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 

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. 

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

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. 

You don't need to say sorry!

(for KS1 and KS2)

Sorry can be an easy word to say

I have 3 boys. There are times when they fight with each other. We tell them 'Say sorry'. They say 'Sorry', but you know that they are not sorry. They are only saying it because we've told them to. In fact they are quite pleased that they hit the other and what they're really sorry about is that they didn't hit them harder. 

Sorry can also be a very hard word to say. 

Sometimes I think sorry is a harder thing to say when you really are sorry.

Friends know that.
There are some people who say to their friends, 'You can only be my friend if you say sorry'
But it is not always true. What is important is not necessarily what you say, but what you feel.

I'd like to tell you the story of two people who were friends

Jesus had invited Peter to come and be his friend. Peter has said Yes
Peter tells Jesus that he will never ever let him down. 'I will never let you down'
But Peter does let Jesus down badly

Jesus was in trouble - big trouble, serious trouble. In fact the biggest trouble you could be in. They had arrested him and were going to kill him - not for anything he had done wrong. They were just trying to get him.
Peter followed Jesus: someone says to him, 'You were with Jesus'.
Peter - because he is frightened - says No. Not just once but three times. And Jesus hears
Peter is crushed

He feels horrible about himself
He didn't do what he said he would do
He worries what Jesus will think of him
And then Jesus is then killed. Peter thinks that he will never have the chance to put it right.

But 3 days later, because Jesus is the Son of God, he rose from the dead.

Now what would you do if you were Jesus?
Would you ditch Peter? After all he ditched you.
Would you say, 'Peter you can only be my friend if you say sorry?'

Peter never says sorry  - Peter shows that he is sorry
When he does it, he actually goes away and because he feels so bad about himself he cries
And when he is told that Jesus is alive, he is one of the first to run to see if it is true
And when Jesus appears, Peter jumps out of a fishing boat to get to Jesus

 Jesus doesn't ditch Peter
He doesn't say to Peter: 'You can only be my friend if you say sorry'.
That might be just a bit too hard for Peter to say, at this point.
Jesus knows that Peter is sorry - and so all he asks Peter is, 'Will you still be my friend?' He asks him that question three times.

If your friend lets you down, and actually you know that they feel bad about what they have done
- don't ditch them
- don't even say to them, 'You can only be my friend IF you say sorry'. Good friends don't do that.
Instead go to them and ask, 'Would you still be my friend'?

Happiness and bubbles

For KS2

You will need some bubbles to blow

What makes you happy?

Blow bubbles (or get a child to blow bubbles)

Happiness is like bubbles.

1. It is beautiful and desirable.

We all want to be happy.

Happiness is connected to what we desire:

Sometimes we need to be unhappy in order to be happy! Think of athlete getting up at 5:30 on the morning to swim for 2 hours. Are they happy? But they are doing it for the greater happiness of being chosen for the Olympic team, and of winning a medal.

The desire for happiness is what drives us.

2. If we try to catch happiness, we will lose it.

The best way to gain happiness is to give it.

This is the secret of happiness. If you are thinking 'why am I so unhappy', can I suggest that you try something? Try to work out how you can make someone else happy. Do something kind for them; give; stand up for a friend even if it means you get hurt; help out at home.

Jesus said that if we want to gain our life, we need to first learn to lose it.

Don't be the person who tries to catch the bubbles, but who makes the bubbles.


3. Happiness is here for a moment and then gone.

We enjoy it and then it is gone


But wouldn't it be great if there was a bubble which never burst, a happiness which lasts for ever?

The problem is that the things we desire are things that will not last: a nice taste in the tummy, money, an experience. But what if we desire something that will last for ever?

That is why Jesus said, 'truly happy are those who hunger and thirst for the things of God'. They will never be let down.

Harvest assembly

An assembly that can be used for KS1,2 and 3, with adaptation

You will need the letters HARVEST written on different cards.

At the beginning of the assembly, invite 7 children to the front to hold the cards (jumbled up), and ask the other children to tell you what word they can make from it.

As you speak, ask the children with the letters to spell the words, and for those whose letters are not being used, to stand to one side.

God has given us a beautiful and abundant EARTH.
There is actually enough food for everyone to EAT
God provides for us in many ways. He gives us the products to make clothes (ask what items of clothing can be made from the word HARVEST: HAT or VEST)

But something is wrong. While we HAVE so much; indeed we have so much that a great deal ends up as TRASH, VAST numbers of people in the REST of the world STARVE.

(You may wish to add some statistics: eg. one third of the world is overfed, one third underfed, and one third seriously malnourished)

God gave us a good EARTH, with enough for all people, if the resources were used wisely
God also gave us a HEART, to love him - who has given us the earth - and to love other people.

But we don't. We put ourselves first.

So here is a simple test. Imagine you found a £10 note in the street. There is nobody around. There is no point taking it to the police station. What would you do with it? Be honest.

Who would keep it?
Who would keep it and possibly invite some friends to Shake-away or Macdonalds?
Who would give most of it away, when they heard of someone in need?

We did nothing to deserve that £10. It was pure chance. But most of us would keep it for ourselves.

That is the same situation that we find ourselves in. We did nothing to be born into a relatively wealthy society. We might give away a little, but most of the time we keep our resources for ourselves.

So how do we change?
We will not change by simply having someone like me telling you that you have to change.

It begins when there are real TEARS - when we realise just how selfish we are.
We recognise that we need someone to SAVE us - because we cannot change ourselves
We need someone who loves us and who can give us a new HEART - so that we begin to love.
Because it is when we love that we will freely choose to SHARE

When it is not good to be me.

Key stage 1/2
No props
Luke 18:9-14

It is good to be me. Each of us is unique, with very special gifts

But there are times when it does not feel good to be me (eg. when mum and dad split up, when there are arguments, when people do bad stuff to me [and then blamed me], when I do bad stuff to other people). Child who said, 'There are two mes: good me, and bad me. I hate the bad me'.

What do we do when it does not feel good to be me?

Jesus tells story of two people who go to church to pray (cf Luke 18.9-14) (You can bring out two children to the front to act out the two people).
The first says: 'God, I thank you that I am so fantastic, so great. I thank you that I am not like him'. The second falls to his knees and says: 'God have mercy on me a sinner'. In other words he is saying, 'God it is not good to be me. I am in a mess. People do bad to me and I do bad to people. Please help me'.
Whose prayer does Jesus say that God hears?

He hears the prayer of the person who cries out for help. The other person is not praying to God but to himself

So when it does not feel good to be me, can I suggest that we do two things:
1. We pray: we say, 'God, it does not feel good to be me - because of what happens, because of the bad other people do to me, and because of the bad I do to others. Please help me'
2. Talk to someone about why it does not feel good to be you: a parent, a teacher, a friend. It is important to do this - even if someone has told you not to. It is much easier to talk to someone else once we have talked to God.

Remember that you are unique and special, and that God made you and loves you. He wants us to come to him, and when we come to him and say, 'God help me, because at the moment it does not seem good to be me', he will help us.