Ascension Day: Time to say goodbye

Show some pictures of people saying goodbye, waving to trains, seeing children off to school etc. – Google has plenty.

Talk about the pictures. What is happening in them? Where might the people be going? What might those who are leaving and those who are staying behind be feeling and thinking.

Show a picture of the Ascension. http://nunraw.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/ascension-of-lord.html

Talk about it. What are the people in it doing?

What can you see in the sky?

Whose feet do you think they are?

(There was a lot of response to this, and to the earlier pictures, and the children spotted and commented at length.)

It is a picture of the story we remember today.

Jesus had been with his friends for a long time. They had travelled around with him and heard him tell stories and help people. They were very close to him. Then he had been crucified, and they were very sad and shocked.But then, according to the Bible, they started to meet him again. He ate with them and talked with them. They didn’t know how that was possible, and neither do I, but they knew it meant that he was safe, and that the things he had taught them were good things, that he had been right to say that God was with them, even when things were very sad and difficult.

But then one day he gathered them together and told them it was time for him to leave them to go to be with his Father in heaven. They wouldn’t see him any more.. “You have a job to do,” said Jesus, “and if you are going to do it you can’t just cling to me all the time”. You are going to go out and pass on my message to others.”

They weren’t sure about that – they felt sad and scared, but Jesus said that God would still be with them to help them, wherever they were.

And as he said that, a cloud came down and surrounded Jesus and then rose up in to the sky, and Jesus wasn’t there any more. As they looked up they could see the cloud getting smaller and smaller and smaller, till it was hardly there at all… They didn’t want to stop looking up into the sky – no one wanted to be the first to turn away.

Then they knew Jesus was gone.

But then two angels appeared and they said to them. “What are you standing looking up into the sky for? Haven’t you got a job to do “

It was sad, but what had Jesus said? They wouldn’t be on their own. God was still with them, just like he had been with Jesus, even when he was dying on the cross. So they knew they would be all right. And they had a job to do – a wonderful job, an exciting job, a job Jesus had trusted them with – to spread his message and help other people love each other.

So there was work to get on with – and they couldn’t do it if they were standing around feeling sad. So back they went to Jerusalem to get on with it.

Some times it  is sad to say goodbye – we’d rather not do it. There are lots of different goodbyes too – the goodbye in the morning to mum or dad when you go to school – but you soon learn that they will be back at the end of the day. The goodbye to friends or family who you don’t see very often.  Some of you will be saying goodbye to Seal school soon – you might be sad, but you can’t get on with the rest of your life and do all the exciting things you’ll do at secondary school unless you say goodbye and move on. And when we do feel sad, we can remember that we aren’t alone. Although we are saying goodbye to some things and some people, we aren’t losing everything from the past. There will be lots of people still there to help us, lots of memories to treasure, and lots of new people to meet too.

Moses in the Bulrushes. SEAL theme Going for Goals: Knowing your strengths and weaknesses

“I can’t do that, but I can do this!”

Need: (though not vital) a baby doll, some straw/reed to show plaiting and weaving, a straw basket.

This is a story from the Old Testament of the Bible. (Exodus 2)

A long time ago there was a cruel king in Egypt. Kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs. This Pharaoh liked having power, making people do what he told them to. But that meant that he was always worried that someone might take his power away, someone bigger and stronger than him. At that time there were a lot of people who came from the land of Israel living in Egypt. They had come to Egypt many years before when there was no food in their own country, but then they had stayed and settled down and had families there. By the time of this Pharaoh there were a lot of Israelites in Egypt, and he didn’t like that one bit. What if they all ganged up on him? So he made them all into slaves, who had to work hard all day for nothing and couldn’t do what they wanted any more. He made them build his big buildings and pyramids, pulling heavy stones around.

But still they kept having children and their numbers grew.

