A talk for Advent

For KS1/2. You will need a rope for the timeline, pegs and 5 pieces of paper which say on them: Abraham and Sarah, Prophets, John the Baptist, Mary and Jesus, Second coming. Also, if you are able to do so, a way of showing John Lewis advert of boy waiting. 

What do we wait for?

-          Birthday

-          bus

-          holidays

-          birth of baby brother or sister

-          Christmas

Show John Lewis advert of boy waiting to give gift to parents

How do we wait for Christmas?

-          Advent calendar

-          Buy presents

-          Decorating

-          Cards

-          Special meals

-          Carol services

Christians use Advent as a time to remember that we are waiting.

-          Not just waiting for Christmas when we remember Jesus was born

-          But waiting for another event

Set up timeline

Long before Castles and the Romans (but not before the dinosaurs)

1.      God gave a promise. He said to Abraham that he would become the father of God’s special people. He told him that from you will come someone who will be God’s ruler. He will rescue us from sin and death. He will help us live by God’s rules and make everything right, fair, good.

The problem was that the people forgot the promise. They ignored God. They grew lazy.

2.      So God sent the prophets. And the prophets said. Don’t forget the promise. Don’t ignore God. Don’t get lazy

3.      God sent John the Baptist. He was the last of the prophets. And he told people that the promise was about to come true. So he said to people: WAKE UP. Get ready. Remember the promise. Serve and obey God. Say sorry

4.      Mary: the mother of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus was the ruler who the promise was all about. He is God’s ruler. He defeated sin He destroyed death. He helps those who wish to live by God’s rules.

5.      And one day Christians believe that Jesus will return. Not as a baby, but as God’s King. And then he will make everything good, right and fair.

So we wait. And we call this time of year: Advent. Advent comes from the Latin ‘Adventus’, and means ‘coming’. We wait for the time when Jesus will come a second time.

How do you think Christians might get ready for when they believe Jesus will come again?

·         Pray

·         Remember promises

·         Not ignore God

·         See if we have grown lazy 

The power of words to pierce or to heal

Ask children to squeeze out some toothpaste onto a kitchen towel. Ask them to put it back in. They can't!

It is the same with words.
Once they have been said, they cannot be put back.

Words are really important.
There is the old saying, 'Sticks and stones can break my bones but words they cannot hurt me'.
Who thinks that is true?

As someone said, a scar on your heart hurts more than a scar on your wrist.

Or, in the words of Proverbs 12.18, 'Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing'.

So we need to be careful with words, particularly if we are good or quick with words.



It is very easy
- to make a joke about someone
- to call them a name
- to spread a rumour about somebody
- to bad mouth, threaten, humiliate

It is as if the other person is this, and we do this:
hold a piece of paper, and then in silence tear it up into shreds

Touch your tongue! James in the bible tells us that the tongue is like a spark. It is very small, but it can set a forest on fire.

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing 

To bring healing, we need to learn to 'speak the truth in love'.
That doesn't mean we cannot challenge. Sometimes if we love someone, and if we want to build them up, we need to challenge them: to say 'you could do better'. I'm sure it is what many of your teachers say to you!
But it is so important to speak words that build up rather than tear down: like thank you, you're good at that, well done, I like the way you did that, you are a star!

Be careful with your words.
My granny gave me two pieces of advice.
1. If you haven't got anything good to say about someone, don't say anything.
2. Count to 10 before you speak, especially if you are angry or hurting.
And that is just as true before you post something on facebook, instagram or upload a video to youtube.

Because once it is out, you cannot put it back in.
Once words are said, they can only be forgiven.

One direction. The problem when we want to go our own way.

An assembly based on Philippians 2.3
(you do not need anything, although it might be helpful to have a power point/image of Philippians 2.3)

Invite about 7 of the older children to come to the front. Ask them to hold hands and form a line. Tell them that they must not let go of the next persons hand. 

Tell the school that you are going to do an experiment. You are going to ask 4 of the children at the front to walk in one direction and three to walk in the other direction. Ask them what will happen. Will the 4 drag the 3, or will the chain break? Where do you think the chain will break?

