II Cor.13 Ideas for family worship

Well, we’re at the end of II Corinthians (next week, as Advent starts we’ll be launching into Luke’s Gospel).  II Cor. 13 is such a great chapter to work through with our children and young people.  Paul oozes with confidence as he looks to leave this whole period of his relationship with Corinth behind.  It’s been incredibly painful, and there has been hard words said, but he is hoping that – at last – they can move on!   It’s an incredible celebration of God’s grace in redemption, and in restoration.

So here’s a great place to start:  God fixes things.  We live in a ‘disposable’ culture.  Things break, and we tend to bin them and move on…  We are a society that periodically re-invent ourselves, and our homes, moving on from one ‘look’ to another.  It’s a trend that Ikea capitalize on!  And one that unfortunately bleeds into the Church.  Church-hopping is just wrong.  But it is such a common phenomenon.  Something happens:  a falling out, a disagreement, a sense the ‘this’ Church is falling short, not providing something I want or feel I need.  And so, I move on.  There is something profoundly un-Christlike about it.  Paul – driven as he is by Christ’s love – won’t simply move on.  He will not dispose of this Church in favour of another.  That is profoundly Christ-like.  The foundational reality underpinning the whole Corinthian correspondence is Paul’s unshakeable confidence in God’s redemption, and the (often long) process of the Spirit’s reclaiming of people and communities.  He sticks with it.   This could be a great opportunity to help our children to realize the importance and realities of what it means to belong to a fellowship of Christians…  about what it means to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in – when things are going well, and when they aren’t!  Perhaps reflect together on how you could serve in the life and mission of our Church.  It could be anything from helping with tech. support for services, to reading the Scriptures, leading intercessions, involved in Sunday Groups, an Alpha Course, or Messy Church.  Paul gives us a great model for getting involved to make our Churches stronger, more faithful, Bodies. 

And of course, this is a great opportunity to reflect on and give thanks for our own experience of being fixed by God, who sticks with us over the long haul!

In 13:5, Paul calls on the Corinthians to ‘examine themselves’.  One of the most important spiritual dynamics of growth is the spiritual self-awareness that allows us to recognize when something isn’t going well for us, and to know what to do about it!  If you’re at DTP, we’ve looked at this quite recently in our session of the ‘Discipline of Watchfulness’.  You can’t start too young in helping your children to reflect on their experience of following Jesus… on their experience of a living relationship with Christ, and of the Spirit’s work in them as they read the Bible, pray, worship, and grow towards Christ-likeness.  It’s an exciting process, and if you can help them learn how to do this early on, they’ll develop a spiritual resilience that will serve them well in the future.  Share with them how you cultivate this spiritual self-awareness, how you examine yourself and the integrity of your own discipleship.  If this is a new idea for you, have a chat with me.

13:7 (also v.9), Now we pray…. The older preachers used to tell us that ‘prayer’ is the last thing we learn as a Christian.  It’s weird – in some ways it the easiest thing to do, and in others it’s the hardest!  This is because it’s about the state and posture of our soul, rather than about any ‘technique’.  Prayer is the celebration of weakness.  It is born out of the recognition that we are fundamentally powerless.  That’s a hard lesson to learn.  We live with the myth of self-reliance.  In most areas of life, we intentionally breed a ‘can-do’ attitude.  But in our faith we confess ‘we are weak in Him’ (13:4).  Of course the next part of the sentence is critical: ‘yet be God’s power’.  Those who believe this are people of prayer.  There is a whole section in ‘My First Books and More…’ on learning o pray from the Bible.  It starts on p.173.  It’d be a great way to spend Advent as a family…  praying from the Scriptures together each day!  Praying with our children is a great privilege, but also helps us to lay a foundation for this more profound aspect of our relationship with the Living God.

Last idea:  v.11 is a verse that brims with potential for Family Worship and Discipleship.  Short sharp exhortations – easily memorized and easy to understand and act on.  Rejoice!  Strive for full restoration!  Encourage! Be of one Mind! Live in Peace!  and what an incentive – as we fulfil this conditions, God is with us.  So, why not do something each day this week that contributes to their fulfilment.  What can you do to lead your family in Rejoicing in the grace of God?  maybe ‘restoration’ isn’t something you need to worry about at the moment…  or maybe it is!?  Encourage: who can you encourage in their discipleship…  can you think of ways in which as a family you could do something that would encourage someone else at MIE in their faith?  Be of one mind…  that’s a bit trickier, or at least, it’s a longer term project.  But working through My First Books…  or To Be a Christian really helps as we are all learning together from the historical teaching of the Church.  Live in Peace…  you may feel this is already your experience – in which case, great – celebrate that.  If not, what can you do to be a peacemaker? 

