Lent 5 C: Revised Common Lectionary: ideas to involve even the youngest.

WELCOME: Everyone is welcome here.

While designed to be used during a Sunday service at church or by zoom, these readings can also be used during the week to help you remember and build on what you experienced on Sundays. My objective is for faith to be a lived experience and for children to learn how to worship and explore the Bible and pray by participating in Worship. The goal here is not for them to learn names or facts though they may want to do that for themselves, but rather to find ways of connecting with the text and sharing that with others. The ideal is to form alife long love of Christ and for the Word of God.

Today is the Fifth(5) Sunday in LENT. The Liturgical colour is PURPLE.

If you are worshipping from home you may like to set up a worship area

You can do this by setting up a candle, then add the things that remind YOU of God, a Cross, a Bible that everyone likes to read from, a special object, even something from one of the readings.

If able to worship in the Church buildings pack a special backpack, as well as filling, it with your Covid Safe equipment, add the books or materials required to help your young ones relate to today’s readings.

For adults and older students, you might like to use a journal with which to record anything that grabs your attention during the service. This could be a special, bound book or use your ipad or iphone. You could write a precis of the message (traditional words or pictures), draw, keep a record of emotions and hymns that you did or did not like. You could use a template like this free download. Remember, this is for you, you do not have to show anyone what is in it unless you want to, and you feel safe to do so.

CONGREGATIONAL USE: Though parents are the best at sharing their faith with their children. If you are a small congregation where children are a very small, or rare part of your congregational life, please feel free to make these suggestions available to your congregation. I am very happy for you to copy and paste ideas from here into your own Order of Service or for you to supply a link to this page. An acknoledgement though is always appreciated.

LET’S BEGIN:

LISTEN: On the album Lent, Lent 5 Willing Minds, by Liturgical Folk

Light or turn on 6 Candles (one for each Sunday in Lent) Blow out (or turn off) 5 Candles

PRAY

Into this season of Lent (pretend to Walk)

I go (point to yourself)

Life has it’s seasons (draw a circle in the air)

It’s Joys and (happy face)

It’s sadnesses (sad face)

You go before me (point your arms ahead)

You are there after me (look behind)

Amen

THE LORD’S PRAYER:

You might like to start with the Lord’s Prayer if at home, or say the Lord’s Prayer within a set place if following along in a service. Here are 4 options

2 with ACTIONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOugEQpcc_k OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjm93ylL2w

A more contemplative version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NuUo-igXDU&fbclid=IwAR2FasYCU-9mP1PaLQDjweXyhyUnJutt4J28KycjzeUEttWSesipX2jmJxE

Or for a more Intergenerational approach try Number 1 on the Table Settings album by Liturgical Folks

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

If you are in Australia and attending a Uniting Church in Australia, in many cases an Acknowledgment of Country will be said. You can teach your young ones to do this too.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE:

PRAY: Use heart shaped post-it notes and as you write a person or an activity you can do out of love, pray for the activity or person.

FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:16-21

READ: Beyond the Pond By Joseph Kuefler

WATCH

A suggestion by Storypath

RECYCLE: make something from rubbish? Or make a new item out of an old t-shirt or other item of clothing, eg a sock puppet.

PRAY: Download and print this sheet of blocks and write the names of someone you want to pray for on each brick, as you pray for that person.

PSALM 126

Psalm 126: A Harvest of Joy

Remember feeling amazing! (Show how you feel when your happy)
Remember a time of celebration – (blow out a pretend candle)
that was the Lord God at work!
Laughter rang out, (pretend to laugh)
everyone was happy, (smile)
everyone laughed till they shook with joy! (big pretend belly laugh)
The Lord has done great things for us (hold hands out wide)
and we reply with shouts of joy! (jump and spread your arms and legs out)

Remember feeling sad? (make a sad face)
Remember tears running down your face –(rub your eyes as if your were crying)
God was with you then. (pretend to put your arm around a pretend friend)
Your pain planted seeds (double over holding stomach)
and your tears watered them. (catch the pretend tears from your eyes)
The seeds grew in the tender mercy of God (go from a small ball to stretch tall)
growing fruit of wisdom ( Hand someone a pretend fruit)
fruit of kindness. (give a pretend hug)
Gather the fruit, and celebrate (fling arms and legs out wide)
that all things work for good in God’s ways.
Those who go out weeping
shall come home rejoicing.
The Lord has done great things for us (hold hands out wide)
and we reply with shouts of joy! (jump and spread your arms and legs out)

words by Rev Purdie actions by me

SHOW: How does this psalm make you feel, act it out, choose and emoji shows how you feel, or draw it.

SECOND READING: Philippians 3:4b-14

READ: Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera

WATCH

A Storypath Suggestion

DRAW or MAKE something wonderful. When finished see if there is anything you can do to make it even more wonderful?

SING Nothing Better Than Jesus on Soverign Grace Music album To be like Jesus

PRAY

Dear God

I love (name the things you love)

but nothing is

better than You

Amen

GOSPEL READING: John 12:1-8

READ: The Whirl Story Bible, Mary anoints Jesus, pp.302-305

WATCH

COLOURING-IN:

DRAW: something that is really important to you? Could you give it away? If you ever did whom would you give it too?

SENDING HYMN Tell the World by Hillsong Kids Learn the actions here

Blessings

Wendy L.

Please check local guidlines before using items that are not mine especially if you are using this page for congregational use. Please acknowedge this page if you find it useful. Thank you.

I am writing this on Wurundjeri land and wish to pay respect to all Elders, past, present and emerging.

