4 December 2022

Bible readings for today

  • Isaiah 11:1-10
  • Psalms 72:1-7,18-19
  • Romans 15:4-13
  • Matthew 3:1-12

Collect

Gracious God, 
John the Baptiser prepared your way: 
help us hear your word to us, 
and give us the grace to respond. 
For you are alive and reign with the Father 
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-12)

Today's story looks how John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus. 

Road Sign talk

Sermon given on Luke 3:1-6, where John the Baptist talks about making the way straight to the Lord.
Talk uses roadsigns as a visual prompt. 
What you'll need:

Road Sign Quiz

What you need: This quiz was done in the middle of the Road Sign talk, based on Luke 3:1-6, which looked at how we could make the road straight for children to come to know God. 

Rangimarie - Peace

Our te reo word for the week is rangimarie, which means peace. ​
You can download these Kiwi Advent Illustrations on our Strandz website

Helping our children find peace

Regularly we each experiences challenge and disappointment along with joy and successes.  Children are just the same.  At times our homes can be hotbeds of discord and acting out- often because we feel safe when we’re with our family and are less controlled.  But, children need opportunities to experience real peace, even when things are rough, and that peace can start with us.
The following are a few tips that can help parents create peace at home:
  • Remember that creating a peaceful home starts with you, the parent.  Your upset and stress will affect your children.
  • Make your home a place of kind and loving words.
  • Determine to resolve conflict without resorting to violence (either physical or verbal).  Model peaceful resolutions to arguments and anger.
  • Spend quality time with each of your children every day.  That means making sure that your children are listened to, that they each have a voice.
  • Give your children choices when possible.  
  • Get ahead of possible conflict. Anticipate situations that will cause upset and stress.  We can’t (and shouldn’t) eliminate each one, but we can put into practice some strategies that can help.  For example, if you’ve run out of your child’s favourite biscuit, rather than running to the store for more, you can explain what’s happened, and offer two other yummy choices, while promising that you’ll get more of the favourite when you’re able to.
Thankfully, helping create a peaceful home is something we can practice a lot.  Life can be rough at times.  Commit to 1 or 2 changes that you can make so that the next time things threaten to explode, you'll have some strategies in place.

Making it easier for children

Sometimes, without even thinking about it, we can put obstacles in the way of our children coming to Jesus.  We can expect a certain kind of behaviour or a certain way of dressing.  Perhaps we have an expectation that children will sit quietly or speak kindly to each other. These are all good things, but they don’t necessarily have anything to do with our children’s relationship with God.  This week, let’s make it easy for the children in our care to get to know Jesus, by allowing them to come just as they are to a God who loves them, just as they are.

I wonder...

  • I wonder what kind of road you’re on now as we travel towards Christmas.
  • I wonder if there’s a way that you could make your road to Christmas a bit smoother.
  • I wonder if we’re doing what we can to make the road to God easier for others.

Advent Wreath liturgy

A simple liturgy for lighting your candles in the Advent Wreath, from Build Faith (Use the second week!) written by Rev. Matthew Kozlowski

​A journey to Jesus

What you need:
  • Several obstacles to make a simple obstacle course
  • 3 lollies to put at the end of the course as prizes
    ​
What you do:
Create a simple obstacle course, but keep a clear path down the middle from the beginning of the course to the end. Make sure the beginning and end are clearly marked. 

Invite 3 people to come up and go from the start to the finish. (note- have the second and third people turn their backs to the course so that they can’t see what the people ahead of them have done). Some people might choose to go through and around the obstacles, others might go straight from one end to the other.

Say something like: When roads are built, the engineers who design them work really hard to make the roads as easy as possible to drive on.  They work so that the mountain roads aren’t too steep.  Sometimes if the mountain is too high and rocky, workers might build a tunnel straight through the mountain to make driving easier.  Instead of scarey, wild turns, engineers smooth the roads as much as possible so that they’re mostly straight.  In our course, there was both a twisted obstacle way to go and a simple, straightforward way to go. Some people chose to go through the obstacles, others went straight to the prize. (if that’s the case)

In our Bible reading today, we heard about John the Baptist helping people get ready for Jesus’ coming. Can you think of some ways that we get ready for Christmas? (allow answers- buying gifts, going to church, lighting Advent candles, putting up the Christmas tree, etc).  Those are good answers and you’re right.  December is a really busy time for most of us with all the getting ready that we do! Some of it’s really important and maybe some of it isn’t so important, but it’s easy to get caught up in all the excitement of the season. 

In our Bible story today, John is a bit like a road engineer.  He wants it to be easy for people to get to Jesus, so he reminds them about what’s really important.  John the Baptist was living in the desert. He was helping people get their hearts ready, not their houses or their clothes or anything like that.  He wanted people to be able to recognize Jesus when he arrived and to know that Jesus was coming to offer them love and forgiveness. By helping people open their hearts to Jesus and his love and forgiveness, John the Baptist was making a straight, easy road for people to follow. 

Today it’s the same.  We are asked to spend time getting ready for Jesus, opening our hearts to him and being excited that he’s in our lives.  Sometimes with all the busyness and craziness in our lives- especially in December, it can feel like we’re on a steep and wildly curvy mountain road, but it doesn’t have to be like that.  We can take the straight and gentle path to Christmas.

Interactive journey prayers

What you need:
  • A notice board (or other board that can accommodate push pins) — the larger the better (note: if you have a large congregation or group having a number of smaller boards could be helpful, or use 2 or more balls of wool)
  • A large ball of wool - any colour
  • Push pins

What you do:
  1. Put the board on a table at a height that everyone can reach.  Use a step stool or chair that smaller children will be able to stand on if necessary.
  2. Explain what the prayer activity is (see below) and say something like, “as you move the wool on the board, think about the journey that you are on towards Christmas and welcoming Jesus.”
  3. Start by putting a tack through the beginning of the wool. Pass the ball to the next person and allow them to stretch out a bit of wool and put a tack down to hold the wool in place (there will now be a straight line).  
  4. Continue passing the wool to each member of the group of congregation.  The lines can be long or short.  They can double back. 
  5. When everyone has finished, conclude the prayer time by thanking God for the journey that each person is on, and asking God to help us keep our hearts open to him during this time of preparation and anticipation.

Gospel Conversations

A talk on a similar Luke reading of the story of John the Baptist, from last year. Enter John the Baptist! Preparing the way for Jesus, preaching in the wilderness, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of one who will point towards a time when all people will know the salvation of God. A wonderful Gospel this week, and Michael Godfrey is joined by Alec Clark, Judy Ringland and Anne van Gend to unpack it together.

Journey game

What you need:
  • Photocopy of Journey to Christmas game board for each 4 players
  • 1 die for every 4 players
  • 1 button or other marker for each player
  • Tape (to tape the two pieces of the game board together)
What you do:Give each group of 2-4 players a game board, 4 markers and a die
Have the groups play the game by rolling the die, moving their marker and doing what’s written on the board.
​Note: you can make enough game boards to send one home to each family.  If possible, include 4 playing pieces and a die in a small bag.

Media

Advent 2 from St Albans Diocese
Saddleback Kids: Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist
Bible Explore
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