Weekly Devotions - October 7, 2012 - 19th Sunday after Pentecost - Lec 27B

Here is the Weekly devotion for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Lec 27B - October 7, 2012

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Faith + Home Connection October Mark 10: 46-52

Faith +Open: Once everyone in the household is gathered light a candle to remind us of Christ’s presence with us always and open with prayer. Pray this prayer, one of your own or a combination of the two. Dear God, we call to you for help and you call back to us with words of healing and promise. We are grateful that it is your call to us that draws us near to you in our times of helplessness, sorrow, joy and gratitude. May we use our lives to call out to people around us to share your voice with those who need to hear the healing words of your Son. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

Faith + Share: Read aloud Mark 10:46-52. With younger children read from the Spark Story Bible, page 338, or your favorite children’s Bible. After reading it through once have different people read the different parts: Bartimaeus, Jesus, the crowds. Or even act it out!

With children: Bartimaeus was blind and alone. He was probably scared some of the time not knowing who or what was around him. Even though Bartimaeus could not see Jesus with his eyes, he knew immediately when Jesus was close and he called out to Jesus for help! Following the sound of Jesus voice he jumped up and went to Jesus not worried about falling, running into something or someone or getting hurt. Bartimaeus didn’t need his eyes to know that Jesus was there! He knew in his whole being. Bartimaeus reminds us that we only need to listen and follow Jesus’ voice and we know that Jesus is always close to us even when we can’t “see” Jesus! What are some ways that we can help us to “know” that Jesus is close? (Ideas: prayer (talking to God), reading the Bible, family and friends who love us and care for us, helping to care for our family, friends, and people we don’t even know!)

With youth/adults: There is a lot going on in this short story and feel free to ask your own questions and go down a different path than the one I will take here! But some questions and thoughts that I have are about the crowds in this story. The crowds wanted Bartimaeus to leave Jesus alone and not bother him. Bartimaeus, as a blind beggar utterly alone, was not part of the “in crowd.” He was to be avoided, unclean, a nuisance at best, and a scar on society at worst. This “worthless” person shouldn’t be bothering Jesus! But Bartimaeus ignores the crowd and continues to call out for mercy/help (best translation would really be that he says “mercify me”) to Jesus. The crowds must have been shocked when this cry stopped Jesus cold in his tracks! “The least of these” is what caught his attention, not the rest of the crowds or disciples with him! Jesus then calls out to Bartimaeus and the crowds suddenly change their tune. Hey Jesus is calling you Bart! You had better go! This story is not just about transforming Bartimaeus but transforming the crowd (us) as well. The crowd around Jesus thought that they were the “in group” with the disciples and were quick to try and keep the less desirables out. But Jesus transforms the crowd from gatekeeper to conduit. By hearing Jesus calling to Bartimaeus, the crowd then becomes the encourager of Bartimaeus to go to Jesus! I would like to think that someone even took him by the arm and guided him for safety! Both the crowd and Bartimaeus are transformed together to be all together with Jesus. For Jesus, both the insiders and the outsiders were in equal need to transformation and he brought them together for the purpose of a whole community which then Bartimaeus became a part. So how are we sometimes the “gatekeepers” keeping those we don’t think are desirable away from God? How can we hear Jesus voice calling to those on the margins and become a conduit for encouraging and pointing people to the one who can transform each and every one of us and all of who we are to be “made well” or whole with God? How might the person we least expect point us to Jesus?

Faith +Close: At the end of your Faith + Share time extinguish the candle and share one word/phrase about the conversation on Mark 10. Leave a little time for silence and then either use the Faith + Blessing below or close with a simple “amen.”

Faith + Serve: We have lots of opportunities to serve here at LCM. This month, let’s send 50 children from Molholm Elementary school to the outdoor lab! Without some assistance many children at Molholm may not be able to participate in the outdoor lab. We will be doing a baked goods sale in October at LCM to support this project so look for more information soon! But in the mean time have a jar or a glass set aside in your kitchen that you can label “Called into the world.” Every time you or a family member eats a piece of bread or other baked good place some spare change in the glass. Even a penny will help! Collect this change throughout the month of October and bring it in on October 28^th-Reformation Sunday-and watch how a little bit from each of us combines to great abundance!