Usually, when this happens, the chain does break. 

In the bible there is a letter written by Paul. He mentions two women: Euodia and Syntyche. They want to go in opposite directions, and that other people had to decide whether they were with Euodia or Syntyche.

And when that happens:
1. There is a split. And splits multiply. Everybody ends up doing their own thing. There is a telling line in the book of Judges: 'In those days there was no king in Israel and everybody did what they wanted'
2. Splits are painful. Ask the child where the split occurred whether that was true. Did it hurt a bit?
3. It gets lonely
4. You are not as strong on your own
Invite the children to join hands again, but this time tell them to all go in one direction apart from one at the end. They are dragged along by the others 

It is so much better if you pull in one direction. That is true if you are a boy band, a business, a team, class, house, school, family or group of friends. 
Paul in the same letter gives some great advice: 'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others'.

There is an old story told by the monks. There are two men carrying a long plank of wood. They need to go through a door. The problem is that the man at one end is not prepared to let the man at the other end go first. Why should he? But the man at the other end is not prepared to let the other man go first. Why should he? 
That door is the door to heaven, and because of their pride, ambition and conceit they can never go through. 
What it needs to get through the door is for one of them to humble himself and say to the other, 'It's OK. You can go first'.

Who is the greatest?

An assembly based on Mark 9.33-37​
(You will need a crown, T-towel, and something that can serve as a set of steps)

Who has arguments? What do you argue about?

12 followers of Jesus were walking on the road. They were having an argument. Jesus asks them: What are you arguing about? 

They are a bit embarrassed because they are arguing about which of them was the greatest.

I'm greatest because my daddy is more important than your daddy

I'm greatest because I'm biggest, strongest, prettiest, best at reading, fastest. I've got more friends.

Better behaved than you; cooler than you. My X box is better than your X box. My minecraft world has more treasure places than yours.

I go to Westgate school - best school in the world.

I'm year 6.

[Have something that can act as steps - and invite children to stand on different steps. We want to be on the top step. Place a crown on the child at the top].

Why do we want to be the greatest?

We think that people will notice us, they will think we are special or important. 

Jesus said, 'I'll tell you what the greatest people are like'

They are people who are not trying to go up the steps. They are willing to come down the steps and serve others.

They are the people who help tidy up at the end of the day (not in the 'look at me everybody: I'm staying behind to tidy up' kind of way, but in a quiet, unassuming way), who speak to new child or person who nobody else talks to. They are the Yr 6 child who helps someone in Yr 1.

Jesus says that the greatest is the person who welcomes the person who everybody else thinks is the least significant

Symbol of greatness: not a crown but a T-towel. 

Lifting people up

Lifting people up from mdrogers

Bring a child out to the front and push them down to the ground (agree this with them before the assembly!)

It is very easy to push someone down, especially if you are bigger and stronger than them.
It makes us feel big.
And when people are down we can ignore them, or laugh at them.

The image that we see comes from Ravenna in North Italy. It is a mosaic, one of the earliest known illustrations of the life of Jesus, probably about 1600 years old. This image tells the story of a woman who was crushed because she was sick. It was one of those sicknesses which made everyone avoid her. She was also poor, because she had spent all her money on doctors who had said they would heal her, but did nothing. And she was like dirt. Perhaps people didn't even see her. The man in orange on the right is urging Jesus (he is the one with the halo) to move on, to ignore this woman.

But Jesus stops. He bends down to pick up the woman. He talks with her. He tells her that she is healed and that she is a precious daughter of God (You can read the story in Luke 8.40-48). He lifts her up.

That is what he came to do. It is what we remember at this Christmas time. He came down from heaven, became one of us, was even crucified, in order to lift us up so that we can become sons and daughters of God.
(You could have another child step down off a chair and lift up the child you pushed to the ground earlier)

So perhaps we need to be in the business of lifting people up
Slide 2: ballet dancers
Slide 3: Rugby players

We can lift people up by noticing them when they are crushed, by saying something encouraging, by letting them go first, by giving.

