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Service Suggestions The following service suggestions offer ideas on how to tailor the sample service to whichever liturgical period you choose for your Christingle, for instance, Christmas, Advent, Epiphany or Candlemas. They also offer a range of talks and readings for you to choose from. They are all available at www.christingle.org as editable documents for you to use and adapt to create a celebration that fits your community. Information is also available on the Church of England Liturgical Commission’s Transforming Worship website at: www.christingle.org/transformingworship The texts of the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany material from Common Worship: Times and Seasons can be found in pdf format on the Church of England website at: www.christingle.org/timesandseasonsadvent (Advent) www.christingle.org/timesandseasonschristmas (Christmas) www.christingle.org/timesandseasonsepiphany (Epiphany) Celebrating Christingle within the Eucharist At the heart of the Church’s worship, Eucharist celebrates the fundamental truths of our faith. Many of these themes are reflected in the Christingle; God’s creation of this world, his filling it with his riches, surrounding it with his love, and crowning his creation with the sending of his Son, who is forever the Light of the World. The central act of the Eucharist is the bringing of gifts – ‘the fruits of the earth and work of human hands’ – which God blesses, transforms into himself and returns to his people. The Christian mission is similarly to bring our world before God so that he can transform them and make them wholly his. Sermon notes The simple red ribbon, which encompasses the Christingle, is potentially one of the most complex parts of the Christian story to relate to children. The colour of the ribbon is the colour of bloodshed and it takes us into the realm of a very particular kind of sacrifice. Each of these sets of suggestions will no doubt benefit from a few moments of reflection on the symbolism of the ribbon, in a way that is perhaps not so necessary for the other parts of the Christingle symbolism. The two aspects of the Crucifixion which we will be emphasising in the discussion and sermon ideas that follow are that Jesus gave up his life for love of us, that he gave his life for the good of others. Related to that, we will be emphasising that Jesus’ sacrifice has brought us a kind of liberation, has set us free from the power of sin. Exactly how you want to explore and explain these Christian truths with the children in your church will very much depend on your particular tradition, but the following talks will all be enhanced by some introduction to these themes of sacrifice and liberation. Information on how to celebrate Christingle within the Eucharist can be found in the downloadable resources section at www.christingle.org All-age worship resources www.christingle.org 27 Advent – the promise of things to come Themes: Talk/address/sermon ideas: Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year. It is a time of preparation and waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas. For children, Advent is a season of great excitement and the anticipation of what is to come. Start a discussion about giving things up. Ask if any of them can remember the time of the year when lots of Christians give things up – sweets, chocolates, TV etc? Ask if any of them gave anything up last Lent – did they enjoy it? Scriptures: We often think about giving things up in a very negative way, but actually it’s something we all do a lot of the time – we need some volunteers to help us think about this. Philippians 4:4-7 ‘The Lord is near.’ Hebrews 10:5-10 ‘See, I have come to do your will.’ Luke 1:39-56 ‘He has filled the hungry with good things.’ Luke 3:7-18 ‘What then should we do?’ Get the dressing up box out and get the volunteers dressed up in a variety of roles. For each role the children are encouraged to think about what things you have to give up, and why, in each of the different roles. For example: Ideas for discussion: Football kit – have to give up eating all sorts of rubbishy food in order to be a success in sport. The Christmas holidays are coming up. Begin by asking if anybody is going to be travelling away from home over the Christmas holiday period. Whenever we travel away from home we have to leave some things behind, give some things up – ask people what they most miss from home, most dislike ‘giving up’, when they travel away. White coat and stethoscope – have to give up long years to study in order to heal people who are sick. As we approach the holiday season we need to remember that some of the children that The Children’s Society exists to serve are children who have run away from home, often leaving everything behind them. For example Robbie, whose story you can read in the 5 minute script on page 23. Christians believe that Jesus gave up everything for us on the Cross, everything except love, and that’s what the red ribbon on the Christingle reminds us of. What things could we give up for love of those who have had to flee their homes? You may want to focus this discussion primarily on children who have run away from home, or also include other issues such as the stories of refugees. For more information refer to the scripts on page 22 or visit www.christingle.org/ourwork 28 Christingle order line 0845 600 8585 Movie star – have to give up some privacy and freedom to bring entertainment to lots of people. School uniform – have to give up the freedom to play all day in order to learn and grow. I’m