Proper 22 C (October 2): The Art of Lament, Mustard Seeds, Rekindle the Fire, When Things Get Tough

Bible Readings: Lamentations 1:1-6, Lamentations 3:19-26, Psalm 137, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10.

About the Images:
Upper Left: The image comes from the excellent Imagebank site and is therefore free for worship related activities (see my link in the column at left) and the words come from the quote below.
Upper Right: This is my image so feel free to use it for worship and related activities.

Middle Left: This free image comes from the Heartlight site - please see my link column to the left.

Middle Right: This image comes from the awesome Church Galleries website which is down at present.  This particular one was free on the site.   

Lower Left: This is my front yard and my photo which I thought went quite well with Lamentations 3:22-23. Please feel free to use for worship and related activities. 

Lower Right: It is World Communion Sunday this week - this image is from the Hermano Leon site. 

Listening Song: Rivers Of Babylon
This song is based on Psalm 137. There are plenty of versions of this song around - Boney M had a very famous one which is still on a number of their albums and Sinead O'Connor has two great versions (London and Dublin) on her Theology double album (pictured at right).

Kid's Story: Alexander, Who's Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going To Move.
By Judith Voirst, Robin Preiss Glasser and Ray Cruz, Scholastic,1995 (pictured at right). This story can get a conversation going about lament, being taken to a new place etc etc.

Kid's Talk: Don't Be Ashamed
Wear your footy team colours to church and ask the kids what team they barrack for or play the Grand Final winner team song in church and have a talk about how we are not ashamed to wear our favourite team colours and sing our team song. This connects very well with the Timothy reading for this week.

Dramatic Reading: Psalm 137

Found in Parable Performing by Kristen Etscheid, Hodder and Stoughton, 1985, ISBN 0340336676, page 12 (pictured at left).

Story/Quote: Devout Mothers

Index 1670 from Bible Illustrator for Windows Version 1.0d, Parsons Technology Inc., 1990 or find it at http://www.webbiblia.com/SermonHelps/11543455/ Another similar story can be found at http://www.christianity.com/SermonHelps/11558052/ These stories both go well with the Timothy reading.

Discussion:
How did you come by your faith?
Was it a sudden conversion or a gradual dawning?
Where you helped by a member of your family, through a friend or member of a church, or did it come straight from God with no human intervention at all?
Share how you came by your faith with somebody sitting near you?
Is your faith actually yours?
Have you ever claimed your faith ..and how is it at the moment?
Has the flame been fanned as you have travelled through life or is it dying out?

Poem: A Grandmother's Faith

By Marie Livingstone Roy in Imaging the Word Volume 2 by Susan A. Blain Sharon Iverson Glouwens, Catherine O'Callaghan, Grant Spradling (Eds.), United Church Press, 1995, ISBN 0829810331, page 43. (pictured at right). This fits in very well with the Timothy reading

Poem: What Did I Dream?

Found in Resources for Preaching and Worship - Year C compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, ISBN 066422508X, page 257 (pictured at left). This goes very well with Psalm 137.

Quote: J.B Phillips
"Every time we say "I believe in the Holy Spirit" we mean that we believe there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it."  An interesting quote to discuss if you have discussion groups and to get people thinking about how the Holy Spirit operates - the words "human personality" grate a little with me in the context of the quote - but therefore there are lots of opportunity to define words and meanings together. 

Also:

Creative Ideas: Jeremiah: The Weeping Prophet 

Found in Multi-Sensory Prophets by Mike Law, Scripture Union, 2007, ISBN 9781844272587, page 34 (pictured at right). This is based on the Jeremiah reading.

Service Starter: Letters to a Friend

Based on the 2 Timothy reading, this is found in The All-Age Service Annual Volume 4, published by Scripture Union, 2010, ISBN 9781844275199, page 31 (pictured at left). 

Poem: A Prophet in Babylon

Found in The Electric Bible by Peter Dainty, Kevin Mayhew Ltd, 2003, ISBN 1 84417 041 1, page 55 (pictured at right).  This poem is based on the Psalm reading.  

