gets hard or boring or when you get tired or when it seems it won’t make a difference or that nobody else cares about it.  Read verse 12:1 emphasizing the word perseverance.  Put the verse into your own words noting that at the beginning of the school year everything is new and maybe exciting.  Before long it usually gets harder.  That is when we need perseverance.  (Remember as you talk that some children go back to school unwillingly and with deep dread.  They need perseverance from the very beginning of the year.) 

I “Looking toward Jesus…”  The beginning of the school year can seem like the beginning of a race.  So, lift up that image in 12:1-2.  Make goal line posters such as “straight As,” “most popular in the class,” “best athlete” even “best dressed” then “be like Jesus.”  Flip through the posters noting some good things about each one, then conclude with the “Jesus” poster setting the others aside saying that while the others are OK, this is the best.  Restate Paul’s race image encouraging the children to run toward the right goal this year. 

I Good disciple songs for the race (and the beginning of the school year) are:

”Guide My Feet While I Run This Race”

“I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”

“Thuma Mina” (South African tune and language)

– UMC hymnal has 3 verses: send me Jesus, lead me Jesus, and fill me Jesus

Luke 12:49-56

I Children who depend so completely on their parents are even more worried by Jesus’ words here than adults are.  They need to hear that the adults have trouble with these words too.  Then, with support, they can explore what Jesus is saying.  Especially older children are well aware that when you try to live like a follower of Jesus, there can be trouble.  Other kids are not happy when you stand up for kids they have excluded or hurt.  Friends get mad at you when you refuse to go along with something you know is wrong.  Children actually appreciate hearing Jesus and the church acknowledge that this is true.  Once they hear that acceptance of how hard it can be, they are ready to hear Jesus insist that they stick with him even when things get tough.

I The Roman Catholic lectionary deletes the last three verses, the ones about knowing how to read the weather.  This leaves a much more focused reading which is easier for children to catch.

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The Hebrews “cloud of witnesses” provides several themes to explore with children as they go back to school.  Look for ideas about them above.  For more general ideas for worshiping on the Sunday before the children go back to school go to Back to School - 2013.