Slide 4: shows another of these mosaics from Ravenna. It is of another woman, but this time standing tall. And she is giving. Perhaps it is the same woman. She has been lifted up and so now she is able to lift up others.

We have seen some pretty awful things recently done in the name of God, but the bible says that true religion is about caring for orphans and widows in their need (slide 5). It is not about pushing people down so that we can make ourselves bigger. It is about lifting people up.

Sharing

​For Primary: You will need a box of chocolates.

Take two children to the back of the hall. One should be year 6 and the other year 1. Place a box of chocolates at the front, and tell them it is treasure. Ask them to race to it, and that the winner gets it. I am assuming that the bigger and stronger child gets to the treasure first (often the children are kind to each other and the bigger lets the younger win, but you need to tell them both beforehand that you do need the bigger and stronger child to win). 

She picks it up and says (ask her to repeat after you), 'I got here first. This is mine'. 
She gets everything and the smaller child gets nothing. 
Ask the other children if that is fair? When they all say, 'No', she then gives to the smaller child one of the sweets, but still keeps the rest for herself.

You could say that is a bit how it is like in our world. The bigger and stronger people get all the world's treasure and, if they are feeling good, they occasionally give one sweet to those who are not so big and strong - but they still keep the rest for themselves.

But then you introduce people to the King. 

The King says to the the older child (get the child acting out the role of King to say after you): 'That is not your treasure. I crafted it, left it there, and it is mine'.

Ask the children what the child should do.

Explain that the child could walk away with the sweets and pretend that the King does not exist. She might store them in a safe place, give some to her friends and to the people who do good to her. But when other people ask for some of the treasure, or try to take it, she fights them off. Her problem is that although she pretends that the King does not exist, there will always be something in her which is frightened that the King will come and get her.

Or she can realise that the treasure does belong to the King, say sorry for taking it for herself and offer it back to Him.

If she does that, she gets a surprise. The King says, 'You may keep the treasure. But remember it is not yours. It is my gift, not just to you, but for everyone.'

The story of the woman who gave everything

Based on Mark 12.41-44

Two people with smarties. One gives 5 smarties. One person gives 10 smarties. Who gives the most?

Now I'm going to give you a little more information. The person who gave 10 smarties had 10 packs of smarties. The person who gave 5 smarties only had 5 smarties. Who gave more?

Perhaps we would still say the person who gave 10 smarties, but they still had loads of smarties left over for themselves.
But I think that it was the person who gave 5 smarties - because they gave everything that they had.

Jesus was sitting at the entrance to the temple. He watched people put their money in the glass box. Many people put in large sums of money. £10. £100. £10000. WOW WOW WOW.  Look how much they are giving. They are such generous people.
A woman came in. She was very poor. She put in £1. Nobody said wow. In fact nobody noticed. Nobody except Jesus.

And Jesus called his friends together. They were still looking at the WOW person who had given £10000. Did you see that? He is amazing. Jesus said, 'Not really'. He is very very rich and it cost him nothing to give that amount of  money. He has got 100s of 1000s of pounds left. But that woman, who put in £1. That was all she had to live on for the rest of this week. She gave everything that she had.

It was only £1. Nobody noticed. But God noticed. And God said WOW

In a church in a town in Italy there are some of the earliest known illustrations of scenes from the life of Jesus. This picture shows this scene

Jesus is in the middle on the right. One of his friends is on the right. He is praying. And Jesus is blessing the woman who is giving. I have always thought of this widow as someone who was stooped and bowed. But here she stands upright with an immense dignity.

When we give, not to be noticed, and when we give - and I mean really give: you put all your weeks pocket money into a collection - nobody else will notice because it is not much. But you know. And although other people think that you are very little and insignificant, inside you can know that you are really big and tall.
And best of all, Jesus notices, and he says WOW 

Sin and mud: an assembly for Lent

You will need a bucket with some soil in it, a bowl of clean warm water, a couple of towels and some soap. (It is a lot but it is worth it!)

