As a keen new Christian, I learned passages off by heart. Jeremiah 31:31-34 was one of the first and is still a favourite. Here we find the whole gospel in a nutshell:
- God loves us unconditionally but we didn’t love him back.
- God showed us how to live right, but we didn’t do it.
- God writes himself into our hearts so that we truly know him.
- We are God’s for ever, and God is ours.
- God can forgive us because of Jesus.
Here’s a fun craft for youth or for adults and children to do together (Heck, it’s good for adults to do without kids – give it a try!)
- Get some monkey nuts (check for allergies) and carefully spilt in half.
- Summarise the Good News. If you only had 50 words to tell someone who had never heard of Jesus, what would you say? (The summary above is 50 words) How about 5 words?
- Write your summary on a strip of paper and coil it up inside your peanut shell.
- Tie your shell shut with a piece of yarn. What are you going to do with this message?
Follow this link for a round up of Easter resources from The Reflectionary and all over.
Click here for the Brand New Fab Easter Foldable (including a video for the slightly tricky folding)
For those of a more cerebral bent, click here for a mathematical challenge – can you work out the date of Easter using only pencil and paper (and lot of bus-stop division)?
And a shout out to members of the North Thames Synod whom I met yesterday for a workshop on ‘Praying with the Labyrinth’. Great to meet you all, some for the first time, some in flesh for the first time, and several readers of The Reflectionary – it’s always such a buzz to meet fans. Thanks for a super day!
Liturgy Resources for Lent 5
Psalm 119:9-16, Jeremiah 31:31-34
Confession and Absolution
This is the covenant I will make with my people, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Lord, we confess.
We confess that we have not followed your covenant but have strayed from your ways.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
We confess that we have ignored the laws you have written on our hearts but have written our own.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
We confess that we have not been your people but have made gods of our desires and comfort.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
No longer shall they teach one another saying, “Know the Lord,” for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their wickedness, and remember their sin no more.
Thanks be to God who forgives all who truly repent.
Amen. Thanks be to God.
Blessing and Dismissal
May you delight in the way of the Lord as much as in all riches.
May you meditate on his precepts and fix your eyes on his ways.
May you treasure his word in your heart and declare it with your mouth.
And the blessing …
Go and walk the way of God, with a pure heart fixed on him.
With the help of God. Amen.
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