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all evermore, Amen.

II Cor.12 Ideas for family worship & conversations round the table

This is a great chapter for Family Worship – there are all kinds of conversations you might want to have around the dinner table...  As we’ve said before, some families work better doing quite structured or formal for family worship: perhaps lighting a candle, and using liturgy, reading the Bible together, discussing it and the praying about it. Others feel they might just want to start a conversation – here are half a dozen focal points for such conversations! Different ones will work better with different age groups:

How do we judge Christians?  OK – is that even a question we should ask?  Well, let’s put it in the kind of language Paul uses:  How do we make sure we don’t think more highly of Christians than we ought to (v.6)?  It’s a great conversation, and might help your children / young people make much better decisions as they grow up.  Paul is particularly thinking here about the way some folk broadcast claims to profound spiritual experience.  It’s hard not to be impressed...  but Paul sounds a warning.  That isn’t how we should ‘measure’ people spiritual maturity (see v.6).  That is measured by what they do and say.  Do they behave like Jesus?  ...talk about Jesus?  ... sound like Jesus?  By that matrix alone should we decide how highly we will think of someone.

A great focus for Family Worship this week could be on the issue of conceit.  The word might be new, but we are surrounded by it in our culture. Read through vv.7-9.  Look at what length the Lord was prepared to go to stop Paul from becoming conceited!  Not only does Paul not want others to think more highly of him than they ought – but he’s glad the Lord doesn’t even let him think more highly of himself than he ought!  Why not take some time to explore the idea of ‘conceit’...  and to pray about not being like that!  Judging from this passage, how important is it to the Lord that we aren’t conceited?   

This one is probably for older children / young people: What about the question of suffering?  Does God still work through suffering in this way?  Is Paul right to think that God is sovereign over suffering – to the point where He could stop it (otherwise, why pray?), or should He choose to, redeem our experience of it?  Can you as parents talk through any experiences you may have had of God redeeming your experience of suffering and using it for His good I helping you to grow more like Jesus (so Rom.8:28-30)? This isn’t all the Bible has to say about suffering - but it is a part. One ‘craft’ idea here might be to wittle a piece of wood, or use sharp tools on a piece of clay to sculpt an image. The sharp tool cuts away revealing a ‘statue’. Similarly God sometimes uses sharp circumstances in life to sculpt the image of Christ.

One of the big questions in II Corinthians – and it really comes to the surface in Ch.12 – focusses on Church leaders.  How can you decide what kind of Church leader you’re looking for?  In the light of this passage, can you write a ‘person specification’ for what you want, and what you don’t want in a Church leader?  Would you want a Church leader who told you all about their experiences of God?  ...or who claimed ‘signs, wonders and miracles’?  Or would you think they must be ‘fake’?  Or is there somewhere in between?  And positively, what have we learned about Paul that you would want to see echoes of in your ministry team?  Or if someone in your family is thinking about exploring a sense of vocation to ministry, what do you need to develop?

What does Paul mean when he talks of ‘walking in the same footsteps (as Titus) by the same Spirit?   This is an easy one to make ‘active’ –  stay in my steps as I start off taking small steps but then take bigger steps than the child can manage!!  What does it mean to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal.5:25)?  Where does He lead us? 

Paul grieves over sin.  Many of the sins Paul lists in vv.20-22 are now considered ‘respectable’ behaviour, even in Churches.  What do these behaviours look like?  Do we know of any examples of these patterns of behaviour...  it could be in school...  or in TV shows, novels, adverts...  anywhere? How do they damage us... others... our relationship with God?  can we pray for the Lord to teach us to ‘feel’ about them as Paul does?

This is pretty much the only craft idea I’ve been able to locate that relates to this passage… though you may be able to think of others…

II Cor.11 Ideas for family worship (shorter!!)

OK – so first of all – thanks for the feedback.  And so here is a shorter edition of ideas for family worship.  Much less explaining of the passage in the background, and just the ideas for family worship!