Faith + Blessing: As you leave for work or school each morning make on the sign of the cross on the back of each other’s hand and tell the other person, “Remember Jesus is calling you.” Jesus calls us to him and into the world to share God’s love with everyone!

Children's Sermon Sept. 30th, 2012 18th Sunday after Pentecost Mark 9:38-50

Faith + Open: As children come forward, randomly put them into two distinct groups preferably (depending on your space) with some separation between them. Make sure that no one migrates and make it clear that this is where they need to be. Don’t have them sit down.

Faith + Share: Take one group (this will be group 1 for reference) of the children and say “Ok you are with me. Let’s go over here for a little bit and talk.” Lead them away (maybe down one of the side aisles towards the back of the worship space) and don’t even acknowledge the other group( group 2 for reference). Begin talking to your group in hushed tones occasionally looking at and pointing to the other group still up front. Do this for only a minute to two. Then bring the groups back together.

Say to group 2: “How did it feel to be left up here alone not knowing what was going on? (Accept all answers) Did you wonder why you didn’t get to go with the other group? Did you wonder if you were different or had done something not quite right?” (Accept all answers) Turn to group 1: “How did you feel to go with me? Like the “in” crowd or like you were special for some reason?

Well in our story this morning there were two groups of people- the disciples who were with Jesus and another group who weren’t directly with Jesus but were helping people in Jesus’ name. The disciples thought that the other people were too different and shouldn’t be allowed to talk about Jesus. But Jesus tells the disciples that anyone who tells people about him ARE part of his group! Anyone who loves Jesus, tells people about Jesus, and helps people in Jesus’ name are important to Jesus and Jesus includes or welcomes anyone who believes! Pretty neat! Jesus tells the disciples “to have piece with each other” and this means to not worry about someone who is a bit different from themselves but welcome into God’s family!

We have a part of our worship service where we do this: it is called the “passing of the peace.” We do this because Jesus wants us to welcome everyone and so we shake hands or give a hug to let everyone here know that they are wanted and welcome here! So when we say “peace be with you” we are really saying “God’s peace and we are so glad you are here!”

How else can we let people know that we are glad that they are with us not just in worship on a Sunday morning but in our lives as well?

Faith + Blessing:  Today when we pass the peace I want all of us to say that to each other, “God’s peace and I am so glad that you are here!”

Faith + Close: Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for loving everyone. We want everyone to feel you love for them, help us to welcome everyone we meet for you. We all belong to you and we are so thankful! Amen
~BW
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Weekly Devotions - September 30, 2012 - 18th Sunday after Pentecost - Lec 26B

Here is the Weekly devotion for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Lec 26B - September 30, 2012

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Children's sermon Sept. 23rd, 2012 Pentecost 17 Mark 9: 30-37

 Prepare: Copy of verse 37 for each child present.

Faith + Open: Gather the children to your children’s sermon space. Begin by asking them a series of questions about themselves. Such as what is their favorite color, food, brothers and sisters, favorite games, etc. Then say, “Wow! By asking all of these questions I have learned a lot about all of you this morning!  Have I learned everything about you though? (NO!) I will need to ask you a lot more questions and talk to you for a really long time to learn everything about you! It would take me my whole life to learn everything about even one of you!! Now I am going to tell you something about myself. (Say something in a foreign language if you can or say something with ridiculously big/difficult words.) So what do you now know about me? What did I just say? (Looks of confusion should abound!) You didn’t understand what I just said about me? What questions could you ask to find out? (Accept all answers.)

Faith + Share: Well, in the first part of today’s gospel lesson from the book of Mark, Jesus is telling the disciples something about himself that they did not understand. Jesus told them that he was going to be hurt by people, so hurt in fact that Jesus was going to die. BUT Jesus also told them that he would rise again. The disciples didn’t understand this at all but they were afraid to ask Jesus questions about it! Jesus wants us to ask questions. Jesus welcomed children and their questions and says that welcoming children and questions is welcoming God into our lives.  Just as I learned things about you by asking questions, questions are also how we learn about Jesus. Do we always know all of the answers? (No) but we can talk together, read the Bible together and learn about Jesus together! I want you to write, or have mom/dad/adult you came to church with, one question that you have about God or Jesus and talk about it in your family this week. If you want you can ask another adult in the congregation too!

