3rd Sunday in Advent

15 December 2024

Bible readings for today

Collect

Loving God,
John foresaw repentance and justice
to signal your coming.
Shape our lives,
sift our thoughts,
weigh our actions,
and make us ready for that great day.
For you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen

Third week of Advent

Joy / Koa

Our te reo word for the week is koa, which means joy.

Advent worship resource

An amazing collection of Intergenerational Christmas Service ideas from the Uniting Church in Australia (South Australia), particularly useful for those following the lectionary readings this Advent. The resource can be found on this website or by clicking on the image below

Gaudete Sunday

If your congregation uses a pink candle in its Advent wreath, then you could explain that today is Gaudete Sunday.
Make the link to the theme of the day ‘Joy’, and to the Maori word of the day. A simple liturgy for lighting your candles in the Advent Wreath, from Build Faith (Use the third week!) written by Rev. Matthew Kozlowski

BibleProject: Joy video

BibleProject: Joy

Media: Joy to the world!

Baptising with the Spirit (Luke 3:7-18)

Today's story looks how John the Baptist teaches about baptism and paves the way for Jesus

Going the Extra Mile

As Christmas draws near, children will naturally be talking about Christmas and all the exciting things coming up. These conversations might include holiday plans, what they want (or are getting) for Christmas, what they want to do over the summer and more. This week, we want to shift the focus to giving and sharing, rather than getting. Saying it won’t necessarily make a difference, so instead, try living out the message that there is joy in giving, as well as receiving. Go the extra mile this week to help the children and others, and model the happiness it can bring when we give of ourselves and our things.

I wonder...

I wonder what John the Baptist would have said to you if you’d been in the crowd that day.
I wonder what you could do to get yourself ready for Jesus.
I wonder who you have in your life that you could share with.

What's Behind My Back

A game of guessing what's behind your back as an object is passed around.

What you need:
5-6 small objects (eg cellphone, pen, tape, hairbrush, etc)

What you do:
Players sit in a circle facing inwards. The ‘leader’ takes one of the objects and hands it (behind his/her back) to the player on his/her left. The object then travels around the circle. Each player must whisper in his/her neighbour’s ear what s/he thinks the object is before passing it on. When the object gets back to the ‘leader’, show the object to everyone. No looking!

Continue play until all the objects are used or until the children lose interest.

Swapping Clothes Game

A fun and quick game where two players swap provided clothing

What you need:
4 of each: shirts (tee shirts or button down), sweatshirts, socks, hats, pants (these need to be fairly large)

What you do:

Invite 4 people up to the front to make 2 teams of 2
1 member of each team needs to put on 2 of each item of clothing.
When you say go- the team needs to work together to get 1 set of clothing off the person who has both and put it on the other team member.
The first team to complete the task wins.

Joke: Streets of Gold

We all want to help our children experience joy. Sometimes it can be tempting to accomplish this through giving our children what they want (or what we think they want), but there’s another way to encourage and facilitate joy in the lives of our family. Instead of giving to them, create opportunities for your children to give to others. Not just physical things, but rather, find situations in which your family can serve and help those who are less fortunate. At Christmas time there are a number of possibilities. Try contacting the Salvation Army, the City Mission or speak with someone at your church to find a way for your children to experience the joy of Christmas through giving of themselves to others.

The Right-Side-Up Glass

What you need:

A table
A plastic tablecloth
Newspaper
2 glasses (clear)
A jug with water

What you do:
Put the plastic tablecloth on the table, covered with newspaper (to absorb the liquid)

Place a cup upside down on the table and says something like, “I’m really thirsty today. A nice cool glass of water is just what I need.” Pour some water ‘into’ the cup. Naturally nothing goes in to the upside down cup. “I wonder what happened?” (allow the kids to answer). “You’re right. I have the cup facing the wrong way. No wonder it’s still empty and I’m still thirsty!”
Put a cup the right way up. Pour some water, take a sip, and say something like, “Mmmm - that’s much better. Just what I needed! You know, this reminds me of our passage today. John the Baptist was trying to help people get ready for Jesus and I think he was looking at all the people around him and thinking they’re a bit like the upside down cup. They’re not in a very good place to receive the living water that Jesus is going to want to give them. So he gives them ideas to help them have open hearts - a bit like our empty and rightside up water glass. As people asked him what they should do, he gave them good, concrete answers - sharing what they had, not stealing or taking more money than they were supposed to, not to accuse people of doing bad things when they hadn’t.
As we prepare for Christmas and get ourselves ready for Jesus- those are good things for us to remember, too.

Third Sunday in Advent