School Christmas thought

[This was written as a short thought for parents and children after a number of school nativity plays.]

What is your favourite fairy tale?

What if that fairy tale were true, how would life change?

            Eg be scared of going to Grannies in case she’s a talking wolf

            Go round kissing frogs and give up on internet dating

            Have a fairy Godmother who gave you three wishes

            Get dressed much quicker for parties

Often we treat the Christmas story as a fairy tale, it’s magical and beautiful but ultimately not true!

Luke, who tells us most about the Christmas story, begins by saying that he’s checked out all the details, spoken to the people who were there and everything he’s writing actually happened!

So what does that change? Means life has meaning and purpose, life after death, friendship with God now instead of being His enemies.

Why not find out more?

All Age Carols Christmas talk

 [This is for our All Age Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve. We are using two sets of props: first, a string tied from the back of church to the front on which to send a balloon (angel) with names. Secondly, a box wrapped up which folds out to a cross shape.]

All Age Carols 2012

Song – Silent night

Intro

Will and Kate are expecting a baby, God willing. When a baby is born it’s a real gift from God (hold up wrapped up box). And when a baby is born we need to name him or her. Great excitement over what baby Cambridge might be called. Of course the Christmas story involves the birth of a baby. And because he is so special he has lots of names.

Watch the first video of Luke 1:26-38. Listen for what the angel says the baby should be called.

Talk 1

Did you spot the name? Jesus. [angel (balloon rocket) sends name ‘Jesus’ from back to the front of church.]

I wonder if you could choose your own name, would you change it. This is (formerly) George Garratt, who changed his name to, wait for it, Captain fantastic faster than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine The Hulk and the Flash combined. He changed his name by deed poll online for £10. There’s an idea for a late Christmas present for Dad!

Perhaps you just don’t like the name your parents gave you. In some countries you can’t cal yourself whatever you want. In New Zealand, a girl became a ward of court after her parents named her Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii.

A couple were banned from calling their child 4real so they chose Superman instead.

But normally it’s the parents who choose the name for their child. Here the parents are told to call their baby Jesus, by an angel. Why?

Because this is a child from God, a special gift given in an impossible way. This is no ordinary child. God Himself is stepping into history, to act. And the name evokes some of the great heroes of the OT. This is the same name as Joshua, the great army captain of earlier in the bible, and Elisha, the great prophet who came to give people God’s great message. But what is it that Jesus has come to do? What is his job going to be?

We’ll need to wait for the next name to find out. But lets put the name Jesus in our present.

Song – Away in a Manger

Talk 2

Watch video 2 of Luke 2:8-20. What do the angels tell the shepherd the name of the baby is? Saviour

[angel (balloon) sends ‘Saves’ from back of church to front.]

So the shepherds are told that the Saviour has been born. A Saviour is someone who saves. That’s the meaning of the name Jesus.

Did you know your name means something? You may or you may not. And you might or might not like the meaning.

Read out a few. Georgia means farmer! Connor means dog lover!

Well Jesus means ‘He saves’.

Why did God step into the world to save? What do we need saving from?

Well, the world is in a mess. There have been some horrible things happening in the last week which tell us that! Shootings, people in Syria being bombed, people saying nasty things or doing nasty things, sickness and illness.

And the bible tells us that’s like a symptom of an illness. When we get measles it shows itself when we get lots of spots. So the bible says sin is an illness that everyone of us has, and it shows itself when we do or say horrible things. And that sin, that illness in each one of us, is when we ignore God, forget about Him, don’t live His way, don’t live with Him as our rightful ruler. That’s what’s gone wrong with the world, us! But Jesus has come into the world to be the Saviour, to save us from our rebellion against God. That’s the good news of Christmas.

Let’s put that in our Christmas present.

Song – Jesus Saves (to Jingle Bells)

Talk 3

Watch video 3 of Matthew 2:1-12. What did the wise men call Jesus? King of the Jews (also prophet said a ruler/shepherd)

[Angel sends crown from the back of church to the front.]

God has given us a forever King [place crown in box]

This baby in the manger is God’s forever King, then. Doesn’t look much like the birth of a king! I imagine when our future heir to the throne is born there will be thousands of people lining the streets to celebrate. Not just some smelly shepherds and some foreigners from miles away with some strange presents. This king forever was laid in an animal feeding trough, not a golden crib.

And Jesus grew up to show that He was the forever King; the words he spoke had kingly authority and power, they healed people, stilled storms, cast out demons.

But actually he never wore a crown. Oh, no he once did. But that was a crown of thorns, which was placed on him as he died on the cross.

Have you seen the Save the Children advert (on screen)? No child is born to die. Absolutely right. Except in this case. Jesus was born to die. (open up box into cross shape with crown at top, Jesus underneath and ‘Saves’ at the bottom.)

