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The Sacred Steps: Lent 4
- Introduce the children to the word “transgression” or “sin”. Which word does your congregation use when saying the Lord’s Prayer (transgression, debt, or sin)? Be prepared to give a definition of that word. You could talk with the children about what it means to confess our “sins/transgressions/debts”. Children will relate this to “fessing-up” or admitting to having done something wrong or being caught breaking a rule.
- Ask the children to help you understand the “steadfast love” of God. What do they think this means? How can we, or how have the children, experienced God’s steadfast love?
- Is there a time in your life when you acknowledged the healing grace of God? The psalmist tells of her/his experience. How can you translate your experience for the children in a psalm of Thanksgiving?
- God provided manna in the wilderness for the Israelites and safe passage into the Promised Land. One could talk with the children about how God provides for people today. How does God provide for the children? For the Church? For the Earth? Are there ways that the children can help God provide for others?
- Another option would be to talk with the children about the celebration of Passover, which includes a special meal, and what Passover means for Jewish people. For more information about this Jewish festival, go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/holydays/passover_1.shtml or http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm. Just as the Jewish people have a special meal to remember who they are, Christians also have a special meal to remember who we are. How does Communion/Eucharist/the Lord’s Supper remind us who we are?
- This is another opportunity to introduce the children to Joshua, as a character in the bible, and help them learn a few facts about him and his relationship to the story of the Israelite people. Did you create a “Bible Character” list for the children? If not, this would be a good time to start, so that when you do introduce a new character you can pull out the list to help the children remember who they have met in the biblical stories. Today you could add Joshua to the list.
- Introduce the children to the word “reconciliation,” which is one of those “big church” words that children often hear. Be ready to give them a simple, but not oversimplified, definition of reconciliation. This is an opportunity to talk with the children about the different ways your congregation does the work of reconciliation.
- Has your congregation ever received a grant to support your reconciliation work? In the Disciples of Christ tradition, congregations can apply for “reconciliation grants” to further their work of being communities of reconciliation. If you received a grant, talk with the children about how that money helped your work or project.
- Talk with the children about reconciliation by telling stories about what you have witnessed the children doing that meet the definition of reconciliation. This will help the children recognize what they are already doing and how they participate in your congregation’s mission of reconciliation.
- Many will talk with the children about being ambassadors for Christ. If you choose to do this, I encourage you to give the children concrete ways they are representatives of Christ. For example, a person is an ambassador of Christ by helping people make peace on the playground or standing up for someone being teased or bullied.
- You could talk to the children about how Jesus told parables. You could introduce the word “parable” to the children and talk about what a parable is supposed to do. You could highlight these parables in Luke and then talk with the children about your favorite parables.
- Children will understand the idea/feeling of being lost. You may have your own story about being lost and found or searching for something or someone lost. This is one way to approach these texts, inviting the children to express feelings and consider what God seeks or looks for, each one of us with the same urgency they did when trying to find something lost.
- These texts lend themselves to another “images of God” children’s sermon. If you created a chart or page listing all the images of God you discover with the children from the bible stories, it is time to get that out. If not, you might want to create one and begin with these parables.
- Another option would be to talk with the children about where we would find Jesus today. Can they name the food bank, homeless shelter, or emergency rooms for those seeking work, migrants, immigrants, refugees, or those suffering from illness? If you have an older group, you might talk with the children about who is considered “untouchable” or outside our culture’s boundaries of grace or acceptance.
