Anne's Collective Worship blog

The wise and foolish builders SEAL theme: going for goals. Making choices and making mistakes

2012-01-26T14:53:00.000Z

Need:

wooden building blocks,

tray with glass nuggets or pebbles stuck to it (or some other way of creating an uneven surface).

Choose three children. Ask one to build a towerwith wooden bricks on a firm surface, another on a tray of pebbles or glassnuggets (stuck down, so they can’t build between them), a third on the palm ofsomeone’s hand. Which do they think they will build the tallest tower on? What actually happens?

Then swap and try it theother way. (In retrospect, it might have been better to have chosen onechild and let them do each activity in turn – it would have been a bit clearerand less frenetic…!)

Why was it better to buildon the firm, level surface? The bricks were the same. The builders were just asgood as each other. The children all got the idea that it was the surface that made the difference and that it was really pretty impossible to build on uneven or shaky surfaces.

Jesus told a story…

There were once two men who each wanted to build a house. The firstone came along and looked around for a good place to put it. He found a nicelevel spot beside a river. The soil was fine and sandy, it was nice and smoothand level. He would’t have to do anything to it at all. He could just getbuilding. Now there were a few people who said to him…Ahem, do you think itswise to build there. Wise? Why not? It’s very easy to build here. I can justget right on with it. “Well,” they said. It is right by the river, and thereason why that sand so smooth and level is that he river washes over it duringstorms and smooths out all the sand…” But the man didn’t take any notice.Storms – what storms? He said.

He got the very best building materials hecould. The best strong wood. Marble floors. Gold taps… What ever you couldthink of, he had. He started to build. And he built and built. Then he sat inhis house and thought – what a fine house this is! And it was.

The second man, meanwhile,was also busy building and he had found another spot by the river. His housewasn’t nearly finished yet, though, because he had started not by buildingupwards but by digging downwards. He knew that the best and strongest houseshave deep, firm foundations. The first man had seen him doing this – what afool, he thought! Why dig downwards when you could build upwards? What a wasteof time.

It was hard going too,because the second man had chosen to build his house not on the soft sand, buton hard rock, so he had to dig with a pickaxe. He’s making life very hard forhimself, thought the first man.

But eventually, long afterthe first man had finished, he finished too. And his house was a very finehouse as well.

And he only just finished intime, because that night, the rain began to fall. And it rained, and rained andrained and rained. And the wind got up. And it blew and blew and blew and blew.The rain ran down the hillside and into the river that ran past the two houses.The river started to fill up, but still it rained. It got right to the top ofthe river bank, and still it rained. It lapped at the doorsteps of the houses,and still it rained. And little by little it began to wash away the sand underthe first man’s house, just like it does at the beach when the tide comes in.And eventually the house started to lean a bit, then it started to topple over,then it washed away completely and broke into pieces…

But the house on the rockstood firm. No amount of water could wash away the rock it was built on and ithad firm deep foundations. And when the storm ended, the second man’s house wasstill there, but the first man’s house was nowhere to be seen, and he had tostart all over again…

What do you think the story tells us? (The children talked about “starting properly)

When we do something it isimportant to make plans – (we talked about writing a story or drawing apicture) – and take advice too.

Jesus said to his disciples,if you listen to God’s words and do what they say you will be building on goodfoundations and when something bad happens you will be able to cope muchbetter.

Manna in the wilderness (SEAL theme: Going for Goals. Patience and Persistence)

2012-01-12T11:43:00.003Z

Have you ever been on a long journey?
Where have you been?
Did you get fed up? (Children told me about plane flights where there were delays, car journeys where they got lost etc… Many children came to me as I sat in the school Quiet Garden during playtime after assembly with other stories of long journeys)
Did you ask “are we nearly there yet?” (almost every hand went up…!)
What do you do on journeys to help pass the time? (looking out of the window, playing games of various sorts…)

I’m going to tell you a story about people on a long journey

This is a story about Moses. Moses was a great leader, agreat hero. All his people, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They had to dojust what the king – the Pharaoh – told them. They had to work hard all thetime for nothing, and if they complained then their masters beat them.

They were miserable, and they wanted to be free. But theycouldn’t see how that would happen.

Then along came Moses. God had told him that he should go toPharaoh and demand that he set the people free. Let my people go, said Moses.No! said Pharaoh. Again and again he said no. He said no even though God sent aplague of locusts – flying insects to eat all the plants in the land. He saidno even though God turned all the rivers red so no one could drink the water.He said no even though God sent a plague of frogs…He just kept saying no. Mosescould have given up, but he didn’t. Finally, though, Pharaoh had had enough,and just for a moment, he said yes. Moses gathered up the people and they gotout as soon as they could. Only just in time, because Pharaoh changed his mind…No! he said again, and sent his soldiers after them. They chased them but theydidn’t catch them.

Phew! Finally the people were free. They’d never been freebefore. They danced and they sang, and they were really happy. Free at last!

But now what? Moses told them that God would lead them to anew country where they could live, a really good place, full of good food forthem, milk and honey. It sounded really good, but when would they get there?

They walked all day, and the next day and the next day…Theykept on walking, and walking, and walking. Where was this Promised Land?

They started to grumble.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

“Are we nearly there yet?” When are we going to get there?Do you even know where you are going? We’re too hot. We’re too cold. We’rethirsty. We’re hungry. Why did we even come anyway? At least when we wereslaves we had food to eat. It might not have been much, but it was food. We’reprobably going to starve to death out here. We might as well have stayed behind.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

Oh, for heaven’s sake! Said Moses. Aren’t you glad to befree?

Grumble, grumble, grumble….

So Moses prayed to God.

God, these people are driving me nuts. What can I do withthem? I don’t know where to get food for them. What are we going to do?

And God said to Moses, don’t worry, just give them themessage I am going to give you…And God told Moses what to do, and Moses spoketo the people.

Listen up! I know we can’t see any food anywhere, but God isgoing to feed us. Go to bed, and in the morning we’ll see what we can see.Well, they didn’t think anything was going to come of it, but they went to bedanyway.

And in the morning, when they came out of their tents theylooked around. The ground was covered with…something. It was a bit like awafer, and it tasted like…honey! It was good. But what is it? they said to eachother. What is it? In their language, the word for “What is it?” was manna, andso that’s what it was known as – the “what is it?” Now, said Moses, God saysthat you can gather up as much as you like. Some people worked really quickly ,some people could only gather a little at a time, but when each of them came tomeasure out what they had they found it was just enough – no more. If theytried to save any for the next day it would go all horrible and filled withworms… They just had enough for everyone for each day …

They wandered on for years and years, but always there wasmanna to eat, until the day they finally came to that land God had promised to them,then they never saw it again.

The manna kept them going through the wilderness. I wonderwhat keeps you going when you have to do something that takes a while –learning something new…? There was a long silence at this point as thechildren thought… clearly the idea of having strategies to keep themselvesgoing was a new idea. I asked the football team, whose success we hadcelebrated earlier what kept them going when they were losing matches, and onesaid – the thought of winning one day… which triggered a few othercontributions like “telling yourself you mustn’t give up”. One child said thatGod could help us.

I suggested that friends, teachers, knowing our goals etc.might help us.

Prayer: silence to think about the times we struggleand how we keep going. Prayer for help at these times.

Mary visits Elizabeth: Advent: Waiting for someone to help

2011-12-01T14:06:00.000Z

Miss Smith talked a few days ago about waiting. Can youremember the kind of things people were waiting for?

She was talking about waiting because it is Advent, the timewhen Christians get ready to celebrate Jesus’ birth.

So I want to tell you a bit about some people who werereally excited and waiting for that to happen.

The first you already know about – in fact you can tell meabout her…

Here’s a picture. Who is this and what’s happening here?

This is Mary, and an angel is telling her that she is goingto have a baby, who she will call Jesus. The people of Mary’s time were waitingfor someone to help them. They believed God would send someone special to betheir leader. They called him the Messiah, which meant the one God had chosen. Peoplewanted god to help them because life was very unfair and hard for them. Theirland was full of Roman soldiers, who often treated them cruelly. But it wasn’tjust that. When they looked around them they saw there were people who werevery poor or sick and no one was helping them. If you were rich you wereimportant and people listened to you, but if you weren’t no one cared. Theyneeded to change, but who would help them to do that? The angel told Mary thatit would be her child who would grow up to do this. She was VERY excited.

But did you ever wonder what happened next – before Marywent to Bethlehem to have her baby? She went to visit a friend, a cousin calledElizabeth, and as it turned out, Elizabeth had her own exciting news. Becauseshe was expecting a baby too.

Elizabeth was a lot older than Mary. She had been wanting tohave a baby for many years, but it just hadn’t happened, and now she thoughtshe was too old. Now, Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah was a priest who worked inthe Temple, and one day he was there, praying, when all of a sudden there wasan angel – the same one that came to Mary. “Your wife, Elizabeth, is going tohave a child.” “That’s impossible,” said Zechariah. “No its not” said theangel. “You wait and see! And your child is going to be special. He is going toget people ready so that when the Messiah is born, the one everyone has waitedfor, they will be ready for him. They need to learn first to listen for God’svoice. They need to be ready to change their lives. They need someone to helpthem think. Your child will be the one – just like a herald that goes before aking, to make sure everything is ready. That will be your son – and his namewill be John!” Zechariah was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, not then, andnot until his baby was born”.

When Mary turned up at her house, they both had some news.Elizabeth came running out of the house to say hello to Mary, wanting to tellher about her baby. But as soon as she saw her she knew that Mary had excitingnews too. “I know” said Elizabeth, “Iknow you are going to have a baby and that he is the one who God is sending tous to help us. My son will be the one who helps people get ready to listen toyours. Inside my tummy, I can feel my baby jumping up and down in excitementalready. God is going to help us to live as we should, to love each other andlook after each other.”

And Mary stayed with Elizabeth while she waited for her babyto be ready to be born. Elizabeth’s baby grew up to be someone very specialcalled John the Baptist, and just as the angel had said he helped people getready to listen to Jesus.

Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890)

Here’s a picture of the moment when Elizabeth and Mary met.What do you think of this picture? Mary and Elizabeth were both very happy thattheir children would grow up to help others.

Pray: for everyone who is waiting for someone to helpthem today, for those who are sick and waiting for a doctor, for those whohaven’t got enough money for food, for people who are lonely and waiting forsomeone to be their friend. Help us to be ready to help them, just as Mary andElizabeth’s children were.

“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” Deuteronomy 10.19 Anti bullying week. To develop an acceptance of differences.

2011-11-17T11:37:00.000Z

Avery long time ago, the people who wrote the Bible, the people of Israel, werein trouble. They had gone to a foreign country, Egypt from their own landbecause there was a famine. No one had anything to eat in Israel, but in Egyptthere was plenty of food, so the people travelled down there for help.

Yearspassed, but somehow they didn’t go home. But the people of Egypt still lookedat them and saw that they were different. They spoke a different language. Theywore different clothes. They worshipped a different God. And the people ofEgypt were worried. What if they decide to try to take over? What if they takeall our food, and our jobs, and our houses? We must stop them. So they made thepeople of Israel their slaves. They made them work hard, building the greatpyramids and temples. All day long they had to work, and if they complainedthey made them work even harder. And all because the Egyptians were frightenedof them. They were different, and they didn’t like that.

Iwonder what it was like being one of those slaves...? (responses included:grumpy, sad, embarrassed & like a child – the last response gave me pausefor thought, since these were children who were responding…)

Butthen God sent a leader, someone who spoke up for the Israelites. His name was….Can anyone remember? (Moses – the childrenwho had done his story did remember him!). He went to Pharaoh and after alot of time and trouble he managed to persuade him to let the people of Israelgo back to their own land. It was very difficult. In the end the Israelites hadto run for their lives, with only the things they could carry with them becausewhen Pharaoh saw them go he realised that he wouldn’t have so many slaves to dohis work anymore. He sent his army after them, but they just managed to get outbefore the army caught them. They ran until they came to a wide sea, but Godmade a pathway through the sea, which closed up again when the Egyptians triedto follow (I told this rather more dramatically than this, but this is theoutline.)

Mosesled them across the desert for years and years and years and years… tillfinally they came to their new home – the land of Israel which their ancestorshad left so long ago. They were going to be in charge of things here. In Egyptthey had to do what they were told, but now they could arrange their societyjust the way they wanted. But what would it be like? What sort of place wouldit be?

Ifyou were in charge of everything, what would you want the world to be like? Suggestionsincluded: fair, free, full of trains and chocolate!

Thepeople of Israel had to decide what really mattered to them. Moses told themthat one rule was especially important.

Theymust always remember the time when they were slaves in Egypt. They must tellthe story every year so that they didn’tforget it.

Whydo you think it might be a good idea for them to remember that time – you mightthink they would want to forget it.

Childrensuggested: “in case the army came for them again” and various other things, buteventually someone said , “so that they wouldn’t treat anyone else the way theyhad been treated.”

Soevery year, at a special festival called the Passover – the people of Israel,the Jewish people tell that story again, the story of the time they wereslaves. They remember it not to make themselves miserable, but so that theywon’t treat others the way they were treated themselves and would alwayswelcome strangers in their land.

Noneof us have been slaves in Egypt – that was a long time ago. But I bet we canall remember times when we haven’t been very happy, when someone has been meanto us, when we have felt different, pushed out, when we feel like we haven’tgot any friends.

It’snot much fun feeling like that, but if we can remember what it feels like whenother people are mean to us, it can stop us being mean to other people, andthat is a good thing.

IfI know what it feels like not to have any friends, that can help me remember to be a good friendto others. If I know what it feels like when someone hurts me, that helps meremember not to hurt others, because they feel just as bad as I did.

Silence & prayer; weremember what it feels like when someone has made us unhappy, and we pray thatwill help us not to make others unhappy.

Belshazzar’s Feast - Seal Theme Getting on and Falling out – sometimes we don’t see that what we are doing is hurting others.

2011-11-17T11:34:00.001Z

Props(Optional): Some ornamental looking metal cups,plates, bowls, candlesticks etc on a table, and a sack or rubbish bag to putthem in. OHP of the writing on the wall – mene mene tekel parsin and a pointingfinger.

This is a story from the Old Testament. Once, long ago, thepeople who wrote the Bible, the Israelites, had been conquered by the king ofBabylon. His soldiers had smashed their city of Jerusalem to bits and destroyedthe Temple where they worshipped God as well. The soldiers had even stolen allthe wonderful treasure from the Temple – the gold and silver cups andcandlesticks, all the things they used in their worship. These weren’t justbeautiful things, they were very special, sacred, holy. The people of Israel caredabout these things, because they used them for worship and for prayer. But theBabylonians didn’t care about that. Put the cups etc in a sack. They took the treasure, and the people, faraway to Babylon where the people were made to work for them as slaves.

Many years later, they were still there, and a new king wason the throne in Babylon, a king called Belshazzar. Belshazzar was a great king,and he knew it. He had lots of power, lots of money and he thought he could doexactly what he wanted – so he did. He didn’t care whether how anyone felt orwhat anyone thought, except him.

One day Belshazzar decided to have a party. It would be the biggest,best party anyone had ever had. He invited a thousand people. He ordered wineand food to be brought. The servants piled the food on the tables till theywere groaning under the weight. Belshazzar sat down with his guests and beganto drink and eat. But as he looked around he thought to himself that the feastcould look even grander than it did. What it needed was a bit more gold, a bitmore silver. “I know,” he thought. “We could use all those gold and silver cupswe took from the Temple in Jerusalem, and the candlestands to light the hall,the ones the Israelites used in their worship.” And he ordered them to bebrought up from the treasury. And he gave out the cups to people to use at theparty, just as if they were ordinary things. He could do what he wanted – hewas king, after all. He was the boss of everyone.

