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

• 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, a great hero. All his people, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They had to do just what the king – the Pharaoh – told them. They had to work hard all the time for nothing, and if they complained then their masters beat them.

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

Then along came Moses. God had told him that he should go to Pharaoh 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 a plague of locusts – flying insects to eat all the plants in the land. He said no 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. Moses could 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 got out 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 they didn’t catch them.

Phew! Finally the people were free. They’d never been free before. 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 a new country where they could live, a really good place, full of good food for them, 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…They kept 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’re thirsty. We’re hungry. Why did we even come anyway? At least when we were slaves we had food to eat. It might not have been much, but it was food. We’re probably 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 be free?

Grumble, grumble, grumble….

So Moses prayed to God.

God, these people are driving me nuts. What can I do with them? 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 the message I am going to give you…And God told Moses what to do, and Moses spoke to the people.

Listen up! I know we can’t see any food anywhere, but God is going 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 bed anyway.

And in the morning, when they came out of their tents they looked around. The ground was covered with…something. It was a bit like a wafer, and it tasted like…honey! It was good. But what is it? they said to each other. What is it? In their language, the word for “What is it?” was manna, and so that’s what it was known as – the “what is it?” Now, said Moses, God says that 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 to measure out what they had they found it was just enough – no more. If they tried to save any for the next day it would go all horrible and filled with worms… They just had enough for everyone for each day …

They wandered on for years and years, but always there was manna 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 wonder what 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 the children thought… clearly the idea of having strategies to keep themselves going was a new idea. I asked the football team, whose success we had celebrated earlier what kept them going when they were losing matches, and one said – the thought of winning one day… which triggered a few other contributions like “telling yourself you mustn’t give up”. One child said that God could help us.

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

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

Mary visits Elizabeth: Advent: Waiting for someone to help

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

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

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

The first you already know about – in fact you can tell me about 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 going to have a baby, who she will call Jesus. The people of Mary’s time were waiting for someone to help them. They believed God would send someone special to be their leader. They called him the Messiah, which meant the one God had chosen. People wanted god to help them because life was very unfair and hard for them. Their land was full of Roman soldiers, who often treated them cruelly. But it wasn’t just that. When they looked around them they saw there were people who were very poor or sick and no one was helping them. If you were rich you were important and people listened to you, but if you weren’t no one cared. They needed to change, but who would help them to do that? The angel told Mary that it would be her child who would grow up to do this. She was VERY excited.

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

Elizabeth was a lot older than Mary. She had been wanting to have a baby for many years, but it just hadn’t happened, and now she thought she was too old. Now, Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah was a priest who worked in the Temple, and one day he was there, praying, when all of a sudden there was an angel – the same one that came to Mary. “Your wife, Elizabeth, is going to have a child.” “That’s impossible,” said Zechariah. “No its not” said the angel. “You wait and see! And your child is going to be special. He is going to get people ready so that when the Messiah is born, the one everyone has waited for, they will be ready for him. They need to learn first to listen for God’s voice. They need to be ready to change their lives. They need someone to help them think. Your child will be the one – just like a herald that goes before a king, to make sure everything is ready. That will be your son – and his name will be John!” Zechariah was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, not then, and not 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 tell her about her baby. But as soon as she saw her she knew that Mary had exciting news too.  “I know” said Elizabeth, “I know you are going to have a baby and that he is the one who God is sending to us to help us. My son will be the one who helps people get ready to listen to yours. Inside my tummy, I can feel my baby jumping up and down in excitement already. God is going to help us to live as we should, to love each other and look after each other.”

And Mary stayed with Elizabeth while she waited for her baby to be ready to be born. Elizabeth’s baby grew up to be someone very special called John the Baptist, and just as the angel had said he helped people get ready 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 that their children would grow up to help others. 

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

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

Years passed, but somehow they didn’t go home. But the people of Egypt still looked at them and saw that they were different. They spoke a different language. They wore different clothes. They worshipped a different God. And the people of Egypt were worried. What if they decide to try to take over? What if they take all our food, and our jobs, and our houses? We must stop them. So they made the people of Israel their slaves. They made them work hard, building the great pyramids and temples. All day long they had to work, and if they complained they made them work even harder. And all because the Egyptians were frightened of them. They were different, and they didn’t like that.

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

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

Moses led them across the desert for years and years and years and years… till finally they came to their new home – the land of Israel which their ancestors had left so long ago. They were going to be in charge of things here. In Egypt they had to do what they were told, but now they could arrange their society just the way they wanted. But what would it be like? What sort of place would it be?

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

The people of Israel had to decide what really mattered to them. Moses told them that one rule was especially important.

They must always remember the time when they were slaves in Egypt. They must tell the story every  year so that they didn’t forget it.

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

Children suggested: “in case the army came for them again” and various other things, but eventually someone said , “so that they wouldn’t treat anyone else the way they had been treated.”

So every 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 were slaves. They remember it not to make themselves miserable, but so that they won’t treat others the way they were treated themselves and would always welcome strangers in their land.

None of us have been slaves in Egypt – that was a long time ago. But I bet we can all remember times when we haven’t been very happy, when someone has been mean to us, when we have felt different, pushed out, when we feel like we haven’t got any friends.

It’s not much fun feeling like that, but if we can remember what it feels like when other people are mean to us, it can stop us being mean to other people, and that is a good thing.

