Children’s Chapel
October 22, 2017
Bible Reference: 1 Thessalonians 1-10
·
Welcome: Welcome all and
ask if we have any new friends. Introduce new friends.
·
Church Traditions and Liturgical Calendar:
Who
can tell me what liturgical season we are in right now? If you take a look at
our liturgical calendar you will see that we are almost at the end of the
season that we call Ordinary
Time. We have four more weeks
until the beginning of the church calendar year which is the season of Advent
The color we use for Ordinary Time is green so you will see that the cloth on our Children’s Chapel altar is green. You will also notice
that in big church the altar frontal, church dressings, and clergy stoles are green. Who would like to move the arrow on our
liturgical calendar? (Allow one child to come up to the calendar to move the
arrow forward one week.) The arrow is now pointing to the twentieth green
square.
·
Lighting
of candles
(As
one adult lights the altar candles, say.) We light these candles to remind us that Christ is the light of the
world. We also remember that God is always with us, that Jesus lives in our
hearts and that we are inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before we
begin our Bible lesson today, let us pray the Collect or prayer of the week. (In grades 1-5, you may ask a
child volunteer to read the prayers.)
·
Children’s
Collect for October 22nd:
Let Us Pray:
Almighty and everlasting God, in
Jesus you have shown us
your glory to all people of every nation. Strengthen us with your
love and grace so that we may grow in faith to do your work in the world
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
·
Introduction:
Over
the last several weeks we have read the Apostle Paul’s letters to different
cities around the Roman empire. We have talked about how Paul wrote letters to
people in neighboring cities to spread the good news that Jesus is the son of
God who came to rescue all of us so that we can have everlasting life with him.
Paul’s letters to the people are included in the Bible and we call his letters
Epistles. Even though they were written many years ago, Paul’s letters were
inspired by the Holy Spirit and offer us good news and encouragement in our
everyday lives. Today we are reading another letter that Paul wrote to the
people who lived in Thessalonica. Let’s listen.
·
Bible Story:
(Read Aloud)
With Children in grades 1-5, have several children volunteers read aloud a
couple of verses each to the others.
1
Thessalonians 1-10
1 I, Paul, together here with Silas and
Timothy, send greetings to the church at Thessalonica, Christians assembled by God
the Father and by the Teacher, Jesus Christ. God’s amazing grace be with you!
God’s robust peace!
2-5 Every time we think of you, we thank God
for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of
faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Teacher,
Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not
only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something
special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words.
Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
5-6 You paid careful attention to the way we
lived among you, and determined to live that way yourselves. In imitating us,
you imitated Jesus. Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were able
to take great joy from the Holy Spirit!
7-10 Do you know that all over the regions of
both Macedonia and Achaia, believers look up to you? The word has gotten
around. Your lives are echoing Jesus’ Word, not only in your cities but all
over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say
anything anymore—you’re the message! People come up and tell us how you
received us with open arms, how you deserted the dead idols of your old life so
you could embrace and serve God, the true God. They marvel at how expectantly
you await the arrival of his Son, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who
rescued us from certain doom.
·
Response: In Paul’s
letter, he encourages the Thessalonians and recognizes their faith in God
saying that through the Holy Spirit their actions have inspired others in other
cities to give up their old practices and idols in order to follow the life of
Jesus and his teachings. Paul continues to encourage the Thessalonians by
telling them that even though they have had difficult things to go through at
times, their faith in God has strengthened them in order to do the work of God
in their city and that word of their work has spread to others without them having
to go from their own homes.
For all of us today, Paul’s letter is
also encouraging. We can rejoice knowing that Jesus also came for each of us to
teach us how to love one another and God. Through our faith and the strengthening
power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to also go into the world to do God’s
work that he calls each of us to do in the world. The first thing that God asks
us to do is to love him with our whole heart, mind, body and soul, and the
second thing he asks us to do is to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is not
easy for us to do by ourselves. The good news is that we don’t have to do this
by ourselves. Jesus is always with us and through him we are strengthened and
able to follow his example of love in the world.
Let us now pray.
·
Closing Prayer: Heavenly Father,
thank you for the gift of your son Jesus who died on the cross and rose again
to new life so that we too may have life with you through him. Strengthen us
through your Holy Spirit as we continue to trust and follow you in everything
that we do in our lives. Amen
·
Response
Activity will be provided.
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