Drama: Faith to Move Teddy Bears
Found in Mega Drama 6 by Verena Johnson (Ed.), Open Book, 2002, ISBN 0859109208, page 30 (pictured at left). This goes well with the Luke reading

Drama: One For the Ladies

Found in All Age Sketches for The Christian Year by Peter Shaw, The Bible Reading Fellowship, 2006, ISBN 10 1 984101 458 3, page 68ff.  This is based on the 2 Timothy reading.

Australian Floral Illustrations and Links:

Found in The Scrolls Illuminated by Fiona Pfennigwerth, Bible Society, 2011, pages 39, 47-48 and 56-57 concentrate on the Lamentations reading. Stunning!!  Images may be used for such purposes as church services, with acknowledgement of the artist. 

Brilliant Commentary: Luke 17:7-10

Found in Through Peasant Eyes by Kenneth E Bailey, Eerdmans, 1883, pages 144ff.

Proper 21 C (September 25): Seeing the Bigger Picture/The Secret of Contentment/What is of Lasting Value

Bible Readings: Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15, Psalm 91:1-6,14-16, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31

About the images:

Upper Left: A microsoft free clipart image with Nathan Nettleton's text (see www.laughingbird.net for wonderful Australian paraphrases of the lectionary readings)
Upper Right: Contentment! Copyright (C) 2001, Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this image under the terms found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gnu-listen-half.jpg

Middle Left: This is a free Heartlight image.  See my link column at left.

Middle Right: This image comes from the awesome Church Galleries website which is down at present. This particular one was free.
Lower Left and Right: These images come from www.sundaygraphx.blogspot.com. This site no longer updates (you will see the sad reason why when you visit) however the artist, Don da Silva, has left a legacy of wonderful free images and templates via the site archives.

Prayer: A Litany of Confession
Found in Resources for Preaching and Worship - Year C compiled by Hannah Ward and Jennifer Wild, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, ISBN 066422508X, page 255 (pictured at left).

Kids: Jeremiah
The Jeremiah story is full of emotion - sadness, fear, contempt, ridicule, anger, hope. Tell the story and ask the kids, at set points in the story, to reflect the emotion you have mentioned, either through their facial expressions or through their hands. Do it with them. You may need to practice first at home, so you have an idea of what to encourage the shyer kids to do. I have discovered that it doesn't take much to involve the whole congregation in this type of activity - and you will find that if you do it before the Bible reading, the adults develop a far better understanding of the reading than they would have if you had not done it.

Listening Song: Whomsoever Dwells
By Sinead O'Connor on her album, Theology (pictured at right). This is basically a sung version of Psalm 91.

Listening Song: The Power of the Gospel
By Ben Harper on his album, Fight for Your Mind (pictured at left). The title of this song says it all.

Video Clip: Chariots of Fire
(pictured at right) Chapter 19: The conversation between the discontented Harold and his friend, Aubrey This goes well with the Timothy reading.

Discussion Questions: Chariots of Fire
1. Describe a time when you felt contentment.
2. How often do you feel this way?
3. How do you find contentment?
4. What desires, besides the desire for more money or more possessions, keeps a person from feeling contented.

Video Clip: Elizabeth: The Golden Age                                                          (pictured at right) Show the clip where Walter Raleigh explains to Elizabeth how he lives out his hope when he is sailing unchartered waters. I found this clip at Wingclips (see my links column at left). This goes really well with the Jeremiah reading.

Discussion: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
1. How does Raleigh live his faith and hope while at sea? What tools does he use?
2. How do we live our faith and hope? What tools can we use?

Video Clip: Old People's Home for 4 year olds - Memory Boards
Almost any clip from this series is useful to link with the Timothy reading, however this one works very well if your congregation is considering what is of lasting value. 
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/old-people-s-home-for-4-year-olds/series/1/video/DC1803H010S00

Drama: Sunbaking
Found in Mega Drama 6 by Verena Johnson (Ed.), Open Book, 2002, ISBN 0859109208, page 16 (pictured at right). This goes well with the Timothy reading.

Story: Money
Found as story No 175 in Your Point Being? by Graham H. Twelftree, Monarch, 2003 (pictured at left). This is a very funny story about a wallet eating train toilet (book is pictured in an earlier blog). This goes well with the Timothy reading.

Story: Courage
Index 849-852 from Bible Illustrator for Windows Version 1.0d, Parsons Technology Inc., 1990. This can also be found at http://www.free-sermons.org/sermons/Success--14042 - scroll down to section 2E. This fits well with the psalm or with the Jeremiah reading.