The king sat down again to drink and to eat. But then henoticed something on the wall opposite, something very strange. He could see ahand, just a hand, writing something on the wall. And this is what it wrote.(reveal the words on an OHP – mene mene tekel parsin)

And the king thought, “What!?” . What did these strangewords mean? The king had more idea than we do, because they were words thatwere in the language he spoke. He knew that they were words that were used forweighing and measuring things – just like we use grams and kilogrammes,centimetres and metres. But he still couldn’t understand what this strangemessage meant, and he knew it must mean something important or it wouldn’t haveappeared like this.

He sent for all his wise men and magicians and advisers. “I’llgive you fine clothes and lots of money and power if you can tell me what thismeans”. They all scratched their heads and thought hard- they wanted theclothes and money and power he’d promised - but they couldn’t understand the words at all.

Then the Queen had an idea. “There is a man who your father,the old king, used to talk to,” shesaid. “He used to say that he was very wise – perhaps you should ask him? He is one of the people who came fromJerusalem, and his name is Daniel.”

So the king sent for Daniel. “I’ll give you fine clothes andlots of money and power if you can tell me what this message means”. “I don’twant your fine clothes, or your money or power,” said Daniel, “but I can tellyou what this means. It is a message from God, the God of Israel, the God whowas worshipped in Jerusalem in the Temple, whose cups and plates and bowls youhave stolen and are using here as if they were just any old dishes, whosepeople you have made into slaves. This message says that God has seen what youhave done, how you have treated people. He has weighed you up, measured you –not on the outside, but on the inside – he’s had a good look at you, and heisn’t pleased with what he sees. You have treated people badly. You didn’tthink it mattered what you did, but you were wrong. There’s going to be troublecoming to you, and you aren’t going to be king anymore.”

And Belshazzar knew suddenly that Daniel was right. He hadthought that it just didn’t matter what he did. It didn’t matter if he hurtpeople or treated them wrong. Nothing would happen to him – he was the king.

And that very night, a foreign army attacked Babylon, and anew king took over, and that was the end of Belshazzar. He discovered that evena king has to think about what he’s doing and change if he is wrong.

What do you think about that story?

People sometimes talk today about seeing “the writing on thewall”– it is this story it comes from. They mean that they can see signs thatsomething is going to turn out badly – it might seem fine at the moment, butthere’s going to be trouble. If people are being mean to each other in smallways, it will probably end up in a fight – you can see it coming, the writing’son the wall, we say. It might not seem like anything very big or important, butin the end it will turn out to matter. It’s a bit like having your name on the “sadside”. When that happens you know you really need to think carefully about what you’ve done and try to change, becauseit matters.

Thinking about that story, I wonder what we should pray about today?

Pray ? that we will see when we need to change and dothings differently – small things matter. We can’t just do what we want and expectlife to go on smoothly.

***The children were very still at the end – I wonderedwhether they had expected a happy ending, and were a bit shocked that it didn’thave one. It was important to emphasize in the time of prayer at the end thatGod forgives us when we do wrong so we can start again.***

The man who had everything

2011-10-13T13:06:00.000+01:00

The man who hadeverything – Luke 12.13-21 KS 2 -SEAL Theme New beginnings - resolving an argument

I’ve got a brother. We get on very well now, but when wewere little we used to argue. Brothers and sisters usually do. Do you fightwith your brothers and sisters? What do you fight about? Often it is probablythings that when you think about it don’t really matter all that much. You justwant to win. Sometimes brothers and sisters carry on arguing even when they getbig.

Once two brothers came to see Jesus. They were having a bigargument. Their father had died and they had inherited his money and histhings, but they couldn’t agree how to share them out.. “I should have more”said the older brother,”because I’m the older brother”. No, that’s not fair,said the other, we should share it evenly. Anyway, father’s already given youstuff.” “Yes, but I work harder than you…so I deserve it.”

They were shouting and stamping their feet at each other. “Jesus,they both said – sort it out. Make my brother give me what is fair!”

Jesus sighed… “I’m not really here to sort out familydisputes he said, but let me tell you a story…”

“There was once a farmer who was very successful. His cropsgrew well, and all his animals grew fat and strong. At harvest his farmproduced more than he could use. So he built a barn to put the extra in. Thenext harvest his farm produced even more. So he built another barn, thenanother, then another. He had more food than he knew what to do with, moremoney than he could spend…

Harvest time came round again and yet again it was a bumpercrop, wagon after wagon of grain and vegetables and fruit. He piled it all highin his barns till every little space was filled up. But there was still more tofit in.

It’s no good , he said to himself. I shall have to pull downthese barns and build bigger ones to put all the food in.

So that’s what he did. He built himself the biggest barnsyou’ve ever seen and he filled them up to the rafters with his harvest.

There, he said ! That’s better. Now I shall have everythingI want forever. I shall be able to eat and drink whatever I want whenever Iwant, feast every night, pig out on good food… I’m set up for life!

But at that point, God spoke to him. You silly man, he said.It’s all very well having all this food, being set up for life, but no onelives forever. You are already very old, and as it happens tonight is your last night – you are about to die… andall this food won’t be any use to you now. You have spent your whole lifeheaping it up, but you are never going to get to enjoy it…

And the man thought about it. He thought of all the thingshe hadn’t done while he was busy heaping up all that food. He hadn’t paid anyattention to his family or his friends, and he didn’t have anyone who caredabout him now. He hadn’t actually enjoyed his life, or done anything for anyoneelse. He could have shared his food with others, and made them happy, but he’dkept it all for himself. And now he was dying, and it was too late. And withthat, he died,” said Jesus. “

“Now”, said Jesus, to the brothers who had come to see him, “whatdo you think of that? What’s more important? Having a lot of money and things,or being friends with each other and helping each other out? Which will reallymatter in the end?”

We don’t know what the brothers did – do you think they madeup and found a way of sharing, or do you think they carried on fighting?

What would you do?

(Responses included: “they should share fairly” “It wasmore important that they should be friends than have things”)

We often fight over things that aren’t really important. It’sfar more important to have friends and to look after others.

Prayer – think of something we’ve fought over. Help us tosee what is really important and to share what we have.

St Paul escapes from Damascus - Embracing change - SEAL theme Changes

2011-07-14T13:09:00.000+01:00

St Paul escapesfrom Damascus

Do you know who your friends are?

There was once a man called Saul. He’s in the Bible and whenwe first meet him he was dead set against the friends of Jesus, the people whowere trying to follow him and pass on his message.

He thought they had got it all wrong, and he wasn’t the onlyone. He had friends who agreed with him, friends in high places, friends whohad power to make life very difficult for those who were trying to live the wayJesus had shown them.

Saul and his friends wanted to put a stop to Jesus’ ideasspreading, so they had people arrested if they talked about him.

One day Saul heard that there were some Christians, some ofJesus’ followers in a city called Damascus. He decided that he should go there,find out what they were doing and stop them. His friends all agreed, and they sent him off.

But on the way, a strange thing happened. Suddenly Saul sawa bright light, so bright that he fell down on the ground, and found hecouldn’t see. And as he lay on the ground he heard a voice. Saul, why are youpersecuting me? It said. Who are you? said Saul. I am Jesus, who you arepersecuting. Paul didn’t know what to do or what to think. He was led intoDamascus, because he still couldn’t see, to a house where he could stay.

That night, says the Bible, a Christian called Ananias waspraying in his house, when he heard God’s voice. Go to Straight Street, saidGod, there’s a man there called Saul, who needs your help. I’ve heard of a mancalled Saul, said Ananias, from Damascus. He has been trying to stop Christiansfrom meeting together – it can’t be him you mean, can it?

Yes, said God, that’s the one.

Ananias was very scared – perhaps it was a trick – but hewent, and found Saul, and prayed for him. And Saul was healed. Saul realisedthat he had got it wrong about these Christians, and he decided that he wantedto join them.

But that was where the trouble started.

Ananias told the other Christians about Paul. They were horrified. Saul is our enemy,they said. What if this is all a trick? What if he is just spying on us. ButAnanias persuaded them, and eventually they welcomed him. His enemies hadbecome his friends.

But what about his old friends? The ones who wanted to getrid of Jesus followers, the ones who had sent him to Damascus to sort them out.When they heard that Saul had changed his mind about Jesus they were furious.They hated him even more than they hated the people he had gone to sort out…Soon the word was out – Get rid of Saul, any way you like…

Saul and the Christians in Damascus heard that his formerfriends were out to get him. He wasn’t safe in Damascus, but how could they gethim out. Damascus had a wall all round it, and a big gate which was shut atnight. It was really hard for people to get in and out without people noticing.

Then Ananias and the Christians had an idea. They got a bigbasket, a huge basket. They tied thick ropes to it. In the middle of the night,when it was all dark, they carried the basket up to the top of the walls, and theygot Saul to climb into it. Then they lowered the basket over the walls,quietly, quietly, slowly, slowly, till it reached the ground. Saul climbed out,and went quietly away into the night, and he got away safely.

Saul went on to be a really important leader in the church,but we know him by another name he used, his Roman name – do you know who heis?

St Paul.

In that story Saul’s old enemies, the Christians, weren’tsure of him at first, and his old friends hated it that he changed his mind.

It’s hard when people around us change. If they are ourfriends we want them to think like us and like the things we like. But peopledo change. We all change. We might change the football team we support, orchange our ideas about something. It doesn’t mean that we can’t be friendsanymore, though. It is a real pity when people are so upset by it that theystart hating each other.

Prayer of thanks for our friends, help us to let them bethemselves.

Pentecost: the fruits of the Spirit SEAL theme Change

2011-06-16T11:55:00.001+01:00

You will need: Cards with pictures of the seven Pentecost (Shavuot) fruits - dates, olives, figs, grapes, barley, wheat and pomegranates. You could use the real thing, if you can find them.
Cards with the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5.22) written on them – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
A large basket or trug

As the children arrive give out at random pictures of the Pentecost fruits (dates, olives, figs, grapes, barley, wheat and pomegranates) and cards with the fruits of the spirit (Gal 5.22) written on them – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

It was a special time in Jerusalem – a festival time, like Christmas or Easter is in our country – and Jesus’ friends had all gathered together. It was the festival of Pentecost. This was a sort of harvest festival, when everyone gave thanks for the crops that had started to ripen. They brought a basket of the first fruits, the things which had just started to be ready to eat, to the Temple.

Who has some pictures of those crops? Children bring out pictures and stick them in the bottom of a basket.

It was a time when people gave thanks for all that God had given to them to help them live. It was a very happy time. But the disciples weren’t happy at all. Jesus had left them and gone into heaven. He had told them that now they had to do the things that he used to do – helping people and telling them about God. But they didn’t know how, and they didn’t think they had what they needed to do that. They might have a basket full of dates and figs and olives, but they didn’t have hearts full of the things they knew they would need if they were going to be like Jesus. He was loving and patient and kind, and they knew that often they weren’t at all…
So they all gathered together to pray to God to help them.
And as they prayed something strange happened. They didn’t know quite how to describe it, but they knew that God was close to them. They couldn’t see him, but they knew he was there.

They heard the sound of a rushing wind – but there wasn’t a wind blowing. They felt all excited inside, just as if they were on fire. And when they looked it was as if flames were dancing on all their heads.

Suddenly they knew that God was going to help them grow into the people they needed to be to do his work. He would help them be loving and joyful and patient and kind, just like he helped the crops to grow.

Suddenly they felt really confident, really sure, that with God’s help they could tell others about him. They rushed out into the street and began to talk to the people there. And even if those people didn’t speak the same language as them, they seemed to be able to understand. And soon the message of Jesus started to spread out…They were on their way…

Much later on one Christian leader, St Paul, described the way we grow and change into the kind of people God wants us to be as being like a tree growing fruit – like the fruit people brought in their Pentecost baskets. This sort of fruit wasn’t the kind you could eat, though.

Who has got some words? Children bring out words and stick around basket.

The fruit of God’s Spirit, he said, was love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

Prayer – ask God to help us have lots of the good fruit of the Spirit in our lives to share and/or think of those we know who are loving, kind etc...

This is the text of the notice I displayed with the finished Pentecost basket.

"At the Jewish feast of Pentecost (Shavuot), people brought baskets full of the fruits and crops that were growing around them to give thanks to God.

The New Testament says that it was at this festival that Jesus’ followers first felt the presence of God’s Holy Spirit with them.

St Paul says in the Bible that the Holy Spirit helps us to grow good “fruit” in our lives.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.” Galatians 5.22"

The Roman Centurion asks for help. Relationsips. Developing a sense of responsibility: being trustworthy.

2011-05-12T18:05:00.000+01:00

(Matt 8.5-13)
There was once a Roman soldier. In fact he wasn’t just a soldier, he was a centurion. That means he was in charge of 100 other soldiers. Every day he would gather his soldiers together and give them orders.

Choose three or four children to be the soldiers. Line them up and give them various orders – turn to the right, march towards the door, stop! Etc.

Why do you think they practiced and practiced like that?

The children responded with things like, “practice makes perfect” &” so that they knew what to do when there was a battle.” There was some very detailed response on Roman “tortoise” formations, and the importance of everyone in them playing their part.

The soldiers had to practice doing what their centurion said so that they could all work together when they were in battle to win the battle and keep each other safe. They needed to trust the centurion, that he wouldn’t ask them to do something silly, and he needed to trust them that they would follow his orders when it really mattered.

One day the centurion’s servant, who he loved very much, fell ill. The centurion couldn’t do anything to make him better, but he had heard about Jesus, so he came to see him. Jesus was busy talking to people but he listened to the centurion when he spoke to him. He was very sad to hear his servant was ill. “I will come and pray for him,” said Jesus.

But the centurion said that wouldn’t be necessary. Jesus didn’t need to come all the way to his house when he was so busy. His word would be enough. The centurion explained how he told his soldiers what to do and they did it. People set over him told him what to do and he did it. He trusted Jesus. He knew he would do what he said. His word was enough. If he said the servant would get better, that would do.

Jesus was amazed at how much faith the centurion had. He prayed there and then that the servant would get better, and when the centurion got home that was exactly what had happened.

I wonder whether we always do what we say we will, whether people feel they can trust us. I wonder who we feel we can trust and be sure of.

Prayer
Think about who you trust, who you know will do what they say they will. Give thanks for them
Think about yourself, and ask God to help you be trustworthy and do what you say you will.

Esther – Good to be me. Standing up for my beliefs. KS 1 &2

2011-03-24T12:07:00.000Z

There was once a king. A very powerful king. The most powerful king in all the world. His name was Xerxes (also known as Ahasuerus) and he was the king of Persia. He could do whatever he wanted. One day he decided he wanted a wife, so he sent out an order that all the young women in the land were to come to the palace so he could choose the one he wanted. They all came and paraded in front of him, but it didn’t take him long to choose. The most beautiful woman by far was a woman called Esther. So the king married her and she became queen.

The king didn’t know much about Esther, and in particular he didn’t know that Esther wasn’t Persian, like him. Her family had been brought to Persia as prisoners, many years before, when the army conquered their land and destroyed their city of Jerusalem. Esther’s parents had died, but she had been brought up by her uncle Mordecai, who loved her very much. Mordecai worked at the palace too, as an advisor to the king, but the king had never really noticed him. When Mordecai knew Esther had been chosen he said to her, “whatever you do, don’t tell the king that you are Jewish – or that I am. He might think that we would plot against him. Just keep quiet.” So that is what Esther did.