Playlist: Sermon Edition
I was gifted the trust of the pulpit for a gathering of our congregations, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in Canadian Co. Oklahoma. These five congregations (First Christian Church Calumet, First Christian Church El Reno, Mustang Christian Church, West Point Christian Church, First Christian Church Yukon) gather for an evening fellowship dinner and worship during Advent and Lent. A theme for these worship services is selected. The theme for Lent is, “When did you start to sing a different song? ”
The texts are Psalms that are part of the weekly Lectionary reading during Lent. I was asked to offer some words on Psalm 63. My companion crafted the sermon summation:
“The psalm allows us to hear and name our desires and our fears/doubts, our joy and our pain. This psalm may help us recognize when we are dehydrated and need to find the Holy — wherever we do that — allowing us to sing a new song.” (Rev. Dr. Lisa Davison)
Several song lyrics were featured in the sermon as I stitched together some thoughts about Psalm 63 and how my life’s soundtrack has influenced how I hear, read, and experience the good news of God, and how the verses of my song have changed as I’ve grown older, but not up.
One way I approach the biblical text is remembering these are stories that can possibly help me learn something about how to bear the weight of:
longing,
questions,
uncertainty,
relationship,
visions and dreams,
joy, anger, and sadness.
Or, as the writer of Psalm 63 describes: thirst, looking, satisfaction, meditation, clinging, and a desire about what should happen to those who seek to destroy.
The summer between 6th and 7th grade, my family moved from deep northeast Texas to deep southeast Texas. I wasn’t happy about it.
But, I made some friends and went to church camp the summer between 7th and 8th grade with a changing tune.
I had grown up going to church and youth group. At summer camp (Camp Wildurr) I experienced the realness of God for the first time. I didn’t know I was thirsty. I left camp with some new verses in my song and the baseline that continues. “No one could change my mind but Mama tried.”
The thing about dehydration is that it can sneak up on you.
A headache is coming on. It must be stress.
I’m fatigued. Tired. Maybe I need a little more rest.
Cramping up a bit. Need more potassium.
I’m a little dizzy. It may be allergies, an inner ear thing, or blood pressure.
I feel a little nauseous. Something I ate must not be sitting well on my stomach.
Those are symptoms of dehydration, which can cause odd behavior and lead to more serious physical, mental, and spiritual health conditions. It can alter your song.
There is a story from the movie, “The American President” that goes something like this.
“People want . . . leadership, spirituality, meaningful existence, companionship, people want (fill in the blank . . .). They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand. People don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty. They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.”
When I read the Psalms, I think it’s a glimpse of the writers inner voice. You know, the internal, ongoing dialogue about the experiences of a day, the memories and the feelings you carry, or the things you choose not to say. The writers of the Psalms wrote their inner voice on behalf of their community and for themselves, trusting that God would receive it and be God. Can you imagine your journal becoming a sacred text for someone?
Humans are not bifurcated, from a Hebrew bible perspective, though that is a nice rationalization for the good and evil we humans can commit. “It’s not my fault; the Satan made me do it.” (Rev. Dr. Lisa Davison, a Hebrew bible scholar and my companion, can help you understand this perspective and better translations of the Hebrew words hesed and nephesh.)
Psal 63
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my life thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your fierce, restless love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
My life is satisfied as with a rich feast
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My life clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
they shall be given over to the power of the sword,
they shall be prey for jackals.
But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by (king or God) shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
When do you meditate on the Lord? Do yourself a favor and get away from your social media, your news silo, and screen for an hour every day. Find some silence. Listen. It can be scary. What song is your internal voice shouting or whispering right now?
“It’s their vault.”
“I’m not good enough?”
“I’m a good person.”
“They are a child of God.”
“I’m a child of God.”
“Why Me, Lord?”
The soundtrack in my life, the playlist, has many tunes that influence my song. It includes verses from two staples and a modern psalm.
Be Thou My Vision
Irish song (8th century); tr. Mary E. Bryne, 1905; versed by Eleanor H. Hull, 1912, alt.
Chalice Hymnal #595
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art
thou my best thought by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with the and thou with me, Lord:
though my redeemer, my love thou has won,
thou in my dwelling, and I with the one.
Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always:
thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Great God of heaven, my treasure thou art.
Great God of heaven, my victory won,
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
The powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. I wonder what will bubble up for you?