_ Before reading this psalm
help the children understand that Jeremiah is really, really sad after
his town Jerusalem was destroyed in war and many people were killed or carried
off as prisoners. Read 9:1 first to
introduce Jeremiah’s prayer. Note that
it is a prayer that many of the people in Egypt and Syria might pray
today.
_ Children will hear BOMB instead of BALM. Laugh about
the difference noting that nobody needs any more BOMBS. Then display a tube of balm. If children are close, give each one a
squeeze of balm to rub into their hands as they listen to Jeremiah’s prayer for
his hurting people.
This
is a good opportunity to connect Jeremiah’s prayer to the spiritual “There
is A Balm in Gilead” that was first sung by slaves wishing for balm for
all the hardships of their lives. Talk
about it. Then sing it.
This
could lead to collecting names of hurting people who need God’s loving care
today. More on this in the section on 1
Timothy today.
Psalm 79:1-9
This is not a great psalm for
children. If you do read it, start by
reading verses 1-4 in the TEV to answer the questions “how bad was it?” and/or
“why was Jeremiah so sad.”
Amos 8:4-7
_ The ephahs, shekels, and
selling the needy for a pair of sandals of Old Testament commerce make it
almost impossible for children to understand this text as it is read. Furthermore, they lose interest before we can
explain all these details. They depend
on worship leaders to give them the theme in terms they can understand. The bottom line is that God is not happy when
some people are very rich and have more of everything they want and need while
other people go without basic needs of life.
God thinks that is not fair.
Read
either the TEV or CEV version to get past some of the particulars and to Amos’
message
.jpg) |
Unidentified Flemish painter. Rich and Poor, or, War and Peace,
from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
[retrieved August 21, 2013]. Original source:
|
_ Display this over the top
comparison of rich and poor. Identify
the differences in the two men in the painting.
Then note that God does not like this painting. God thinks it is unfair that one man should
have everything and the other man have nothing.
With this conversation as background, read the Amos text (preferably for
TEV or CEV). Children will get the
message.
Psalm 113
The psalmist praises the high
God who leans over to lift the poor.
Either point this out verbally by going through the psalm finding all
the high, low, and lifting words before reading it. Or, line out the psalm with hand motions. The latter is best done with the whole
congregation but could be presented by a rehearsed children’s class who have
been invited to be worship leaders by acting it out as you read it.
I I I I I I
I
I
I I I I I
Psalm 113
with Motions
Praise the Lord!
Arms outstretched palms turned upYou servants of the Lord, praise his name!
Arms reaching out to the congregation
May his name be praised now and for ever.
Repeat outstretched arms with palms turned up.
From the east to the west praise the
name of the Lord!
Point to the east, then arc arm to the west
The Lord
rules over all nations; his glory is above the heavens.
Bent arms out to the sides in an
expression of power
There is no one like the Lord
our God.
Pointing up with one hand as in a teaching position
Pointing up with one hand as in a teaching position
He lives in the
heights above,
Look
up and reach your arms overhead
but
he bends down to see the heavens and the earth.
Lean over to look down moving your arms out
to the side
He raises the poor from the dust;
Still leaning over cup your hands as if
scooping up people below.
he lifts the needy from their misery
raise your cupped hands a little
raise your cupped hands a little
and
makes them companions of princes,
raise your cupped hands to shoulder height
the princes of his people.
Open cupped hands and reach out to your
sides as if holding hands
He
honours the childless wife in her home;
Hold arms down at your sides
he makes her happy by giving her children.
Rock a baby in your arms
Praise
the Lord!
Raise hands in
traditional praise position
TEV
I I I I I I
I
I
I I I I I
1 Timothy 2:1-7
These
seven verses offer a rather amazing variety of worship themes, some more
relevant for children than others.
_ The
great Christological hymn describing Christ as a mediator between God and
people is hard for children. Much of our
talk with them about God focuses on God as their loving friend who is always
available to them. A mediator is only
needed when there are conflicts to be settled and gaps to be bridged. So, before children can see Christ as a
welcome mediator, they need to identify the estrangement with God. Some older children will begin to pick up on
some of the preacher’s comments, but Christ as mediator is not a great concept
for children.
_ Ransom is also a difficult concept for children to grasp as a
description of Christ’s work. To them
ransom is money paid to kidnappers who have stolen a child or loved family
member in order to get the kidnapped one back.
Since it is the bad guys who demand ransom, it is hard to understand how
a loving God could demand a ransom. Many
adults never really resonate with the ransom image, but those who do will not get
it until their teenage years or later.
_ The
theme in this hymn that does speak to children is that God loves all people and Jesus
died for all people. Paul’s
point was God loves all people not just the Jewish ones. Today the point is God loves all people, not
just the ones like me.
_ Present the gathered children with portraits of people.
(Old “National Geographic” magazines are good sources.) Present two very different looking people at
a time with the question, “Does God love one of these people more than the
other?” After discussing several pairs,
conclude that God loves and cares for all the people in the world.