Chapter 12 opens with a lot of wedding imagery...  and links back to Gen.1 and the first wedding (of Adam and Eve).  So, I’m guessing this is something daughters might be more into that sons, but that might just be my own experience as a father of boys!  But if your kids do get excited about this, why not act out a wedding, and have a think about how the vows help us understand the dynamics of the relationship between Christ and His bride...  or maybe just a conversation!

get back into Gen.3 and have a look at the passage where the serpent deceives Eve.  Paul isn’t being sexist here – that might be a point worth making with older children / y.p. who may be sensitive to the politics!  He’s making a Jesus-focussed point, or rather a Church-focussed point.  Paul is teaching that we know how Satan seeks to deceive the Bide of (the Second) Adam because we’ve seen him at work before.  How does Satan deceive the Bride? [for younger child(ren) a sock puppet with a forked tongue might be fun craft activity here).

Make a mind map of the Jesus preached by the Apostles...?  the best way to recognise a fake is to know the genuine article really well!  What are some common deceits Satan uses to trick the Church into believing in a different Jesus?   How do we know we are preaching the Jesus of the Apostles at MIE?  There are lots of creative ways of getting across the idea of deception or of disguising people to look like someone they aren’t.  Can you pray together as a fmaily for those who teach about Jesus from the Bible at MIE?

My First Books… Section 33-46 explores the Gospel - you might find it helpful to work through these few short paragraphs over the next few days…

Play spot the difference games as a way of introducing the idea that things can look similar, but are in fact (very) different sometimes.  There are examples of forgeries online that you can download, and use to show how something can look like the genuine article, but are in fact copies, and worthless.  Paul’s point is that the same is true of the Gospel – there are forgeries, and training our children to spot them might be one of the most important things we can ever do!

It is interesting that both Jesus and Satan work through preachers.  Why not have a discussion about preaching...  why is it so important, and what makes ‘good’ preaching?  Explore how as parents you could help your children learn how to listen to a sermon.  As a family, could you take notes and then talk over Sunday lunch about what said in the sermon...  or about the Bible and how it is all about teaching us about Jesus (John 5:39).  Take some of the famous OT stories and ask ‘How does this teach us about Jesus’?

11:5-11.  We’ve thought in previous weeks about the Church’s responsibility to support the Church elsewhere in the world...  but here Paul is talking about supporting mission elsewhere in the world.  We support a number of missionaries and mission organisation as a Church...  this might be a good time to have a look, pray, give..?  Our Global Mission Partners can be found here.  But you might have others you support as a family.  Perhaps a particular focus on the work of Kagera Christian Theological College would help?

God’s power is revealed in our weakness (see I Cor.1:18-2:31; II Cor.4:7-12, though v.17 might be useful to have in the back of your minds as well).  Paul therefore ‘boasts’ about his weakness...  how is that different from the way the world boasts?  Why does the world boast in such a different way to the Church?  Why do we need to be so careful when we hear Christians who boast in the same way as a non-Christian would?

Can you make a list like Paul, that focusses on your weaknesses?  Why can we find this such an encouraging exercise? 

Craft idea: with little kids, there are plenty of ‘instructions’ online about making a ‘Paul escaping in a basket’ picture with moving parts... 

Memory verse...  well – depending on your child(ren) possibly v.3, or 4, 14, or 30!

II Cor.10 Ideas for family worship

What does the world think of as powerful and successful...  what does our culture teach us to aspire to?  What are we being told we can and should achieve at school?  What ambitions do we have?   What do we boast about?  These are massive questions that can shape the direction of our lives – and which keep coming to the surface throughout II Cor.10.   As parents it is important that we are helping our children think these issues through with a Gospel lens.  One of the big hits in II Cor.10 is that the things the world boasts in and aspires to, treasures and values should be very different from the things the Church boasts in and aspires to.

One clear example of this – and we see this working out in II Cor.10 – is the issue of power and authority.  What does this look like in the world and in the Church?  The issues isn’t that Christians should avoid ‘power’, but Jesus (and following Him, Paul) is very clear that how we use power should give away the fact that we are disciples of Christ.  Have a read at Matt.20:25-28.  Whether we are an older sibling, or a CEO of a multi-national, a parent or a president, this has something to say about how we relate to authority and ‘power’.  You could talk about what it looks like to be ‘in charge’...  maybe use the opportunity to help your child(ren) understand why you make the decisions you do as a parent. 

For older children / youth, it might be helpful to talk about Church leadership, and how to recognise godly leadership by the way authority and power is used in the Church.  One of the points in II Cor.10 is that the Corinthians should have recognised there was a problem with their new leaders (11:5, super-apostles) before they had even heard them preach!  Their abusive use of power should have sounded alarms.  If your ‘children’ are old enough to remember, or even to have been to Soul Survivor, this could be a great opportunity to help them reflect on and make sense of the recent revelations about Mike Pilavachi? 