The king had another advisor, much more powerful than Mordecai though. A man called Haman. He was the king’s right hand man, the one who was always there, whispering in his ear, telling him what he should do. Haman was almost as powerful as the king, and one day the king decided to send out an order that in future, everyone should bow down to Haman and give him respect when they saw him. Now, when the king sent out an order you had to obey it. And everyone did obey, except for Mordecai. He passed by everyone bowed; but Mordecai wouldn’t. “Bow down before me” shouted Haman. “I can’t do that,” said Mordecai. I will only bow down to God, not to people. That is what my faith tells me to do.”
Haman was furious, but he couldn’t make Mordecai do what he wanted. He was so angry he decided that he must get rid of Mordecai.

So he thought up a plan, a very cruel plan. He went to the king. “O king, O wise king. I have come to tell you of some people who are living in your land, people from another country, who won’t do what you tell them. They are a danger to you, and one day they will rise up and attack you.”
“Really!” said the king, “Thank goodness you have told me about them. We must do something to get rid of them” “Quite right, your majesty” said Haman, not telling the king, of course, that Mordecai and Esther were Jewish too. “You must send out an order that they must all be killed.” So that is what the king did. The king set a date, and in every town and village notices went up to say that the Jewish people were to be killed on that date. They were all terrified.
And within the palace Mordecai was terrified too.

He went to Queen Esther and told her what was going to happen. “You are the only one who can help” he told her, “the only one the king will listen to. You must go to him and plead for your people, tell him that you and I are Jewish too, so he can see what he is about to do.”
Esther thought about it. How could she tell the king? What if he was angry with her for challenging him? What if he decided that if she was Jewish she must die too? She was very, very scared. But Mordecai told her that no one else had the power she had, and if she didn’t help, no one else could.

So Esther decided to speak to the king. She invited him to a special feast, to put him in a good mood, and told him that she wanted to ask him for something.
When he arrived and saw his beautiful wife he said to her, “tell me what you want and I will give it to you!”
So Esther, trembling with fear, reminded him of the order he had sent out that all the Jewish people should be killed. “Yes, so what?” said the king. And Esther told him that she was Jewish too, and that his orders would mean that she would be killed as well, along with Mordecai, the king’s loyal servant.
“But how could this have happened? Why did no one tell me?” Esther explained how Haman was trying to trick the king into getting rid of Mordecai. The king was furious with Haman and sent out another order. Instead of the Jewish people being rounded up and killed, Haman was to be arrested. And he was, and the king had him executed the very next day.

And all the Jewish people were spared, and they all rejoiced, and so did the king, who was very glad that he had not lost his beautiful, brave wife. And to this day, Jews celebrate Esther’s courage with a special festival called Purim once a year, when they hear that story again, and the children dress up and act it out. They boo and hiss when they hear about Haman and they cheer for queen Esther. As it happens the festival of Purim was last weekend, so we are telling this story at just the right moment.

I think it is a good story because it helps us to remember that it is sometimes very difficult to do the right thing. It can be hard to be brave, but perhaps if we don’t help someone, no one else might, if we don’t stand up for what is right, no one else will.

Pray: For people all over the world who have to stand up to leaders who treat them unfairly. For everyone who is working to make the world a fairer place, and that we will have the courage to do what is right, like Esther did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim
Photos of Purim celebrations can be found very easily on Google images.

Lent/ Ash Wednesday – Jesus in the Wilderness

2011-03-24T12:02:00.002Z

KS 1 & 2

From Matthew 4

Look at this picture of a desert. (OHP picture of desert)
What can you see?
What can’t you see? (trees, houses, roads…)

I wonder what it would be like to be there?

I’m going to tell you about a time when Jesus went out into the desert.

As Jesus grew up he came to realise that God wanted him to do a special job. He was a carpenter, but he knew that he wouldn’t spend all his life making things. He looked around him and saw how much people were suffering, how they often didn’t treat each other well, and they didn’t know how much God loved them. He wanted to help them to live better.
The older he got the more strongly he felt this call until, in the end he decided he’d have to do something about it.
But what? How could he do this special job? He was just a carpenter. What if he got it all wrong?

He knew he needed to think hard and pray hard, to listen to God. But he couldn’t do that at home. It was too busy. There were too many distractions.

So he went out into the desert to think and pray and listen – a lot of the land around him was desert. He went way out into the desert. There was no one there but him. And he sat and thought, and sat and prayed, and sat and listened. He didn’t even eat. Nothing was going to get in the way of his thinking.

Now, I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I know I have to do something I don’t want to do, or I am trying not to do something wrong, it’s almost like there is a little voice saying to me, “go on, just do it, it won’t matter…” In Bible times people thought of that voice as if it was a real person. They called it Satan or the Devil. It was what tempted people to do wrong.

In this story from the Bible it says that while Jesus was thinking and praying Satan turned up and started to talk to him.

You want to do God’s work… well, there’s an easy way of getting people to listen and to like you. You could give them just what they want – lots of presents. You could turn stones into bread and give them out – stones like these around you in the desert. Then they’d all follow you, wouldn’t they?
But Jesus knew that if he did this people would be following him for the wrong reasons. Not to learn to live their lives more fairly, but just for what they would get. No – people need more than bread to live on. They need God’s word, to learn about God and the right way to live.

So Satan tried another tack. Think about the Temple, he said, Imagine you are there. If you really are God’s special one, he will always look after you. Right? So, why not go right to the top and jump off? Surely he’d catch you?
But Jesus said – that’s not the right thing to do at all. I know God loves me, but that doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to me. Bad things can happen to anyone, and I know I might have to suffer because of the things I say. It isn’t right to test God like that.

So Satan tried one last time. Look. You want to help people, to have an influence on the world. The best way to do that is if you have power, if you are the king, the leader, the boss. I could give you that power, if you decided to do things my way, to serve me.
But Jesus said no again. I know that the most important thing to do is to serve God and do what he wants. Yes, I want people to listen to me, but I don’t want to make them do that by force. I want them to listen because they think what I am saying is right, so I will never serve you or do what you want.

And Satan was stumped. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say, and off he went.

And Jesus was left alone in the desert, knowing what he should do, and how he should do it. He knew that he must tell people about God’s love and show that love by treating them well, not bossing them about but helping them, not trying to get rich and powerful, and if it meant that things were hard for him, he knew it was worth it.

We tell that story in Church at the beginning of a special time – Lent. It’s a time when Christians try to spend time thinking and praying and listening to God so that they can help others. Just like Jesus we have to think hard about this, be honest about when we get it wrong and ask for God’s forgiveness and help.
As a sign of that, at the beginning of Lent we go to church for a special service when the priest puts ashes on people’s heads. It’s an old sign of feeling sorry or feeling sad. It’s a bit messy, and it can feel a bit silly but it reminds us that we all mess up sometimes, and that God forgives us and will help us.
We did this at Seal Church yesterday, so I thought I would bring in the ashes that were left over. We make them from the crosses which we blessed last year on Palm Sunday, the week before Easter. When they are blessed on Palm Sunday they symbolise our desire to follow Jesus, but we often fail and get it wrong - all our efforts come to dust and ashes. Using the Palm Crosses to make the ashes reminds us that although we get it wrong, God will always forgive us and give us a new start.

Show picture of person with ash cross on forehead. (Google Ash Wednesday – there are plenty of images.)

I left the ashes at school to be passed around with a note, as follows:

ASHES
from Ash Wednesday service

These ashes are made by burning the Palm Crosses which we blessed on Palm Sunday last year (mixed with a bit of olive oil so that they stick).
They symbolise the way in which the good intentions we had then to follow Christ and live right often come to dust and ashes.
Putting ash on your head is an ancient symbol of feeling sorry or sad. (We talk about going about in sackcloth and ashes).

You may like to show the children the ash – it is fine to demonstrate, perhaps on your hand, how they make a smudge, but I don’t suggest you “ash” the children, or allow them to ash each other, as this is part of a Christian ritual which you would really have to check out with parents that they were happy for the children to take part in.

The Lepers at the Gate – Going for Goals – making choices KS 1 &2

2011-02-03T11:49:00.001Z

2 Kings 7

This is a story from the Old Testament of the Bible.
There were once 4 men who were very ill. They had a disease called leprosy, and that meant that no one wanted to come near them. They lived in a city called Samaria, which had a high wall all around it to keep it safe. When the men got ill the people in the city made them live outside the walls. They couldn’t earn their own livings so they had to beg for food from the people in the city as they went in and out through the gates. Sometimes people gave them food; sometimes they didn’t. It all depended how they felt. The men were very miserable.

Then one day war broke out. An enemy army came to Samaria. They wanted to capture the city and have it for themselves, so they didn’t want to damage it. They camped all around the city, a little way off, stopping anyone from going in or out of the city. Soon they knew that the people would be hungry, and they thought they would give in.

The people in the city ate all the food in their cupboards. Then they ate all the food in the shops. Then there was nothing left to eat. What could they do? They were all starving.

Meanwhile, outside the walls the men with leprosy were starving too. Now the people in the city didn’t have anything to give them even if they had wanted to. The men looked across at the enemy camp and wondered. If they stayed where they were they would starve to death. But if they went over to the enemy camp and surrendered perhaps they would get some food there. They had nothing to lose – no one in the city wanted them anyway. So they decided that they would creep across to the enemy camp that night when it was dark.

What they didn’t know was that on that night God had an idea too. God didn’t want the people of Samaria to starve, so this is what he did. In the middle of the night, when all the soldiers were in bed, he made them think that they heard a noise. It was the noise of marching feet. It was the noise of clashing swords and shields and spears. It was the noise of a great army, greater even than theirs. The soldiers sat up in bed. “What is that noise?” they all said. “It’s an army, coming to attack us!” And they all jumped out of bed, and ran out of their tents. There was nothing to see, but the noise was deafening. They took to their heels and ran. They ran and ran, as far away from the noise, and the city, as they could, leaving all their belongings just where they were.

The four men didn’t know about any of this, of course, so when they got to the camp, just as the sun was rising, they were very puzzled. Where was everybody? There were no soldiers on guard, and no one around at all. They looked in the tents. They were all empty. But the tables were piled high with food, and clothes, and weapons and armour, and gold and silver and everything anyone could ever want. The four men were overjoyed. They could eat and eat until they were stuffed. They could have more riches than they had ever dreamed of. And it was all for them, just the four of them. But just when they were about to start feasting on the food one of them stopped. “Wait a minute” he said. “What about all those people back in the city? They are hungry too? Shouldn’t we share this food and all these things with them? Perhaps we should go back to tell them what has happened?”

The four men stopped and thought. I wonder what they decided to do.
Talk about what the children feel about the choice the men had to make.

· What do you think they should do?
· Should they share the food, or eat it all themselves?
· Why might they have wanted to keep it all?
· People in the city hadn’t wanted to give them anything – why should they share now?
· What do you think?

The men did decide to go back to Samaria and tell the people what had happened. Then they all came and shared in the food, so everyone had some. The four men were brave and generous in doing this, and helped their whole community, even though their community had not treated them well.
Prayer: For help to think of others when we are making choices. Not just what is good for us, but what is good for everyone.

Nehemiah rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem - SEAL theme: Going for goals - persistence and hard work.

2011-01-20T11:26:00.003Z

(From the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament)

Needs: pictures of rebuilding work in Haiti (or rebuilding after some other disaster)

Once there was a man named Nehemiah. His family used to live in Jerusalem, but then an enemy army, the Babylonians, had come and defeated his people, and marched them across the desert many miles to their own country. There they had stayed for years and years, having to do whatever the Babylonians told them. Nehemiah had been born in that foreign land, but his parents had told him about the city of Jerusalem – how beautiful and strong it had been, with fine walls and gates to keep its people safe.

After a long time, there was a new king in that land, a kinder king, and he decided to let all Nehemiah’s people go home to their own land if they wanted to. Nehemiah, though, was one of the kings closest and best servants, so he stayed behind when the others left. Nehemiah wanted to see Jerusalem, but he knew the king wanted him to stay, and he had to do what the king wanted.

Then one day Nehemiah got a letter, a letter from his friends who had gone back home. He read it eagerly wanting to hear all about how beautiful Jerusalem was, but the more he read the sadder he felt. “Dear Nehemiah”, it said, “Jerusalem, our beautiful city, is in ruins. The walls have all been knocked down, the gates have been burned. People and animals come and go in and out of the city, just taking whatever they want and no one cares about it. We waited so long to come home, but there is no home to come to! Jerusalem is finished.”

Nehemiah was so sad. He didn’t know what to do. That day when he went in to serve the king, he tried very hard not to show how sad he was – he knew he mustn’t look sad in front of the king. The king didn’t want lots of long faces around him. But the king could see there was something wrong. “What’s wrong, Nehemiah?” he asked. Nehemiah told him about Jerusalem, how beautiful it had been and how it was all in ruins now.
“Well,” said the king, “then you must go back and sort it out. Rebuild the walls! Rebuild the gates! Make it safe and beautiful again! I can’t have my favourite servant sad like this.” And the king didn’t just send Nehemiah back, he also gave him all the things he would need – wood and stone – so he could do the job.

So Nehemiah went to Jerusalem. He felt much better now. He could sort it all out. He thought it would all be straightforward, but when he got there he found his problems were just beginning. It was much worse than he thought. The first night he was there, he got a donkey and rode all around the city – there was hardly any wall left - and everyone was tired and fed up, convinced there was nothing they could do. He went to the people in charge of the city and told them what he planned. You’ll never do it, they said!

“Yes I will, with God helping me” he answered, “and all of us working together.” He came up with a plan. Each family would rebuild a bit of the wall near them. If everyone did a bit, they would soon be finished.
They weren’t sure it would work, but they all set to work, and they all worked hard, and the wall began to grow. They thought they were winning, but then a dreadful thing happened.

Not everyone was pleased to see the walls getting higher. Some of the people who lived around Jerusalem didn’t want it to be strong. They wanted to be able to come and go into it, taking what they wanted from it. One day when the people came to work on the wall, they found they had an audience; their enemies had come to watch them and as they watched they kept making fun of them. “what a pathetic wall. It’s so low a fox could jump over it. You’ll never be able to build it high enough.” The builders looked at the wall, and it was true – it wouldn’t keep anyone out. They just felt like giving up. What was the point? Nehemiah had to work very hard to encourage them to keep going, but he did, and the wall kept growing.

Their enemies wouldn’t give up either though. Nehemiah started to hear reports that they were planning to attack the builders. The people were very frightened. Once again they felt like giving up. But once again Nehemiah gathered them together.

When you go out to work on the wall, he said, you must take a trowel in one hand, and a sword in the other. That way you can be ready if anyone attacks. Do whatever you have to, said Nehemiah, but whatever you do, don’t give up. And they didn’t give up, and the wall kept growing, higher and higher and higher.

And then one day they looked at the wall they had built, and they realised it was big enough, big enough to keep them safe inside its walls, big enough to keep their enemies out. It had gates that were strong, that they could close when they needed to. It was wonderful, and they couldn’t quite believe that they had done it, but somehow or other, the job was finished. They had all worked together. They hadn’t given up. And they had a great celebration, thanking Nehemiah, and most of all thanking God.

