Thursday, October 14, 2010

World Communion: A Children's Sermon

Jacqui Horton, Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, has written and presented many sermons and programs for children.  Her enthusiasm and creativity shine through in everything she does.  Let's take a peek at one of Jacqui's recent children's sermons about World Communion Day...

"Look around you.  Looks like something special might happen today.  What do you think is going to happen?  We’re going to celebrate Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.

Let’s get a better look shall we?  Come with me and gather round close so we can examine these beautiful, wonderful smelling loaves of bread.  (Children are asked to smell hot rolls fresh from the oven Yummmm) When you smell the aroma of fresh baked bread what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?  “I want to eat some!”  

And if you’re really hungry you might get excited while anticipating the taste to come. You know this is going to be good because you have eaten home baked bread before right? Your mouth might start watering, right?   That’s because your senses of smell and taste trigger memories.
 
I selected breads that come from different countries, different parts of the world.  Let’s see if you can guess which countries these breads represent. (Holding up a loaf of French bread) “Do you know what kind of bread this is?”
“Is it Italian?” “No.”
“Is it American?”  “No.”
 “I know, it’s from Subway!”  “No, good guess though. It is not from the country of Subway! It’s a loaf of French bread, from the country of France.”
 
Here we have some German rye and pumpernickel, middle-eastern flat bread, naan from India, Mexican corn tortillas, Italian bread, sourdough bread from California, and even Irish soda bread which I couldn’t find at the store so I made it myself.  Since I’m Irish and Scottish, and because we have some friends visiting from Northern Ireland today, I just had to have some on our World breads table today.  They’re the Montgomeries and I can hardly wait to meet them because my mother was a Montgomery, too.  Small world huh?

Did you notice the kaftan I’m wearing? My friend, Peggy brought this to me from the mid east.  Do you recognize the batik table cloth?  It was made by women from the Congo, our sister church in Africa.  Why do you think I brought these out today?

It’s because Christians all over the world are celebrating Communion, the Lord’s Supper today.  When we break and eat bread today you can bet that others across seas in every direction are doing the same thing.  All day and even while we are sleeping Christians of every denomination will be celebrating the Lord’s supper.  Why?  Because Jesus asked us to break bread and eat bread to help us remember him. It’s kind of a memory trigger cause when we eat it, we remember what Jesus said, “This is my body take and eat, do this in remembrance of me.”  And the bread is for everyone all over the world who claim that Jesus is Lord and Savior.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Let us pray...
Thank you, God for our daily bread. Thank you for the bread of life, we call Jesus.  We can’t wait, to taste your goodness. Amen." 

If you'd like to share more lessons using bread and other biblical foods, check out this book available at the Resource Center...

 Milk and Honey Cooking School: 
Learning the History of God's People through Cooking and Eating

by Daphna Flegal and LeeDell Strickler

This resource walks the presenters through the history of God's people from Adam's first bite of the forbidden fruit to the breaking of the bread at the Last Supper in Jerusalem. Every event that happened to God's people made an impact on their lives, and that included the food.

Milk and Honey provides detailed instruction on how to set up the event and how to involve not only adults, but also children in the final presentation. While learning about the events that impacted the Hebrew people, the participants will get to sample such foods as Abraham's Goat Cheese Dip, Unleavened Bread, Esau's Pottage, Challah Braid, Grecian Honey Cheesecake, and Roman Bread Pudding. In addition to the foods, the presenters will instruct the class in the social etiquette as well as the right and wrong way to eat with bread as one's utensil.

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