So Pharaoh thought of another plan. A really wicked plan. He sent out orders to all the midwives, the people who helped women who were having babies. “When an Israelite woman has a baby boy, you must kill it straightaway,” he said. The midwives were horrified – they were there to bring babies into the world not kill them. They couldn’t do it. After a while Pharaoh realised that it wasn’t happening, so he summoned two of the midwives to his court. They knew they were in trouble, but they weren’t going to let these babies be killed. They got together and they thought of a plan. “We aren’t strong enough to stop Pharaoh – we can’t do that – but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything. We can do this…” and they whispered their plan to each other…

So they went to Pharaoh “Why aren’t you killing the boy babies?” he shouted. “Ah, well, Pharaoh, you see it’s like this…” they said. “The thing is that those Israelite women are so strong and fit that they give birth to their babies very quickly, before we even get to them, so we are never there in time to kill them…” That was a lie, of course, but it was a lie told to keep the children safe, so it was ok. And Pharaoh couldn’t do anything but believe them.

But Pharaoh didn’t give up his wicked plans. So, when one Israelite woman gave birth to a fine healthy son, she was very worried. (I brought out the baby doll at this point) For three months she hid him, but as he grew it was harder and harder to keep him hidden. “What shall I do,” she said to herself. I’m not strong enough to defeat Pharaoh. I can’t do that…but I can do this! And she went and got herself a whole pile of dried reeds and began to weave them together. (I produced the basket and the reeds and did a bit of plaiting to give the younger children some idea of what she was making.) She wove and wove until she had made herself a basket out of the reeds. Then she painted the outside with sticky, black pitch, which was used to make ships waterproof. And she took her baby and laid him in the basket and took him down to the river and put the basket very carefully in the reeds at the water’s edge. Perhaps someone would find him who could look after him.

Now this mum had an older child too, a daughter called Miriam. And she watched her mum do all this. She felt very sad because she loved her baby brother. But what could she do to help? She knew she wasn’t strong enough to fight against Pharaoh. “I can’t do that… she thought – I’m much too small – but I can do this…” and she thought up a plan. When her mum took the basket down to the river she followed and when her mum went sadly home she stayed behind to see what happened.

After a while, someone did come along. It was the daughter of the Pharaoh, a very fine, rich woman. She had come to bathe in the river. But what was this? A basket in the reeds? And what was in it? A baby! Pharaoh’s daughter wasn’t like her father. She was kind. Who would leave their baby in the river like this, in a basket so carefully made? It must be one of the Israelite women’s babies, who her father was trying to kill. She was very sorry. But what could she do. “I’m not strong enough to stop my father, the Pharaoh, she said. I can’t do that… but I can do this…” And she picked up the baby and told her servants that she was taking it home with her to look after it. At least one baby would be saved! “I will call him Moses” she said – because that means “I have pulled him out of the water”.

Now Moses’ sister saw all this. She was glad to see that her brother had been found, but she didn’t like to think she and her mum might not see him again. “I can’t make it so that we can all be together and safe the way we’d like,” she thought to herself. “I can’t do that…but I can do this…” and she skipped out of her hiding place up to the Pharaoh’s daughter. “What have you got there?” she asked. “It’s one of the Israelite baby boys” said the Pharaoh’s daughter. “I’m going to look after him, but I’ll need someone to help…” “I know an Israelite woman who could do that…”said Miriam. “Would you like me to fetch her..?”  And that’s what she did. She fetched her mum, Moses’ mum, and Pharaoh’s daughter gave her very own baby back to her, and gave her some money too. “Look after this baby for me,” she said, “and when he is older he can come and live in the palace with me.” And Moses’ mother was only too happy to do so. And that’s how Moses came to survive. And when he grew up he managed to rescue all his people from Pharaoh.

But it was all those people – the midwives, his mum and sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter who made that possible. They knew they weren’t strong enough to get everything sorted out, but each one could do something to help, and that was all it took when they were working together…

….

There are lots of things we can do – and lots of things we can’t do. Sometimes we think of the things we can’t do and we feel really helpless. Perhaps we might know someone who is poorly; we can’t make them better, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything to help. What could we do?....Children suggested staying with them, fetching their medicine etc.  Or perhaps we’ve got to do something at school that feels difficult – if your teacher tells you to write a story, it might feel really difficult to do, but what can you do to help yourself get started …Children suggested making a story map and thinking through what it would be about…

There is always something we can do to help, like the people in the story of Moses and those small things all add up to make a real difference.

