30 October 2022

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Bible readings for today

• Habakuk 1:1-4;2:1-4 
• Psalm 119:137-144 
• 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4,11-12
• ​Luke 19:1-10

All Saints Day (1 November) readings may also be used

• Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
• Psalm 149
• Ephesians 1:11-23
• Luke 6:20-31

Collect

Banqueting God, 
unworthy though we are 
you call us to your table; 
may we rejoice in your presence, 
and share your bounty abundantly with others; 
through Jesus, the Bread of Life, 
who is alive and reigns with you, 
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)

Activities

• Printable craft (Tiny Truths Illustrated Bible)
• Paper Bag Tree  (Mrs Jones Creation Station)
• Snack Idea (E Recipe Cards)
• Toddler Playdough Tea Party (Little People Big Faith)
• Moving Zacchaeus Craft (Bible Class Creations)
• Tree Craft (Jesus Without Language)
• Cottonball Tree Craft (Toddler at Play)
• 3D Tree Craft (Twitchetts)
• Zacchaeus Song (YouTube)

Sermon - Rev. David Rowe

Media

Sermon on the Mount (​Luke 6:17-31)

Introduction

The Sermon on the mount is one of the most enduring and most loved teachings of Jesus' ministry. This radical teaching went against the popular rhetoric that said our 'good deeds' were enough for God. However, this series of 9 truths point to a God who cares about our internal transformation and personal relationship with our Creator, more than the acts we can do for Him. ​

Teaching curriculum

If you're looking for a longer teaching series on the Beatitudes for children, then have a look at the Kid's Travel Guide to the Beatitudes by Group Publishing. It has 13 sessions, and provides some fun object lessons and activities for each of the beatitudes. ​

Activities

Jigsaw Puzzle (Sunday school Zone)
The Beatitudes Poster (Sunday school Zone)
Beatitude bookmarks (Sunday school Zone)
Colouring pages (The Colouring Pages)
Folding paper activity (Etsy - pay to download resource)
What are the beatitudes? (Children's Ministry Deals)
"Bee-Attitudes" Poster (Biblewise)

Visio Lectio

A beautiful image from the Visio Lectio project, created by the Anglican Diocese of Auckland. © Sarah West. All Rights reserved, shared with permission.
​Download
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Media

All Saints Day

People are always curious about who we are, and where we come from. In Maori culture, knowing and understanding your whakapapa (your place in your geneology) has been an important part of identity. All Saints day is a day in the Christian calendar that reminds us of some important Christian brothers and sisters whose lives have been acclaimed by others over the years. We remember the fathers of the faith, the prophets, Mary and Jospeh, the apostles and so many other biblical saints. We also commemorate the saints of the Christian Church including martyrs like Perpetua, teachers like Augustine, and mystics like St. Teresa of Avila.

Later, All Souls Day was added to the church calendar on November 2nd, as a way to acknowledge all believers in the church who have died, and it provides a time to give thanks to God for those men and women of faith in our lives. ​

Chalk Windows

If you have any clear windows in your church, you can use liquid chalk markers to write on them.  Invite people to write the names of those who are the saints of your community, or whose lives exemplify the beatitudes.  It can be a way to surround ourselves with the cloud of witnesses.  (These will wipe off very easily with a damp cloth).

Remembering

If part of your tradition is to remember those who have died during the year on All Saints/All Souls you could:

• invite people to light a candle, perhaps to honour the light of faith that shone in them if your congregation isn’t so comfortable with the practice of lighting candles as prayer.  Votive candles or tealights can be placed in containers of sand on a table.  Large baking dishes can work.  For a free-standing option, try a sand-filled bird bath or large planter (once full of sand these can be very heavy – consider using a light space filler - like polystyrene, but kinder for the environment!) to fill two thirds of the planter before adding sand).
• provide people with small cards to write (or draw for prereaders) names of those they wish to remember.  Gather them in baskets, in a similar way to the offertory, and pray a prayer of remembrance and thanksgiving over them.

The courage to live eternally

“If Easter is when Christianity celebrates the resurrection of Christ, All Saints’ is when Christianity celebrates the resurrection of the rest of us. The focus of Easter is the victory of Jesus over death and the grave. The focus of All Saints’ is resurrection and life eternal for the rest of us.
I think it can be an act of courage to believe in eternal life and to strive to live lives consistent with this belief. It takes courage to live as though our lives matter eternally — even if they seem to us very ordinary, even frustrating and disappointing. It takes courage to believe that our lives matter beyond this lifetime, or even the earthly memory of it, when so much of what we do seems trivial and even pointless. It takes courage to choose to do the good and just thing in terms of eternity, rather than what is easiest, even when it will cost us something in the short-term and nobody will much notice or care anyway”
Reverend Dean Snyder.  
Read the rest here

Gospel Conversations

All Saints' Day! One of the great feasts of the Church. We hear Jesus in Luke's Gospel describing what the "blessed" ones are in God's Kingdom, and it's not what anyone hearing it for the first time would ever have expected! Join Alec, Jenny and Lisa as they overcome some technical glitches (you'll notice that our team magically rearrange themselves at one point on the screen) to talk over with Michael some life-changing ideas.

Easter and All Saints

If you had special decorations, like an Alleluia banner, in your church for Easter, today is a great day to bring them back out.  Drawing on the Rev. Dean Snyder’s perspective, if Easter celebrates Christ’s resurrection, then All Saints is when we celebrate the resurrection of the rest of us. 
For more info, see here