Show the children the bucket of soil and add water to it to make mud.
Ask them who likes to get muddy.
Bring out one child, ask them their (name) and ask them to get their hands all muddy.

Say the problem about getting muddy is that we need to get clean again. Why does (name) need to get clean.
Among answers, there will hopefully be:
Because if they don't they'll make other people muddy, they'll get sick from germs, the mud will stick onto them.

Talk about how many Christians use Lent as a time to look at mud - not the mud on the outside, but the mud on the inside of our lives:
- unkind things
- unkind words
- we want people to be fair to us, but we are not always fair to them
- we sometimes don't do the right thing because we are frightened of what others will say
- we tell lies and then further lies to get ourselves out of the lies we have already told
- we don't say sorry, or we take people for granted
And we realise that we need to clean up.

The problem is that we can't clean ourselves up. We try to be good, to pull our socks up, but it never seems to work.

Give (name) a clean white towel and ask them to clean themselves up. They simply get more muddy and the towel gets muddy.
Ask a teacher, or get someone sensible to come to front, and help (name) wash their hands in the water and dry them with a clean towel.

As they are having their hands washed, say how Christians believe that we can't make ourselves clean on the inside, but that we need Jesus to make us clean. Jesus is the only person who can really clean us on the inside. He forgives us and he can start to get rid of the inner mud, if we ask him.

Finish with a prayer thanking God for his forgiveness because of Jesus, and asking him to make us clean on the inside

The story of four candles!

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD  (Key stage 1 and 2)

What would you be like if you were a candle?
- tall, wide, pretty and decorated, ordinary?

I'd like to introduce you to four of my friends:

Derek. He is different and dotty
Wilberforce. Is wide and white
Penelope. Is purple and posh
and then there is Tim the tea light!

They argued about who was the best.

Christians believe that Jesus was born just like us.
He came to earth not as a different or dotty candle, not as a wide and white candle, not as purple and posh, not as a tea light - but as someone very ordinary.


[introduce another very plain red or white candle, but light it]

But there was a difference.

What is the difference?
[hopefully children will say that the candle representing Jesus is lit]

Jesus was alive in a way that Derek, Wilberforce, Penelope and Tim the tea light were not.
He loved God. He spent time with God. He loved everything about God - about the way God worked; the words God spoke. He saw this world the way God saw it.

And Jesus saw people as God saw them. He loved them. He saw them as more than just dotty or wide or tall or a tea light. He healed them, fed the hungry, challenged those who settled for second best, gave hope to the crushed. He showed them that life can be different, that life will be different. He showed them that they were meant to burn.

Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world' (John 9.5)

And if you come to me, you can burn like me.

[bring the four candles to Jesus, and light them from him]

And the amazing thing is that when Derek, Wilberforce, Penelope and Tim were all lit - they realised that they didn't need to argue who was the best, because they realised that although they were all different, they all shone with the same light.

Seeking what is lost

THE LOST COIN (KS 1/2)

Based on the story of the widow and the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10)
You will need 11 cut out coins, and possibly a torch

Who likes being told off when they have been bad?
Who likes someone else being told off when they have been bad?
It makes you feel really good.

Jesus tells a story to people who think that they are very good and that others are bad and think that God should punish them.
But it is also a story for people who know that they are bad and who think that God is going to punish them.

It is the story a woman who has 10 coins.

[Tell the story with 10 cut out coins. Count them out into the hand of a volunteer. Then count them out again - this time keeping 2 together so there are only 9. Ask children what she should do. They'll say 'Look for it'. Have an additional coin somewhere in the hall. Look for it yourself, then form a search party etc.] 

Why does she search?  She could have said 'I've got 9. That is enough'.
Because they are precious/important to her

What does she do when she finds them?
She has a party.

Jesus says God is like that.

God is into search and rescue!

He doesn't want to punish people who do bad.
Instead he has come to find people who want to be good, but who find that we do bad - and he comes to rescue us.