Prayer – think of the things we struggle to do, and remember that there is always something we can do, even it seems small.

Christmas assembly - the glow in the dark baby

I created a powerpoint of this picture, focussing on different details of it (The adoration of the shepherds, by Gerard Van Honthorst) and cycled through it with some music playing as the children came in. (I used "How sweet is Love" by Michael Paget - I've taken the music out of the powerpoint here, for copyright reasons, but you can find something suitable of your own.) The children were remarkably transfixed by this, and reflected really well and with some sophistication on the image.



Look at this picture. (Show the whole picture on a powerpoint or OHP)
What can you see in it?

 Children talk about the things they see.

There is something in this picture which is very strange. What do you think it is.

The glow in the dark baby!

Have  you ever seen a glow in the dark baby?
Do you think Jesus really glowed in the dark?

Some children tend to answer yes... Explain that the Bible doesn't say this - he was an ordinary baby.

So why do you think this artist painted Jesus like this?

In the Bible Jesus is described as the Light of the World.  That’s not because he glowed in the dark but because when people met him as a grown up, if they were feeling dark and gloomy, he made them feel better.

There was once a woman whose back was all bent over.She couldn’t look anyone in the face and talk to them. It must have been very uncomfortable and upsetting. Jesus healed her and she could stand up straight. He lit up her life like a light coming on in a dark room. (Light a candle)

There was once a man who no one liked, called Zaccheus. Everyone thought he was a bad man. When Jesus came to his town he wanted to see him, but no one would let him through the crowd, so he had to climb up a tree. Jesus saw him there and told him that he wanted to come to his house for tea. Everyone was really surprised, but Jesus said he was Zaccheus’ friend too. Jesus lit up Zaccheus life..(light a candle)

There were once some children whose mothers brought them to see Jesus. Jesus’ friends said that he was FAR too busy and FAR too important to see a bunch of scruffy children, but Jesus was cross with his friends and said that the children were the most important of all. He lit up their lives – no one had said that to them before. (light a candle)

So lots of people who met the grown up Jesus thought of him as a light that had come on in their lives, helping them to know that they were loved.

Jesus didn’t glow in the dark really, not as a baby, and not as a grown up either, but people who knew him felt that he was a bright shining light, and that’s why he is often painted like that. 

But Jesus didn't just say in the Bible that he was the Light of the World, he also said that we are all lights of the world. You are a light of the world, and you, and you... The things we do can light up other people's lives.

As we watch the powerpoint presentation again and listen to the music, think about how you might light up other people's lives today.

Creation Assembly

Creation Assembly

The unfinished masterpiece

There was once an artist, who was very, very good, but very, very slow. One morning he woke up with a brilliant idea for a painting. He got out some paper, very, very slowly. He sharpened his pencils very, very slowly. He mixed his paint very, very slowly. He thought a bit, and thought a bit more. Finally he was ready to begin. He started to draw. But he had taken so long that it was lunchtime and just at that moment his wife said the food was ready. Paulo loved his food, so he put down his pencil and went downstairs. After a long, long lunch he had a little nap, but when he woke up he just couldn’t remember what it was he was going to paint. He couldn’t even remember which way up it was going to be. And all he had was this…

(Show sheet of paper with a circle somewhere on it – better if it is not right in the middle. Turn paper round , portrait and landscape, so that they can see that the circle could be at the top, side or bottom.)

I wonder what he was going to paint? Do you have any ideas what this circle was going to turn into?

Think about it, but don’t tell me. Give a few children who think they have an idea a copy of the “unfinished masterpiece” and let them sketch while you talk.

I know you’ve got lots of ideas, and I bet they are all different.  You are a very creative bunch of people – point out artwork in the hall.

The Bible tells us that God is creative too. In fact it starts off with stories about him making the world. They are only stories. They didn’t really mean us to think that it happened like this – but the stories tell us that they thought God was creative, just like we are.

