3 November 2024
Bible readings for today
Liturgical Colour: GREEN |
CollectE Īhu Karaiti,
nāu mātou i ako ko ā mātou mahi ki tētahi atu, ka rite ki a koe; meatia kia kakama mātou ki te awhi, whakaroa hoki ki te tūkino, me te mōhio ko te hoa tata, ko koe tēnā e pā kaha atu ana ō mātou aroha, ō mātou arokore rānei. Whakarongo ki tēnei īnoi i runga i tōu ingoa. Āmine. Jesus Christ, you have taught us that what we do to each other, we do to you; make us quick to help and slow to hurt, knowing that in our neighbour it is you who receive our love or our neglect. Hear this prayer for your name’s sake. Amen. |
The Greatest Commandments (Mark 12:28-34)
Today's story encourages us to think about how we can love the Lord with all of our heart.
Leaders InputAugustine's Rule of Love
St Augustine of Hippo was possibly the single most influential thinker and writer in the history of Western Christianity. And Augustine made a very big deal about those two commandments. That’s reasonable, right? I mean Jesus said they are the most important, following them is the path to eternal life, on them hang all the law and the prophets. For Augustine these two commands are more than legal precepts by which to mold our behavior and by which we will be judged. They are descriptive of the nature of the life God created for us. That is, life was intended to be lived oriented fully toward the love of God, and within that love of God to the love of neighbor. That’s the way of life that leads to true blessedness, real happiness, because it is in tune with our nature and the nature of the world. Anything else is out of balance, and at best we limp along like a bike with broken spokes or a car with a flat tire. It leads to destruction. And that doesn’t have to be punishment. It’s just that life crashes and burns if it isn’t true to its creator’s intent. For the full reflection head here. |
Gospel Conversations 2024: As we celebrate the feast of All Saints together, we step back briefly into the Gospel of John, for that wonderful story of the raising of Lazarus.
Gospel Conversations 2021: One of the most familiar passages in the Gospels is when Jesus tells us the "most important" commandments of them all. They're all about love. Simple? Not really! Join David Tombs, Kelvin Wright and Diana Abercrombie as they discuss with Rev Mike Godfrey some of the many sides to these central words of Jesus.
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Full Lesson PlansNote some of these resources are based on Matthew 22 which has a similar passage to this weeks Gospel.
A selection of lesson plans around this topic from ministry-to-children.com Love God love people All about Love The Two Greatest Commandments Kid's TalksLiving God's Way - A humourous but on point retelling of Jesus' discussion with the scribe and disciples. From garynealhansen.com
Practicing the greatest commandment - don't get distracted! From Rfour Questions to think about
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Activities
Who is your neighbour?The greatest commandment is to love God, and the second commandment is to love our neighbour as ourselves. It is so easy to get swept up in our own lives, and to not get to know our neighbours. Have you heard about Neighbours Day, an initiative to build community where you are? Can you organise a family friendly missional event in your street? Ideas could include:
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Media
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Some worship songs on the theme of love:
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Jesus the Perfect Sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11-14)
Intergenerational Worship
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Holiness and Humanness: Not Made With Hands
(These resources are adapted from the material originally made available as part of the Holiness and Humanness six series). We have been reading parts of the book of Hebrews together and following the way that Jesus is both fully human and fully God. We’ve seen already that this is no half and half mixture in Jesus. Rather, Jesus shows us what being a human is really about, as well as helping us understand what God is really about too. Jesus is the real thing. When it comes to knowing God, Jesus is the real thing. When it comes to understanding ourselves, Jesus is the real thing. When it comes to dealing with sin, Jesus is the real thing. Are you a starter or a finisher? Do you love starting things, but lose interest before finishing? Or do you love seeing something through to completion? Are you the kind of person who jumps in to finish someone’s....? In the Bible reading from Hebrews 9:11-14, we hear how Jesus is a finisher, a completer. That Jesus completes the things that we can’t finish by ourselves. Jesus has finished the work of making peace for us with God. Suitable for use as part of an Early Word or prayer time, the interactive prayer resource is an encouragement to pray about the things that aren’t yet finished in the world. The work of peace between people isn’t finished yet. The work of justice isn’t finished yet. The work of the reconciling of the whole of Creation isn’t finished yet…so let’s pray! [From intergen.org.au] |
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The Faithfulness of Ruth (Ruth 1:1-18)
Ruth is a great book to use to teach children about loyalty and faithfulness. Ruth stays faithful to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and leaves her own community to join Naomi's. Not only this, but she takes on a faithfulness to Naomi's God and becomes an ancestor of David- an amazingly important woman!
There are so many themes to pick up here...
There are so many themes to pick up here...
- welcoming new people into a family or community
- who takes care of us and who we take care of (and why we do this)
- what it means to become one of God's people
- how God works through unexpected people
Here are some resources for leaders, who are looking for context and background information to share about the book of Ruth
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BibleProject Overview: Ruth
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BibleProject: Ruth Overview poster, free download here
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Session Planning
Exploring the story for Ruth with 3-5's - a lovely selection of open-ended activities to explore this story.
Ruth: Faithfulness Paper Braid and Prayer Activity - exploring themes of loyalty and faithfulness with older children.
Simple Preschool Lesson Plan from TrueWay kids
Ruth: Faithfulness Paper Braid and Prayer Activity - exploring themes of loyalty and faithfulness with older children.
Simple Preschool Lesson Plan from TrueWay kids
Media
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Worship songs
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