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

Silence & prayer; we remember what it feels like when someone has made us unhappy, and we pray that will 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.

 

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

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

Many years later, they were still there, and a new king was on 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 do exactly what he wanted – so he did. He didn’t care whether how anyone felt or what 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 wine and food to be brought. The servants piled the food on the tables till they were groaning under the weight. Belshazzar sat down with his guests and began to drink and eat. But as he looked around he thought to himself that the feast could look even grander than it did. What it needed was a bit more gold, a bit more silver. “I know,” he thought. “We could use all those gold and silver cups we 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 be brought up from the treasury. And he gave out the cups to people to use at the party, just as if they were ordinary things. He could do what he wanted – he was king, after all. He was the boss of everyone.

The king sat down again to drink and to eat. But then he noticed something on the wall opposite, something very strange. He could see a hand, 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 strange words mean? The king had more idea than we do, because they were words that were in the language he spoke. He knew that they were words that were used for weighing and measuring things – just like we use grams and kilogrammes, centimetres and metres. But he still couldn’t understand what this strange message meant, and he knew it must mean something important or it wouldn’t have appeared like this.

He sent for all his wise men and magicians and advisers. “I’ll give you fine clothes and lots of money and power if you can tell me what this means”. They all scratched their heads and thought hard- they wanted the clothes 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,” she said. “He used to say that he was very wise – perhaps you should ask him?  He is one of the people who came from Jerusalem, and his name is Daniel.”

So the king sent for Daniel. “I’ll give you fine clothes and lots of money and power if you can tell me what this message means”. “I don’t want your fine clothes, or your money or power,” said Daniel, “but I can tell you what this means. It is a message from God, the God of Israel, the God who was worshipped in Jerusalem in the Temple, whose cups and plates and bowls you have stolen and are using here as if they were just any old dishes, whose people you have made into slaves. This message says that God has seen what you have 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 he isn’t pleased with what he sees. You have treated people badly. You didn’t think it mattered what you did, but you were wrong. There’s going to be trouble coming to you, and you aren’t going to be king anymore.”

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

And that very night, a foreign army attacked Babylon, and a new king took over, and that was the end of Belshazzar. He discovered that even a 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 the wall”– it is this story it comes from. They mean that they can see signs that something is going to turn out badly – it might seem fine at the moment, but there’s going to be trouble. If people are being mean to each other in small ways, it will probably end up in a fight – you can see it coming, the writing’s on the wall, we say. It might not seem like anything very big or important, but in the end it will turn out to matter. It’s a bit like having your name on the “sad side”. When that happens you know you really need to think carefully about what  you’ve done and try to change, because it matters.

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

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

***The children were very still at the end – I wondered whether they had expected a happy ending, and were a bit shocked that it didn’t have one. It was important to emphasize in the time of prayer at the end that God forgives us when we do wrong so we can start again.***

The man who had everything

The man who had everything – 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 we were little we used to argue. Brothers and sisters usually do. Do you fight with your brothers and sisters? What do you fight about? Often it is probably things that when you think about it don’t really matter all that much. You just want to win. Sometimes brothers and sisters carry on arguing even when they get big.

Once two brothers came to see Jesus. They were having a big argument. Their father had died and they had inherited his money and his things, 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 you stuff.” “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 family disputes he said, but let me tell you a story…”

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

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

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

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

There, he said ! That’s better. Now I shall have everything I want forever. I shall be able to eat and drink whatever I want whenever I want, 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 one lives forever. You are already very old, and as it happens tonight is  your last night – you are about to die… and all this food won’t be any use to you now. You have spent your whole life heaping it up, but you are never going to get to enjoy it…

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

“Now”, said Jesus, to the brothers who had come to see him, “what do 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 really matter in the end?”

We don’t know what the brothers did – do you think they made up 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 was more important that they should be friends than have things”)

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

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

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

St Paul escapes from Damascus

Do you know who your friends are?

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

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

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

One day Saul heard that there were some Christians, some of Jesus’ 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 saw a bright light, so bright that he fell down on the ground, and found he couldn’t see. And as he lay on the ground he heard a voice. Saul, why are you persecuting me? It said. Who are you? said Saul. I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Paul didn’t know what to do or what to think. He was led into Damascus, because he still couldn’t see, to a house where he could stay.

That night, says the Bible, a Christian called Ananias was praying in his house, when he heard God’s voice. Go to Straight Street, said God, there’s a man there called Saul, who needs your help. I’ve heard of a man called Saul, said Ananias, from Damascus. He has been trying to stop Christians from 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 he went, and found Saul, and prayed for him. And Saul was healed. Saul realised that he had got it wrong about these Christians, and he decided that he wanted to 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. But Ananias persuaded them, and eventually they welcomed him. His enemies had become his friends.

But what about his old friends? The ones who wanted to get rid 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 former friends were out to get him. He wasn’t safe in Damascus, but how could they get him out. Damascus had a wall all round it, and a big gate which was shut at night. 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 big basket, 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 they got 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 he is?

St Paul.

In that story Saul’s old enemies, the Christians, weren’t sure 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 our friends we want them to think like us and like the things we like. But people do change. We all change. We might change the football team we support, or change our ideas about something. It doesn’t mean that we can’t be friends anymore, though. It is a real pity when people are so upset by it that they start hating each other.

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

Pentecost: the fruits of the Spirit SEAL theme Change

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"