The story the Bible tells says that God made light and dark, heaven and earth and all that is in it, plants and animals. And after he had made each thing he looked at them and said “It is good!” He really loved the things he had made. He felt proud of them and enjoyed making them. And finally he made people. And the Bible said that he made them to be like himself – not that they looked like God, but that they were a bit like him in other ways. They could love like he loved. They could care for each other, like he cared for them. And they could make things too.

So when we make things we are being a bit like God – so long as we are making good things.

Look at pictures that the children have drawn – all different (In this instance I got a snowman, a girl on a bicycle, a portrait of one of the teachers, a drawing of an atom with spinning electrons, the London Eye, Big Ben clockface and the Earth) . It was up to you what you made of them - you all started with the same thing, but came up with something different. In the same way we can all make different things every day. We might make good things

I wonder what you are going to make today? It’s up to you. You can make a mess, or make trouble. You can make an enemy. Or you can make a friend, or make things better.

CREATION PSALM
Here is a sort of version of that Creation story that we can all join in with. I include actions - gesturing to heaven and earth, making sun and moon shapes, growing as trees and flowers - you can make up your own, I am sure. Make them big and sweeping, so that the movement becomes a part of the praise. I encourage them to join in with the bits in bold type, but I tend to find that they rapidly get the idea and often say the whole thing along with me, or repeat bits after me spontaneously, in which case I go with the flow!)
In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made the angels and the archangels and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made the sun and the moon and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made the hills and the valleys and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made the trees and the flowers and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made the whales and the worms and he said 
They’re good, I like them!
He made all the people, big and little and he said 
They’re good, I like them!

And the heavens and the earth                      
And the angels and the archangels
And the sun and the moon
And the hills and the valleys
And the trees and the flowers
And the whales and the worms
All said

Three cheers for God
Hip, hip, hooray
Hip, hip, hooray
Hip, hip, hooray!

And all the people said
Amen, Amen!

Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones - SEAL theme Changes

Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones

(Ezekiel 37)

Play “danse macabre” by Saint-Saens as children enter. I put up a powerpoint slide notice explaining that the music we were listening to was a dance done by skeletons and that if you listened carefully you could hear the bones rattling in the music (played by the xylophone).

I stook the school skeleton in hall. Yes, my local primary school has a school skeleton - full size, genuine article. It often seems to be in the YR classrooms. None of the children seem in the least bothered by it...

I don't know what those of you unlucky enough to be in skeletonless schools could do instead - a picture would have to do, I suppose. The skeleton isn't vital to the story, but he did rather bring it to life!

The Jewish people who wrote the Bible were once in deep trouble. An enemy army had come and destroyed their city of Jerusalem and taken then away as prisoners far away across the desert to a place called Babylon.

They thought they would never go home. They thought it was all over. They were very, very sad. There was no hope, and they might as well be dead.

The Bible says that God saw how sad they were and wanted to encourage them not to give up.

So he chose a man named Ezekiel, someone who would listen to what God said and tell everyone else.

One day Ezekiel had a sort of dream. You know how in a dream sometimes strange things happen…well that’s what happened to Ezekiel. He found himself in his dream far away from the city out on a deserted plain, flat and dusty, in the baking sunshine. But all around Ezekiel were bones, human bones. A lot of people had died here, thought Ezekiel. It was a place where a great battle had taken place, and the bodies had just been left. Now there was nothing but bones, dry bones, hundreds and hundreds of them. They were all scattered about and mixed up – a skull here and a leg bone there… What a muddle. And they were all as still as still could be, as dead as dead could be.

And then Ezekiel dreamed that God spoke to him.. “Well, Ezekiel – do you think these dry bones could ever get up and walk about and live again?”

What a daft idea – of course they couldn’t. They were dry and dead.

But Ezekiel said “I don’t know – you are God – you tell me…”

“Ezekiel” said God “What I want you to do is this. Talk to the bones and tell them to come together and sort themselves out into bodies again…” It sounded silly, but Ezekiel did as he was told. “Come on bones – sort yourselves out” shouted Ezekiel, probably feeling a bit stupid. Of course nothing would happen, would it?

But then he started to here a noise. First a faint scritch-scratching, then a rattling, then a clattering – the bones were moving! As he watched they moved themselves about across the desert. A skull found a backbone, a backbone found some legs and arms, and pretty soon there were whole skeletons lying on the ground.