I have qualifications in Education, Theology and Children’s Spirituality, and have worked as a Children and Families Worker in a city church. I use simple and easily found ideas to help you share the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) readings. This is a ONE STOP SHOP where I have done the sifting for you to find theologically and developmentally appropriate material for your congregation or family, saving you time from sifting through many websites, facebook , pinterest, instagram, and blog posts.

Sunday’s Reflection Lent 5C on the Gospel Reading John 12: 1-8

Lent is almost over. You can smell it. The advanced perfume of the last flowers of summer are giving way to a different aroma, as the deciduous plants start to change their colours in readiness for loss. You can smell it in the air, as the winds start to pick up blowing the smells from the corners of the compass at blustery and irregular intervals.

So, for me it is appropriate that this week’s reading has me experiencing scent through its words. God gave me/us the magnificent scents of the world around me, and in this passage, we have the gift returned, a selfless, expensive gift that no matter who received it, everyone would be enveloped in it.

Now there was a time when I would have thought about the exegesis of this text in a very traditional manner, but Sean Winter introduced me to a book by Elvey(1) when he was supervising a piece on the Martha and Mary narratives and it changed the way that I accessed passages. Yes, Elvey exegesis in a traditional format, but in an unconventional way, through the senses, and in looking at metaphor and Symbolism reminds us of the very basic way we access and decipher the text. That we bring ourselves, and our senses to the experience.

As a teacher, these ideas shone a light into my understanding of learning, that we learn with all our senses (2). I see children, explore with their whole being, But I have not forgotten as an adult to use or access all my senses, I think I am so familiar to them being there that they become background noise, or we would not need the practice of Mindfulness to become acquainted with them. Each morning, my Yoga practice, requires me to be attentive to the sounds around me and then to “let them go”.

If I fail to bring my senses to today’s reading, I might only hear of the Treasurers displeasure, I might only hear of Jesus’s rebuff which resonates more soundly the further from the cross we travel. But if I bring my sense of smell, I resonate with the story, I know what it is like to be enveloped in scent, I access, my imagination, I form a multi-dimensional scene, and the story becomes personal. In relearning to use all my senses, I am returning to the ways of the child and I am growing in faith, I am connecting across time in a very human way, and I am preparing for the end of Lent and mystery of Easter.

(1) The matter of the text : material engagements between Luke and the five senses / Anne F. Elvey.

by Elvey, Anne F.

Publisher: Sheffield, England : Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011

(2) Montessori

Blessings

Wendy L.

Lent 5C: Ideas to help you share this weeks RCL readings with the 3’s and under.

If you are a parent or Guardian

Prepare a special church bag in advance each week so that you are ready for the rush on Sunday Morning.

Sit towards the front so they can see what is going on.

Read during the Bible readings,

Pray during the prayers,

Colour, Draw or Craft during the sermon.

Craft or drawing or play are for spiritual responses not for a perfectionist piece that can be shown off.

Remember that little ones will need their own space to move and wiggle,

You have bought your child to worship. Enjoy engaging them in it.

If you are a small congregation without a Child and Family Minister have an area available near the front for parents/guardians to worship with their children, and print off this information so that it is readily available or direct them to this site. Set up an area with books and toys in it that will enhance their spiritual experience. (Ie not just toys for “keeping them quiet”).Spiritual Delights or Toy Box tat! andMake the books appealing

If you would like these ideas as a PDF file sent to you each week, please contact me.

FIRST READING: Isaiah 43:16-21 DO A NEW THING

READ/WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV7yp2MUr9c DEMOLITION BY SALLY SUTTON as suggested by http://storypath.upsem.edu/tag/isaiah-4316-21/ then read/watch Construction by Sally Sutton. to see what replaces the old and how useful it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUL-uiQL2Tk

Most children in Australia’s major city will relate tooth’s idea of building something new as they see it around them everyday. So it’s easy to start the idea that God builds new us, for when they are developmentally ready for it.

PLAY: with blocks to build something new.

PRAY: God,

Help us become your new creation

(add blocks to this prayer by placing a block down and saying God please help ____(name the person) this week.

Amen

PSALM 126 JOY

Psalm 126: A Harvest of Joy

by http://www.conversations.net.nz/psalm-126-a-harvest-of-joy.html actions by me

Draw: something from this psalm, it might be a small plant growing, or something that make s you happy, or anything else you want.

SECOND READING: Philippians 3:4b-14 BREAKING FROM THE PAST

This reading has similar themes to the FIRST READING. I suggest that you use those Books, activities and prayer here

GOSPEL READINGS: John 12:1-8 GIVING ABUNDANTLY

READ: My First Read-along Bible by Batchelor and Boshoff, Expensive Perfume, 204-205

OR The Beginner’s Bible A gift for Jesus pp.423-426

COLOURING-IN: https://store.illustratedchildrensministry.com/collections/coloring-sheets-posters/products/bible-story-coloring-pages-spring-2019 PURCHASE IS DOWNLOADABLE AND IS IN AMERICAN DOLLARS FOR 14 WEEKS (5 WEEKS IN)

SHARE: Make a bookmark, as simple or as wonderful as you like and hand to other people in the congregation. You might like to spray it with perfume to reinforce the story and add another dimension to the gift. So a physical, visual and smell experience. You can find a free colouring in one here https://www.illustratedchildrensministry.com/2017/ways-to-pray-with-kids/?fbclid=IwAR3VP7PIAsAk4AOA6l0d4i2pWFNoZZl-Zqq5QCbiLaSnUYGoEqqpT-D3CgE

OR share something to eat with others, ie blueberries, slices of cantaloupe etc.