In our series, Recovering God’s Yes, we have been working to see how Romans is not about creating separations and divisions between people (who is in and who is out), but this text is an invitation to see how we are all gathered into God’s embrace through Jesus Christ, where there is no condemnation and no separation. Today we are looking at chapter 12, which is a glimpse of how life in Christ looks when we break down divisions, remain astonished, and recognize one another as bearing the image of God.
Light a candle, take some deep breaths, or sing a song, to draw your attention to God’s presence. Say this prayer together or read it to yourself.
Last Sunday Todd taught on Romans 10: 5-21, focusing on taking down the wall of separation that people put up by saying “God is with us, but not with them.” One of the ways people put that wall up is to make the gospel too small and contained, ignoring the infinitely wondrous mystery that is held in Christ. The call of our lives is to become and to remain astonished by our Creator and to endeavour to make the incomprehensible intelligible, sharing this good news of the mystery with others.
Read aloud Romans 12: 1-21
As a group discuss the following questions:
As we think about Romans and the call for us to become (remain) astonished, share about a time when you have been astonished by our Divine Creator.
Read through the following social media posts by Kat Armas on Romans 12, then re-read Romans 12: 1-8.
Share with one another something new that arises for you with this passage. What resonates for you? What is a sticking point?
Re-read Romans 12: 9-21. Which of these “marks” comes easily for you? Which challenges you?
Share some stories of how you have seen this type of genuine love lived out in the world around you.
Close this time of worship by reading this blessing.
God told Moses,
Go to Egypt and say,
“God has heard you
Help is on the way!”
For today’s Bible story, we’re going to need to travel through time together. What noise should we make when we jump through time? (Feel free to lean into the silliness as much as feels comfortable.)
Ok, when it’s time to travel through time, we will make a [NOISE] together! And because we are traveling back in time, we need to hop, hop, hop backwards!
Are you ready? We are going to go to a time a long, long way back, let’s go! [NOISE and backward hops]
Uh oh! We landed in a time when God’s people, the Israelites, were in trouble. There wasn’t enough food for everyone to have enough to eat. The Israelites were so hungry. Rub your tummies like you’re hungry with me.
There wasn’t enough food! What were they going to do now?
But God helped them go to a land called Egypt. Egypt had a King called the Pharaoh. This Pharaoh was kind to the Israelites. He gave them food to eat. He gave them a nice place to live. God helped them when there wasn’t enough food!
Ok, now we need to jump through time again. This time we’re going to jump a little bit forward in time. That means we need to hop forwards. Ready? Let’s go! [NOISE and forward hops]
Uh oh, we landed in a time when God’s people were in trouble again! A new Pharaoh was in charge, and he was not a nice Pharaoh. He was a mean Pharaoh. He said to the Israelites, “You will be my slaves now. You are not free. You will do what I say!”
They had to work all day long and do whatever Pharaoh told them to. What were they going to do now?
To find out, we have to jump forward in time again. We are going to jump forward 400 years! So we need BIG HOPS to get there. Ready? Let’s go! [NOISE and big hops forward]
Uh oh, God’s people were still in trouble. They had been slaves for 400 years! They had to make heavy bricks all day long. Every day they had to work and work because Pharaoh said so. They were so sad. They were so tired. They needed help!
The Israelites cried out for help. Can you cry out for help with me? Put your hands by your mouth and repeat after me:
“Help, help, somebody help!” “Help, help, somebody help!”
God heard the people crying for help. God was with them and God loved them. God would help them.
To find out how, let’s jump forward in time one more time. This time just a few more years. So we just need to go 3 teeny, tiny hops. Ready? Let’s go! [NOISE and 3 baby hops.]
We’re in a hot, dusty desert called Midian. Let’s pretend it’s very hot. [Wipe your forehead and say, ‘Whew!’] Midian was the place where a man named Moses lived. It was a hot and dusty place.
Moses was a shepherd. He took care of sheep every day. He would help the sheep find water in the hot and dusty place. He would protect the sheep from wild animals. He would make sure the sheep had a safe place to sleep at night.
One day Moses was out with the sheep all by himself. There were no other people around. Just sheep. Let’s make sheep noises. Baaa.
Then Moses saw something. Something strange. Something so strange that he had to go see what was going on.
Moses saw a bush.
That doesn’t sound too strange does it? But this bush was on fire. Moses could see flames leaping up from it as it burned. But do you know what was really strange? The fire kept burning and burning, but the bush didn’t get burned up! The fire just kept going.
Moses saw all this and wanted to see the bush closer.
When Moses got closer to the burning bush, he heard something. He heard a voice.
The voice said, “Moses, take off your shoes! You’re standing in a special place.”
The voice was God. That’s why the fire kept going and didn’t burn the bush up! It was a special fire that showed that God was there. Moses did what God said and took off his shoes.
Then God spoke again. God said, “My people are in Egypt and they are in trouble. They are so sad. They are so tired. I have heard them asking for help. I’m sending you, Moses, to tell them that I will help them.”
God was going to set the people free from mean Pharaoh. But there was a problem. Moses did not want to go.
He said, “I’m afraid! I’m afraid of Pharaoh the king. I don’t want to go.” But God said “I will be with you and help you.”
Moses said, “I’m nervous! My words will get tangled in my mouth when I try to talk to Pharaoh!”. But God said, “I will be with you. I will help you.I will teach you what to say.”
Moses said, “I don’t know what is going to happen! What if people won’t listen to me?” God said, “I will be with you and help you so they will listen to you. Time to go now!”
Finally, Moses listened. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he trusted that God would be with him and help him. And God did help Moses, and God helped the people.
Our special words today are: God helps us! Let’s say them together: God helps us!
Every Bible story tells us at least one thing about who God is or what God is like. What did you notice this time?
WONDER QUESTIONS: (Pick a few that make sense for your group)
For older kids: If you read this story from the Bible, you find that Moses tries to get out of going four times, and after the fourth, God felt angry with him. But the BIble doesn’t say why, just that it’s how God felt. I wonder why that is?
Grown ups: Maybe you’re used to the answer being “because Moses didn’t obey right away”, reinforcing the ‘God gets mad at us if we don’t do what God wants’. It can be helpful to revisit the times we see God mad and be curious–why? About what? What other reasons might there be beyond ‘disobedience’?
There is a practice called “examen” that we are going to try together. For just 3 minutes, we are going to remember back over the last couple of days. So go ahead and get comfy, close your eyes, and take a big breath.
God’s own special name, Yahweh, means I’ll be there.
Remember a happy time in the last couple of days. (Give them a second to think). God was with you.
Remember somewhere you went. (Give them a second to think). God was with you.
Remember a sad or mad time. (Give them a second to think). God was with you.
God’s own special name, Yahweh, means I’ll be there. So to close, let’s breathe in and say to God (in our minds): “You are with me.” Breathe in. Then breathe out and say, “I am not alone.” Breathe out.
Breathe in, You are with me.
Breathe out, I am not alone.
Breathe in, You are with me.
Breathe out, I am not alone. Amen.
Set up: Cut up the message words and put them in a bowl. Divide into two teams.
How to play: Each team will send one person to try and get their teammates to guess the word by describing it. They can’t say any part of the word itself. They have 45 seconds to get as many words as they can, then the next team goes.
