Rites of passage

I'm writing a Ministry Matters post about rites of passage, which reminded me of our end-of-year blessing for the children.  It includes a section for children moving from Sunday School to Youth Group.

The children gather around the altar, with the Sunday School teachers, holding examples of their work from the past year.

President: Almighty Father, you came among us as a small child.  As a child, you spoke the wisdom of God in the temple.  We bring you the work these children have done this year, and we ask that it may bring them to know and to love you.

Making the sign of the cross over the work.

Now bless this work, we pray you.  Keep safe the little ones who have created it.  Make it an offering in your church.  Show your favour upon these children as they complete another year, and bring them safely again to us in the new season.

People: Amen.

The President invites all children who are moving from the Sunday School to the Youth Group to come forward to the centre.

President: Saint Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became an adult, I put away childish things.”  You stand on the line between childhood and adulthood.  As you move from the Sunday School to the Youth Group, are you prepared to come to know Christ in new ways?

Children: With the help of God, I am.

President: Are you prepared to take on more responsibility for your own life and for your own faith?

Children: With the help of God, I am.

President: Will you continue to pray, to serve God in all people, and to follow Christ wherever he may lead you in your adolescence and adulthood?

Children: With the help of God, I will.

President: Almighty God, be with these young people as they begin to put away childish things.  Let their faith be a staff to lean upon, a light in the darkness, a mantle about their shoulders.  Give them wisdom and compassion as they grows into from childhood to manhood and womanhood.

People: Amen!

The President addresses the Sunday School teachers.

President: Jesus said, “whoever welcomes one child in my name welcomes me.”  Lord, we ask your blessing upon these teachers, who have welcomed the children into your house.  We thank you for their faith, their love, and their wisdom.  Bless them and keep them close to you, that they may be faithful ministers of your word and that their own faith may grow as they share your love with others.

People: Amen.

Continue with the blessing and dismissal

A brief introduction to power politics, through the Gospel.

In youth group last week, we got sidetracked into a discussion on why the wealthy and powerful people were out to get Jesus.

This was happening in the Sunday School room after church, and the feltboard pieces from Sunday School were still on the board.  We'd done the story of the Sermon on the Mount, so Jesus was in the centre, surrounded by Disciples and the Crowd, and with the devil in the upper right-hand corner.

"Well," I said, "look at all those people around him.  The people were following him and listening to what he said.  And the wealthy and powerful people were afraid he was going to take away their power."

"So," said Ted, "if all those people were around him, and supporting him ... how come the soldiers were able to arrest him?  Couldn't he have just raised an army and fought back?"

"Well," I replied, "two things.  One, that's not the type of power he was talking about - if he'd done that, he might have killed a few Romans, might have ended up as a footnote in a history book.  But the power of dying and rising again defeated death itself.  Two -" and here I swept all the figures off the board except for Jesus, the devil, Mary Magdalene, and John the Evangelist, "when it got tough, and really dangerous, most of these people abandoned him.  Yeah, it's easy to follow a person, to listen to what they're saying ... but if you had to DIE for it ... well, that's a harder thing to ask, isn't it?"

Earlier, most of these kids had been in Sunday School, where the Sermon on the Mount, with some prodding from me, had turned into a discussion of when it is and isn't acceptable to meet force with force.  The kids generally agreed that in the case of Hitler, force was necessary but weren't sure about other times.  They wanted to know how Hitler had become bad, and why he did what he did.  One said it was because he wanted money and power.  One said it was because Germany had been so humiliated in the Treaty of Versailles it made him mad.  One said that part of him was good because he was so talented and charismatic at leading people - I asked "what would have happened if he'd used those talents for good instead of evil?"

Then the 5-year-olds started getting bored, and we were running out of time, so I'd had to cut the conversation short.  But it was clear in youth group later, they were still thinking of these sorts of questions.