_ Before singing “In Christ There Is No East or West”
introduce the geographical directions in the first verse by illustrating them
with hand motions. Point to your right
for “east,” to your left for “west,” up for “north,” and down for “south.” Then form a huge circle with your arms for
“one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth.” As you do, summarize the message of the
verse. This could be a brief
introduction before the singing of the hymn with encouragement to children to
sing with the congregation. Or, it
could become a children’s time done just before singing the hymn.
_ ”He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” is another good choice for this theme.
_ Paul’s
call for prayer for all people is an opportunity to explore the congregation’s
practice of intercessory prayer.
Before that prayer time, pause to describe what you are going to do and
why. If you collect public prayer
concerns explain why and how you do that.
If you do this with the children on the steps, gather some of their prayer
concerns, then mention them at the beginning of the prayer that follows.
This is a good time to encourage children to speak up
at this time and to show them how to raise their hand for a turn to speak. You may also want to point out that it is
appropriate to pray for any person for whom you are truly concerned or happy,
but that you need to think before you speak about whether that person would be
embarrassed by what you say.
_ Using
a globe take a prayer trip around the world.
Before leaving/praying together identify people in different parts of
the world for whom to pray. Then pray
your way around the world from one continent to the next. This could be an eyes open prayer pointing to
each prayer stop as you move.
THINK AHEAD:
World Communion Sunday is the first week in October. You may want to save this prayer form for
that day.
_ Encourage
children to pray for other people with a prayer calendar. Give them a blank calendar for one week. Invite them to write one person’s or group of
people’s name in each day’s block then to decorate that block with designs or
words about that person. Encourage them
to post the calendar will they will see it this week and to pray for each
person on their day.
Luke 16:1-13
_ For starters realize that
children hear MAMMON as maybe some kind of MAMMAL. Laugh about this old word and define it as
money or wealth (a more current, but still not very familiar to many children
word). Remember that children think
literally. Loving “wealth” means loving
the cash and coins. I can clearly
remember feeling safe about this as a child.
I did not love quarters or even paper bills. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I
caught that the problem wasn’t the cash, it was what you could buy with the
cash. Talk about a preacher who had left
off preaching and gone to meddling! The
text took on a whole new meaning for me.
To help children get the real meaning of the text, talk about “stuff” rather than
“wealth.” Cite examples like smart
phones, “in” shoes, double stuffed Oreos, computer games, even the money to
register to be on a sports team or see a show…
It is not that any of this stuff is bad, lots of it is really cool. What Jesus tells us is that how we use our
stuff is important. We can be selfish
with our stuff, not sharing with others.
We can spend all our time thinking about and messing with our stuff,
never taking time to see what people around us may want and need from us. We can forget that who we are is more
important than what we wear and what we have.
The child’s version of Jesus saying is “who you are and what you do are
more important than what you have.”
Straight
conversations like this can be worked into the main sermon mixing examples from
adulthood and childhood. When they hear
such conversations, children (1) conclude that the sermon is for them too and
(2) they begin to realize that the adults around them struggle with some of the
same problems they do.
_ Bring a cool electronic gadget
(maybe a fancy smart phone) to the gathering of children. Show them what it will do and let them know
how much you enjoy having it. Then, tell
them you think Jesus cares about how you use your whatever-it-is. Point out that you could say “It’s mine! Don’t touch it!” Or, you could say, “Look how it works? You want to try it?” You could spend so much time seeing what you
can make it do, that you ignore everything and everyone else. Note that you know you’ve done this when
people say, “Earth to NAME – are you there?”
Or, you could enjoy it some, but not all the time. Etc.
Conclude that Jesus said we are to learn to use are stuff well. We are to enjoy stuff, but not make it the
only thing we think about. Jesus made it
very clear that people are always more important than things.
_ Especially if you are
thinking about this text in preparation for stewardship season, remember that children
have money too. They do not have
as much as their parents but they do money from allowances, gifts, and wages
from small jobs they do. They can learn
to contribute from these sources early in life.
When parents provide all the money children give to the church, they
deny them the joy and practice of giving their very own money to buy a heifer
animal or support the church. Go to Children, Money and the Sanctuary for more ideas about this.
_ Being faithful in small things: Read verse 10
aloud from the big Bible. Then, admit
that we would all like to do “big” things - important things, things that get
reported on TV and make people admire us.
But most of the time most of us don’t.
Instead we do regular every day, “little” things that don’t get much
attention or seem to make much difference at all. Jesus has two things to tell us about these
“little” things. First, being faithful
in little things does make a difference.
Being kind to the kid no one else talks to, forgiving the person who
called you a mean name, saying “thank you” and really meaning it, all those
little things often make a bigger difference to people than we ever know. The second thing about being faithful in
little things is that it is important practice.
Shooting hoops over and over again is practice for making the important
shot in the big game. In the same way
being kind, forgiving, loving people on the normal days is practice for being
God’s loving, forgiving people when it is REALLY, REALLY hard to do. In both basketball and being disciples,
practice on the small things is very important.
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