· I wonder what you think about that story – what would you have felt like if you were one of those builders. What helped them to keep going?
· It’s often easy to start a job, but it is really hard to keep going when things go wrong. People around us can encourage us. Sometimes we have to think of a different way of doing things.
· Show some pictures of Haiti (or the aftermath of a similar disaster) and of the work to rebuild there (A search for “Haiti rebuilding” in Google images will bring up plenty of pictures). Haiti had an earthquake a year ago. People have had to work hard and keep going in the face of illness and poverty, but together they are rebuilding.
· Pray for ourselves when we feel like giving up, and for the people of Haiti, that we would be able to keep going. Thank God that he is with us to help us. Pray that we would find people to encourage us, and that we would encourage others.

What's Christmas about?

2010-11-16T17:21:00.002Z

It's that time of year again. Out come the nativity play costumes. Who's going to be Mary? What new slant can we take on the story this time...?

I can't answer those questions, but I recently did a staff training session at my local school on the meaning of the Christmas story to Christians. It is easy to find that the Christmas story becomes stale and trivialised, no more than a nice story to give us a bit of sparkle in the darkness of winter. But what did it mean to those who first told it (or rather "them, since there are two distinctly different stories in Matthew and Luke's Gospel - and none in Mark or John). And what does it mean to the grown-up Christians who cherish it still.

I produced a handout to go with the session I led - if it is any use to you, please use it.
It's called "Beyond the tea towels and the tinsel", and that is where I hope it will take us.

“You are the body of Christ” 1 Cor 13

2010-11-04T16:12:00.000Z

N.B. This assembly is about the whole body working together. Be aware of the fact that some children in your assembly might have disabilities. Parts of their bodies might not work, or not work well. Be sensitive in the way you talk about what the body can do.

Song – I’ve got a body.

There was once a group of people who all wanted to live the way Jesus had taught them. They were Christians, some of the very first Christians, and they lived in a city called Corinth, in Greece. They had learned about Jesus because St Paul had travelled to Corinth and told them about him. They liked hearing stories about Jesus and they had each decided that they wanted to be Christians, so they came together to be one of the very first Christian churches – there wasn’t a building, but they all got together in each others homes, to eat together, pray together and help each other.

But there was a problem. They were all different from each other. Some of them were rich; some of them were poor. Some of them were men; some of them were women. Some of them were old; some of them were young. Some of them were slaves, who had to do what their bosses told them; some of them were the bosses and had slaves under them. Some of them had grown up, like Jesus and Paul, in Jewish families, hearing the stories of the Jewish people – Moses and Abraham and Joseph – and worshipping in Jewish ways with Jewish prayers. Others had grown up worshipping Greek and Roman gods and hearing stories about them.

They all had different ideas about the right way to live and the right thing to do, and they all thought that their way was the only way.

So they were always arguing. They could only see the world from their point of view – they were right and everyone else was wrong. They couldn’t work together on anything, because there would always be arguments. Instead of being friends, they were turning into enemies.

The leaders of the church were worried. What could they do? So they wrote a letter to St Paul and told him about it.

St Paul thought and thought. What could he write that would help them. Then he had an idea.

And this is what he wrote – we still have the letter – it’s in the Bible.

“Think about your body”, he said. “It’s got all sorts of different parts. It’s got feet. Feet are good.”
What can you do with feet?
It’s got hands. Hands are good.
What can you do with hands?
It’s got eyes…
A nose…

Just imagine, said Paul – and this is a bit silly – that your body was just a foot on its own. You were just one big foot. What use would that be? You could hop to places, but you couldn’t see where you were going or do anything when you got there.
Or just imagine an eye on its own – you could see everything, but you couldn’t go anywhere.
Imagine you were just a hand, or just a nose – wouldn’t that be silly?
(The children did indeed think this was very silly – “but if you were just an eye you would be rolling around all over the place…” they said. I think we miss the fun of St Paul sometimes…)

All the bits of our body do different things, but they are all important,. It’s no good the hand saying to the foot “you’re not as important as me.” They are just different, doing different jobs. If one bit of our body hurts – if our foot hurts, say - we feel sad all over.

So, said Paul. In your church you are all like a big body working together – the body of Jesus. Some of you might be like the eyes – you are good at noticing people. You see when someone is upset. Some of you might be like the feet or the hands – you are good at going out and doing something to help the people that the eyes have noticed. You all need each other BECAUSE you are different. If you were all the same, you wouldn’t be able to do all the things you need to.”

Paul wrote all that down in a letter, and he sent it off to Corinth. And the next time the people in that church got together the leaders read out the letter. And I wonder what happened. We don’t know the answer to that, because we haven’t got the letter they wrote back, but I hope they all looked at each other and realised that it was silly to fight over who was best, and who was right. I hope that they saw that each of them was important in a different way.

It’s the same in school isn’t it? Miss Smith is good at being the head teacher. Mr Wooding is good at mending things in the school. The cooks are good at making the dinners. You are good at learning things. I like coming in and telling you stories. If everyone does what they are good at, the school works well – but just imagine, if everyone tried to do everyone else’s job. I don’t know how good Miss Smith is at mending things, or cooking dinners… I might like coming in to tell you stories, but I wouldn’t want Miss Smith’s job – I don’t think I would be very good at it.

I wonder what you are good at. I wonder what your job is in school.
If we all do our job, and value the jobs that others do, we will have a happy school.

Let’s think about that for a while in silence. What are you good at and how can you use that to help others?

Prayer: Lord, help us to do the jobs we have to do in school and to notice the things others do and be grateful for them.

Ruth and Naomi – New beginnings – making someone welcome

2010-10-14T16:14:00.000+01:00

The Book of Ruth – Old Testament.

I wonder if you’ve ever moved home and gone to live somewhere else.
· Talk about moving (sensitivity needed: children can move house for all sorts of reasons – family breakdown etc.) It can be exciting, but also strange being a new place, having to make new friends. The story I’m going to tell you is about two people who have to move home. It comes from the Old Testament of the Bible.

There was once a woman called Naomi. Naomi came from Israel, but she and her husband had had to leave their home because there wasn’t any food where they lived. They went to a different country called Moab, far from their home. When they got there it was very strange, but they settled down and they had a family – two fine sons. Their sons grew up and married girls who came from that land.
But then a terrible thing happened to Naomi. First her husband got ill and died, then both of her sons died too. There she was, in a land far from her home, with no one to look after her. The only people she really knew were her sons’ wives, but it wasn’t fair to expect them to care for her as she got old. They would probably marry new husbands.
Naomi decided she had better go back to Israel, where she had come from. She’d been away for a long time, but there would surely be relatives there she could stay with. She told her son’s wives that she was going back and started to say goodbye. She hoped they would make a new life for themselves.

But one of them, Ruth, looked very sad at this. “I can’t let you go back to Israel on your own,” she said “I will come with you. Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” And so she left all her family, her home, her friends, and she went with Naomi. It was a long journey, and when they got to the town Naomi had come from – Bethlehem – everything seemed very strange and foreign to her. Naomi hoped that someone from her family would invite them to stay, but no one did. What were they going to do? They needed to eat and they needed somewhere to live.

It was harvest time when they arrived. People were cutting the corn and bringing it in. In those days they didn’t have machines to cut the corn. It was all cut by hand using sharp knives. There was a custom that those who cut the corn shouldn’t cut right up to the edges of the field. If they missed a bit of corn here and there or dropped some, they should leave it. Then people who didn’t have any land of their own, who were poor, could come and pick it up and keep it for themselves. It was called gleaning. Naomi was too old to glean – all that bending down was too hard for her now. But Ruth went straight to the fields to see what she could gather. All day she worked in the hot sun, following the men who were cutting the corn. When dinner time came, and they all stopped, she kept going. While they were eating, the owner of the land, a rich man called Boaz came by to see how they were getting on.

He noticed the young woman working so hard. “Who is that?” he said. “That’s the woman who came from Moab with Naomi. She’s not one of us – she’s a foreigner – and the two of them are on their own here with no one to help them.” Boaz looked at Ruth, working so hard, and he thought she must be very brave and good to have come so far so that Naomi wouldn’t be on her own.

“Make sure you leave her plenty of corn to gather” he told the men, “and make sure you are kind to her and treat her well.”

Day after day Ruth gleaned in the fields, and Boaz watched her. Ruth told Naomi about the man who had been kind to her. Naomi was very happy to hear it because she knew that Boaz was a distant relative of hers as well as being a good man.
After a while Boaz realised that he couldn’t find a better person to marry than Ruth – someone who had shown how loyal and loving she was by the way she looked after Naomi. He and Ruth got married, and they had a son, called Obed.
And the Bible tells us that Obed had a son called Jesse, and Jesse had a son called David. I told you a story about David about a month ago. He was a shepherd boy but he became….(can you remember?)…the king of Israel.
Wasn’t it a good thing that Boaz welcomed Ruth and looked after her. Someone who was a stranger from a foreign land turned out to be really important.

Being somewhere new, or having someone new come to our class, can seem strange sometimes – we don’t like things to change – but we never know what is going to happen. A stranger can turn into a best friend, or teach us something important, or help us in some way. That’s a really good reason to make sure we make new people feel welcome. I

Pray: for all the people who have come new to Seal School this term. For all the new friends we’ve made.

St Michael – KS 1& 2 - Friends in high places - Being Brave - Seal Theme New beginnings - Autumn

2010-09-30T15:55:00.004+01:00

Revelation 12.7-9

Yesterday was a special day for Christians. It was St Michael's Day. Some people call it Michaelmas (if you can lay your hands on some Michaelmas daisies you could show them.)

To understand the story of St Michael we need to think about one of these...
Show OHP picture of a dragon. (I managed to find one in Google images which was scary enough, without being absolutely terrifying!)

· What words can you think of to describe this dragon. (The children instantly said "scary")
Why are dragons scary? ( A wonderful child explained that "we are very small and they are very big and they might eat us!")
· Do you think it would be safe to get too close to him?

Dragons don't really exist, of course. They are made up, but people have often told stories about dragons as a way of thinking about things that are big and frightening.

In the Bible there is a story about a dragon.

A man called John was in trouble. A little while after the time of Jesus he had heard about him and decided to follow him. He became the leader of a church. It wasn’t like Seal church, a big stone building. It was just a small group of people getting together to pray and to try to live the way Jesus had taught them.

But it was a dangerous time to be a follower of Jesus. The Roman army ruled the land where John lived, and they didn’t like Jesus’ followers at all. They thought they were troublemakers. So one day soldiers came and arrested John. They didn’t put him in prison. Instead they sent him to an island, far out to sea, called Patmos, and they made him stay there. It was dry and dusty on the island, and John was very unhappy. He was especially unhappy because he knew that his friends were back in the land he’d come from, and that they would be missing him and be unhappy without him. He wanted to get back to them, but he couldn’t. When he thought about the Romans, who were very powerful and who ruled almost all of the world he knew, he couldn’t imagine that things would ever get better. Who could ever defeat such a great power? Everyone was scared of them. No one was strong enough.

But then John had a dream. In his dream he heard God calling to him. I’m going to show you something, John – you just watch. I know things look terrible now, but they won’t always be like that.
And John looked. And he saw, in the heavens, a great big dragon. He knew it wasn’t a real thing, but it stood for all the bad things that were happening – all the sadness in the world.
And then he saw God, like a king. Kings in those days always had armies of soldiers, so of course God, the great king, had to have an army too. His army was made up of angels – great big strong angels. And at the head of this good army was the biggest, best angel of the lot – he was called the archangel Michael, the leader of the angels.
And as John watched Michael started to fight with the dragon. There was a great battle in his dreams. But in the end, who do you think won? That’s right – Michael and the angels won, and the dragon – all those sad, bad things – were defeated.

And John thought again about the sad and bad things that had happened to him – the soldiers coming, the people back at home who were worried about him – and he realised that God was looking after him and them too, and that in the end, the good things in the world would be stronger than the bad things, just like in the dream. He knew too, that he had God and his angels on his side to help him.

Show OHP picture of St Michael killing the dragon (again, Google images is your friend...)
· Look at the picture of Michael and the dragon.
· If you were in trouble, I wonder who you would look up to to help you? (teachers, parents, big brothers and sisters...)
· Sometimes we are the ones who can help, like Michael.
· Perhaps if you knew someone was feeling sad, or being bullied, you could help them.

Prayer . Silence to think of the times when we feel as if we might be facing a dragon. Thank you for the story of Michael and the dragon. Sometimes bad things happen or we feel sad. Help us to remember that you are with us, and help us to remember that sometimes we can be like Michael, the one who helps others too.

Samuel chooses David - SEAL theme: New Beginnings - Being brave - KS 1 & 2

2010-09-17T08:45:00.004+01:00

1 Sam 16: 1-13

This is the first time I’ve seen you this year. I wonder what this year will be like?
· What are you looking forward to this year? (Gather responses)
· What do you think might be difficult this year? (Gather responses - these included a YR child who was scared that planes would fly over the school and drop bombs on him... which is a reminder of what might be going on in the imaginations of the children we teach. He said it rather quietly to me, so I just acknowledged it without repeating it to the rest of the school, and made sure I had a word with his teacher afterwards. )

I’m going to tell you a story from the Bible about someone who found he had a difficult job to do

The people of Israel had a king to rule over them. He was called Saul. But Saul wasn’t a very good king – he wasn’t ruling the country well. God saw what Saul was doing and he decided that there should be a new king to take over from him.

So God spoke to the prophet, Samuel and told him that he was going to choose a new king. “Saul won’t like that!” said Samuel – “he’ll be really angry”. (A prophet was someone who listened to God’s voice and told people what God was saying.) So God said to Samuel, “Go to the house of a man called Jesse in Bethlehem. Tell him that you have come to worship God with him and his family. Jesse has some sons, and I want one of them to be the new king.” In those days, they didn’t put crowns on the heads of their kings. Instead they anointed them on the head with special oil, so Samuel took some of the special oil with him and set off.

When he got to Bethlehem he soon found Jesse’s house. He didn’t tell him that he was looking for a new king, though. He just told him to call for his sons, so that they could all worship God together. Jesse was very puzzled, but he trusted Samuel, so he did what he asked. Now Jesse had a lot of sons, and Samuel wondered how he would know which one God had chosen to be king.
The first of the sons came into the place where he and Jesse were. He was a big, strong looking man. “This looks like a fine young man,” thought Samuel. “He’d make a wonderful king, surely?” But just as he was about to go forward and put the oil on his head he heard God’s voice. “No, this isn’t the one - you can’t judge what someone is like by what they look like on the inside. I judge them by what their hearts are like, whether they are good people who will do the right things.”
So Samuel stayed where he was. The second son came in. He was very strong and handsome too –“ is it this one?” No”, said God. The third came in. He looked as big and tough as the others. “This one?” he asked God, quietly, but the answer was still no. One by one seven of Jesse’s sons came before Samuel, but each time he heard God say that this wasn’t the one he wanted to choose.
After the seventh came in, Samuel waited, but no one else came. “Is this all your sons?” he asked Jesse. “Are they all here?” , Well, said Jesse, “there is one more, but you won’t want to see him. He is just a boy, not big and strong like these others. I didn’t bother sending for him. He looks after the sheep for me – he’s not grown up enough to do anything else yet.” “Well,” said, Samuel, “you’d better send for him, because God has told me that all your sons need to be here before we begin.”

