Proper 15 B (August 15): Wisdom

 

Bible readings:1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14, Psalm 111, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58

About the Images:

Upper Right: A Corel Free clipart to which I added the text.

Upper Left: My reading glasses, my dictionary, my photo - feel free to use them all for worship and related activities. 

Middle Left and middle right Right:  The two images made me think of being drawn into wisdom and the deeper things in life by our relationship with God. The left image is of the Old Ghan Railway Algebuckina Bridge built in 1892 beside the Oodnadatta Track - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oodnadatta_Track .  The right image is part of the walkway in the Cradle Mountain National Park - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_Mountain

Lower Left: Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash. Unspash is the most amazing free site I have so far come across.

Lower Right: A free Heartlight image - see my link column at left  

Listening Song: Deep Calling Deep

By Margaret Becker on her album, Grace (pictured at left) or on WOW 1996. This goes well with the Ephesians and the Kings reading.

Kid's Activity: Based on Ephesians 5:18b

Take a large clear glass of lemonade and drop some sultanas in it. Together watch the sultanas (golden raisins) repeatedly sink and then rise again. Discuss how the Holy Spirit is all around us,(like the lemonade around the sultanas) but we are not always aware of the Spirit’s presence. God's Spirit can lift us again and again giving us strength, courage, hope, faith etc – whatever we need to be Christians in this world.

Film Clip: Stigmata

Use the scene in the film Stigmata (pictured at right) where Frankie bumps into the priest in the market place. As they have a coffee together the priest tells Frankie that he was an organic chemist before he was a priest. She asks him why he became a priest and he tells her that he discovered "too many holes" and that science could not explain everything. He continues on to explain that the explanation he needed could only be found in God.

Discussion questions to get people thinking after the OT reading:

What is wisdom?

Can we be as wise as Solomon?

How does wisdom work in the 21st century?

Story: Choosing Wisdom

This story can be found in Betsy Devine and Joel E. Cohen's book, Absolute Zero Gravity, Simon & Schuster or at

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1689

Story: The Holy Spirit
Found in 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers Teachers and Writers by Craig Brian Larson and Leadership Journal (Eds.), Barker Books, 1993, ISBN 0801091551, Story No. 307 (pictured at left). This story goes well with the Ephesians reading.

Story: Stopping at the Lights
Found in 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching by Michael P Green, Baker Books, 1989, ISBN 0801063302, story no. 428 (pictured at right). Goes well with the Ephesians reading. 

Response Activity:
Ask people to get in to groups and together write an acrostic prayer using the word "wisdom". It would be useful to have A3 or A4 sheets already brightly printed with the word. At the end of the activity display all the prayers and allow people some quiet reflective time to walk around and pray/read all the prayers.

Also:

Complete Service: Let Us Sing

Found in In this Hour by Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Desbooks, 2001, ISBN 094982433X, page 15ff (pictured at left). 

Drama: What Would You Pick

This links with the 1 Kings reading and is found in Mega Drama 4 by Verena Johnson, Open Book, 2002, ISBN 0859109186, page 15 (pictured at right).

Poem: Humble Access
Found in The Electric Bible by Peter Dainty, Kevin Mayhew, 2003, ISBN 1844170411, page 95 and based on the gospel reading. 

Liturgy

By Jean Helmer and found in Before the Amen by Maren C Tirabassi and Maria I. Tirrabassi (Eds), Pilgrim Press, Cleveland, 2007, ISBN 978 0 8298 1750 8, page 113. Based on the John reading.