9 July 2023
Bible readings for today
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CollectUnpretentious God,
you call us as we are; and in our weakness you find strength. Help us so to delight in who we are, that we are set free to dream of all that we could yet become; through the grace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ and the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen |
My yoke is easy to bear (Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30)
Ideas
What is a yoke? - Children's talkDo you know what a yoke is? (pause for answers) Well, a yoke is the crossbar with two U-shaped pieces that encircle the necks of a pair of oxen or other draft animals working together, it looks like a big letter M. It helps the animals to be able to work in unison together, and to make the most of their shared strength. It is also a word for something that connects or joins together; a bond or tie. In today’s story, Jesus tells the people to take the yoke that he gives us. What do you think he means by this? (pause) Well, I think Jesus is telling us to get to know Jesus and to learn from him. And by doing this, Jesus can help us through our lives, particularly when hard times come along.
Do you know why a priest wears a stole? It’s that scarf-like thing around their necks? (pause) Well, it’s because a priest is called by God to be a priest. The stole is to represent the priest’s half of a yoke that is also worn by Jesus. When the priest wears a stole, it reminds them and us that what they do as a priest, they do with Jesus. But as we learned from the reading today, priests are not the only ones that Jesus is offering his yoke to, we are also able to have Jesus’ help, we just have to say yes! If you have more than one priest in your parish, why not invite one of them to come and bring their stoles with them. They could show the children and explain what the symbols on them mean, who made them for them, etc. 
Liturgy: call to worshipHere is an intergenerational call to worship, inspired by Matthew 11:28-30, one of the suggested lectionary texts for Proper 9, Year A.
Brothers and sisters, boys and girls-- come and worship! Even if you’re tired and worn out-- come and worship! Lay down the heavy things you are carrying-- come and worship! Listen to what Jesus wants to tell you-- come and worship! See if you can discover how Jesus wants to use you-- come and worship! For Jesus is humble and gentle, and he will give us everything we need to follow him. ~ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship |
Make a stoleNote: you can either make one each, or work together on decorating one stole that you could present to the vicar during the service. If you do, ask the vicar if there are particular symbols they would like on the stole.
What you need: lots of green material, and scraps of other material, material glue, stuff to decorate What to do: Cut a long strip of material that is about 15cm wide, and long enough to wear around your neck like a stole. Using beads, material and other things, create symbols to go on the stole. Eg a cross, a figure of Jesus holding the hand of a child, creation, etc. Extention: You might like to tell the vicar about today’s lesson ahead of time, and see if they will wear one of the stoles that the children make during the service. Also you might like to give each child a copy of the card (download Stole card from Connectible) that talks about yokes and stoles. 
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Yoked relaysAim: to learn what a yoke is, and what that means for us in our walk with Jesus
What you need: strips of material for tying partners together. Chairs and other obstacles Preparation: prepare two parallel relay courses that go from one end of the room to the other. What to do: Get the children to find a partner. Then split the pairs into two teams. Give each pair a strip of material to tie their inside legs together. Line them up at the start of the relay, and start them off. The first team to have all their pairs get through the relay is the winner. Extra: After the game, you might want to talk about whether it was easier or harder to go through the relay with a partner. What would have made it easier? |
Relay racesWhat you need:
What you do: Divide children into pairs and then put them in teams of pairs — you might have two teams if you have a smaller group, or multiple if larger, each with an equal number of pairs in a team. Line all the children up at one side of the room, and have them take turns racing to the other side of the room as a pair, carrying different objects to the opposite side and back. They have to work together to share the load and carry it equally. Items could include a large ball, a bucket, cricket bat. Do not use small items that might lead to unnecessary physical contact. You could repeat these races without using their hands as help! You could also get them to rearrange the pairs to see whether it was easier with similar sized children (ie. eliminate height disadvantages, so the burden is equally spread) |
The cross, the yoke, and rest colouring pageA beautiful colouring page from the blog Mary Dean Draws, the pdf of the colouring page can be found on her site here.
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Media
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Here is a great video from PursueGOD Kids that explores the story of Jesus talking about the Oxen and the yoke.
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Here is another video resource of a man with two oxen and a yoke which can be used as great visual aid to go along with teaching.
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