Who commends themselves, and who does the Lord commend (i.e. praise, see as qualified, 10:18)?  And on what basis?  How can we care more about what the Lord thinks than what other people think!

Paul is only interested in building the Church up (v.8).  He doesn’t’ want to make a ‘name’ for himself, and he isn’t particularly bothered about his reputation.  Caring what other people think of you can be quite dangerous if it leads to you making different decisions than you otherwise would as a Christian.  Peer pressure is a tough reality for all of us, irrespective of our age.  How can we care more about what God thinks of us, rather than what other people think – or to put it in Biblical terms, how can we overcome our ‘fear’ of man, and replace it with trusting in the Lord (Prov.29:25).

But for Paul, everything he does, is about helping the Corinthians grow up as Christians (v.15).  That is his express hope!!  This gives us a brilliant opportunity to help our children get a secure vision for Christian maturity in play.  The Bible regularly pictures Christians as ‘growing up’ (see e.g. Heb.5:11-6:3; I Pet.2-3).  This in itself can be a surprise.  People often think in terms of ‘being a Christian’ or not.  But healthy Christianity has an impulse to grow and develop.  Helping each other to think about what that looks like, what it means, would be a great conversation... and would give you something to pray about together as a family.  How can we, as a family, best help each other grow as Christians?  Is that something that everyone in the home wants to do?

And while you’re thinking that all through, it’s worth noting that for Paul, spiritual maturity is connected with evangelism (vv.15-16)

When do you think it is OK for Christians to agree to disagree?  It isn’t very long before children will realise that not all Christians agree.  Some of those disagreements are apparently so severe that it stops us worshipping together Sunday by Sunday.  Is that OK?  How can Christians disagree well?  Why do they disagree?  What is it OK to disagree about?  ...and when does disagreeing about something put you beyond the borders of legitimate Christian thinking? 

We’re seeing Paul wind up for a ‘fight’ (vv.3-5)!  When is it OK for Church leaders ‘fight’ others who call themselves Christians?  When is it necessary?  Can you think of examples where you have seen this done well... and when you’ve seen it done badly?  A graphic picture that re-occurs in Scripture is of a pastor as a shepherd.  When does a shepherd need to fight to defend a flock, and when does fighting damage the flock?

Older children can take this a step further.  What ‘arguments’ and ‘pretensions’ are they becoming aware of that set themselves up against the knowledge of God?  It is critically important that you equip your children to work through these questions as early as possible.  Unanswered arguments are like a spiritual cancer that quietly eat away at our confidence in our faith, until we find we don’t have faith at all.  Many of our children are exposed to ideas and arguments that attack and undermine the Christian faith, or simply a vision of life that denies the necessity of Christian faith, far earlier than we anticipate.  I recommend you begin to put the ‘weapons’ they need in their hands.  One way of doing this might be to read with them something like The Case for Christ (youth edition).  Or the ‘young readers edition’. 

There are plenty of other ways of tackling this.  Focus on the Family have an interesting article about how to TEACH KIDS HOW TO DEFEND THEIR FAITH.   Slightly more intimidating (though they are listed index style for ease of access when you need them, Cross-Examined have 65 APOLOGETICS QUESTIONS EVERY CHRISTIAN PARENT NEEDS TO LEARN TO ANSWER.

Mind you – something you’ll hear me talk about a lot is the idea that changed lives are the most powerful apologetic is a changed life.  In fact we were looking at it a few weeks ago when I was preaching on II Cor.6.  You can listen on Youtube if you missed it!  So how can you open your family to other families, or to your children’s friends in a way that will allow them to see the reality of what Christ has achieved in you!

Memory verses from this passage..?  Well v.4-5 is a pretty vivid visual image...  and by the time you’ve worked through this last section they should have a pretty good idea what the image is about!?

A lot of folk seem uncomfortable with the more militant spirituality that finds expression in passages such as these...  I’ve genuinely never understood that.  It is a powerful metaphor, that makes a lot of sense of Christian experience.  This might be the week to watch the Torchlighter video on John Bunyan, and his classic Pilgrim’s Progress.  It is available on Youtube and I’ve included it below.  ...and maybe to read Pilgrim’s Progress.  There are so many editions, pitched at different age ranges...  you’ll have to have a look online!  there are a couple of film versions on line too – check out youtube.

Craft ideas... if your kids enjoy dressing up as knights...  this could be your lucky week!  Alternatively there are quite a lot of printable versions of II Cor.10:5 online, that can be printed off and coloured in or otherwise decorated...

