Forget It! Focus on Jeremiah 31: n PREPARING FOR THE SESSION. WHAT is important to know? WHERE is God in these words?

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1 March 18, 2018 Fifth Sunday in Lent Jer. 31:31 34 Ps. 51:1 12 Heb. 5:5 10 John 12:20 33 Forget It! Goal for the Session Children will explore the joy of having their sins forgotten by God, as promised in Jeremiah. n PREPARING FOR THE SESSION Focus on Jeremiah 31:31 34 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, Jon L. Berquist Jeremiah 30 and 31 are sometimes called The Book of Comfort. The chief claim of this passage about God s new days is that there will be a new covenant between God and the people. Throughout the Old Testament, covenants are used frequently to aid understanding of the relationship between God and people. Such covenants are not like contracts in the modern sense, which are agreements negotiated between two parties and entered into willfully. The ancient covenants are much more unilateral: one party (God) is much more powerful than the other (God s people), and so sets the terms. Such a covenant does not require the weaker party s consent or willingness. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Samuel K. Roberts Jeremiah s prophecy of a new covenant perhaps his most important single teaching is also a powerful harbinger of the good news that will be preached and embodied in Jesus Christ. Jeremiah realizes that humanity simply does not have the capacity to heal itself. The great moral problem of humankind that is, sin is not cognitive, but rather concerns the sinful will. In Jeremiah s prophecy the new will for humanity will be a result of something that God does. Hope for such transformed wills lies within God s grace, not in any hope for human perfection. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Richard Floyd Despite all the ways the people have broken faith with God, God will not break faith with them. God will bring newness out of destruction. God will bring hope where there is no hope. God will bring life out of death. God will make a way where there is no way. The days are surely coming when the people, from the least to the greatest, will know God with all the intimacy that word entails. God will wash away the people s sins once and for all and remember them no more. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Woody Bartlett What would it be like if God wrote the law on our hearts so that we would live within the creation with restraint and humility, living for the whole creation, not just for our singular, insular selves and our own narrow corner of creation? Here at the end of the season of Lent, this passage begs us to explore the ways that we need the law of love to be written on our hearts. It sets up the exploration in just two weeks of how the power of the resurrection can find a home in our hearts so that we, and those around us, can truly live a new life. 1

2 Forget It! FOCUS SCRIPTURE Jeremiah 31:31 34 YOU WILL NEED purple cloth battery-powered candle plastic Easter eggs, Easter basket, purple decorator stones (see March 4) permanent marker Singing the Feast, ; CD player Color Pack 1, 6, 7, 31 Bible wooden blocks paper, crayons, scissors, tape Resource Sheet 1 paper towels, washable markers, water, foam paintbrushes clear pitcher of water, cups For Responding option 1: copies of Resource Sheet 2, colored pencils option 2: Color Pack 7, newsprint, marker, magazines, glue sticks, scissors option 3: Singing the Feast, ; CD player Focus on Your Teaching Just like adults, children do things they know they should not do and they fail to do things that they ought to do. They may feel guilty about these things. Their sinful actions may seem small or humorous to adults, but children often take them very seriously and may even experience great anxiety because of what they have done or left undone. This session gives children the opportunity to acknowledge their sins and to experience the joy of being released from their guilt by God s loving promise. Forgiving God, please help me trust in your forgiveness, so that in receiving this loving gift, I can enjoy being your child. Amen. n LEADING THE SESSION GATHERING Before the session, place purple decorator stones (from a craft store or florist) in the Easter basket, topped by the plastic Easter eggs with the children s names on them from March 4. Use a permanent marker to label an egg for any child who doesn t have one in the basket. Place the basket, candle, and Color Pack 1 on a purple cloth in the center of your meeting space. Welcome children as they arrive. Gather around the candle and invite them to tell what they know about the season called Lent. Play You Are My Beloved Child (Color Pack 31; track 26 on Singing the Feast, ), asking children to sing along while taking their eggs from the basket. Invite children to take a purple decorator stone and add it to their egg, saying aloud or thinking quietly of something they want to ask God or something they wonder about. When everyone has had a turn, return the eggs to the Easter basket to use next week. Light the candle and pray aloud, asking learners to echo each phrase: Dearest God, / bless our Lenten journey. / Bless our learning, / our words, / and our work today. / Amen. Show Color Pack 6. Invite children to tell stories about why this boy might be hiding in the box, and then ask: P When have you felt like hiding from your parents or a teacher? (Be sure to offer a story from your own childhood.) 2