So Jesse sent for the youngest. It took a while, but someone went to fetch him, and, eventually in he came, just a boy, not at all sure why he’d had to come home. “This is David, my youngest son, said Jesse” He came before Samuel, and stood there, looking puzzled. But God’s voice in Samuel’s head said, “This one! This is the one I have chosen.” And Samuel got up and took the oil which he had brought with him, that special oil that was only used for making someone a king, and he poured it all over David. And from that day onward David knew that God had chosen him for a very special job. It was a long time – not till he was grown up – that he actually became king, but he knew that this was what God wanted, and that God would help him to be a good king. And when he became king, he was a very great king indeed. Who would have thought it? David the shepherd boy, king of Israel.

· I wonder what it would be like suddenly to find out that you were going to be king, like David? (The children all thought, from the responses I got, that it would be rather frightening, and they wouldn’t want to do it! I half expected that some might think it would be fun, but no one did.)
· It might sound exciting to be a king but it was a very difficult job to do as well – Saul wasn’t going to like it. But David turned out to be a good king, because he remembered that God was with him.
· When we thought about the things that might happen this year, some of them seemed exciting and some of them seemed difficult. When we wonder if we will be able to manage to do them, we can remember, like David, that God is with us to help us.

Prayer –think of something you are looking forward to and something you might find difficult this year. (Could ask the children to hold out one hand for the first thing and one for the second.) “Help us to remember that you are with us all the time.”

Just a rock (Secondary Assembly for Science Week)

2010-09-09T14:33:00.005+01:00

This assembly was put together for Science Week at my husband's school (he is a Physics teacher). There was a geological theme running through the week.

The assembly, which was delivered by the students, was aimed at focussing the attention on something we often don't notice - the rocks that make up the earth.

A large rock - pinched from our rockery - was placed on a table at the front at the beginning of the assembly. The students then read the script here - while the powerpoint presentation played.
There was then some music (Mendelssohn: Fingal's Cave) as the slideshow cycled through again.
The assembly finished with a prayer.

Apart from the fact that there was a fire drill in the middle of it, I am told it went well! (In fact, if people still recalled it after all the drama and disruption at all I would count it a success...) So I post it here in case it is any use to anyone else.

The Samaritan Woman at the well - SEAL theme Changes - KS1 & 2

2010-07-15T11:55:00.000+01:00

Once Jesus and his disciples were travelling from Jerusalem, in the south of the land where they lived, to Galilee, in the north. But between the two there was another land, called Samaria. The people who lived there – Samaritans – didn’t get on with Jewish people like Jesus and his friends. They didn’t talk to each other at all if they could help it. they didn’t eat together. Sometimes people would walk for miles around the edge of Samaria, rather than have to go into it. But Jesus and his friends just walked right into Samaria.
It was a hot day, and they had come a long way. They were hungry and thirsty and tired. After a while they came to a well, just outside a village, where the village people came to collect water – they didn’t have water from taps like we do. There was no one there now, though, because it was the hottest part of the day. No one wanted to be carrying water in this heat.

The disciples looked at Jesus and they could see he was even more tired than they were. “You wait here,” they said, “and we’ll go and bring some food from the village for you.

So off they went, and left Jesus to rest. Jesus sat on the edge of the well, and looked down into it. He could see the water at the bottom of it, and he really wanted a drink, but he didn’t have a bucket or a jar, and the water was too far down for him to reach. What a shame! He was so thirsty.

But just then he realised that there was someone coming towards the well. It was a woman, on her own, carrying a water jug. Jesus was surprised. Normally all the women came together, early in the morning when it was cool. They liked to go together too – it was a chance to meet and talk as they fetched the water. But this woman was all on her own, trudging along the road. Maybe she had no friends. Maybe the other women didn’t like her for some reason, or were mean to her, so she preferred to come on her own when there was no one around, even if it meant coming out when it was baking hot?

But Jesus was glad to see her. “Hello,” he said, “I’m so glad you’ve come. Could you get me a drink of water from the well, please? I am so thirsty, and I don’t have a bucket.” The woman looked at him in surprise. Jewish people usually didn’t talk to Samaritans if they could help it, and men didn’t usually talk to women unless they were part of the family, but Jesus wanted her help.
She was so surprised that he was talking to her, so surprised that he was asking for her help, so surprised that he was being so friendly that she gave him the water and sat straight down to talk to him. They talked about all sorts of things – their ideas about God and their different customs. Jesus wanted to know what she thought – no one had ever wanted to know what she thought before.
After they had been talking for ages, though, Jesus managed to find out what it was that made her sad, why it was that she was alone at the well in the middle of the day. She’d been married five times, but each time her husband had gone off and left her. Now she lived with someone who wouldn’t marry her. Everyone in her village thought it must be her fault if things didn’t work out for her – there must be something wrong with her. No one wanted to be her friend.
But Jesus did, and she started to realise that it wasn’t her fault that everyone was mean to her after all – there was nothing wrong with her at all.

When Jesus’ disciples came back from the village they were surprised to see Jesus talking to the woman, but they didn’t say anything. She got up and went home, but she felt quite different. She had a friend, someone who had got to know her and like her. Normally she kept herself to herself in the village, but not this day. She rushed from door to door, telling her neighbours about Jesus. “Come and meet him yourself,” she said. “He’s my friend, but he can be your friend too.”

· I wonder what you thought about that story?
· Jesus changed the way that woman thought about herself. She thought she was no good, that no one could like her, but Jesus showed her that there was nothing wrong with her.
· Sometimes we might need to change the way we think about ourselves – might think we are no good at something – or maybe the opposite, that we know it all and don’t need to learn anything new.
· Prayer – that we can learn to see ourselves as we are, not as other people tell us we are.

Joshua and the stones for remembering - KS 1& 2 - SEAL theme Changes

2010-07-01T11:51:00.002+01:00

Joshua Chapter 4
Need: A long piece of blue material. 12 “stones” (crumpled up newspaper wrapped in crepe paper), a paper “stone” – cut out shapes – for each child.

Once the people of Israel had to go on a long journey. Can anyone remember anything about the story of Moses? (Gather responses)
The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt, having to do what the Egyptians told them. But then God sent Moses to rescue them. He led them out of Egypt, and told them that they were going to travel to live in a new land, a land where they could be free, where there would be good land to grow things on. But it was a long journey to get there, through a desert. All along the journey, though, God gave them food to eat and water to drink. It was hard and sometimes they were very fed up, but after many, many years, they finally made it to their new land. Moses had grown old and died by this time, but a new leader called Joshua was leading them.

They came to a river, the river Jordan. Produce blue material and lay it on the floor. On the other side of the river, they could see their new land. It looked wonderful. How were they going to cross it, though? They didn’t have a boat and there wasn’t a bridge. But Joshua asked God for help, and God told him what to do. Just walk into the water, and it will part, just like the sea did when Moses led the people out of Egypt. Pick up the end of the “water” as if it has parted. So that is what Joshua and the people did, and as soon as they stepped into the water, a path opened up through the middle of it – dry land for them to walk in.
They were there! They had arrived! Finally! At last! They were very happy. Now everything would change. No more travelling. No more worrying about where the next meal would come from or if they would be able to find water. They had come home!

They made their first camp in their new land, and they were very excited. Everyone was thinking about the future.

But no sooner had they made their camp than Joshua summoned them all together. He chose 12 people -one from each of the 12 families or tribes of Israel - and gave them a very strange instruction. Choose 12 children to help.

"I want you to go back into the river!" "Back into the river? Why ? We’ve just come out of the river! "
"Ah, but when you get to the middle of the river, I want you each to choose a big stone from the river bed and bring it back to the camp." Put “stones” in the “water”.

The 12 people did what they were told. They waded into the water – it didn’t part this time, so the water rushed all around them. But they each managed to find a big stone from the river bed, and they lugged it back to the bank. "Now build the twelve stones into a big pile," said Joshua. Get the children to retrieve a stone each and build into a cairn at the front of the hall.

So they did just that…

“But why are we doing this, Joshua?”

“You are doing this because this is the place where our long journey ended and we came to our new home. It would easy for us to be so excited about the future that we forget where we came from and who helped us get here. We might forget that we were once slaves, and that God set us free. We might forget that when we were hungry and thirst and frightened God fed us and made us feel better. We might forget what it feels like to be treated cruelly, as we were then, and we might treat other people unfairly too.
That’s why we have put these stones here, because our children will see them and ask – “what are those stones for?” – and then we will be able to tell them the story of our long journey and remember all that we have learnt as we made it.”

And, so the Bible says, the pile of stones stayed there for many years, and whenever the children asked their parents “what are those stones for?,” the parents told the story of how God had rescued them.

I am giving each of you a paper “stone” to take away. I expect some of you are excited about the future too – going to a new school or into a new class, or maybe you are looking forward to the holidays. It is easy for us to get so excited that we forget the good things that we have done, and the things we’ve learnt. So we need to remember them.
I wonder what you have done this year, or learnt this year that you want to remember?

Gather some suggestions.

You could write or draw that thing that you want to remember on your stone. If you give them to your teacher we will stick them all up somewhere to help us all remember what we have enjoyed this year – the things we don’t want to forget.

· Time of silence to think about what we would put on our stone.

· Prayer of thanks for all that we want to remember from this year.

The Wheat and the Weeds – KS 1 & 2 – SEAL theme Changes - Patience

2010-06-17T17:23:00.002+01:00

The beginning of this assembly is rather specific to our school. It could simply begin with the comparison of grasses in para 3.The children who had grown the sweet peas were very glad, however, that I had noticed their efforts.

Every time I have come into school for the last month or so I have noticed the pots growing on the decking by the entrance. One of the classes has been growing some plants there. I love gardening, and I sort of recognise the plants there. I can see that they are something in the “pea” family, from the shape of the leaves and the tendrils on the plant. But I don’t know if they are sweet peas (show OHP picture), which we grow because they have got beautiful flowers that smell nice, or whether they are the kind of peas you can eat for your dinner (Show some edible pea plant shoots from home – they look the same). It’s important to know the difference, though because you can’t eat sweet peas – they would upset your stomach if you did.

I’ve watched as they have grown bigger and bigger, and tried to guess, but there are only really two ways I can know for sure which they are. I expect the class that grew them could tell me, if I asked. But how else could I find out…? (Wait until they flower – if you are a gardener, like me, you can tell then, even though they still might look very similar.)
So, unless you tell me I will just have to wait.

Other plants come in “families” like the pea family – different sorts of the same plant family look different. Grass is like that. It just looks like a lot of thin green leaves, but when you see the seed heads, you suddenly realise that there are lots of different grasses. I collected some on the way to school –[show grass seed heads – I put them on the OHP, so the seed heads cast shadows onto the screen] You can see that they are all different – some are fat, some are thin, some look like trees, some are very floppy. But their leaves all look very much the same.

Jesus told a story about one sort of grass – wheat – which a farmer got his workers to sow in his fields. When they had scattered the seed all over the ground, all they could do was wait. They waited until the seed germinated and began to grow. They waited while it poked little shoots above the surface of the soil. It looked just like grass – that was what it was supposed to look like. They waited while it grew taller. They waited while it put out its seed heads.

But when it did that, the farm workers all got very worried. Because instead of all the seed heads looking like good wheat, which they could harvest and make into flour, mixed in with it were some very different sorts of grass, with different sorts of seeds, seeds which would be no good to eat at all. The field was full of weeds, all mixed in with the wheat.

They ran to the farmer. “We’re sure we sowed wheat – it’s not our fault that the weeds have grown there. Perhaps an enemy of yours came along and did this?” they said. But the farmer wasn’t worried. There were always some weeds in amongst the wheat – he didn’t think anyone had done this on purpose. “But what shall we do?” said the workers. “Should we pull up the weeds?” “No”, said the farmer. “If you do that you will probably just pull up the wheat as well.” We’ll wait until it is all ripe, then harvest the lot and sort out the wheat from the weeds then – otherwise we’ll do more harm than good.
So that’s what they did.

Jesus told that story to remind people how important it is to be patient, not to make decisions about people too quickly. Sometimes, if we meet someone new we might decide very quickly that we don’t like them. But if we had waited and got to know them better they might turn out to be a really good friend. The Y6’s going to new schools will meet lots of people when they change schools – it will be tempting to rush to decide who you like and who you don’t, but you’d do better to be patient and wait a bit.

Jesus also wanted us to remember that God is patient with us. We might do something bad, but God doesn’t just decide that we are bad people and stop loving us. He goes on and on loving us and trying to help us.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for your patient love for us. Help us to be patient with each other and with ourselves, to wait and not to decide things too quickly.

Balaam’s Donkey – Telling the truth – Relationships - KS 1 & 2

2010-05-20T15:03:00.002+01:00

This is a story from the Old Testament of the Bible, from the time of Moses.

Who can tell me anything about Moses?

The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt a long way from their home for many years. But then Moses had led them out of Egypt, making the Egyptian king, the Pharaoh, let them go.

But to get home they had to go on a long journey across the desert. It was very difficult. They didn’t have anywhere to stay. They couldn’t grow their own crops to eat. They didn’t know where they would find water. But as they travelled, God helped them. He gave them food to eat and water to drink.

After years and years of travelling, they finally got near the land God had promised they could settle in. But to get there they had to go across land that belonged to another nation, and the king of that nation was very worried. “Look at all these Israelites!” he said. “What a crowd” Just imagine if they all decided to gang up on us. Just imagine if they decided to stop in our land and settle here. We’d have no chance against them. We’d be swamped! What can we do?”

Then he had an idea. “We can’t fight them – there are too many of them – but I could ask a magician to put a spell on them, to curse them and make them go away.” As it happened he knew of a magician – the best there was – a man called Balaam. “Send for Balaam,” he ordered. “Make him come and curse the Israelites.”

Off went his messengers to fetch Balaam. “You’ve got to come,” they said. “It’s the king’s orders! And he’ll pay you a lot of money!” But Balaam wasn’t sure. “Stay the night, and I will give you my answer in the morning.”

But that night, Balaam heard God talking to him. . “Don’t go” said God. “These Israelites are my people. I rescued them from Egypt, and I am going to give them their own land. If I have blessed them, there’s no point you trying to curse them. You can’t say they are bad when I have said they are good”.
But in the morning, when Balaam tried to tell the messengers that he wouldn’t go, they were having none of it. “You’ve got to come – the king says so – and anyway he will pay you any money you ask.” And Balaam thought to himself that perhaps he could just tell the king what the king wanted to hear, even if it wasn’t the truth, perhaps no one would realise that.

So Balaam set off to find the king and to curse the Israelites. There were no cars or buses or trains then, but Balaam had a donkey that he used to ride when he wanted to travel. So he saddled up the donkey and got on its back. They set off towards the place where the king was. For a while the donkey trotted along the path but then, all of a sudden, the donkey looked up and there, right in front of it was a huge, fierce looking angel. Balaam couldn’t see the angel, but the donkey could. The donkey wasn’t going anywhere near this great fierce thing. He veered off the path into the field next to it. Balaam got off the donkey and tried shouting at it, geeing it up, hitting it to make it go, but the donkey wouldn’t budge until the angel eventually vanished.