Again there are a number of ‘peer-pressure’ craft activities online, including ‘bag of tricks’, if this is something you find yourself gravitating to in your time of family worship. It’s a school lesson - but you can easily adapt it for use at home and in a Christian context!

II Cor.8-9 Ideas for family worship

It might seem that questions about the financial life of Christians and Churches is unlikely grounds for family worship, but I would suggest that it is never too early to begin helping our children to understand the significance of money, and to train them in Biblical patterns of spending and giving. As they grow up they will face huge pressure to use money in ways that are not informed by the Bible’s teaching, so best to get in early.

At a more general level we should be teaching our children to support the ministry of their local Church, and of the Gospel throughout the nations of the world, as soon as they have money at their disposal. If they are recipients of pocket money, or gifts of money at birthdays or Christmas, or if they earn money for doing jobs either within or outside of the home, they can and should be learning how to handle that money as we are taught in Scripture. Regular and systematic giving to their Church and even one or two other organisations is simply standard Christian discipleship. Helping them to understand the principles involved, showing them from the Scriptures, helping them to see your own practise of giving and to understand the temptations not to, are all basic and fundamental aspects of our faith. Work with your children to bring them to the place where they joyful and excited givers (II Cor.9:5-7). That is the critical element to this week’s family worship. Really, everything else I’ve written here is about helping you get your children to that point.

It is also worth bearing in mind that alongside our regular giving we will have opportunity to give in a more ‘one-off’ capacity. How about this Christmas we budget not just for gifts for our family and friends, but also for our brothers and sisters in Christ elsewhere in the world? Maybe even decide – as part of the family worship this week – that you will deliberately celebrate Christmas in a way that frees up money to do that. You can use organisations such as Open Doors, Gospel for Asia, or Barnabas Fund to buy gifts for the Church in areas where Christians are persecuted, or suffering in the wake of ‘natural disaster’ (see below). Plan to sit down as a family during the Christmas period and buy gifts together, each member of the family perhaps choosing what to buy for whom?

People often suggest 10% is an appropriate level of giving.  This might be a useful place to start, but I would encourage you – and your children – not to feel limited to that.  There is not actual Biblical limitation to only giving 10% to support the work of the Gospel, and as we’ll see, Churches that give somewhat beyond that are commended in Scripture as models to follow!

If you are struggling to make sense of the Bible’s teaching on money, or aren’t sure you are aware of it, I’d recommend you revisit the material we produced during our recent ‘Money, Possessions and Eternity’ series.  You can find the sermons and Bible Studies here.

More specifically we are looking at II Cor.8-9, and Paul’s teaching about our responsibilities to support the Church elsewhere as they face the very material difficulties that come in the wake of ‘natural disaster’ and persecution (though I think an argument can be made for the same principles for a Church caught up in a national conflict).  The Churches in Judea have experienced all of these (you can trace that in the book of Acts), and the result is a Church that is financially impoverished.  The response of the wider, international Church is to provide financially for their brothers and sisters in Christ.  For Paul – and the other Apostles – this is non-negotiable.   It is remarkable that this is seen as so central to Christian identity that it is part of the ‘DNA’ of the Churches Paul is planting.   He sees it as foundational to the interconnectedness of the Body of Christ. 

The Apostles never teach anything that cannot be rooted in the teaching of Jesus and the OT.  And Paul is at pains to show that is the case in this matter of financial giving.  He does it both implicitly and explicitly both here and throughout his ministry (e.g. Acts 20:35).  Can you trace through these chapters and see all the places where Paul explicitly cites the Scriptures... and where there are hints and echoes that show us he has Jesus’ teaching in mind? (freebie: Matt.25:31-46).

Suggested activity?

Spend some time looking through adverts / magazines / websites with online ads...  how are we being encouraged to spend our money?  What are these various media appealing to as a way of trying to get us to spend money in certain ways?  how is that different from Paul’s teaching about how we should use money and why in these chapters.

Tackling the text:

There are few key moments in this section of II Corinthians that we can focus on – that helps us not feel overwhelmed at facing 2 whole chapters!!

The first is Paul’s using the Macedonian Churches as an example (8:1-5).  Try to get inside the mind of the Macedonian Christians and follow their thinking.  How do they get to the point of ‘urgently pleading’ to give?  Why is our experience of giving today so different?  Do we see it as a burden, or a privilege we would contend for?  How does giving ourselves ‘first to the Lord’ change our attitude to giving? 