This is what it means for Him to be King forever, the one who came to die for sins, to save us from all we deserve for disobeying God, to bring peace for us.

What a wonderful Christmas present! Have you accepted it? Have you come to Jesus and said sorry for all you’ve done wrong and asked Him to be your king? Why not speak to me afterward about that?

That’s the message of Christmas, Jesus was born to die, born to save!

Puppets – Born to Save

Prayers

Carol – Once in Royal David’s City

Teaching Malachi

[This is our final week of teaching the minor prophets, I say with some relief! If we did it all again I would definately do it differently]

Malachi for 5-11s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Put minor prophets in the right order (bible order) and hide round the room for them to find. Who is the last one?

Bible story:

Do you remember that Judah had been carried off to Babylon for 70 years because they’d disobeyed God? Last week we saw that they had returned and Haggai told them to rebuild the temple.

Everything looks ok. They’re offering sacrifices as they should in the temple. They’ve gone back to work and they’re living with they’re families.

Well, this week our prophet is Malachi.

And God tells Malachi that things aren’t quite as good as they look.

You see the first commandment that the people had to keep was to, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.’ [Have on large card] God had loved them and chosen them and had restored them, so they were to love Him with all they had.

Now, although things looked good, if you dig beneath the surface they weren’t loving God with all their hearts.

Here’s the first thing:

The priests. [dress up one as priest]. They were going to get their sacrifices for the temple. But instead of going and getting a perfect lamb, as they should, they just went and picked any old lamb. ‘Oh, this one will do,’ even if it was missing one leg or had a dodgy eye. That wasn’t good enough for God, that wasn’t loving God with all your heart.

Even though we don’t offer animal sacrifices anymore we must still give God the best of our lives, we must live for Him.

Here’s the second thing:

When they went to get married, God had said they were only to marry other people who loved Him. But the men had gone and married women who loved other gods. They hadn’t loved God with all their hearts.

The same is true of us, when we get married when we’re older we must show how much we love God by marrying someone else who loves God.

Here’s the third thing:

When they went to work and earnt money, they were not giving God the first amount that they earnt. They would leave it until the end and give Him the bits of money left over. God said that they were robbing Him!

So the same must be true of us. It’s good to give, and we should give from the first bit of our pocket money, not the change left over after we’ve bought our sweets. We must love Him with all our hearts.

Finally, they said, ‘Well maybe its not worth serving the Lord God.’ Do you know what God says? I’m going to keep my promises (covenant) [have on 2 sides of card, 1^st side: ‘Our word: promises’; 2^nd side ‘Bible word: covenant’] and deal with the wicked. So live wholeheartedly for me now!

Will you live as God’s covenant people, boys and girls who live trusting God’s promise, just as Jesus did? Will you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, mind and strength now? Will you love Him with all your heart in your families, with your brothers and sisters? Will you love Him with all you heart at school? Will you give Him your best?

Table time:

Have 3 pictures – church, family, school. Ask them open questions such as:

·        When is it hard to love God with all your heart at… (may need some help answering such as ‘Part of loving God is obeying your parents, how easy is that?’)

·        Why is it hard to love God with all our hearts at these times?

·        What should we do about this? (ask Jesus to forgive us and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to change)

Have concrete examples for 5-7s

Spares:

Quiz on all term

Memory verses
 

Malachi for 3-5s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Sketch between two leaders both trying to draw a picture of Malachi. One does it really well, the other just draws a quick stick man. First leader accuses the second of not doing their best.

Story:

Do you remember last week? We saw God’s people return to the land God had given them, and they rebuilt the temple.

Well, now that they were back home the most important thing was that they loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Here is Josh the Jew [bring out a small puppet]. Josh was a shepherd, and he had to take a lamb to the temple as an offering to God. Here’s one, he thought. [have a picture of a lamb with a missing leg]. ‘That’ll do’ he said to himself. But God said only bring me the best, that’s how they were to love God with all their heart. So was Josh loving God with all his heart? No.

The next thing Josh the Jew was doing wrong was at home. His mum asked him to tidy his room. His clothes were everywhere and his bed was a mess. So, do you know what he did? He took all his clothes and scrunched them up and threw them into his drawer! Is that what his mum meant? No. He wasn’t loving God with all his heart by doing his best.

God asks us to love Him with all our heart, soul and strength, just as Jesus did. When we’re at home with our mummies and daddies we need to do our best for God. When we’re at pre-school we need to love God with our everything! Shall we ask God to help us do that?

Pray

Crafts:

·        Sheet of paper with heart on – stick on red paper and ‘Love the Lord your God’ in the middle. Then stick pictures around it of all the times they need to love God, eg playing, writing, eating etc.

·        Colouring sheet of Malachi saying the memory verse

·        Heart card holders with ‘Love the Lord your God’ on

Songs:

Two little eyes

Follow, follow (both from Very, Very Big God CD)