This week’s resources invite you to spend some time with he bible readings in craft and discussion. Many of the resources are focussed on the Genesis 18 reading. Let us know how you spend today with your household.
Readings
All-Age Prayer
Source: Spill The Beans Issue 16
This prayer is one that you might like to use every day this week, perhaps it’d be a great prayer to start every day.
How good are you at sums, O God?
How many people do you have
when you have two people
and no children?
Add three guests
and a lot of laughter and
we have a number bigger
that the number of stars
in the sky.
How good are you at sums, O God?
From small beginnings
you can make whole nations.
May you be able to count on us,
small though we are,
to make big changes
in the world
as we follow you.
Giving Birth To Laughter
A monologue by Sarah, to follow the reading.
Source: Spill The Beans Issue 16
So I laughed.
Yes, I laughed
when I heard.
Laughing was my default reaction after all those years.
It’s what everyone told me to do.
Look for the things that make you laugh.
Find the things that bring a moment’s lightness, a brief respite.
God knows I needed those moments.
And yes, I found them.
I learned to forget,
to step outside the guilt and the pain,
to be lost in the fleeting respite,
caught up in the wonder of the spring rain,
the flowers in the desert, the
look in my husband’s
eyes, those rare times
he still gazed at me with
love and not pity.
For long years, laughter never failed me. I
could even turn it on
as I watched all the mothering around me,
other women’s children taking their first steps,
running into my arms
while they were still too young
to understand my shame.
Did I trust God’s
laughable promise? Did
Abraham trust, even
as he fell into sardonic
mirth when he heard
the first time?
Of course
we sat down and looked at it seriously.
If it’s God’s promise, I reasoned, I’ll cope,
even with Hagar’s belly swelling. It all made sense.
And then I laughed.
I laughed at myself when no-one could hear me.
Who was I kidding?
How would I cope?
How did it make sense?
What was God doing?
What had I done wrong?
It all happened so easily for her.
Abraham loved the boy
his boy
and I saw the joy in him
that I had never been able to bring.
It was too much.
I called on the laughter but it would not come.
I searched for it in the winking stars,
in the smell of good soup,
in the faces of friends,
but it would not come.
It came with the visitors’ news.
The cakes were baking
and I was dusting the flour from my hands
when I heard them speak my name.
How did they know my name,
and why care to speak of me?
“Sarah shall have a son”.
They heard me laughing,
and would not let me deny it!
Praise God,
nor was there any denying the pleasure,
or the promise,
or my pregnant old body,
or the tears of joy in my husband’s eyes
when we held our son.
What did we name him?
We named him Laughter.
Laughter…
A short reflection inviting you to laugh along with the story from Genesis this week, Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)
Laughter Songs:
Perhaps you can spend some time with your household this weekend learning a new song, here are a couple that are about laughter…
Retelling For Young People
Learners
Jesus was a teacher and his friends were learners. Sometimes we call them disciples or followers or apostles. All of our lives we are learners because there is always something new to find out.
• Can you think of something new that you learned this week?
There are different ways of learning things. You can watch someone working or listen to someone talking. You can use Google.
• Can you think of any other ways?
Jesus taught people in lots of different ways. One way that people really enjoyed was that he told stories—stories about things they saw everyday—seeds, flowers, sheep, coins. Another way that Jesus taught was that he did kind things and encouraged his friends to do the same. He talked to people who other people avoided, people who were poor or sick or sad.
• Which story that Jesus told do you like best and why?
Another way that Jesus taught was to do something and then get his friends to do the same. Sometimes he sent them out on their own to tell people about God and to heal people. He told them that God would help them to do these things.
• There’s an old saying: Practice makes perfect. Can you work out what that saying means?
Discuss something that you have had to practice.
Activities For Households:
Bake / Cook together
As a family spend a day baking, perhaps you might like to bake some bread, cook some damper on a fire, or, if you’re feeling really adventurous what about cooking a meal on a fire outside?
As you bake, share this story and talk about who you would like to invite to your home for a meal over the coming month.
Read the story from Genesis 18 about the visitors and ask each other what you would cook for three strangers, how do you think Sarah felt when she heard the promise?
Laughing And Listening
Spill The Beans Issue 16
You will need: paper plates, funky foam, scissors, PVA glue, glue spreaders and felt tip pens.
Give everyone a paper plate and draw a smiley face on the plate. Give each other pieces of funky foam and draw big ears and mouths. Stick the ears and mouths onto the faces at the appropriate places. The ears and mouths should be and exaggerated size to emphasize the laughing and listening.
Discuss the story and how Sarah listened to the news the strangers brought and laughed because she did not think it could be true. Talk about how the news did come true and how Sarah thanked God. Discuss with each other the importance of listening, including who we should listen to and why.
As you look at each other’s paper plate face discuss the story and imagine what Sarah’s laugh may have sounded like. What does your laugh sound like? Can you remember a time when you felt so much joy that you laughed the hardest?
My Special Space
Spill The Beans Issue 16
You will need: lots of small twigs, A4 size sheets of paper, PVA glue, glue spreaders and pencils.
Give each other a sheet of paper each and draw an outline of a tree shape onto the paper. Fill in their tree shape, branches, and so on, by sticking small pieces of twig onto the paper.
Discuss the idea of special places – places where you can rest, listen to others or offer a welcome to others. Perhaps some you would be willing to share where those special places are for you. It might be your favourite chair or beanbag in the house, swing in the garden, kitchen at granny’s house.
Talk about the story of Abraham under the tree where he was able to rest, to listen to others and to offer a welcome to others. This was a special place for Abraham, perhaps this week you might like to find the to rest in your special places together.
Listen Up
Sarah was listening to the conversation going on outside the tent. For this game everyone needs to listen to a story being told. Pick a story that contains a lot of information and then ask questions after it.
Use lots of how many, what colour, how high kind of questions.
How easy do you find it to listen?