While lighting a candle to remind you of God’s Presence, have someone read the candle prayer.
As our shared Lenten practice this year we are taking a few moments each Sunday to “pray with our eyes” with the practice of visio divina. More information about this practice can be found here.
This week we are using a modern icon of Henri Nouwen to guide our prayer. The spiritual writer and Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen, practiced the way of “downward mobility” where he pursued God’s upside-down kingdom, rather than the world’s ways of success. This wood cut painting was created by Kreg Yingst and is featured in his book Everything Could be a Prayer.
As a group take some time to practice holy seeing with this image, praying to God with following the steps:
As people pray silently, a leader might want to prompt the group with these questions. You can also use music to aide with the reflection time. This time can be concluded with a silent prayer, or by having each person share one word in response, if they are comfortable.
*these steps have been adapted from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook*
Close your time with the prayer from Kreg Yingst in Everything Could be a Prayer
Cruciform Christ, I relinquish to you—my loving caretaker and friend—the control of my life that I so desperately desire to hold onto. I will walk through the doors that you open, and not those of my own making. Amen
The communion table reminds us of the “great reversal’ where the hungry are fed, the sick and hurting are healed, and sinners forgiven. If, as Brian Zahnd says, “grace runs downhill”, then this table is at the bottom of the hill.
With some bread and some juice, serve each other the body and blood of Christ as a sign of the good news we share in Jesus.
Parents,
Today’s passage is a tricky one for kids because they don’t have the same context as we do for what it means to sell all our possessions. And I think more importantly this account can be confused when discussing with kids, because the focus is often reduced to a moral lesson about not being so attached to worldly possessions. Don’t get me wrong, that is a valid focus for this passage, but maybe there’s a more helpful and important idea to explore. Jesus sees this young man’s wealth as a barrier for him knowing Jesus in an intimate way. His wealth, privilege, and comfort are getting in the way and the disciples empathize with the man’s realization that this is impossible; cue the visual of a camel fitting into a needle.
If we imagine wealth as something we accumulate or do to protect ourselves, gain control, or keep as an idol for comfort, we may begin to understand why it is, in fact, so impossible to give up. But how do we venture into conversation with kids about this? I think a child’s understanding of this is going to start with understanding who we were created to be. Not perfection, not without stumbles, dents or mistakes, but instead humans who face the reality of sin in our world and lives, who are in desperate need of God’s grace. The devotional below uses the passage from 2 Corinthians 4 that describes us as jars of clay and I hope this metaphor fosters a helpful discussion for you and your kids!
– Janine Coxford
Reflection: From Seasons of Welcome by the Welcome Table
“There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen
Have you ever ridden your bike so fast that you felt like you were flying? Or jumping high on a trampoline? Or skiing fast down a mountain? There is something about going fast or jumping higher than we think we can that makes us feel unstoppable, untouchable and unbreakable. Money can do this too. Security found in money, or stuff or relationships can make us feel secure and invincible.
But we are not made to be unstoppable or unbreakable. Whatever we believe about ourselves, however hard we might try to convince ourselves otherwise, we are both limited and fragile.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10 (NLT)
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
We are the clay pots that hold God’s treasure. Fragile humans, shaped from the dirt of the ground and the dust of the stars to carry within us the breath and light and spirit of our creator.
How cool is that?
And yet…we spend a lot of time trying to hide our imperfections and our cracks.
Somewhere along the way, we learn that imperfections weren’t a good thing, and so we try our best to keep them hidden. But if you look at a piece of pottery, or one of your playdough creations, you will see lots of cracks and dents that make the piece unique. It is what makes the creation beautiful.
Our cracks and imperfections do the same for each one of us.
When we know that everyone has their own cracks, it helps us better understand each other and have grace for one another when we mess up. We all have broken places, and God calls us treasures anyway.
Embracing this reality allows us to grow and become a new creation at every stage.
We weren’t made to be self-sufficient and invincible, but the good news is like a potter with clay in hand, God knows us intimately and is continually holding, reshaping, and mending the cracks within our lives. Our lives are the treasures of God held in the fragile vessels of clay pots that are continually reshaped and mended, held in the loving hands of our potter and creator.
“Salvation measured by obedience is impossible, but Jesus says, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God.'”
– Larry Parsley
Loving God,
Like a potter with clay,
you know us intimately.
You are never finished crafting.
We are shaped and reshaped through
the work and love of the potter.
Amen
Littles: Play and create something with playdough. You could even provide some jewels or coins that you can describe as treasure and have the kids add them into the playdough representing the treasure in the jar of clay.
Elementary: Make a playdough or air dry jars of clay. You can give them a jar to cover in playdough or clay, or make it free standing. You could cut shapes or cracks into the sides so they can see the treasure inside or light (candles or other small light). This would be a great visual of why weakness is important for us to be able to
acknowledge and receive God’s grace in our lives.
This is a prayer for parents to share together.
A Prayer for Lent
By Kayla Craig in To Light Their Way
O Lord, we come to You,
Aware that we have busied ourselves and our family
With full schedules brimming
With places to go
And people to see.
But in doing so,
We have forgotten You.
And Your love
And the mission You have breathed into our lives.
We have chosen the way
Of instant gratification
And of avoidance,
Choosing an abundance of distraction
Over a reliance on You.
O Lord, we come to You,
Unsure of how best to observe Lent.
But even in our unsteady footing,
We come to You,
Arms trembling with the weight
We have taken on—
Weight that was never ours to hold.
O Lord, we want more than this for our kids,
And we thank You that it’s never too late
For us to reorient our hearts to You.
O Lord, we examine our hearts—
Every worry,
Every shortcoming,
Every harbored animosity,
Every selfish act
Every judgement.
Help us not to pick at our scabs,
But help us rip off the bandage
So that our wounds may heal, O Lord.
Shape our hearts
And the hearts of our children
To look like Yours, O God.
Our culture has beckoned us with shiny objects
And faster internet speed,
And we’ve grown accustomed to more
Instead of a daily repentance to—
And reliance on—You.
Help us to know what to let go of
And what holy habits to seek.
Help us hunger and thirst for Your Kingdom.
May we teach our children what it is to go without.
We humbly admit the ways we need You,
And the ways are many, O Lord.
Help us resist temptation
And ignite in our family new ways
To join You in acts of mercy and love
To those around us,
In our communities and streets.
Illuminate the way, O Lord,
For the paths are rocky and the sky is dark.
Illuminate in us
Our need for Your great light.
And may You shine upon our family’s faces
So that our children
Follow Your everlasting light,
For You are the way.
During this season of Lent, O Lord,
We turn away from the ways of the world
And the lies of the evil one.
We put ourselves and our children into Your hands
And follow You,
The One who leads from death into life