Of course that was just the inside of the people. We’ve all got bones inside us, but we aren’t just bones. We need muscles and things to join the bones together. As Ezekiel watched in his dream the skeletons grew muscles and ligaments and then skin. There they were, lying on the ground, whole bodies.

But then God said to him. “they look pretty good, but they aren’t alive – they aren’t breathing, so that’s no good. Now I want you to talk to the breath – call it to come from the four winds and make them live.”

“Come on breath,” shouted Ezekiel “Come and make these bodies live!”. And as he waited he felt a gentle breeze sweep over the bodies, and… they all took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, and another deep breath in again…And they all stood up…full of life from the tips of their fingers to the tips of their toes.”

(get the children to breathe in and out, stretch, wriggle their fingers and toes.)

And Ezekiel woke up from his dream…What a strange thing. What did it mean?

Ezekiel thought and thought. And then he went to his people and he told them this.

We feel just as hopeless as a bundle of dry bones. As if nothing good will ever happen again. As if it is all over for us. But God has other ideas. He can take us back to our own land again. We can start again. We mustn’t give up. We must keep going… God is still with us and wants to help us.

And the people believed him. And they were right – they did eventually go home, and rebuild their city.

Sometimes we all feel like giving up – there’s no point trying, we think, it will never come right.

Perhaps when we do we could remember Ezekiel’s dreams. If we keep going and keep trying, with help from others and from God things can change.

Prayer: In silence think of something you find hard and feel like giving up on.

Ask God to help us when we feel like that so that we can keep trying, and thank him for all the people who encourage us in difficult times.

Pentecost - good news to share

Last time I came to school I told you about when Jesus went back to heaven. His friends felt sad. They missed him, and they wondered how they would manage without him. He had given them a big job to do, to tell other people that God loved them and wanted to help them, but they didn’t know how they would do it.

He had said that even if they couldn’t see him, God would still be close to them to help them through his Holy Spirit, but they didn’t know how. All they could see were the problems.

One day they all gathered together in a room in Jerusalem. It was the Day of Pentecost, a big Jewish time of celebration, but they didn’t feel much like a party. They were praying together. Lord, help us to tell others about you – we don’t know how we are going to do it.”

Choose four children to help –

Then, as they prayed, a strange thing happened. They could hear a sound, like the sound of a rushing wind…but there was no wind blowing.

(Give two of the children bunches of blue and white crepe paper streamers and let them wave them like wind. It is important to feel confident that you can stop the children when you need to, though, otherwise you will have a complete riot – they enjoy this bit!)

It felt good – very exciting. Suddenly the disciples started to feel that maybe God was with them,. They couldn’t see him but they felt like they had done when Jesus was around – as if everything would be all right. So this was the Holy Spirit – God close to you right where you were, right inside you!

Then they looked around at each other, and each one of them was shining with excitement. It was like flames were dancing on their heads.

(Give the other two children bunches of red and yellow streamers and get them to wave them.)

“Of course we can do it, “ they said. “We can do what God asked. In fact, how can we not tell other people – it is the most exciting thing in the world – God loves them and wants to help them. They can have a new start!”

They were so excited that they all rushed out of the house and started talking to people. Even the people in the crowd who had come from far away, who spoke a different language understood what they were saying.

And from that beginning they took their good news out all across the world, showing people how to live as Jesus had taught them, loving one another, and when they felt down they remembered that God was with them and the day that he had come to them like wind and flames. (Shake the streamers)

• Can you tell me about a time when you had some really good news to share – something really exciting that you couldn’t wait to tell your friends? (could pass around the streamers for children to shake as they share their good news, though I didn’t as I was starting to run out of  time.) The children shared various things – new friends they’d made, a new baby on the way, a new puppy, a set of times tables finally mastered…
• It is often easier to think of things to grumble about – but if we love and care for each other, we will find that there is always good news to get excited about, and that will encourage us to feel we can do things that are difficult

Prayer – thank you that you are always close to us through your Holy Spirit. Thank you for all the things that make us feel happy and excited. Help us to see the good news in the world and be ready to share it.