Why? Because we are all precious to him, and he doesn't want to lose any of us
When he finds us, he has a big party

Jesus rises from the dead

John 20:1-16

This was used at a holiday club, and adapted for different age group children. It is too long for an assembly, although could be adapted. It can also be used as an Easter all age talk.

[Props: you will need to create ‘a tomb’ (possibly with two tables on their sides), and place in the tomb a white sheet dropped onto the floor and a white folded pillowcase].

[invite child to be Mary Magdalene and give them a blue head covering. Ask other children to be Peter, John, a dead body and Jesus – as necessary as you tell the story.]

Mary Magdalene was sad because Jesus had died. 

[have a sad face competition]

Mary Magdalene was sad. 

She was never going to see Jesus again - hear his stories - listen to his teaching - talk to him, tell him what she thought. When she was afraid or other people were bring horrible to her, or she thought she had messed up badly, she wouldn't be able to come to him and know his encouragement, touch when she was upset. With Jesus everything seemed OK. He wasn't easy, he didn't do what you expected, but he always seemed to do what was right for you and others. With him you felt you could take big risks because everything was going to be OK.

But now he was gone, she wasn't going to see him again, and she was desperately sad.

Have any of you been sad? Maybe a pet has died? It is horrible if someone has died. It makes you feel all funny in the tummy; it is all empty.

So you know a little bit of how sad Mary felt.

She comes to the tomb. She wants to see the body of Jesus for one last time. But when we she gets there she discovers the stone has been moved and the tomb is empty. She is even more upset. They not only killed Jesus. They have now taken his body. 

So she runs to the friends of Jesus, and tells them: ‘the tomb is empty and they've taken the body of Jesus away’. Two of the disciples - Peter and John - run to the tomb. John gets there first and looks in. Peter then rushes in. They see the place where Jesus was laid and it is true. The body was not there.

They looked for the body of Jesus …

(possibly invite children to seek for something you have hidden in the room)

... but they found nothing!

[Invite children to look over side of table into the tomb.]

There was something strange. The cloths they wrapped around his body and head were in different places and the head cloth was folded up. It was strange because if someone had died …  

[wrap up child in sheet and use a pillow case for head covering. Show how if someone had taken the body they would have taken the whole body with grave clothes. But the linen strips were in one place and the head covering was folded up elsewhere. So what did happen?]

[have a puzzled face competition]

John and Peter go back. But as John goes back he starts to think. Jesus said he would rise from the dead. Perhaps that is what has happened.

But Mary is there and she is still sad: very sad. She is crying. And she sees two figures dressed in white - and they ask her 'Why are you crying?' She then sees a third person. She is still crying so she can't see clearly. She thinks he is the gardener. So she says to him, 'Please tell me where you have put the body of Jesus'. And the person says one word, 'Mary'. 

And she realises that it is Jesus come back from the dead.

How do you think Mary felt? 

[have a happy face competition]

Good news is that Jesus was dead but he is alive.

Really good thing is that because Jesus is alive we can know Jesus. We can talk to him; we can know his encouragement, and that everything will be OK, even though sad things do happen. 

Because Jesus is alive, NOTHING IS TOO BAD FOR GOD. He can turn our sadness into joy

One day, when we die, we will see him.

Using your gifts

The story of Charlie Smart, Philippa Trotmeister, Henrietta Smythe and the Headteacher

(sort of based on Luke 19:12-27 and Matthew 25:14-30!)

For KS2

Jesus told stories about the kingdom, the rule of God.

I’d like to tell you one of those stories, but I’ve changed it a bit. He told it about a ruler and his servants. I’m telling it about a headteacher and three children in a school. But this school is not a middle school and it is not St James. It is an imaginary school in an imaginary town in an imaginary time.  

In this school there are three children that I would like us to get to know.

1.    Charlie Smart

Charlie was not very good at anything.

He had few friends and he kept himself to himself

When he played football, nobody passed to him because he messed it up

He got the teachers annoyed in lessons because he didn’t get it when they explained what he had to do – they were always having to tell him again.

