How the Church Began

In Vacation Bible School, three teachers dramatized this story for ages 3 - 10. You should have heard the cheering when the children found out Jesus had risen from the dead!!

(Setting the scene:  Have a cross ready and lay a blanket over one of the tables to represent Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. Leave the blanket rolled up on one side until after Jesus’ body has been laid there. Have white cloths ready for Joseph and Nicodemus to wrap Jesus’ body for burial.)

This is a story about how the Church began.

(Gather the children in the “garden” on the carpet).

After the Last Supper, Jesus prayed all night, but the disciples fell asleep. (Ask children to pretend to snooze.) They woke up when soldiers came to arrest Jesus, and most of them ran away.

The next day, Jesus died on the Cross. (Hold up crucifix.)

Jesus’ Body is Laid in the Tomb.

After Jesus died, two friends named Nicodemus and Joseph carefully wrapped up his body and carried it to a tomb.  They rolled a big heavy stone in front of the opening.

(Joseph and Nicodemus place Jesus’ body and roll down the blanket making great grunting sounds because it is the stone. They exit stage left.)

Some women followed them and knew where Jesus’ body was buried. On Sunday morning they decided to put spices on his body. As they were walking back to the tomb holding their spices, they remembered the big rock in front of the tomb. It would be too heavy for them!

 “Who will roll away the stone?” they said.

(Meanwhile, from behind the table, the body has been removed and the cloths remain. While the women are talking among themselves, the blanket is pulled back so that the tomb is now open.)

The Resurrection.

When the women got there, the stone was already rolled away! and the tomb was empty!

Jesus was risen from the dead!

During the next few weeks, the risen Lord appeared to many people. He taught them about the Bible, and he ate with them. He told them, “You must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you.” [Lk 24:49]

But the friends of Jesus were scared. The same people who had been mean to Jesus started to be mean to the disciples. They didn’t want to stay in the city but they had to; so they hid.

Pentecost.

(Huddle the children together on the carpet.)

One morning when the disciples were gathered together behind closed doors, in fear of the mean people, a huge wind came among them.  (Make blowing sounds.) there was light, too; they saw flames over each other’s heads! 

They disciples weren’t afraid any more. They ran outside and began to tell about Jesus in many languages.  And that is how the Church began.

All together shout: “Thanks be to God!”

+++++++++++++++Pat Caplan Andrews 6/23/11

The Church Picnic

Father's Day, Trinity Sunday, and the day of the Church PIcnic: a wonderful spacious windy gathering of God's people on the beach.  The Lord embraces us in the gathering, and we feasted on the liturgy. God comes through in the word preached:  One plus one plus one equals One... yes, and the partiality of our knowledge of God, yes... the insufficiency of words, yes....

And further, the anointed listening brings the parent God who both reveals and also leads through such words! "When Ephraim was a child I loved him, and I taught her to walk with the leading strings of love... (Hosea)"

The words about God come from experience and also impart experience that is Love and also Wisdom. The Three-in-One is Father to the fatherless (Ps. 68) the Mother who gathers the chicks (Luke) as we first heard in God's Word.

The Spirit blew over us as we feasted on the Presence in the Sacrament--and then on the fried chicken and salads of the ladies of St. A's. After a while it thundered and the lifeguard made the children get out of the lake, and they cried. Then it started to rain, and we all ran for our cars.

Thanks be to God!