On they went, but they hadn’t got far before once again, there was the angel, standing right in the donkey’s path. This time the donkey couldn’t get off the path because there were walls on either side, so he just stopped still. “Come on donkey” said Balaam “get a move on!”. He hadn’t seen the angel. But the donkey wouldn’t move. He leaned against the wall, trying to hide, but all he managed to do was squash Balaam’s leg against the wall. Balaam was really cross, but there was nothing he could do. The donkey wouldn’t move until once again the angel disappeared.
The donkey went on a bit further, but then, there was the angel again. This time the donkey had had enough. It just sat down. Balaam was furious. He found a stick and started hitting the donkey. But the donkey just looked at him, and opened its mouth and spoke. Now, you don’t expect donkeys to talk to you, but this one did. “Balaam,” it said, “haven’t I always been a good donkey?” “Yes” said Balaam. “So,” said the donkey, “if I am disobeying you, don’t you think there might be a good reason…?” And just at that moment it was as if Balaam’s eyes were open for the first time. Suddenly he saw the angel too, barring the way.
The angel spoke. “Balaam, God told you not to come. You can’t put a bad spell on people he has blessed. You can’t say they are bad when God says they are good. That isn’t the truth. The donkey knew that, but you wouldn’t listen. Now, go to the king and tell him the truth, not what he wants to hear, but what is true.”
So Balaam realised his mistake and he went to the king, and told him the truth. He wouldn’t curse the Israelites, because they were God’s people. He wouldn’t pretend they were bad when they were actually good.

· In that story Balaam wanted to tell the king what he wanted to hear. It took a donkey to make him see that he couldn’t tell a lie. I wonder if you’ve ever said something that wasn’t true to someone. Perhaps you told them what they wanted to hear. Perhaps it was something you wanted to be true – you boasted about something you’d done or something you had – because you wanted to impress them. In the end though, this story tells us that it is always better to be honest, not to pretend, but to be yourself.

Let’s be silent for a bit so we can think about that story, and about how important it is to tell the truth. I’ll finish with a prayer.

· Prayer that God will help us to be truthful with ourselves, and with one another.

The woman healed on the Sabbath KS 1&2 (My relationships - Being pleased for someone else’s achievement)

2010-05-06T14:26:00.001+01:00

Luke 13.10-17

Sing “If you’re happy and you know it” (or some other happy song)

That’s a really happy song..
I’m going to tell you about a woman who didn’t feel like singing at all. She was very unhappy because she was ill.
She had a disease in her back. Gradually she had got more and more bent over. Her back hurt, and she couldn’t stand up straight. When she walked along she couldn’t look ahead of her.
It made it very difficult to do ordinary things – just talking to people was hard. And she had been like that for eighteen years.

Every week, though, she went to the synagogue in her town to pray to God on Saturday, because that was the Sabbath day, the day when God had told her people that they should rest and worship. They weren’t to go to work on that day, or to school. It was just a day for resting, for gathering together to pray.
It was hard for her, because she couldn’t stand up straight to talk to her friends. When they sang joyful songs, she just felt sad.

One Sabbath day she went to the synagogue and found that there was a special visitor there, a preacher called Jesus. She had heard of Jesus. She knew he told good stories and was kind to people, always wanting to help them. She wished someone could help her, but she didn’t think he would notice her, and she didn’t like to make a fuss.

She listened to Jesus talking to everyone, telling them about God, and then suddenly he stopped. She wondered what had happened, but she couldn’t stand up straight to see. Then she heard a voice, “Woman, you are well again, you are healed”. She heard him moving through the crowd, and she wondered who he was talking to. Then, there he was, right in front of her. He touched her and told her again that she was healed, and gradually she started to straighten her back, till she was standing up straight and tall.

It was wonderful! She could see everything around her. She could see Jesus. She was so happy that she started to sing…

Begin to sing “If you’re happy and you know it”

But then the leader of the synagogue came rushing over. He was an important man. It was his job to make sure people behaved as they ought to in the synagogue. “What’s all this?” he demanded. “Don’t you know it is the Sabbath?” he said to Jesus. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t be working today? Healing people is work! You shouldn’t be doing it! It’s against the rules!”
The woman stopped singing. What was Jesus going to do?

“Look,” said Jesus. “This is a wonderful thing that has happened here. Never mind if it is the Sabbath. We should all be happy that this woman is better again. Surely God wants people to be well and happy – it can’t be wrong to heal people at any time.”

The leader of the synagogue couldn’t think of anything to say. Perhaps he was jealous of Jesus. Perhaps he just thought rules were more important than people. But he knew that Jesus was right, so he didn’t say anything.
But the woman, and all the crowd around her knew what they thought. They thought it was a wonderful day, because she was better again after so long, and no one was going to stop them from singing…

Sing “If you’re happy and you know it”

To think about: Sometimes it is hard to be happy when someone else does something really well or has something really good happen to them, especially if it someone we don’t get on with. Why do you think that is? (We might feel jealous or that it isn’t fair.)

Pray that God will help us to be as happy when something good happens to someone else as we would be if it happened to us.

Cleansing of the Temple – Holy Week – KS 1 & 2

2010-03-25T11:13:00.001Z

In a minute I’m going to tell you a story from the Bible, but before I do, I’d like us to think for a bit about your school and all the things that happen in it.
It’s got lots of different rooms in it, for different things.
What happens in the hall?
What happens in Miss Smith’s office?
… the staffroom?
…your classroom? (classroom for learning, it is the children’s home base in school)

Just imagine one day if you came in to school and Badgers class discovered that Miss Smith had taken over their classroom, thrown out all their stuff and turned it into an office for herself because she decided she needed more space…
Badgers might ask her,”what are we going to do, where are we going to learn?”
“You’ll just have to find yourselves a space wherever you can! You could do your lessons out in the playground…”
“But it’s raining!”
“Well, you’ll all have to bring umbrellas then!”

What would you think if that happened?

I don’t think Miss Smith would ever really do that, but I want you to remember it as I tell you this story…

Jesus had come to Jerusalem.
A lot of people were very excited to see him. He had come into the city riding on a donkey, and that made people even more excited. They thought he was going to be a king. It might seem strange to us to think of a king riding on a donkey, but it didn’t to the Jewish people.
A great king from their history King Solomon, had come into the city when they began to rule riding on a donkey*. The prophets had promised that one day God would send the nation another king as great as Solomon. How would they know when he had arrived? He would come riding on a donkey.
So when Jesus came into Jerusalem they thought this was it. Their great new king. No wonder they were excited. They thought he would fight a great battle against the Roman army and set them free…
But Jesus headed straight for the Temple in Jerusalem. Perhaps he was going to pray before he started the battle?
Everyone followed.
They went into the Temple after Jesus. He just stood there, and looked around.

The Temple in Jerusalem had lots of different spaces in it, just like this school. (Put up OHP of Temple from www.eBibleTeacher.com).
In the middle was the holiest place. Only the people who worked in the Temple could go there. Then there was a place where Jewish men, the men who lived in that country could go to worship. Then there was a place where Jewish women could go .
Outside that was space where anyone from anywhere could go. Foreigners who had come from far away who wanted to pray could go there. IT was their space, the only space they had in the Temple.
Jesus came into that space, where there should have been room for all these foreigners to pray, but what did he see? It had been turned into a market place. There were people selling animals, people changing money, tables everywhere, noise and bustle. It had been completely taken over, not by the foreigners it was for, but by the people who worked in the Temple, as a place to make money. There was no room for prayer anymore.
It was just like if Miss Smith had taken over Badger’s classroom and left them nowhere to learn, no space for themselves.

Jesus was furious. “This is supposed to be a place for people to pray. Foreigners haven’t got anywhere else they can go. You have stolen their space from them to make yourselves richer. That’s not fair, and it’s not what God wants!”

And Jesus began to pick up the tables where the people were selling things and tip them over. There was money rolling all over the floor. There were animals running around. It was mayhem!

This wasn’t what people had expected their king to do! He was meant to be attacking their enemies, but instead he was telling them off!
What kind of king was this…?

In the days that followed, most of the people who had been so pleased to see him changed their mind, and by the end of the week, they had had Jesus arrested and killed. But that’s another story, which I know we will be hearing about over the next week, and in church when you come for your Easter service…

When we thought about Miss Smith taking over Badger’s classroom we could see it wasn’t right. I’m sure we would all tell her so. I’m sure she wouldn’t do it anyway!. The story of Jesus in the Temple reminds us of how important it is make space for other people, to make them feel welcome.

Let’s be silent for a minute to think about that story.

Prayer: that we will welcome others and make space for them.

*1 Kings 1.33 (it is actually a mule, which is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, but the idea is the same.)

Jonah – KS 1 &2 – Encouraging responsibility – SEAL theme “good to be me”

2010-03-11T12:37:00.000Z

It is important as you prepare to tell this story that there was never any serious suggestion made by those who originally compiled the Bible that this story actually happened. It is told in the form of a folk-tale, and is similar to other ancient folk-tales.

Need: Cardboard signposts to Ninevah and to Tarshish

This is a story which the ancient people of the Bible told. They didn’t think it had really happened, but it was a good story which helped them to think about important things.

There was once a very powerful nation called Assyria. They had a huge army of strong soldiers with all the latest weapons. No one else stood a chance against them. They were cruel too, treating those they captured badly. Everyone was scared of them.
In the nation of Israel there was a prophet called Jonah – a man who listened to God. One day when Jonah was praying he heard God speaking to him.
“Jonah – I have a job for you.”
“Yes, God, what is it?”
“I want you to go to the city of Ninevah, the capital city of Assyria, right in the middle of their nation, and tell them that I want them to change their ways, to stop being cruel to others.”

(put up signpost to Ninevah)

Jonah was TERRIFIED. He wouldn’t last two minutes in Ninevah with all those cruel Assyrians about. They’d never listen to him. And even if they did, he didn’t think it was fair. Why should they get a second chance? Why didn’t God just destroy them anyway? Everyone would feel safer then.

But Jonah didn’t say anything.

He just got up and packed a bag. He went down to the harbour, where all the boats were and started asking where people were going to.
“We’re off to Tarshish”, said one group of sailors.
Put up sign to Tarshish facing in the opposite direction to the sign to Ninevah

“That’ll do,” thought Jonah…Is Jonah going the right way, the way God asked him to? (let children tell you that it is the opposite direction.)

But off they went to Tarshish. Jonah thought he could run away from Ninevah, and run away from God. But he was wrong.

In the night a great storm blew up. The boat was tossed about. The waves got higher and higher. (Invite children to make “waves” with their hands, if you are sure you can stop the ensuing riot when you need to…) The sailors were sure they would all be drowned. In those days people often thought that God made storms happen, and the sailors wondered who might have done something to make him send this storm.
It wasn’t one of them, but then they remembered their passenger, Jonah. He admitted that he was running away from God. “The only way to save yourselves is to throw me overboard,” said Jonah. They didn’t want to, but Jonah insisted, so that’s what the sailors did, and as soon as they did, the storm stopped.

Jonah began to sink in the water. This is the end, he thought. But God had other ideas. Deep down in the water below Jonah was a big fish. God sent the fish to where Jonah was and he opened his mouth wide and with one gulp, swallowed him. Down went Jonah into the fish’s tummy.
And there he stayed for three days, thinking about what had happened. Jonah saw that he should have done what God wanted, and he prayed to God to help him.

The fish kept on swimming till it came to the land, where it opened wide its mouth again and spat Jonah out.

Now Jonah went in the right direction, straight to Ninevah. He still wasn’t very happy about it though. He didn’t like the Assyrian Ninevites, and he didn’t think God should like them either. He walked into the city, though, and began telling them God’s message. “God is going to destroy your city! You wait and see!” (He wasn’t very nice about it!). He didn’t think they would take any notice of what he said. But he was wrong. Every one of them stopped what they were doing, started thinking, and felt really sorry for being mean to people. Even the king of the Assyrians heard the message, and he was really sorry for being a cruel king. He ordered all his people - and even their donkeys and cows – to fast (to stop eating for a while) to show how sorry they were.

And God forgave them.

Jonah might have been happy about this. After all, wasn’t it a good thing that God had forgiven them and that they had changed their ways?
But Jonah was furious.
“You’re just soft, God! They don’t deserve to be forgiven. They are mean, nasty people, who have done mean, nasty things. You should punish them.”
And Jonah went into a big, big sulk.
He sat in the desert, with the sun beating down on him, feeling sorry for himself and cross with God.
God thought, “How can I show Jonah that he is wrong to feel angry with me for forgiving the people of Ninevah?”
God had an idea.
During the night he made a plant grow up beside Jonah. In the morning there it was, shading him from the sun. Jonah loved his plant. It was his new best friend.
But the next night God sent a worm along which munched through the plant. In the morning it was all eaten up. All Jonah’s lovely shade was gone. He was really upset about the plant dying.
And God said to him, “Jonah, you are really sad about the plant dying. It was special to you. But you didn’t care at all about the people of Ninevah – men, women and children – who were special to me. They are my children, just as you are…”

And the story ends there, with Jonah sitting in the desert thinking about what God said to him.

We’re going to sit still and think now, just like he did. Sometimes its hard to love and care for people we don’t like, who might have done something mean to us, but God asks us to help them, just like he would.

Gideon, the reluctant hero – Going for Goals – recognising our acheivements/self-esteem KS 1 & 2

2010-02-11T17:50:00.000Z

I was going to tell the story of Moses and the Burning Bush at this assembly, but the headteacher told me she'd just done it, so this seemed a reasonable alternative to fit with the theme. I have left out the episode where Gideon hewed down his father's statue of Baal, partly because it made the story rather longer and more complicated than I would have time for (or the children patience for) but also because it is a bit hard to justify hewing down other people's Gods in a school committed (rightly IMHO) to respecting all faiths!

The story lends itself to hamming up, and the script below is only really an outline.

Gideon - Judges 6.11ff
The people of Israel were in trouble. They were being attacked by another tribe of people, the Midianites. The Midianites kept on coming down from the hills, stealing their crops and killing their animals. The people had nothing to eat. They were getting really hungry, and they thought it was the end for them. Who would help them?

One man in Israel at least had managed to gather a harvest. His name was Gideon. He wasn’t very big. He wasn’t very strong. He wasn’t very brave. In fact he was trying as hard as he could to make sure he stayed hidden, so the Midianites wouldn’t find him and the small amount of food he had. He was working away quietly at storing the food away in an outbuilding on his farm, when all of a sudden he noticed that someone was watching him. He was really scared. Was it a Midianite?

But then the stranger spoke up. He wasn’t a Midianite, he was an angel from God. “Hail, Gideon! Mighty Warrior! God is with you”

Mighty warrior? Thought Gideon, looking behind him to see if there was someone else the angel was talking to. He wasn’t a mighty warrior, and he didn’t want to be one either.

“There must be some mistake. I’m not a mighty warrior. God must have meant you to go to someone else…”

“No – it was definitely you. You are going to lead your people in battle against the Midianites.!”

“Um – would it be all right if I asked you to prove that you are from God?”
The angel told Gideon to fetch some food and put it on a stone. Then he just touched it with the stick he was carrying and it burst into flames…”

“Wow!” Said Gideon. “Now I believe you, even if I still don’t think I’m a mighty warrior.”

The next day Gideon started to feel a bit braver, but he still didn’t feel brave enough to fight the Midianites.

A little time later, things had got even worse with the Midianites. They had joined forces with another nation and they all gathered together in the valley not far from where Gideon lived. Now there were twice as many of them, and they were twice as frightening. Gideon hadn’t forgotten what the angel had told him. Could he do something against these armies? He didn’t think so, but he started just talking to a few people about it – “we’ve got to do something,” he said - and before he knew quite how it had happened, everyone was looking to him to give them a lead.

Gideon tried to look as if he knew what he was doing. But really he didn’t at all. He wasn’t a leader. He wasn’t a soldier. He’d never done this before.