When he sang in assembly he didn’t sing, he growled.

He was really completely unnoticeable.

Charlie started to doodle in the lessons. He drew the children sitting next to him. He drew the teachers. That made them even more mad. But one teacher looked at a doodle he had drawn and said, ‘Charlie, that is actually very good’. It was probably the first time anybody had said to him that something he had done was good.

So Charlie plucked up his courage and went to see the art teacher. He showed her his doodles. And she also thought that they were good. And Charlie asked her, ‘Could you help me to draw better’. And Charlie began to work on his drawing. And as he spent time after school learning new skills and practising his drawing, he slowly began to become a pretty good artist. They even put up one of his paintings in the school corridor.

2.    Philippa Trotmeister

Philippa also had few friends

She appeared to be a bit of rebel because of what she wore. But that was because her mum didn’t have much money and she was always wearing second hand clothes – so rather than have people laugh at her, she wore them in alternative ways.

She didn’t do much in class. She didn’t really didn’t understand any of it.

She was never picked for any of the teams

And she was certainly not in the in-crowd. She wasn’t even part of the out-crowd.

But there was one lesson that she did enjoy. She loved music lessons. Music meant something to her. She understood it. It spoke to her.

And so Philippa went to the music teacher. She asked, ‘Please may I play the school piano. My mum has got no money for lessons, but I’d love to learn to play. I promise I will work really hard, and practise’. And the music teacher said that they would help Philippa to learn. And they gave Philippa some lessons, and almost every lunch time, Philippa went to the music room and practised playing the piano. And she became quite good. She even played a short piece at the end of term school concert.

3.    Henrietta Smythe

Henrietta was definitely in the in-crowd. Everybody wanted to be her friend. Even some of the boys!

She had everything.

Her parents were very important. Her dad owned a really big business; her mum was a school governor – and they had loads of money. She had whatever she wanted.

She was athletic and could run faster than most of her class. They wanted her in the running team, but she didn’t join. She said she was too busy

She was good at speaking, but she didn’t join the school debating society. She was too busy.

She was good at drawing and IT.

She had an ear for music and could sing well. They wanted her in the choir, but she didn’t join. Yes, you’ve got it. She was too busy.

She was really clever. She just understood maths and science. She could write well.  And she could get very good marks without even trying. So she didn’t really try. She did the minimum amount of homework. She was too busy.

Well the day came at the end of the school year when the headteacher asked to see Charlie Smart, Philippa Trotmeister and Henrietta Smythe.

Charlie went first.

He was dreading it. He had come last in class in every subject, apart from art. He hung his head low.

The headteacher looked at him. ‘Charlie’, she said, ‘You’ve come bottom in every subject apart from art. You’re not very good at sport, and you’re not in any team. And you don’t seem to have many friends’.

Poor Charlie. His head hung even lower. He was sure that he was about to be told that he couldn’t come back to school.

The headteacher continued, ‘But Charlie I want you to know that I am very pleased with you. You have discovered that you are able to draw, and you decided to do something about that. You went to the teacher to ask her to help you become better at drawing. You have listened and you’ve learned and you’ve worked at your drawing – and you are becoming a very good artist. And then she said some words that no one had ever said to Charlie. ‘Charlie, I’m really proud of you, and of what you are giving to our school, and I’m giving you a head teachers award’.

Next it was Philippa’s turn.

Her hand was shaking when she went into the headteacher’s office.

‘Philippa’, she said, ‘You think that you don’t really fit into this school. You are embarrassed because your mum doesn’t have much money and you can’t afford new clothes. You struggle in class because you don’t really understand what is going on. But Philippa, I want you to know that I am very pleased with you. You have discovered that you have a gift for music. You have started to learn the piano, and you have chosen to work really hard at that. I am proud of you, and I’m proud of what you are doing for our school, and I’m giving you a headteachers award’.

Finally Henrietta went into the headteachers study.

She had been looking forward to this.