sure you can think of lots of better examples of your own. The point is to foster an awareness that actually it is not unusual in life for people to give things up in order to achieve something. The red ribbon around the Christingle reminds us that Jesus gave everything up, even his life, out of love for us – why did he do that? Invite responses. Around this time of year it’s easy to get very distracted by the things that we’re hoping we’ll get at Christmas, but we need to remember that the measure of a Christian’s life is not what we get, but what we give, and what we give up, for others. Christmas – the promise of the gift itself Themes: Talk/address/sermon ideas: Children need no introduction to Christmas! The familiarity of the Christmas story and its traditions always runs the risk of obscuring its real meaning. The real St Nicholas has become Santa Claus; our giving of gifts carries only the faintest echo of God’s giving of his Son. Yet these traditions were originally intended to help explain the meaning of the Christmas story to children. Today we often need reminding of the true significance of Christmas. When Jesus died on the Cross, he died to set us free from all the bad things that can trap us in life and stop us living fully in the love of God. That is one of the things that the red ribbon on the Christingle is there to remind us of – that Jesus comes to us at Christmas to set us free. Scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-7 ‘…a child has been born for us…’ Luke 2:1-14 ‘…to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour…’ Ideas for discussion: Has anybody ever had a baby in their home? Start a discussion with the children and their parents about the sort of changes that happen when a family has a new baby. Start teasing out from them all the things that a family, adults and children alike, have to give up (sacrifice) to care for that new life. Hopefully you’ll end up with quite a long list of these ‘sacrifices’. At this point you need to dream up some sort of ‘liberation exercise’, and you can be as small or large scale as you like – from liberating sweets from an elaborate series of boxes and jars, through to liberating one of the Sunday School teachers from a remote part of the church (or even a modestly booby-trapped pulpit). Whatever you do and however you do it, the idea is to get the children thinking about how to set someone or something free. Once the fun and games are over, lead into a reflection on the different ways people can become trapped in life and need liberation. What sort of things could we do to help free someone who is trapped in loneliness, sadness, anger or fear? By fundraising for The Children’s Society through Christingle we are doing this. Jesus comes to free people from all those things, and as his followers and friends, he calls us at Christmas to be liberators for the love of God. Move on to explore why on earth anybody would want to give up all those things. We sacrifice them for love of someone far more vulnerable than us, someone who needs us. Lead this on to a discussion about what other groups in our communities might be more vulnerable than us and need our support. For instance children at risk on the streets, children in trouble with the law, destitute families and young refugees. For more information refer to the scripts on page 22 or visit www.christingle.org/ourwork The discussion would conclude with reflecting on how we could support some of those different people by giving things up out of love. All-age worship resources www.christingle.org 29 Epiphany – the promise of discovery Themes: The third part of the Christmas story is the arrival of the wise men from the east. Woven into this dramatic tapestry are the exotic and mysterious, the evil and good, suspense and climax. No one is quite sure who these men were who journeyed from the east following a star. The wise men were not certain who they sought but they knew he was King of the Jews. The evil King Herod knew nothing about a new king but set the wise men a trap to ensure that he found out about any threat to his power. The climax of the story comes when the wise men discover the child, Jesus, with Mary and offer him precious gifts which symbolise his kingship. Scriptures: Matthew 2:1-12 ‘…they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.’ Ephesians 3:1-12 ‘…the gift of God’s grace…’ Isaiah 60:1-6 ‘Lift up your eyes and look around…’ Ideas for discussion: The Magi travelled a long distance to bring their gifts to the infant Jesus – has anybody been travelling over the Christmas holidays? Whenever we travel away from home we have to leave some things behind, ‘give some things up’ – ask the children what they most miss from home, most dislike ‘giving up’, when they travel away. In this ‘holiday season’ we need to remember that some of the children that The Children’s Society exists to serve are children who have run away from home, often leaving everything behind them. For more information see Robbie’s story on page 22 or visit www.christingle.org/ourwork Christians believe that Jesus gave up everything for us on the Cross, everything except love, and that’s what the red ribbon on the Christingle reminds us of. What things could we give up for love of those who have had to flee their homes? You may want 30 Christingle order line 0845 600 8585 to focus this discussion primarily on children who have run away from home, or also include other issues such as the plight of refugees, and homelessness in general. Talk/address/sermon ideas: Set up a ‘throne’ at the front of the church, facing the congregation – lots of cushions, comfortable and bright. Set up a PS2, or one of those sorts of things, for the person on the throne to play with. You might want to talk about how uncomfortable the church pews or chairs can be and as a special treat you’ve set up a throne for one special member of the congregation to sit on. Invite a child to sit on the throne and enjoy playing with the game. Tell the rest of the congregation that to make up for the fact that they don’t all have thrones to sit on you’ve brought something very special for them to see. Invite them up in ones or twos to the area behind the throne, to see a cage, hutch or basket which is turned away from the throne and in which there is a pet such as a rabbit or kitten. The crucial thing is to have something behind the throne that’s going to elicit lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ of excitement, and that’s strategically placed so that the person on the throne can’t see what all the fuss is about without leaving their place of privilege. Hopefully the ‘enthroned one’ will become sufficiently intrigued to want to leave their special place to see what all the fuss is about. Lead into a reflection on how, just as the ‘enthroned one’ had to give up a place of comfort and privilege to see something special, so too the Magi had to give up many things in order to travel to see Jesus. The red ribbon of the Christingle reminds us that Jesus gave up everything, even his own life, out of love for us. This is a time of year when a lot of us are focused on what things we can get – what presents, what toys – but the story of Epiphany, and the story of Jesus’ whole life – is a reminder that sometimes we have to give things up and let go of things if we want to truly see and know the thing that matters the most in life, the love of God. Candlemas – the promise of revelation Themes: Candlemas is also known by two other names – the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The three titles give us a clue as to the three things being remembered at this time: the recollection of the prophecy of Simeon in the Temple that the infant Jesus would be a ‘light of revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory to thy people Israel’ (Luke 2:22-40); the Jewish rites surrounding the birth of a child (Leviticus 12:6); and the presentation and offering of a first-born Jewish child to God for his service. The feast was first celebrated in Jerusalem in the fourth century. In 542 the Emperor Justinian ordered its observance at Constantinople as a thanksgiving after a plague and then the custom spread through the east. The introduction of a procession with candles is believed to have originated with Pope Sergius 1 (687-701). At Candlemas some churches bless all the candles that will be used during the year. Scriptures: Luke 2:22-40 ‘…he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.’ Ideas for discussion: Is anybody learning a musical instrument? How much time do they give up each week in lessons and practice? Why do they give up that time? Does anybody play for a sports team? How much time do they give up each week for matches and training? Why do they give up that time? Does anybody help with Sunday School? How much time do they give up each week for preparation and helping? Why do they give up that time? In Luke’s Gospel we read of the prophet Anna, who had prayed in the Temple every day for around sixty years: why do you think she gave up all that time? People often give up all sorts of things for love of God and love of God’s people: what sorts of things did Jesus give up for us? Make the connection with the red ribbon around the Christingle. The Children’s Society exists to serve children who need all sorts of help and a lot of love. For more information see Robbie’s story on page 22 or visit www.christingle.org/ourwork Can we think of people who might need our help? What sorts of things could we give up for love of them? Talk/address/sermon ideas: Simeon and Anna had been waiting for many long years to see the Messiah, visiting the temple and praying. When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the Temple, Simeon and Anna were filled with joy and Simeon declared, ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace…’ The waiting was over, Simeon felt as if he had been released, set free, simply through seeing Jesus. Over the years that were to come, one of the things Jesus did for people was set them free from things that had been making life hard for them – from guilt, from illness, from fear. Above all, Christians believe that in his death on the Cross, which the red ribbon around the Christingle represents, he set us free from all the things that stop us loving God and loving one another. So we’re going to think about freedom and liberation. Now create a ‘liberation exercise’, as small or large scale as you like – from liberating sweets from a series of boxes and jars, to liberating one of the Sunday School teachers from a remote part of the church (or even a modestly boobytrapped pulpit). Whatever you do, the idea is to get the children thinking about how to set someone/something free. Once the fun and games are over, lead into a reflection on the different ways people can become trapped in life and need liberation. What could we do to help free someone trapped in loneliness, sadness, anger or fear? By fundraising for The Children’s Society through Christingle we are doing this. Jesus comes to free people from all those things, and as his followers and friends, he calls us to be liberators for the Love of God. All-age worship resources www.christingle.org 31