So Gideon prayed. “Lord, I don’t really think I’m the person to lead our armies. I’ll do it, but only if you are really sure you want me to. Could you give me a sign to tell me it really is me you want.” Gideon got a sheepskin and he laid it on the ground.
“If I really am the one you want, in the morning, could you make the sheepskin all wet in the morning, but the ground around it all dry?”

He went to sleep, and in the morning, guess what? The sheepskin was wet and the ground around it was dry.
Gideon was amazed. But… He was still frightened.
So that night he prayed again.
“God, thank you for that miracle last night, but I just wanted to check it wasn’t just a coincidence, or a little cloud that just rained there or something, so if you really, really mean it could you tonight make the sheepkin dry and the goround around it wet instead…? “
He went to sleep, and in the morning, the sheepskin was dry and the ground was wet.

Ok, God, I give in. At least I’ll have lots of soldiers fighting with me. Have you seen how many people have come to join my army? There must be twenty thousand!

“Ah yes, said God to Gideon. There are a lot of them. In fact, it seems to me there are far too many. I am with you, and you are a mighty warrior – we don’t need all those soldiers. Go out and tell them that any of them who don’t really want to fight can go home…”

“Is he crazy?” thought Gideon, but he did it, and lots of the men went home. Now there were only ten thousand.

“There” he said to God. “Is that better.”
“No” there are still too many, said God – send some more away.” So Gideon sent away a whole lot more. There were only three hundred left, and that didn’t look nearly enough to Gideon. How were they going to defeat the Midianites with that lot?

God told Gideon to go down to the enemy camp that night and listen. So he crept down when it got dark, and hid outside one of the tent. As he crouched there he heard one of the soldiers say to the other, “I’ve just had the strangest dream – I dreamt a great round barley cake came rolling into the camp and flattened all the tents. What do you think that meant?”
“That’s easy,” said the other soldier. It was about Gideon – the great warrior – coming down to attack us!”

Gideon realised that not only did God think he was the right person to lead the attack, and his own soldiers, but even the enemy thought he was a mighty warrior! So he decided he would do what God asked him.
He went back up the hill to his soldiers and he gave each of them a pottery jar and a trumpet. He sent them out to surround the enemy camp. When he gave the signal each soldier broke his jar and blew his trumpet. Can you imagine the noise of three hundred jars breaking and three hundred trumpets blasting away? It was a terrible noise!

The enemy soldiers all woke up. “Gideon is attacking!” they shouted, and ran out of their tents. But in the darkness they couldn’t see who was who and they began attacking each other. Those who could just ran away. When morning came, the Midianite army was defeated.
And Gideon had learned that he really was the leader God had wanted.

Sometimes we all feel like Gideon. We think we can’t do what we’ve been asked to. Sometimes other people believe in us more than we believe in ourselves. When we feel like that we can remember Gideon who could do far more than he thought!

Candlemas assembly – KS 1 & 2 – Going for goals/ persistence

2010-01-28T12:00:00.000Z

Take: Jam jar lanterns – one per class - with OHP pictures of Candlemas story stuck to them – the more colourful the better - including the words “Shine as a light in the world.” Battery power tea lights (or real ones).

We are just getting ready in church to mark a special time in the year. It’s called Candlemas, and it’s the very end of Christmas. Christmas probably feels a long way off by now, but we’ve been celebrating it in church, thinking about what it means all through January. If you’ve been in church you’ll see we still have our Crib up (Show photo)

But this weekend we come to the end of Christmas, and we tell a special story to think about that.

It’s a story which happened about six weeks after Jesus was born – we are now about six weeks from Christmas Day. It’s a story about two very old people, called Simeon and Anna. They spent all their time in the Temple in Jerusalem, the place where everyone gathered to pray. But they didn’t just come once a week or once a month, they were there every day. Anna even slept in the Temple. They were waiting. Waiting and waiting. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for God to come and help their people.

They looked around them and saw that people were unhappy. Roman soldiers had marched into their land and they had to do what the soldiers told them to. Often the soldiers were cruel.
Simeon and Anna saw that people often made each other unhappy too. They treated each other badly, as if they didn’t matter, especially people who were ill, or poor. It wasn’t right, and Simeon and Anna did what they could to help people, but they knew that they couldn’t do it on their own. They needed God’s help. People believed that God would send a special helper – they called him the Messiah – but when would he come, and what would he look like.

All day, every day, Simeon and Anna watched and prayed. They looked at all the people who came to the Temple, but none of them was the one.

Then one day, a little family – a man and a woman carrying a baby – came into the Temple. The baby was about six weeks old. It was baby Jesus, with Joseph and Mary. They had come to the Temple to say thank you to God for Jesus. All families did that. And when they came they brought something to offer – two pigeons. Here’s a picture of them. You can see Joseph carrying the pigeons. They felt very small – the Temple was HUGE, and it was crowded. No one would notice them. But someone did. Simeon and Anna. Something told them that this little baby was the one they had been waiting for. They pushed through the crowds towards them.

Simeon took the baby in his arms and said. “This is the one I have been waiting for. Now I can die happy, because I have seen that God is coming to help our people, and people all over the world. He will be like a bright light shining for everyone.” Anna told everyone around that this child would be very special when he grew up, someone would help them to live right.

Mary and Joseph didn’t know what to make of it at all, but they remembered Simeon and Anna and what they had said as Jesus grew up, and thought about it.

Candlemas is a time when we remember Simeon and Anna too. They had to wait and watch, to be patient and keep going, not giving up, so that they could see Jesus. Sometimes we have to do that too. It is easy to give up when things are difficult. But Simeon and Anna trusted that help would come, and that helped them to keep going.

Prayer: give out jam jar lanterns to one representative of each class. As they stand at the front, pray for people who might be feeling helpless, all in the dark, and ask for help to keep going. Let the children take the jam jar lanterns back to their classes.

Advent, John the Baptist, Forgiveness, Getting ready for Christmas KS 1 & 2

2009-12-03T14:30:00.003Z

This morning, when your mum or dad or whoever brings you to school said to you – it’s time to go to school – were you ready to go?
Did any of your mums or dads have to say “come on, hurry up… we’ll be late!”?
What did you have to do to get ready to come to school? (waking up, dressing, eating breakfast, finding book bag, lunch etc.)

Going to school isn’t just a matter of going out of the house – otherwise you’d all be here in your pyjamas. There are things you have to do to get ready to come to school, things you have to do to get ready for all sorts of things.

What might you need to do to get ready to play football/ go swimming/ do some cooking/ put on a school play?

There’s someone in the Bible who told people to get ready – not for school or cooking or football, though.
His name was John and he lived at the time of Jesus. He lived at a time when the people in his land were very unhappy. Roman soldiers were occupying the land and telling them what to do. They wanted to be free. Even if they could get the Romans out, though, life would be very hard for some of them. If you were rich it was all right, but if you were poor then no one seemed to care about you, no one wanted to listen to you. People longed for God to help them, for something to happen that would make their lives better, for the world to change, but they didn’t know how that could happen..

John was a prophet – someone who listened to God and told people what God wanted to say to them. One day, John started to say to them, “God is sending someone to you to help you – it’s a new start for you if you want it, but you’ve got to get ready for him.”
“How can we get ready?” they asked.
“You want him to make the world a fairer place –you need to learn to live fairly yourselves, so you can help him, because it takes practice to do the right things. If you’ve got more than you need and someone else has less, you need to share. If you have been a bully, you need to learn to treat people with respect instead. God’s giving us a new start, but we’ve got to be ready for it.”

Some of the people he talked to thought that sounded much too difficult. They were used to their lives the way they were. They wanted things to be different, but they didn’t really want to change.
Others though, decided that they did want to be ready. So to show that, John took them out to the River Jordan and dipped them under the water – he baptised them – as a sign that their old lives and their old ways of doing things were washed away. And when Jesus came along, telling people about God’s love for them and how they should love one another, they were ready to follow him.

During Advent we are looking forward to Christmas time – counting down. Show Advent calendars, candles, Jesse tree). We are excited about Christmas presents and Christmas trees and decorations, so we are getting ready for all that.
But Christians are also thinking about being ready to do the things Jesus tells us to, trying to make the world fair, loving other people.
Advent for Christians is a special thinking time. In church the stole I wear is the thinking colour – purple – and that’s the colour we have on the altar. You’ll see it when you come for your school service in church. In Advent, as we count down towards Christmas, we pray for and we think about the ways we need to change, to become better people. We think about things we have done that we are sorry about and ask for God’s help so we will be ready to follow Jesus and do the kind of things he did.

Pray – think quietly about something we’ve done that we are sorry about. Think about people in the world who are unhappy. Ask God to help us to be ready to do things to make the world fair.

Naboth's Vineyard. Bullying / Christ the King / Using power wisely KS 1&2

2009-11-20T11:18:00.000Z

Naboth’s vineyard

1 Kings 21 (Barnabus schools bible 171)

There was once a king and queen called King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They were very rich and owned lots of land and houses. But King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were also very greedy. And they thought being king and queen meant they could have whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it. They would clap their hands and their servants would come running – “yes, your majesties, no, your majesties, anything you want, your majesties…”

One day Ahab looked out of one of the windows of the palace and saw a vineyard just beyond the palace walls. The grape vines in the vineyard were growing well. It was good soil, and so convenient. Ahab thought to himself. “I would like that piece of ground for myself. It would make a lovely garden for me. Think of the tasty vegetables I could grow there…And if I want it, I should have it!”

So Ahab clapped his hands. The servants came running in. Find out who owns that vineyard, he said. The servants went and found out. He was a man named Naboth, and his family had farmed that piece of land for many generations.

The king went straight to Naboth’s house. “Naboth, - give me your vineyard!” he said. But Naboth said that he wouldn’t – it had been in his family for many years and he wanted to pass it on to his children. “ I’ll pay you well for it!” said the king. But Naboth wouldn’t sell. “I’ll buy you a better vineyard!” But Naboth loved his vineyard – he didn’t want to give it up, and it provided well for his family.

King Ahab was furious. He stormed out of Naboth’s house and went straight home. He went into his room, slammed the door and lay down on his bed and sulked…He wouldn’t eat anything or talk to anyone. He just couldn’t understand it! He was king, after all!

Eventually Queen Jezebel came to see what the matter was. Ahab explained. “Now then, dear. We are king and queen. We aren’t going to let a little nobody like Naboth stop us having what we want, are we? You just leave it to me – I’ll get you that vineyard.”

So Jezebel thought up a plan. She summoned lots of people to a great gathering, including Naboth, but she paid a couple of people to come to the gathering to to make trouble for Naboth. When everyone was gathered there, they stood up and started accusing him of all sorts of things he hadn’t done, terrible things. The rest of the people believed them, and they carried Naboth off and killed him and threw his family off their land.

When Jezebel heard her plan had worked she went straight to King Ahab. “Naboth is dead, and all he owns is yours now! I told you I’d get you your vineyard!”
Ahab was really pleased.and went straight off to look at his new land.

But as he strolled around thinking about the things he would grow there, really pleased with himself, he saw someone coming towards him. It was Elijah, the prophet. Elijah had been praying that day and as he prayed he heard God’s voice telling him what had happened. Go to Naboth’s vineyard, said God, and tell him what I think of the way he has treated Naboth…”

You may be pleased with yourself, Ahab, but God isn’t pleased with you and Jezebel. You bullied Naboth and had him killed just so you could have another garden. Well, God says that because of the way you have behaved, he will take the kingdom from your family. All you have will be given to others too!

Ahab suddenly realised what he and Jezebel had done, and he felt terribly, terribly sorry. God decided to give him another chance. But in the end he didn’t change his ways, and everything happened just Elijah had said – he and Jezebel lost everything.

• What do you think of Ahab and Jezebel?
• They had lots of power, but instead of using it to help they used it to get more things for themselves.
• We might not be kings and queens but we all have power to make other people happy or sad. We can use it to bully them or to help them.
• If linking with Christ the King: Jesus said to his followers that we should use our power to help others. Sometimes we call Jesus our King, but he isn’t a king like Ahab, but one who wants to help us.
Pray for kings and queens and leaders, and for all of us that we will use our power to help.

Bartimaeus - listening and showing we are listening - KS1 &2

2009-10-08T09:41:00.001+01:00

Bartimaeus – Listening 08/10/2009

Shut your eyes and listen – what can you hear?
(sounds, inside and out, gather responses)
What can you tell me about the things you heard (e.g.was the bird you heard singing inside the hall, or outside – near or far away?)

We can tell a lot by listening.
Ask for volunteers - 3 or 4 children – stationed around the hall. Tell them you want them to clap twice if you point to them. Other children close eyes – tell the children that when they hear one of the children clapping they are to point, without opening eyes, to where the sound came from. Then can open eyes to see if everyone agrees. Repeat a few times.

We are good at listening. Can tell a lot from the sounds around us.

Tell story of Bartimaeus. Mark 10.41-52

Bartimaeus was blind. Difficult at the time of Jesus – no one to help him. Had to ask others for money to live on. Bartimaeus was very good at listening though – knew the sounds around him. He couldn’t see, but there was a lot he could tell about the world around him by listening, just like we did just now
Ask children to close eyes.
Bartimaeus could hear all sorts of sounds around him. Dogs barking, people coming and going, knew people by their voices.
One day could hear from their voices that they were excited. Kept hearing name – Jesus – Jesus is coming. Bartimaeus had heard that name before. Jesus – healer and helper.
Bartimaeus wanted to meet Jesus, but didn’t know where he was. Called out. Crowd told him to shut up. Didn’t want to listen to him. Bartimaeus kept calling out – “help me, Jesus!”

Then Bartimaeus heard a voice calling out “Tell him to come here.” Someone helped Bartimaeus get up and he went towards the voice he’d heard. Jesus said “What do you want me to do?” “Make me see again” – And Jesus did.
Bartimaeus opened his eyes.
Ask children to open their eyes.
And there was Jesus in front of him. Bartimaeus was very happy that Jesus had listened to him.

Bartimaeus was a good listener – Jesus was also a good listener. He listened to Bartimaeus when everyone else wanted him to shut up, and he did what Bartimaeus wanted, helped him and healed him.

PRAYER
Begin prayer with quiet.

Help us to listen to each other, and to show we are listening by helping each other.

Valuing the school - creation - KS 1 & 2

2009-09-22T09:41:00.000+01:00

Valuing our school

As the children enter – project OHP picture of the school logo with the words “The best thing about our school is…?”
At the beginning of the assembly, ask the children for their ideas and write up on OHP

There are lots of things we enjoy about our school

The Bible begins with a story about the things God enjoyed about the world he had made. Clever scientists help us understand how the world began, but when the Bible was written people didn’t know any of that, so they told a story…

Genesis 1
In the beginning it was all dark and there was nothing… (shut eyes)

1. God thought to himself in the darkness “I want to make something” He thought and thought and then he said – Let there be light (open eyes) and there was light.
He thought that darkness and light were both good, so he made it so we had some darkness and some light – day and night.
That’s good, I like that.

2. The next day, when the darkness and light had come around again, he thought – what now?
I know – water…
So he sorted out the water into all sorts of different types…some water up above…rain… some down below… sea – what else?
That’s good, I like that.

3. And that was another day. The next day he started to think wouldn’t it be good if there was some dry land as well as water…
Hills and valleys, and things to grow on the earth… Trees, flowers, pumpkins…
That’s good, I like that.

4. The next day he thought there ought to be different sorts of light in the sky – Sun, moon and what else…? Stars
That’s good, I like that.

