This week's lessons: 2 Kings 5:1-14, Psalm 30, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Mark 1:40-45
This
week's lessons: 2
Kings 5:1-14, Psalm
30, 1
Corinthians 9:24-27, Mark
1:40-45
Emmanuel Community Church
Inter-generational Lectionary Study;
Sundays from 10:0 to 10:45 in the Board Room
Opening
Opening prayer by leader, or invite another participant to pray, or us:
Almighty God, who has caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning, open our ears and hearts today to learn from your word and from one another, we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen
Set the calendar-clock to the right date. Epiphany is a showing forth of who Christ is. When Christ is shown forth to us, we see who we are as a people, for we are the Body of Christ. When we show the world who we are as Christ's hands and feet in the world, then we also show the world Jesus.
Review of Last Week
What was the sermon on? - Spiritual Gifts
What was the Gospel lesson? - Jesus healing Peter's mother; healing and preaching in Galilee: knowing what your purpose is
Did anyone have any insights about...
1.What is the purpose of our church?
2.How is God's power at work, within the life of your church, and beyond its walls?
3.How have you show others the Good News?
4.How do you show yourself and others what the Gospel is worth to you?
5.How has illness challenged you and affected your faith?
Craft
I am expecting 12 people for this class. Tape four sheets of standard paper taped end-to-end, to make a long strip 8-1/2 inches wide. Fold this in a fan-fold, six folds to a sheet, and draw a half-paper-doll shape on the top. On one side of the long strip, colour irregularly all over it with a white crayon. In class, we will cut out the long fold of paper dolls. The paper will probably be too thinck to cut them all out at once, so we can cut some with skirts and some with pants, some thick and some thin, so our community has variety. Talk about how, as a church, we are all joined together in community. We can choose to separate ourselves from the community, but then we lose its support.
Cut apart the dolls so everyone has one, and let everyone paint their doll. MAKE SURE EVERYONE STARTS BY PAINTING THE SIDE YOU COLOURED ON. Leprosy is a skin-disease that leaves dead white patches on the skin. People who have leprosy are often cast off from their community. There are other diseases and conditions that cut us off from our community: mental illness, hatred and distrust, poverty, intolerance for differences. Some things -- sins -- cut us off from God, too. But God keeps reaching out to heal us. When we REPENT -- that means "turn around", stop going in wrong directions and start walking in the way of Christ -- we accept God's healing. (And if we turn our paper dolls around, and paint the other side, we'll find they don't end up with any leprous white patches on them).
“Pew-work” is like Home-work, except that it is done in the pews, instead of being done at home. Because it is focussed on the readings (as the sermon, presumably, also is) it can be done during the sermon to help the listener concentrate. Or, it can be done while waiting for everyone else to finish their communion. It isn't done during prayers, or hymns, or the readings, because
During Prayers, we pray
During Hymns, we sing
During the Readings, we listen
Middle-school Students' Pew-work
Elementary-School Students' Pew-work
Next week's lessons: Isaiah 43:18-25 Psalm 41 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 Mark 2:1-12