Faith + Open: gather the children to where you hold
children’s time. Ask: “Do you know that we have a special word
that we use in the church to praise God for loving us? What word do you think that
might be? (accept all answers) Well
those are great words too but this is a neat one that I really like: it is
Alleluia. Can you say that? Have you heard that in worship or in other places?
We sing it most often before the Gospel is read and other place in the worship
service. (Sing the Gospel acclamation Alleluia if you are comfortable!) Do you all know “Allelu, Allelu, Allelu,
Alleluia, Praise Ye the Lord”? Let’s sing that!
Faith +Share: We sing
that song and we are so happy that God loves us and gives us life with God
forever! It is a wonderful and joyful song! Well today is the last Sunday
before a season that we call Lent. On Ash Wednesday, this Wednesday, you will
come to church and we will tell God how sorry we are about the things we
shouldn’t do and we get a cross made from ashes put on our foreheads to remind
us that we belong to God. It’s important
to say we’re sorry and to admit when we have done something wrong, right?
Well,
we think about that in Lent and we remember that God loves us so much that God
sent Jesus to earth to tell us how much God doesn’t want the wrong things we
sometimes do to hurt our relationship with God. God wants us close always! So
we have a few weeks to think about how God loves us and how Jesus died on a
cross out of love for us. To help us focus on that, we don’t sing or use the joyful
word Alleluia for the whole six weeks of Lent. We wait to sing it again on
Easter Sunday on the day that Jesus rose from the dead when we can celebrate
that God gives us life forever too!
So I
have a slip of paper for each of you that has the word Alleluia on it. We are
going to put away the Alleluia’s for the next six weeks and to help us remember
we will put the Alleluia’s in this box. (Have a large box covered in
purple paper with Lenten symbols on it. Have the top open and be prepared to
tie the box closed with string or ribbon.) On
Easter morning will you help me take the Alleluia’s out so that we can sing it?
All right!
Faith + Prayer: Loving
God, we don’t want to not sing Alleluia, even for just a little while, but we
also don’t want to take for granted your deep and everlasting love for us.
Thank you for loving us and for being with us always. In the name of your Son
Jesus who loved us enough to die for us, Amen.
Faith+Blessing: May your eyes be opened to see all the amazing works of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
~BW
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