5. Things in the water, and things in the sea – birds and fishes
That’s good, I like that.

6. Things to live on land – animals, insects, ….?
And something I can talk to that can talk to me, something really special, something that can look around at all this and enjoy it with me…
Hmm… People!
That’s good, I like that.

7. How many days are there in a week? On the seventh day God said…I’ve made everything I want to make… Now I want to enjoy it…Think of all the things God had made…mountains, seaside, nice things to eat… What would you do? Where would you go to play? On the seventh day God stopped and enjoyed his world, and he hoped that we would do the same – stop and think about what is around us, the people around us, and enjoy them.

Our little bit of God’s world to look after and enjoy is right here in school.

Prayer – give thanks for good things in school that children identified at the beginning and ask for help to look after the school.

Song;
He’s got the whole world in his hands
He’s got the whole school in his hands…
He’s got everybody here…

The Persistent Widow - keeping going when things get difficult - KS 1& 2

2009-09-22T09:31:00.000+01:00

The Persistent widow
Luke 18

Need: banner with the words Justice Now! written on it.
OHP picture of some sort of situation of injustice (poverty, war, homelessness etc.) as a prayer focus.

Jesus told a story
There was once a woman whose husband had died. She had to struggle to bring up her children. She had very little money. Life was a struggle.
Then one day one of her neighbours cheated her out of what little money she had and she was left with nothing.
Her children were hungry. She was hungry. But what could she do? No one would listen to her or help her to get her money back.
They didn’t have police in those days, but they did have judges – people whose job it was to help others sort out their problems and their arguments,

She decided to go to the judge and ask for his help.
As she walked towards his house she thought to herself – I hope he will help me. He ought to help me – but I’m just a poor widow – perhaps he won’t listen…

She got to the place where he worked, and knocked on the door. His servant answered. She poured out the story. I’ll tell the judge you’re here, he said.

He went into the judge’s room. There’s a woman here to see you sir… she says her neighbour has cheated her.
Oh, said the judge…is that so?
Yes, sir. Shall I send her in?
Is she a rich woman?
No, sir, not at all, her clothes are in rags
Is she an important woman?
No not at all.
Well – tell her to go away then. If she’s not rich and she’s not important there’s nothing in it for me. What does it matter to me if she’s been cheated? I don’t care…!

So the servant went and told the woman.
But he’s a judge – she said – it’s his job to help me, isn’t it?
The servant just shrugged and slammed the door in her face.

The widow turned sadly to go away, but then she thought. Hang on a minute. It is his job to help me, and when people have been given a job to do they should do it! He’s not getting rid of me that easily…
So she made herself a banner. It said: Justice now!
And she stood outside the judge’s office and began to shout – Justice now!
All day she shouted and walked about with her banner. When it was time for the judge to go home from work, the woman just followed him, shouting all the time. When he looked out of the window, there she was. When he opened the door there she was. When he went down to the shops, there she was. When he went to work, there she was. Shouting, shouting, shouting… and all the time waving that banner – Justice Now!

The judge got crosser and crosser – why couldn’t she just go away?

In the end, the judge was just worn out…
OK, OK, he said – what was it you wanted to tell me about?
And the woman told her story, and the judge sorted out the problem and ordered her neighbour to pay back all the money, just so she would go away. And the woman went away and left him in peace…

What do you think of the judge?
What do you think of the woman?

It would have been easy for her to give up. The judge thought she wasn’t important, and she started to think that too, but everyone is important and deserves for things to be fair.

The world isn’t a very fair place. Some people have lots of money and some people haven’t even got enough to eat. There are some people who everyone listens to, and some people who no one seems interested in. Making the world fair is a very big job – it isn’t something that we can just do easily. But Jesus’ story reminds us that we shouldn’t give up. We should keep trying, because God wants the world to be fair.

Elijah and the still small voice - feeling scared - listening KS 1& 2

2009-09-22T09:21:00.000+01:00

Elijah and the still small voice
I Kings 19

There was once a man called Elijah. He was a prophet. Listened for God’s voice and tried to help people to do what was right.
Difficult time to be a prophet. Elijah had a hard dangerous job.
Israel was ruled over by a bad king and queen. King Ahab was very weak – just did whatever he felt like, didn’t think
Jezebel was a wicked bully. She tried to make everyone do what she wanted – if they didn’t there would be trouble!

But the more Elijah told people to listen to God instead of Jezebel the more furious Jezebel got. Eventually Jezebel got so angry she decided to get rid of Elijah. She sent him a message.
I’m going to get you, she said. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to shut you up forever – you wait and see.

Elijah got the message. Now Elijah was a brave man, but this was just too much. He was terrified. He got up and he ran – just as he was, in the clothes he stood up in. He ran right out of the house, right out of town, right out into the desert where there was no one around. He ran all day and when night came he was out in the middle of nowhere. All there was was rocks and one solitary tree. Elijah was exhausted, fed up with trying to stand up to Jezebel. What was the point? He might just as well give up.

He fell into a deep sleep, but he didn’t realise that God was watching him. And God knew what he needed. In the night God sent an angel, with some bread and a jar of water. When Elijah woke up there it was, and the angel standing by it.

Elijah – eat the food and get up. Go to the mountain – God wants to meet you there. Elijah was very puzzled, and still very fed up, but he did what the angel said. He ate and drank and trudged on through the desert until he came to a huge mountain called Horeb. He climbed up the mountain till he came to a cave, and he went into the cave to wait.

He didn’t have to wait long before he heard God’s voice calling to him.
Elijah, what are you doing here?

It’s no use God. I’ve tried and tried and tried to do your work, but Jezebel keeps stopping me. I’m all on my own – just one voice – there’s no one else that’s listening to you. It’s all useless. And now Jezebel wants to kill me….

Wait and watch, said God. I’m going to show you that I’m always with you.

How would this be? Elijah was very curious. So he went out of the cave and stood on the mountainside.

Wind – rushing and roaring. Was this God – showing him he would blow all his enemies away? But no. God wasn’t in the wind.

Earthquake – God smashing all his enemies to pieces? God not in the earthquake.

Fire – God burning up all that was wrong? God not in the fire.

Everything went quiet – calm – like a still pool of water – deep, deep, deep. Elijah felt very peaceful, very still. And in the stillness, from deep within him he heard a little whisper, a still, small voice. Elijah – I’m here. I’m with you. You’re not alone – you’re never alone, because I will never leave you. You may not be able to see me doing great dramatic things – wind, earthquake and fire – but that doesn’t mean I’m not there. All you have to do is be still and you’ll find me.You’ll find me in others too – there are lots of good people, even if you don’t see it at first, who want to help you.

And Elijah knew that however hard things were, God would never leave him. He wasn’t on his own at all.

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We all feel scared sometimes. We think we can’t do something – too hard, all on our own.
But that story helps us to remember that if we can calm down, we might hear a still small voice helping us. Might be that we will remember something we’d forgotten – we knew the answer all along. Might be that we’ll be able to hear what a friend is saying or a teacher or mum or dad helping us.
Prayer – Be Still – breath in and out and listen.

Elijah and the widow of Zarephath - famine - sharing - credit crunch - KS 1 & 2

2009-09-21T11:05:00.001+01:00

Drought – rain stopped falling, crops stopped growing.. Elijah had nowhere to stay and no food.

Came to a village called Zarephath – not in his own land, foreign village – would anyone want to help him here? He was a stranger.

Saw a woman gathering sticks.

Could you give me some bread to eat?

All on my own with my son. Have almost nothing left. This morning I looked in the flour jar and there was just one handful left. Little oil to mix it. Gathering a few sticks to make a fire. Make some bread and then that’s it – our last meal.

Elijah said – make the bread and share some with me too.

Woman decided that she couldn’t let this man go hungry. Even if they had so little they could share what they had.

Made the bread and gave some to Elijah

Then they lay down to sleep. In the morning the woman woke up - there would be nothing for breakfast now…

She took the lid off the jar and looked in, even though she knew it was empty…

And there was flour in it – not a lot, just one handful more. The oil jar had just a little oil in it too. She made some more bread – had what they needed that day too, and every day until the drought ended.

Strange story – don’t know if it really happened, but it helps us to remember something important.

Easy to share when we have lots, but much harder when we just have a little, when we think we might run out.

But it matters just as much then.

Credit crunch – banks – grown ups getting worried about having enough money. First thing people stop doing is sharing – giving to people who need money. We might not have much but many others have even less. Even more important to share rather than hang onto what we have when there isn’t much to go around.

Friend at Midnight - people who help us - prayer - KS1 &2

2009-09-21T10:24:00.000+01:00

Friend at Midnight
Luke 11.5-8
Need : Pillow , Clock , toothbrush and mug.

There was once a man who had had a long day....At the end of it, he put the children to bed, looked after the animals, did the washing up, locked up , checked the windows were closed, washed, brushed his teeth, got into his pyjamas, set alarm, snuggled into bed (lie down on floor) and dozed off...

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. He put his head under the pillow.
Knocking again…this time louder… got up and puts head out of window…
“who’s there?” ..recognised friend asking for food for a visitor.
It’s the middle of the night…go away…

Goes back to bed…
Knocking again…
Gets up and gives him food. (ham up how resentful he is at interruption.)

Why didn’t man want to help his friend?
Jesus said “ You know what it is like when you need help with something. People don’t always want to help.”
That's why the friend had to keep asking.
Jesus said that God is always ready to help … not like that man.

Who are the people who help you without you having to ask?

Prayer of thanks for the people who help us
Think of someone who helps you.
Think of something you need help with and ask for help
Thank God that he is always ready to help.

David and Jonathan - friendship - KS 1&2

2009-09-21T10:12:00.000+01:00

David and Jonathan

There was once a boy called Jonathan. And Jonathan was a prince. He was the son of a king- king Saul of Israel. Saul loved being a king. He loved wearing the crown, sitting on the throne, leading his soldiers out into battle…and one day he knew that Jonathan would be king after him, and his children after him, for ever and ever. And people would look at the great kings of Israel and say – what a mighty man that King Saul was, to have started all of this….

But there was a problem. There was another young man in King Saul’s household, about the same age as Jonathan. His name was David, and he had come to live with Saul when he was just a boy. Saul had first noticed him when he was fighting against a neighbouring country, the Philistines. They had a great soldier in their army – a giant called Goliath. None of King Saul’s soldiers wanted to fight Goliath. They were all too scared. But then David had stepped forward. He was a little shepherd boy with no weapons and no armour. I’ll fight Goliath, he said. Everyone laughed. You! But he went out with just a few stones, like those he would throw at the wild animals who attacked his sheep, and he killed Goliath – with one stone.

Saul thought – that’s a boy to watch! I’ve got to have him in my army. So he took him home to live with him.

But as David grew people started to look at this fine young man and to think to themselves that he might be a better king than Saul. Saul started to get worried – he liked being king! And there was Jonathan as well. If David was king, he never could be!
The last straw came one day when he heard some people singing a song they’d made up. It started out all right. “Saul is a strong man, a mighty man- he has killed thousands…” That’s all right , thought Saul. But then they went on “ But David is a stronger man, a mightier man – he has killed tens of thousands”…Saul was furious – he’d have to get rid of David! So he called all his advisers together, and Prince Jonathan too, and he told them what had happened – we have to get rid of David, he said… I want him killed.

But what Saul didn’t know was that while David and Jonathan had been growing up together in the royal palace they had become best friends. There was nothing David wouldn’t do for Jonathan, and nothing Jonathan wouldn’t do for David. And Jonathan, though he was a prince, had looked at David when they first met and thought to himself, he would make a better king than me. Jonathan had given David his robe, and his sword and told him that he thought he should be king.
So when he heard his father saying he wanted to kill David, Jonathan was very worried. He tried to persuade his father not to do this, but Saul said to him “what are you saying?! If David is king you can’t be – what kind of man are you…?”

So Jonathan ran to find David – you must hide, I don’t know what my father is planning. Hide overnight and I’ll try to find out. He might have calmed down in the morning and it might be safe for you to come back, but if it isn’t you’ll have to run away. I’ll really miss you but what is important is that you are safe and that one day you are king. In the morning, I’ll give you a secret signal to tell you whether it’s safe for you to come back. You see that field, outside the palace, where we practice with our bows and arrows. In the morning, I’ll come out with my friends and servants, just like I usually do. There’s a rock, there – you hide behind that. I’ll fire three arrows. If they land in front of the rock on my side, then it is safe for you to come back. If they land on the other side of the rock, beyond it, then you must go. When I send my servant to collect the arrows I’ll call out either – the arrows are on this side of the rock, or the arrows are beyond the rock. Then you’ll know…

David went and hid. All night long he hid. And he waited.

And in the morning Jonathan came out to the field. David was waiting behind the rock. He heard Jonathan bend the bow back and the first arrow swished through the air. David couldn’t see where it had landed. Then the second arrow, then the third. Shouted to servant – arrows are beyond the rock.
And David knew he’d have to leave.

David never saw Jonathan again – Saul and Jonathan killed in battle, but he did become king – a very great king, and he never forgot his best friend Jonathan.

Don’t know about you but I think Jonathan is the real hero of that story – David was a great king, but Jonathan was a great friend – more important. Helped his friend to be the best he could.

Think of a friend who can do something really well/ better than you.
How can you help them to do that?

Harvest Assembly - the lepers at the gate - sharing - KS 1

2009-09-21T10:08:00.001+01:00

Harvest assembly 09

The lepers at the gate - 2 Kings 7

There were once four men who were very ill. They had caught a disease which no one could cure, and no one wanted to go near them in case they caught it too. They had lived in a city with high walls around it, but now everyone told them they couldn’t live there anymore. They would have to live outside the city walls. They didn’t have a house to live in. They didn’t have food to eat. All they could do was shout out to people as they went in and out of the city gates to ask them to give them food.

Life was very hard. Then it got even harder. Another king from another country declared war against the city. He sent his army – thousands of soldiers with their horses and chariots. They camped all around the city and stopped people going in and out. No one could bring food in anymore. The shops in the city got emptier and emptier. No one had anything in their cupboards anymore. Everyone was hungry.

The four men outside the city couldn’t beg for food any more – no one had any to give them. One night they said to each other, “Why should we stay here? If we go and give ourselves up to the enemy they might help us. If they don’t we aren’t any worse off than we are here – there’s no food here anyway, and no one wanted to help us before anyway!” So in the morning, just as the sun was rising they headed towards the enemy camp.

What they didn’t know was that in the night a strange thing had happened. All the enemy soldiers had woken up, because they heard a strange sound. It was a sound like a great army coming to attack them. The story in the Bible says that God made them hear the sound, but they didn’t know that. They were very frightened, and without stopping to pack anything up they all just ran away.

So when the four men got to the camp, there was no one there. They went into the first tent. There was food on the table – lots of food. They ate the food and went onto the next tent – more food – more than they could eat, so they gathered up the food for later.

Then one of them said – “wait a minute, this isn’t right. While we are eating and eating, the people in the city are starving. We should share this food with them, not eat it ourselves”. They thought about it – the people in the city hadn’t been very kind to them. They had made them live outside and not helped them. But they couldn’t just forget about them.

So they picked up as much food as they could carry and they headed back to the city. “Look,” they shouted to the guards. “The enemy camp is empty and it is full of food – enough for everyone.” Sure enough when the people in the city went to look, there was a feast to share, and the enemy army never came back again.

Sometimes it is easy to help our friends, but it is harder to share with people who we think have been mean to us. At harvest time we remember that we should share what we have with everyone who needs it, not just with people we especially like.