The Stones Cry OutMartyn Payne |
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On your marks:
On the Sunday nearest to 11 November, most
churches hold a Service of Remembrance, marking the day when the First World
War ended. Today we also remember all those who have lost their lives fighting
in subsequent wars and a two-minute silence is kept at 11.00am. The service is
also an opportunity to explore themes of peace, sacrifice and remembering, and
as such has a lot of important things for children to learn and experience.
Although you may shy away from including children in all of this service, the
following ideas are offered to make it more possible for them to enter as fully
as possible into the great themes of this day's worship. Get set:
The focus point for this service for all ages
is stones - so often a symbol of remembrance in The Old Testament and, in
themselves, rich in other associations, too, with links to the mercy that God
promises to remember whenever God looks upon his people. You will need to collect together a number of
large stones (if possible a variety of colours and shapes) and at various
points of the service arrange to have them put on display so that everyone can
see them. You will also need baskets of small stones and
smooth stones; some confetti hearts; a large bowl of water; objects linked to
remembering (see point 1 below). There are some suggestions for songs/hymns from
Mission Praise. Go!
1. Set the theme of the service by showing a tray
with various objects, which are all linked to remembrance, including: a picture
of an elephant (or maybe a large toy elephant?), a knotted handkerchief,
post-it note, a photo album, a diary. And then add a poppy to this tray. 2. In our service of worship we will be picking
up on this theme of remembering: remembering
the terrible cost of war remembering those who still suffer or grieve remembering the price that some paid But also remembering God's love; the sacrifice
of Jesus; and our belonging to each other now through Christ. To do that we will also reflect on what God
remembers and what God does not remember. I wonder what that can be? 3. Remembering is an interesting word. It is
literally made up of two parts: re- and -member, so in some one sense it is the
opposite of dis-member. In other words, remembering is becoming part of
something again, being put back together, being brought into wholeness. This is
what we do each time we gather for worship. We are members of the body of
Christ and are re-membering - coming back together, to discover more of what it
means to follow Jesus together and discover more of Jesus here among us as we
worship. 4. Have a moment of quiet: Here are words from the Psalm 105 which urge us
to remember several times: read verses 1-8. 5. Sing together: 'I will enter his gates with
thanksgiving in my heart' (Mission Praise
307). Light a candle: 'The Lord is here, and his
Spirit is with us.' 6. Linked to the theme of remembrance is the
symbol of stones. Show
some of the stones you have gathered for this service. You might like to invite
some people up to handle the stones and tell the congregation what each feels
like and what stones mean to them. Many of us have collections of stones in our
homes from important moments and places in our lives. Stones are used in a variety of ways in the
Bible. They are a handy, natural visual aid in what was a mountainous part of
the world that bordered the stony desert. Even in our part of the world, we use
stones in different ways: There are stone cairns up in the Lake District
to mark the summit of a mountain or the path we should take. We used to rely on
milestones in the past before the days of satellite navigation (though perhaps
we should return to using them!) We have gravestones to mark a burial place, or
maybe you have stones making up a rockery in your garden. We also talk of
stones in a more uncomfortable way. We may get a small one stuck in our shoe
for example, which spoils a walk and becomes a nuisance. In this way stones are
like the sin that spoil our walk with God. They are the stones of sin, which
refuses to give to others the love they deserve, or they may be our experience
of being refused the care we need. From
baskets of small stones placed around your worship area, invite people to take
one. 7. Think of the ways in which we have failed to
remember God this week, or even today. Now we come to God with a genuine 'sorry'. Use
a form of confession that your all-age congregation is used to. And listen to what God remembers and what he
forgets. Read Habbakuk 3:2 and Jeremiah 31:33-34. Invite
people to come and put their stone into a large bowl of water and sprinkle some
little confetti hearts that will float on the surface above. Because of the cross, God remembers us - he
puts us back together again. Because of the cross, God does not remember our
past sins (does not keep a record to bring up against us). Sing: 'Father in heaven how we love you' (Mission Praise 135). 8. A time to remember (leading up to the 11:00am
silence). Ideas of things to say beforehand: Wars are still going on. Peace is not just the opposite of war; it is
meant to be a way of life. We can use this moment to remember what was; to
remember what is now; to remember not to go on choosing the way of war again. (Ironically, some of the largest poppy fields
in the world today are found at the very heart of the fighting in Afghanistan.)