Story: What are You Afraid of?
Index 856-859 from Bible Illustrator for Windows Version 1.0d, Parsons Technology Inc., 1990 or it can be found at http://www.hgtaylor.net/psalm91.htm
This goes well with either the psalm or the Jeremiah reading.

Meditation: What is of Lasting Value

Found in Meditations from the Iona Community by Ian Reid, Wild Goose Publications, Trowbridge, 1998, ISBN 1901557022, page 49 (pictured at left). This goes well with the Timothy reading.

Response or entrance Activity:
Ask people to form small groups and give each group a few textas and a large sheet of paper with the words: "Real contentment is found......". When they have finished, stick the sheets up around the worship space and give people time to walk around and read all the sheets.

Response or entrance Activity:
Ask: If you had a chance to tell somebody how to find real contentment in this life, what would you say? give people a chance to think about this and then ask them to tell three other people what their answer would be.

Response Activity: For the Jeremiah reading.
Set up three stations so that people can move around from station to station. Allow at least ten minutes for this activity. My three stations based on my service and what I said were:
1. There is a bigger picture - at this station put out coloured bookmarks for people to take and read to themselves. Each one should have Bruce Prewer's A Creed printed on it. This lovely poem/creed can be found at http://www.bruceprewer.com/DocC/C55sun26.htm
2. Grasp hold of and trust God now - I used the art space in our church (but any space and pin board of some sort will do) for this station. Lay out lots of pictures, postcards and prints. Ask people to choose an image which symbolises for them grasping hold of and trusting God and ask them to pin their chosen image on the display board.

3. Living your faith and hope - at this station set out pens, envelopes and paper and a small clay jar which can be sealed (try an Op shop for one of these - there is sure to be something like it). Ask people to write a hope that they intend to live for a) themselves b) their church and c) their community or the world. Then ask them to seal their note in an envelope, put their name on the front and put it in the jar. After everybody has finished, seal up the jar..........to be opened in a year or so.

Also:

Poem and Prayers: your locked door
A great prayer and collect and poem on the gospel found in Dad and Daughter by Ron Gordon and Jennie Gordon, 2012, ISBN 9780646586601, page 176 (pictured at left)

Adult Response: Charity Begins at Home?
Found in Bringing the Word To Life Together: Year C by Andrew Collis and Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Mediacom, Adelaide, 2012, ISBN 9781921945083, page 137 (pictured at right).   This is based on the gospel reading.

Kids: The Pig in the Pond

By Martin Waddell and Jill Barton, Walker Books, with lots of ideas for a whole worship service found in Worship is For Everyone by Julie Pinazza, Openbook Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0859109259, page 35 (pictured at left). This goes well with the Psalm reading.

Creative Ideas: Jeremiah: The Prophet of Hope

Found in Multi-Sensory Prophets by Mike Law, Scripture Union, 2007, ISBN 9781844272587, page 37. This is based on the Jeremiah reading.

All Sorts of Useful Stuff: Long Division

By Ian Birkinshaw in Multi-Sensory Parables, Scripture Union, 2006, ISBN 9781844272310, page 71.  This is based on the Gospel. 

Worship Resources: Why Does My Wallet Ache?

Found in Multi-Sensory World by Craig Borlase, Scripture Union/Tear Fund, 2008, ISBN 9781844272662, page 52. This goes with the Timothy reading.

Hope for the Poor

Found in Party On Together by Beth Barnett and Dr Keith Dyer, Scripture Union, 2010, page 105. This is based on the Gospel reading. This resource is also available in electronic form through the Baptist Union of Victoria website, www.buv.com.au. where it can be copied freely for non-commercial use. 

Brilliant Comments on the Gospel

Found in Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth E. Bailey, SPCK, 2008, ISBN 9780281059751, pages 378-396.

Drama: Diva and Zara

Found in Present on Earth by Wild Goose Worship Group, Wild Goose Publications, 2002, ISBN 0 901557 64 2, page 174ff (pictured at left).  This is based on the Luke reading.

Prayer/Action: Things

Found  in Going Home Another Way by Neil Paynter, Wild Goose Publications, 2008,pages 110 and based on the 1 Timothy reading.