3 Forget It! It s important to spend time telling stories to one another. This helps learners feel more connected with their faith family. You Are My Beloved Child You are my beloved child, hallelujah, (repeat) And my face has smiled on you, hallelujah, (repeat) Then says God to everyone, hallelujah, (repeat) You re God s daughter, you re God s son, hallelujah! (repeat) Take care not to imply that God s forgiveness removes consequences of sinful actions. Be sensitive to the ways children may be required to make amends for their sinful actions, telling them that God s love will strengthen them for the task. EXPLORING Invite children to tell what they think sin means. Ask about when and where they have heard this word. Summarize that sin describes things that we say or do that do not follow God s ways or that go against Jesus teachings; they are things we say or do that hurt ourselves or others, or hurt our relationships. Reassure children that every person sins. Have children help you cut out eight squares of paper, write the word sin on each one, and tape one paper to each wooden block. Pile all the blocks at one end of your meeting space. Form two teams. Members of both teams will take turns running from one side of your meeting space to the other, relay-race style Team 1 will run empty-handed, but each member of Team 2 must pick up all eight blocks and carry them back to his or her team. Play a second time, so that Team 1 experiences running with the blocks. After the game, ask learners to describe what it was like to try to run while carrying the blocks. Point out that carrying around worries about our sins is like trying to run a race with blocks. It makes life harder. Open your Bible to Jeremiah 31:31 34, saying that the Bible reading for today is found here. Read aloud Resource Sheet 1 (God s New Promise) to present the Scripture passage and discuss the questions there. Read verse 34 again from Resource Sheet 1, then discuss: P What does the word forgive mean? How do we show other people that we forgive them? P How might God s forgiveness be even better than the forgiveness people offer to one another? (Reassure children that when they tell God they are sorry for sinful things they have done, God forgives them and gives them a fresh start.) Help learners imagine God forgiving and forgetting their sins. Demonstrate how to use a washable marker to write the word sin on a paper towel, then dip a foam paintbrush in water and dab it on the word, which will disappear in a swirl of color. Invite the children to try this themselves. Talk together about the joy of being forgiven by God. Read God s promise in verse 33 again from Resource Sheet 1. Lay Color Pack 7 on the table, inviting children to imagine this is a picture of God s people. Ask: P What does it mean to be God s people? P What things might you do or say to invite other people to join you in God s family? Use a marker to write responses in the center of Color Pack 7. Ask learners to tell what they like best about being one of God s people. 3

4 Forget It! EASY PREP RESPONDING Mark the activities you will use. 1. Verse to Remember Knowing Scripture by heart can help learners internalize God s promises. Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 2 (A Verse to Remember). Read the verse aloud in unison several times, then challenge the group to say the verse without looking. Provide colored pencils for learners to use to complete the dot-to-dot puzzle. Talk about how the shape of a heart might help them remember God s promise. The Whole World Is in God s Hands The whole world is in God s hands, The whole wide world is in God s hands, The whole world is in God s hands, The world is in God s hands. The wind and the wave are in God s hands... The fish and the bird are in God s hands... All of the animals are in God s hands... All the world s people are in God s hands... You and me are in God s hands God s People Poster God promises that each one of us is part of the family known as God s People. Have children work together to create a poster of what this family looks like. Glue Color Pack 7 to the center of a sheet of newsprint. Title the sheet We Are God s People. Have the children cut pictures of people from magazines and glue them around the sides of Color Pack 7. Challenge them to include all kinds of people, affirming that God s forgiveness and love are for all. Display the completed poster near the worship space for your church, perhaps providing supplies so other people can add to the poster. 3. Sing It! Celebrate that we all belong to God we are held in God s hands. Sing The Whole World Is in God s Hands (track 21 on Singing the Feast, ). Sing it again, adding the following movements: the whole world make a large circle with your arms; in God s hands hold your cupped hands together; the wind and the waves make wave motions with your arms; the fish and the birds make swimming motions with hands and flap arms; all of the animals crawl on all fours; all the world s people make welcoming gesture with arm (come on in); you and me point at each other. Perhaps you can teach this song to another group of learners. CLOSING Gather in a circle, sitting on the floor. Give each child a cup and pour water into it. Take a quiet moment, inviting each one to think of something they have done or failed to do that they would like God to forgive and forget. Invite each child, in turn, to quietly pour his or her cup of water into the pitcher while the group says, God forgives our sins. Go outside, if possible, or to a sink. Recite the memory verse together: I will be their God, and they will be my people.... I will forgive their sins. Then pour the water on some plants or into the sink. Recite the verse again, followed by saying, Amen. Say good-bye to each child by name, offering this blessing: (Name), you are one of God s people, and God will love you forever. Amen. 4

5 March 18, 2018 Forget It! Grades (K)1 2 Resource Sheet 1 God s New Promise Long before Jesus lived, there was a prophet named Jeremiah. A prophet s job was to deliver messages from God. God called Jeremiah to deliver messages to God s people living in Jeremiah s country. These people had done many sinful things; they had not been living the way God expected them to live. Here is God s message that Jeremiah delivered to the people: 31 The LORD said: The time will surely come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will be different from the agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them out of Egypt. Although I was their God, they broke that agreement. 33 Here is the new agreement that I, the LORD, will make with the people of Israel: I will write my laws on their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they have to teach one another to obey me. I, the LORD, promise that all of them will obey me, ordinary people and rulers alike. I will forgive their sins and forget the evil things they have done. Jeremiah 31:31 34, Contemporary English Version. Copyright 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. Discuss: P What kinds of things do you think the people in Jeremiah s country were doing? P How do you think these people felt when they heard God s promise to forgive them? 2018 Westminster John Knox Press

6 March 18, 2018 Forget It! Grades (K)1 2 Resource Sheet 2 A Verse to Remember Directions: Follow the even numbers to connect the dots. Begin with 2. What does this picture help you remember about God? I will be their God, and they will be my people.... I will forgive their sins (Jeremiah 31:33 34, CEV) Westminster John Knox Press