The second key moment is 8:9 – this is the hinge around which this hole section turns.  Paul is simply applying in a specific situation the principle he has been exploring in the whole letter up to this point.  We are being transformed into the image of Christ.   A Christ who makes Himself poor so that others can become rich.  This is not something that can remain at the level of ‘spiritual principle’ – it has to be worked out in financial specifics of how we actually spend money and structure our budgets.  This is as true if we are 5 or 50.  We don’t learn to ‘give’ when we are better off.  Quite the opposite.  We learn to give when we have little, and learn to apply the same principles when we have more.  As Jesus said, if we can’t be trusted with little... (Lk.16:10).

Any activity that is about copying, imitating or replicating can be used to help children get the point here. 

A third key moment is 8:19-23.  In a world where financial impropriety – even amongst Christians – is rife, Paul’s commitment to absolute transparency is striking.  He collects representatives from many of the Churches who will come with him to Jerusalem, and who will be part of a delegation who hand over the gifts from those Churches.  In part this is so they can testify that all monies were used for the purpose for which they were given.  Why does Paul work so hard at this?  Why are temptations to mis-use the money God puts at our disposal so strong? 

Another key idea is motive (9:6-14).  We can give to poorer Christians in ways that are sinful (Matt.6:1-4).  Can you help you child(ren) understand the importance of motive?  What would be good motives..?  What might be going on in our hearts that mean our gifts are not what God would want them to be?

For older children / young people you might want to set up a discussion about how what Paul is teaching here (and what we see modelled at a local level in e.g. Acts 4:34-35) differs from ‘left-wing’ / socialist economics.  You’d be surprised how often I’ve heard this passage referred to as an early form of ‘communism’…

OR

even more interesting is the question of whether we should give money to support charities that are not focussed on the Gospel, and from which Christians do not benefit (9:12)?  How does our giving fit into the wider devotional life of Churches – both giving and receiving Churches? 

If you are using a Catechism, anything around the 8th Commandment is probably a good place to start e.g. To Be a Christian Q&As: 330-338 includes the question of giving, and of our relationship to what we ‘own’. Also - in the sermon I drew attention to the idea of our being part of the global Church… Q&As 92 & 100-104 might help with that!

In ‘My First Questions…’ the 8th Commandment is dealt with in Questions 83 & 84, which are rahter unhelpfully separated on pp. 176 & 180. Sections 98 & 99 on p.74 will introduce ideas about the Church as being God’s people.

II Cor.7 Ideas for family worship

I was having a conversation about Family Worship this week, and the point was made (by someone else, but I thought I’d pass it on) that you need to have some structure in place in family life if you’re going to be able to do this regularly.  Establishing a familiar and consistent routine around part of the day, into which this fits, makes life a lot easier in the long run!

There are two or three main ideas at work in this chapter, any of which could occupy your time as a family, or provide a focus for a conversation, or time of teaching, worship and prayer.  The first two are deeply intertwined, and they are the idea of our growing to be like Jesus, and the place of ‘godly sorrow that brings repentance’.  We can’t grow to be like Jesus (or as Paul puts it in Ch.7, purify ourselves…perfecting holiness…) without repentance…

I’d suggest that the most helpful way of talking about repentance is in fact as part of the process of change.  It is one of the things we do, a habit, through which the Holy Spirit is at work to cleanse us.  I suspect it is a forgotten art, and that this whole Chapter might consequently feel a bit morbid.  That would be tragic, for it is meant to breathe an atmosphere of liberation and joy.  And for Paul, the fact that the Church responded this way to I Corinthians is ample evidence of the genuineness of their faith, the reality of the Spirit’s presence in their midst, and the motivation for Paul’s own confidence and encouragement.

A key idea to get across is that there are places in our lives and characters where we are not yet like Jesus.  These ‘contaminate’ us (7:1) – even as Christians, and Paul tells us here that we need to be active in purifying ourselves.  One way of helping younger children to visualize this might be with a water-filter.  There are a number of Youtube videos showing you how to make a simple filter.  Here’s a short one…

It’s quite effective as a picture of what the Spirit wants to do in purifying us from all that contaminates us, so that we can be more like Jesus.  How?  as we (re-)learn the art of repentance.  Paul gives us quite a powerful picture in vv.8-10.  When we are ‘found out’ for something we have done wrong, we can easily feel sorrow.  But Paul warns us that we need to be careful to distinguish between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow!  Worldly sorrow is focused on ‘me’… it fears about consequences… how this situation will affect me, my loss of reputation, my own sense of shame or disappointment, my own grief at loss – either because of the impact of my behavior on others, or perhaps just the loss of my own sense of virtue?  It leads to defensives, anger and resentment.

