Ordinary 20

15 August 2027

Bible readings for today

Collect

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalms 111:1-10
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

Liturgical Colour: GREEN

E te Taro o te Ora,
whakahuihuingia mātou, ki te kai, ki te inu i tōu taha.
Tukua mai tōu tinana me ōu toto hei hono i a mātou tētahi ki tētahi,
ā, ki a koe anō hoki.
E īnoi ana mātou i runga i te ingoa o Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Ariki.
Āmine.

Living host,
call us together, call us to eat and drink with you.
Grant that by your body and your blood we may be drawn to each other and to you.
We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Bread and Wine (John 6:51-58)

Today's gospel story may seem a little complicated to unpack with children, as it is rich in metaphor and imagery. We can use this story to remind the children about why we have communion, and what the purpose is for our symbolic ritual.

What is Communion

Today is a great opportunity to talk about communion, and what it means. As Anglican Churches, communion is a central element to how and why we meet together -- but have you taken time to explain this with children, young people and families? Why do we do it? What do the bread and wine represent?
Some ideas include:

Make your own small version of the communion table and let children play with the different pieces
Invite a priest to come and explain what they do at communion and what the words mean
Invite the children up to the altar for communion, to watch closely and help with the eucharist.
Depending on your parish, you might like to think about a communion class for children who want to understand more, help with the communion, or ask questions about their faith.

Games to get you thinking

Special Meals from the Diocese of Bath & Wells

You will need: several pictures or items of food that celebrate or signify something (e.g. Birthday or Christmas cake, hot-cross bun, Easter Egg, candy cane) plus a picture of bread and wine.
Hide the pictures/items around the room.
Encourage the children to find the hidden images/items.
Once they are all found, discuss what each item made them remember. Leave the bread and wine until last.

Squishy grapes -

You will need: red grapes; sieves; bowls; disposable plastic gloves; small cups.
Place a sieve over a bowl and load it up with grapes. Using your fingers (gloved if you plan to drink the juice), squash the grapes through the mesh to make grape juice.
Pour the juice into cups and share it around while you chat about it.
What colour is the juice? Does it remind you of anything?
Grape juice can be turned into wine. Why do you think Jesus asked the disciples to remember him by sharing red wine?

Fruit Salad

You will need: a circle of chairs or cushions facing in.
Have all the children sitting on the chairs and the leader standing in the middle. Go around the circle and give each child a ‘fruit’. Only use 3 or 4 different fruit so that there are at least 2 of each fruit.
Explain that you will call out a ‘fruit’ and when you do, all the children who are that fruit must get off their seat and sit in another one. The leader will also try to get a seat. There should be one person left in the middle. This person then calls out another ‘fruit’ and repeats the game.
This is a great game for helping children get familiar with the names of things in church. You could use bread, grapes, or words like ‘chalice’, ‘paten’ and ‘stole’. Make sure you explain what these things are though!

Kid's Talk

Here’s what happened at the end of Jesus’ speech — at least this is how I imagine it....

Jesus finished off his big speech saying, “So there you have it! I’m the Bread of Life. If you want to live forever you have to eat my body!” Well the people in the crowd were pretty confused about that. One of them said, “No way. How am I supposed to eat his body?” Someone else said, “That’s not okay at all. People are not supposed to eat other people.” They were muttering and complaining. But then one kid who had been listening very carefully snuck up behind Jesus and bit him on the leg.

“Ouch!” said Jesus. “Somebody bit me!”

(Want to find out what happens next?)

Shorter Talks for Smaller Kids

Quick Questions

What do we ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ in church? How might that connect with today’s story?
What do we call that time in the service?
Why do you think we have the bread and the wine at communion?
What did Jesus mean about the bread and wine as his body and blood?
Why might Jesus have used food and drink to remind us how much he loves us?
Why do people still share the Communion together today?
Why do you think it is such an important and special meal?
I wonder how communion at your church is like the special meal Jesus had with his disciples.
How do you feel about communion? Is it important to you? Why?
What do you wonder about communion?

Leaders input

Gospel Conversations 2024: Mannie, John and Lisa discuss our third reading about bread from John's Gospel, and find good news - and some challenges!

Children's and Communion - great two page resource from CRC Network outlining common developmental patterns in how children's understanding of Communion typically unfolds. Also offers some great suggestions on enhancing participation in Communion for kids and young teens.

Intergenerational worship

Exploring Communion Liturgy Through Play - suggestions for a 'liturgy box' with items to help preschoolers interact with parts of the liturgy.

Reflective Colouring Sheet

Preschool friendly ideas

Our friends at flamecreativekids.blogspot.com have put together some wonderful ways to explore communion with littles, including:

Communion Craft

Activity: Chalice and Paten* (Wine and the Bread)
*Chalice is the name for the cup that holds the wine in communion.
The Paten is the name for the plate that the bread or wafers are put on.
What you need: cardboard, print outs with the words (or you can write these out for children to copy) small plastic cups (2 per child), tape or glue, scissors, things to decorate with
Preparation: Try making an example. As an added extra, you could set up a small display that looks like the altar in your church on a small table.

What to do:

To make the paten, glue/write the words onto the cardboard. Cut out the two pieces, including the shaded bit in the middle of the first piece. (smaller children may need help with this.)
Glue the pieces together so that the words can be read through the circle. Refer to the photo if you are unsure.
To make the chalice, glue/tape the bottoms of the two plastic cups together to form the chalice. Glue/tape the words around the base of the chalice.
Decorate both paten and chalice however you like.

Variations: You might like to explain what the words are, or change them to reflect what you say in your parish.

Media

Psalm 111

"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom; all who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom. Praise him forever!" Psalm 111:10

Create your own psalm

During various Covid levels, our congregation was not allowed to sing, and we came up with creative ways to worship using the psalms.

To replace this corporate aspect of worship, we created a 'Build your own psalm' on Direct Poll. Using a QR code, the congregation used their phones to scan it to start the poll, and we kept track of the most popular votes.
We provided 4 options for people to select, and if there was a tie, we did rock/paper/scissors to choose which was to be included! At the end, we read through all the responses at the end. This worked well for all ages, and we had a few extra devices on hand to include those who may not have one.
The first question was: What our response should be? Answers included e.g "blessed be your name", "you are a good, good God", "your love never fails" etc. After each of the refrains, we would use the chosen response.
Further questions covered all aspects of psalms - from celebration, declaration, lament and praise.
An example of a question was: Select one option - Your love is: "unfailing and trustworthy", "like a mother hen protecting her chicks", "like a loving father", etc. We praise you because: "you have done so much for us", "your love is unending", "your mercies are new every morning"
We had someone typing up the responses directly into the powerpoint, so they could be read together once the poll had been completed.
Choose 6-8 of these topics and then read out your corporate psalm together.

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time