She thought: ‘If Charlie Smart is getting a headteacher’s award, and if Philippa Trotmeister is getting a headteacher’s award, I must be getting a headteacher’s award. She thought, ‘I’m clever (I came top in several of my subjects without even trying), I’m popular, I’m attractive, I’m sporty, I can sing well – and my mum’s a governor’.

The headteacher said to her, ‘Henrietta, you are the person who everyone wants to have as their friend. You’ve come top of the class in many subjects.

But Henrietta I am desperately disappointed with you. You have so many gifts and you haven’t tried to develop any of them. Because you don’t need to work hard to do well, you won’t work hard. You are one of the fastest runners in this school but you won’t train. You sing well, but you can’t be bothered to go to singing lessons. In fact you haven’t done anything to try and get better and you haven’t contributed anything to the life of this school. You say that you are busy, but you are not. You are lazy and there is no place for you in this school next term.’

I said it was an imaginary school in an imaginary town in an imaginary time.

But Jesus told a story a bit like that. He talked about the gifts that God gave to people. Some people seem to have many gifts; others seem to have few gifts. But God says it is not the number of gifts that you have, but how you use the gifts that you do have. If we don’t try to develop them, if we don’t use them, we will lose them.

And Jesus warns of a day when we will all stand before the headteacher, and we will each have to give an account for how we have used the gifts that he has given us. And the astonishing thing is: that even if we are not much good at anything – but we’ve still tried to grow the little that we have and we’ve tried to use it for him and for the people in his world – then on that day, he will look at you and say: ‘I am so incredibly proud of you’. 

Emptying the rubbish: an assembly for lent

A primary assembly:
You will need some cleaning utensils and a hoover. 

Sun is shining - shows up all the dirt and cobwebs.
Time for a spring clean

It is a good time for a spring clean, so I've brought along the brush, dustpan and hoover. Who can give me a hand?

But often it is not just the house or the school that needs cleaning up. Sometimes we need cleaning up. If you've been involved in a mud fight, you come back from a football match, and you get home. mum picks you up and drops you in the bath. You are filthy and you need a good scrub.

But it is not just the house that needs cleaning; it is not just our bodies. What is inside also needs cleaning up!

We're a bit like hoovers.
The hoover cleans up rubbish. But where does the rubbish go?
And what happens if you don't empty the bag?
[loses suction - sucking power - and eventually clogs up]

And as we go through life we collect the rubbish. And there are times when we need to empty the bag:
So what is some of the sort of rubbish we need to empty
- owning up if we've done something wrong (not carrying the fear that we are going to be caught out)
- saying sorry (not carrying guilt)
- forgiving someone (not carrying the resentment)
- telling someone (parent, teacher) that we are hurting or frightened
- ask for help (not trying to do something all on our own)

Lent is that time of year when Christians have a bit of a spring clean.

Hoovers are not able to empty themselves. They need someone to do it.
And we can't empty ourselves.
That is why Christians come to Jesus and ask him to help us empty the bag of all the rubbish that is inside us.

for a Christingle service

You will need several different candles with a central lit candle

Introduce your different candles: red, purple, white, painted - tall/thin, more rounded, small and stubby, smelly. 
All different, but all candles and all made to burn and give off light.

A bit like us! All different, but people and all made by God for a purpose:
- to be light in the world
- to be stars
(not celebrities - but to shine for truth, love, kindness, mercy, service)

The problem is that we don't: we're like these candles. They look good, but something is missing!

How do we begin to shine?
- Perhaps we need to think right. Please think these candles alight - think harder. 
Often people think if they just make a bigger effort, work harder, then they'll be able to shine. 
- Perhaps we need to come close to the light (move candles close to central lit candle). Doesn't work!
Often people think that if they go to church, or come to a church school, they'll start to shine.

There is only one way. 
The Christingle tells us that Jesus came from God into our world, 2000 years ago, to be the light of the world, the true light. He is the Truth; he is absolute Love.
The only way for us to shine is if the light comes to each one of us and we personally receive it. We need to allow him to set us on fire for himself.