Godly sorrow will always lead us to take responsibility for what we’ve done, rather than shift blame; it will accept the truth about who I am, rather than seeking to justify myself; and most importantly of all, it will lead me to the cross, and to a renewed experience of forgiveness and grace.

Repentance doesn’t’ stop with that experience of forgiveness.  It seeks to be different in the future.  If you think about the Confessions we use in Church, there is always a section about being different going forward.  We can have a different future, we can take a different path.  The idea of repentance has its origins in changing our mind, or changing direction… 

Our Catechisms do help us reflect on this:

My first books and more…  Q&A 93-94 (p.199)

To Be a Christian Q&A 13 but you might find Q&As 357-364 more helpful in terms of the ongoing experience of repentance and transformation.

when our children were young we got the idea across by having them march in one direction, and at the call ‘repent’ they would pivot and make a U-turn, and start marching in the opposite direction!  It’s a very simple way of getting the idea of ‘turning back to God’ and walking again in his ways...

another breaks the act of repentance into 5 steps:

1.      listen to what the Spirit says through the Word of God

2.      Say Sorry – don’t try to hide!!

3.      Ask forgiveness

4.      Make it right

5.      Go and Grow…  how can we make different decisions in the future.

You might want to adapt the idea.  But one of the things I’ve found over the years is that as we teach these skills of discipleship in our family worship times, we can draw on them when the opportunity arises.  If you have drawn a poster with those five steps on it, then next time your child(ren) is disobedient, or is doing something they know is wrong, you have a ready-made strategy for dealing with it. 

And of course, if we model this as parents, our children will be able to see and imitate us in this as in so many other aspects of life.

The other emphasis in this chapter that we could focus on is the emotional lives of Christians, which is on display throughout this chapter.  We are given insight into the Church’s emotional life as well as that of both Paul and Titus.  We are used to thinking of our volitional lives (our will & the decisions we make) and perhaps our intellectual lives being redeemed (be transformed by the renewing of our minds), but what about our emotional lives?  The fruit of the Spirit includes ‘…self-control’.  It would be interesting to read through a Gospel (or part of a Gospel) and track Jesus’ emotional reactions to what is going on around Him…  maybe print off a section, and use different coloured pens or emojis to identify different responses

Depending on our kids, and where they are with self-awareness, tracking our emotions for a day and seeing how they map onto Christ’s could be an interesting exercise.

but more specifically, back in II Cor.7…  the coloured pen / emoji exercise would be a great way of reading this passage together.  But look more closely, and see what provokes Paul’s reactions, and how he feels about the Church…  Given the state of the Church at Corinth, how can you explain his relationship with it..?  What can we learn about our own engagement with Church, and about how we should feel? …and respond to the life of the MIE? 

II Cor.6 Ideas for family worship

This passage is one that can make us feel a little uncomfortable. We are reluctant to reflect on our own Christ-likeness, in part because it feels like ‘boasting’ in some way, and so a bit inappropriate. But Paul ‘commends’ himself, as exhibit A - evidence of what the Spirit can do to transform someone into Christ-likeness through the Gospel Paul preaches. As part of your worship together as a family, you might want to read a passage such as Acts 26:9-11 to get a sense of the dramatic change Paul has undergone. When you’re doing that why not pop over to the Open Doors website. They have some great children’s resources to help them make sense of modern-day Pauls, and how they can help support the Church... or if you were hoping for something aimed at older children and youth, try the Open Doors Youth website. Have a chat with John Gillett who is an Oen Doors regional speaker, and will ahve some resources that might help you talk this through with your children, and to pray with them.

But when you understand Paul’s background, and the fact that he is now an Apostle... you can understand why Paul feels so excited about the way God has changed him, and is changing him to be more like his Lord. If they don’t know the story, I’m sure your kids would want to hear about how you became a Christian, and the ways in which God has been at work changing you over the years...

Christianity is about learning how to be like Jesus.  The very last thing Jesus tells the Apostles – right at the end of Matthew’s Gospel – is to ‘...make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...’ (Matt.28:19-20).  It’s amazing how easy it is to lose sight of that, and to make Christianity about any host of other things!

But do you know what the commands of Jesus are?  How many can you list out?  Once you’ve listed them, have a conversation about what it looks like to keep them...  and why it can be so tempting to not keep them!

If you are leading Family Worship with older children, or teenagers, here’s a project that can easily last the whole week.  Why not read through one Gospel and list out all the commands, or places where Jesus acts in a way that He expects His disciples to follow His example...    For younger children, maybe take a shorter piece of Jesus’ teaching – something like the Sermon on the Mount, and work through that over the course of the week?