Faith + Close: Prayer: Dear Jesus, we want to know more about you. Thank you for hearing our questions and thank you for the people in our lives who learn about you with us. Thank you for loving us so much! Amen

Faith + Blessing: Give each child a copy of verse 37 to go in to their Bibles to remind them to ask questions about Jesus!

Weekly Devotions - September 23, 2012 - 17th Sunday after Pentecost m- Lec 25B

Here is the Weekly devotion for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, Lec 25B - September 23, 2012

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Weekly Devotion - September 16, 2012 - 16th Sunday After Pentecost - Lec 24B

Here is the Weekly devotion for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, Lec 24B - September 16, 2012

Did you miss a week?  Go to the Weekly Devotion page to download past weeks!

Children’s Sermon for September 16, 2012 - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, year B, James 3:1-12

Scripture Focus: James 3:1-12

Prepare:  If you can find a bridle or a bit for a horse it would be a great illustration piece.  You could also bring a leash or a dog harness, but a bit would be the most impressive.

Faith+Open:  As the children gather ask them if they have ever heard anyone say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”  Ask them if they know what that means.  Then ask if they think it’s true.  Do words really not hurt?

 Faith+Share:  We’ve been reading this long letter from the Bible from a man named James.  He says that is wrong, words do hurt!  And more than that, he says that it is really hard to never say anything mean.  James says that this is really important, and he gives a bunch of great examples.  One I really liked was about a horse.  Do you guys like horses?  Have any of you ever had the chance to ride a horse?  It’s pretty fun, isn’t it!  Well, horses are big animals, and I don’t know a whole lot about how to work with horses, but I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t control a horse with just my hands.  Fortunately we have some tools to help us control them (and people who know how to train them, that helps a bunch, too!)  I brought this with me, does anyone know what this is?  Yeah, it’s a bit.  This goes into a horse’s mouth and then a rider can control the horse.  This little piece of metal let’s you control the whole big horse!

James says that our tongues are kind of like a horse’s bit.  What every our tongues say usually becomes how we feel.  So, when we use mean words against people, we often start to believe it ourselves.  And when other people use mean words against us we start to believe what they say, too.  He says that we should think before we speak, because the same tongue that praises God should not be used make other people feel bad.  We should try our best to praise God with our tongues, and to share God’s love with each other.

Maybe we should update that saying from the beginning of children’s time.  How about, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, and mean words hurt, too.”

Faith+Prayer:  Loving God, we praise you for all the love, mercy and grace that you pour out on us.  Help us to speak loving words that show your love to other people.  Amen.

Faith+Blessing:  May your eyes and ears be opened to see all the amazing works of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

~GB

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Children's Sermon Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 9, 2012, year B, James 2:1-17

Scripture Focus: James 2:1-17 

Prepare:  Find a partner to help you.  You will need someone who knows what you doing so that they can play the part!  Have them gather with all the children at the beginning of the children’s sermon

Faith+Open:  As you gather the children, pick your helper out of the crowd and say, “Oh, I didn’t know you were here.  Hmmm . . . could you go sit way over there?  I want to make sure that the children get all the good seats.”  Then ask the children if they can all see and hear you.  Indicate your helper and say, “It doesn’t really matter if they can see, you are the important people here.”  Ham this part up, make it fun so that children understand that it’s a game.

Faith+Share:  What do you think?  Was I being a good neighbor to our friend?

One of the readings today is part of a letter from a man named James.  In the part we heard he is talking about how we treat each other.  He says a bunch of things that are hard for us to do!  He says that we shouldn’t treat people differently because they are rich or poor, or powerful or weak.  We shouldn’t give someone special treatment because they have a bunch of neat stuff, or because they are super cool.  We should treat everyone with love and respect.  He even repeats what Jesus said, that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Then he says that we have more neighbors than we think we do!  Some are rich, or cool, or have neat things, and some are not rich, or not cool, but we need to love them all the same.  Just like God loves us!

Now, what about our friend over there?  Should we let them come sit with us?  Yes!  Come over here and we’ll all pray together.

Faith+Prayer: Loving God, teach us to be loving to all our neighbors, the ones who are cool, and the ones who are not so cool.  Help us to love each other just like you love us.  Amen.

Faith+Blessing:  May your eyes and ears be opened to see all the amazing works of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

~GB

Adapted from a children’s sermon by Pastor Paul Judson.

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.