 The point of this was really to convey the sense of excitement the disciples felt on the day of Pentecost, and how this helped them to share their good news. They knew that God was with them. The children were dead keen to shake the streamers, and there was lots of laughter, and when asked to share their own good news, they were very keen to do so, so it seemed to work!

Tower of Babel – SEAL theme: Going for Goals. Making choices – just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

This story comes from the Old Testament of the Bible. It’s a story people told to help them think about what they did.

A long, long time ago, when the world was new, there weren’t many people around. But gradually people had children and they grew up and had more children, and they grew up and had more children, and soon there were people everywhere. And some of those people came together into a great city called Babel. And they were very clever and very powerful, and they knew it. They learned to do lots of things.  They all spoke the same language, and that meant that they could understand each other and teach each other what they had learned.

Now that would have been great if all the things they said to one another were good things, if all the ideas they shared were good ideas, ideas that would help people. But they weren’t. What they mostly talked about was how powerful they were, and how to make sure everyone knew it.

“We can do anything !”  they said to each other – “ so we will!”

One day someone had an idea. “Let’s build a tower, the biggest tower in the world, a tower that will reach far up in the sky.

Everyone will think we are really important, really clever, really powerful. No one will ever dare to argue with us, because they will see how strong we are. Not even God will dare to argue with us…”

So they started to build. They weren’t building a place to live, or a place to work – they were just building. Taller and taller and taller the tower grew. (The children joined in with some building actions with enthusiasm) Higher and higher and higher into the sky it went…

But God saw what they were doing, and he wasn’t very pleased at all. “They are just building so that they can impress others, so that others will be frightened of them – never mind how much it costs, or what a waste of time and effort it is… I can’t let this go on …”

And God had an idea. All of a sudden, the next day, while they were all busy building their tower, God made them all speak different languages, languages they didn’t understand. One person would be talking to a friend, and suddenly he found that he was talking in French, but his friend was talking in Spanish. Another would be talking in Arabic, while her friend was talking in Polish. And no one could understand anyone.

They tried to carry on building, but no one knew whether the other one was saying “up a bit” or “down a bit”, no one knew if their mate was asking for more bricks, or whether it was time for dinner yet. You can’t build much like that, and pretty soon they had to stop, and there stood the tower, half-finished while they all babbled away at each other…

And the Bible says that the place where all this happened was called Babel – which sounds a bit like babble, because that’s where different languages started.

The people of Babel learned that just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean to say you should. We’ve got lots of power, but we have to think carefully about how we use it. The people of Babel also learned that often words are the most powerful things we’ve got. Just because we can say something, it doesn’t mean we should.

 We can do almost anything with words – have an argument, make up after an argument, persuade someone to something they shouldn’t, or encourage them to do something they should.

Hand out strips of OHP acetate with the following statements on them.

“Thank you”

“Would you like to play with me?”

“You can’t share it, it’s mine”

“Let’s all gang up on her”

“He looks really stupid – pass it on…”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Get the children to read them out, and then say whether they think they are kind or unkind – words that we should say or words that we shouldn’t…

Arrange on an OHP sheet with Kind and Unkind printed on it. This could just as well be done using cards and a large sheet to stick them on.

The people of Babel learned that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it. We need to think carefully before we do something or say something and ask ourselves whether it is kind or unkind, whether it will build something good or bad.

Prayer – that we should remember that just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. That God would help us to think about the things we say to make sure they are kind and not unkind.

Following the assembly, the deputy head said to the children that she hoped during the day that children would come to her to tell her the kind words other children had said to them (which some did straight after the assembly. One little boy came up to me to tell me that it was a good story, which was kind of him, so I told him so!)

We also had a very remarkable question from one Y1 child who asked, and I quote, “Where was the city of Babel located…?”  I explained that we didn’t know whether there ever was a city of Babel, or whether it was just an imaginary city, and that people might have been thinking of the city of Babylon, because it was very big and powerful. I also explained that the stories in the Bible weren’t all things that actually happened, but that some were just told to help people think about important things. It was an extraordinarily perceptive and intelligent question from a child of 6! I hope he was satisfied with the answer…