If
there is time, invite mention of particular war-torn parts of the world today that
people wish to remember. After the silence and the usual words of
remembrance, use the following reading: Isaiah 2:2-5. Sing: 'A new commandment I give unto you' (Mission Praise 1). 9. A reading from Joshua 4:19-24 - stones to
remember God's power. Stones are used to build altars in the Bible to
remember God's presence. And stones are used to build memorials to remember God's
power. Have
available some larger stones. Invite
people to share things about what God has done and about the things that we want
to remember before God, for example items for prayer and praise and
thanksgiving. As you pray together, build an altar from twelve stones in a
prominent place. Sing together: 'Teach me to live, day by day' (Mission Praise 627). 10. Stones are amazing things. When we touch them we are touching something
that belongs to our pre-history. We are linking up with the big picture of God's
purposes for the universe and in a way we step out of this time into the realm
of God's time and eternity. This stone has only ended up as the stone in
our hands after thousands of years of events, which God set in motion. Stones
can in this way remind us of our smallness; but they also can be a way of
reminding us of our specialness. Have
a big basket of smooth stones. Invite
everyone to take one and enjoy and explore their stone. Get to know the stone. Will
they be able to recognize that stone again? Put
them back in the basket and muddle them all up. Invite
some to find out their stone again. Link this to God's amazing love for us
individually. We are precious stones to him. God can always find us... God knows us through
and through. Link to David's experience from Psalm 139. N.B. There is simple child-friendly version of
part of this psalm on our website: An easy-to-learn
Psalm. 11. A possible outline for a short reflection
(part 1): Stones are often special to us. Do you collect
stones? Recently on a quiet day, I set off to
Bradwell-on-Sea to visit the chapel right on the edge of Essex where St Cedd
set up his first missionary base when he came to evangelize the heathen of
Essex! In the chapel there is an altar and in it are imbedded three stones. They
link that place to other places where God has worked in people's lives: one
from Iona; one from Lindisfarne; one from a place call Lastingham in Yorkshire.
Stones can link us and remind us of God's work in our lives. Stones are special to people in the Bible, too.
Samuel set up a stone called Ebenezer to
remember that God had helped them in times of trouble (1 Samuel 7:12-13). David experienced God's help again and again
among the stones of the desert at the Rock of Escape or the Rock of Refuge and
it becomes an often repeated image in the Psalms (1 Samuel 23:25-28 and Psalm
18:2). I wonder what stones - real or literal - from
your story of faith you've kept to remind you of special times? We need those
stones to hold on to when we come to more difficult times and face unanswered
prayer or unrelieved pain. Stones can be a reminder of God's protection in the
past and help us to have faith now in the present. 12. The most famous Bible stone of all is the
one Jesus points us to, when he called himself 'the rejected stone' - the stone
the builders rejected. A second (New Testament) reading at this point
could be: Matthew 21:42-46. Put
down a single, large rock in a prominent place. 13. Idea for a short reflection (part 2) Among all the stones lying around outside the temple,
which was still being built at the time of Jesus (and near the time of his
death). Perhaps Jesus spotted one stone that the builders didn't want. Perhaps
it was too dirty or rough. Perhaps it looked unsafe or unpromising in some way.
However, Jesus picked it up and said that this
stone, which had been rejected, would become the head of the corner. It would become the most important stone of
all. It would become the one that held everything
else together - the capstone, the keystone. This is exactly what happened, of course. It
was a prediction of his own death and resurrection. God's purposes were to take
a surprising and unexpected turn for the people of Israel. And things can be
the same for us. We can feel like that rejected stone. We can feel that we are
not promising, useful or special. But God has a special place for us. He has
work for us to do that only we can do. If we follow the way of Jesus, then we,
too, are rejected stones that become vital stones in God's work in this world. In fact, Peter never forgot that story and in
his first letter picked up the image when he wrote to the Christians who felt
rejected and despised and ignored (1 Peter 2:4-8). He calls them 'living stones' being built into
a special place that would show God's glory in this world. This is always God's
way and it's true for us here in this place. Invite
everyone to collect one the stones from the water (under the hearts) and then create
a circle of those stones, now symbolically cleaned and washed by the work of the cross, on another prominent focal
point. At this point, make space for a time to pray for all those who feel rejected,
forgotten, damaged or lost. Draw the prayers together by using the Lord's Prayer.
14. And that's not quite the end, because there
is also the mysterious 'white stone' waiting for us in heaven. Listen: 'To him who overcomes I will give some of the
hidden manner. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it,
known only to him who receives it' Revelation 2:17 (NIV). God is remaking us and making us ready to be welcomed
into heaven one day. The white stone means many things: maybe it's the sign
that we are not guilty; maybe it's a symbol of our reward; maybe it means 'the
real true me' that God will have made perfect on that day. Only we know what it
means for us. Encourage
everyone to look back at the different stones from the service and to think about
the ones that have meant something special for them today. I wonder which of these stones stories you like
the best? I wonder which of the stone stories is the most important for you? I
wonder where you are among all the stones today and for this coming week? I
wonder what God is reminding you of on this Remembrance Day? 15. As we end our service, listen again to what
God remembers and what God forgets on this Remembrance Sunday: Isaiah 44:21-23 Sing together: 'Hallelujah, sing to Jesus' (Mission Praise 207). |
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another idea for Remembrance Sunday
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