Sunday, November 11, 2018

Proper 28 B (November 18): What Lasts and What Doesn't?/God can be trusted/The Challenge of our Times













THERE IS A 2024 UPDATED VERSION OF THIS POST WITH  MORE STUFF - SEE MY ARCHIVES AT LEFT.

Bible Readings: 1 Samuel 1:4-20, 1 Samuel 2:1-10, Psalm 16, Hebrews 10:11-25, Mark 13:1-8,

About the images:
Upper Left: A free microsoft image with my text.
Upper Right: Uluru with words from 1 Samuel 2:2. This is my image so please feel free to use this image for worship or related activities.
Middle Left: Another piece of street art from one of the laneways of inner city Melbourne, Australia. For more info on the laneways, Google Melbourne and see the page on "Melbourne laneways" under "About Melbourne" or "Welcome to Melbourne". This is my image so please feel free to use this image for worship or related activities.
Middle Right: A free heartlight image - please see my link column at left.
Lower Left: This is my image so please feel free to use for worship and related activities - it is an mage from Beit Shean in Israel. 

Listening Song: Bearers of the Light
by Michael Card on his album Poiema (pictured at right). This song enhances the Hebrews reading.

Kid's Story: Won't You Help Me
Found in Illustrations, Stories and Quotes to Hang your Message On by Jim Burns and Greg McKinnon, Gospel Light, 1997, ISBN 0830718834, page 35. (pictured at left).

Film Clip: Nottinghill
Show the scene in Nottinghill where the characters, in the intimacy and safety of their shared meal together, all share their secret fears and insecurities to illustrate Hebrews 10:25.
 

Film Clip: 2018 Social Revolution
This is a great way to introduce the helpful hints contained in the Hebrews reading for living in our fast paced world



Drama: The End of the World is Coming
Found in Mega Drama 4 by Verena Johnson (ed.) Open Book, 2002, ISBN 0959109186, page 51 (pictured at left). This drama fits with the gospel reading.

Introduction: The Challenge of Our Times
Can't remember the source of the following info - probably the web :-)
"Did you know that....
There is more than one mobile phone per head of population in Finland.
My ordinary car has more computer power than the rocket that took Neil Armstrong to the moon.

Our computers
at home are out of date the moment we buy them.
The World Wide Web puts people in touch with each other like never before … and simultaneously isolates them.

The miracles of modern science have not eliminated pain and grief and loss and family breakdowns."
Link this to the Hebrews reading.

Discussion Questions:
Do you think we are in times of turmoil and collapse today – in the world, in our society, in our churc
h?
At such times, what sort of things do people place their faith in?

Story: God's
Trustworthiness
Story 593 in 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching
by Michael P Green, Baker Books, 1989, ISBN 0801063302 (pictured at left). This story fits well with the Samuel reading.

Story: The Power of Our Words
Found in
Illustrations, Stories, and Quotes to Hang Your Message On, (as above) page 169 to illustrate Hebrews 10:24.
Story: God's Care
Story 98 in Your Point Being by Graham Twelftree, Monarch Books, 2003, ISBN 1854245929 (pictured at left).  The story sits well with the Samuel reading. 

Adult Response:
E
nsure that everyone has a small candle and is standing and that you have a lit a large Christ candle that everyone can see.
Read Hebrews 10:24-25 and explain that we are now going to live out these verses by giving each other the light and hope and encouragement. Light your candle from the Christ candle. Explain that you are going to light one person's candle and at the same time tell them something encouraging. That person will do the same to someone else until everyone in the room has a lighted candle. Tell them that when their candle is alight and when they have lit someone else's and encouraged them, they should sit down with their lighted candle.

Adult Response:
Make tiny (20 will fit on an A4 or letter size) cards/photos/drawings/whatever of the symbols of God found in the Samuel reading - make a total of three times as many as there are people in your congregation. Ask people to select one for themselves and one to give somebody else.

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