Don’t forget to pray for each other as we learn together how to obey everything He has commanded us.  ...and to pray for the ministry team at home and at MIE!

You might find My First Questions, section 98 helpful... 

Paul’s whole vision about what it means to be a Christian, and to be a part of a Church is connected with our learning how to become more like Jesus. He thinks one of the most important jobs a Church has is to help you on your journey to being someone who thinks, feels, acts, treats people just the way Jesus would do. That’s a really hard job! What are some ways that the Church might help you as you learn to be more like Jesus? ...and how might the Church let you down?

How can you help other people at MIE to become more like Jesus?

When you go to Sunday Groups, or a youth group, or when you are doing Family Worship at home... what should you be expecting?

Paul celebrates the fact that the Holy Spirit has been at work helping him to become more like Jesus. In fact, he wants other people to see how much he has changed, because it will help them to understand the power of God at work in his Gospel (and maybe stop people wanting to follow after other teachings and ideas). Read through II Cor.6:3-12. Can you spot all the ways Paul is telling us he has been made like Jesus? You might want to print the passage off on the computer, and use different coloured pens to highlight different ideas!? Here’s one of my favourites to get you going: have a look at II Cor.6:10, and then at II Cor.8:9. If you have the list of the fruit of the Spirit in front of you (Gal.5:18-19) it might help too – but there are other aspects of Jesus’ experience at play here too.

Where are the place where you can see the Holy Spirit helping you to be more like Jesus? can you draw a picture about a time when you knew the Holy Spirit was working in you like this?

You want to get as many people helping you as possible. Becoming like Jesus is like a team sport! And Paul is warning us that we don’t want people on our team who are going to trip us up, or make it harder to be like Jesus. Paul talks about being ‘yoked’. It’s a picture we might not understand, so first of all, here is a picture of two animals yoked together. You can see what a problem it can be if it goes wrong:

The point of the yoke is to keep one animal walking alongside, and in step with the other.  You don’t want one of the oxen wandering off in a completely different direction.  When Jesus tells us to take His yoke upon us (Matt.11:29), what do you think He means?  And why does Paul say we shouldn’t be yoked with people who don’t share our faith in Jesus (6:14)?  Why would it be a problem if we were? Have a look at the picture again!

II Cor.5 Ideas for family worship

I’ve been thinking this week about how easy Family Worship can be… it could be as straightforward as swapping notes on the sermon & Sunday Group sessions from the previous week and praying about something that particularly struck you. That’s often what Monday morning’s breakfast looks like in the Prentice household. We all take notes from Sunday and then we spend the meal time first seeing how well we can remember what was said, then unpacking, questioning, and otherwise engaging with the main ideas! But that might not work for you, so…

Paul opens this section by carrying on his train of thought from the end of Ch.4. He’s just been thinking about the ‘eternal glory’ of the New Creation, and that launches him into a whole exciting exploration of the Christian hope. This light momentary life is like a tent… and as you can see form the video below, even the most robust tents are dangerously fragile and vulnerable.

That is a great image for our bodies in this age - a tent! But Paul is looking forward to a New Creation Resurrection body, a ‘heavenly dwelling’ that is much more bricks and mortar. Paul uses other images to try and communicate the difference between our bodies here and our bodies in the New Creation - you can find them in I Cor.15:35-44. This can be great conversation - you’d be surprised how many people are confused about ‘life after death’, or indeed frightened by the prospect. This can be a passage that helps children to negotiate bereavement. You could do the whole thing in a ‘tent’…

A more ‘this age’ angle might be to explore why it is that following Jesus can make us look like we are ‘out of our mind’ (v.13). Why does living in a way shaped by Jesus’ teaching and example look so (literally) crazy to other people? How does Paul help us to deal with other people’s mockery here?

Or take the opportunity to help your family deepen their understanding of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This passage is absolutely packed with insight. Our sin is not counted against us (v.19)… but it is counted against Christ. In the OT sacrifices at the Tabernacle (another tent!) the person bringing the sacrifice would lay their hands on its head, symbolising the transfer of sin. This is fulfilled in Christ. Is there some activity you could do that would help to visualise this for your child(ren)? ‘Seeing’ Christ take our sin can be a powerful way of entering into the drama of the Cross. Much of the language used in the Bible to convey this idea is financial - the idea of crediting to an account.

Or to look at the Cross from another angle: we share in Christ’s death (v.14). This is more complex idea, but the preachers of the early Church illustrated it with a needle and thread, speaking of how the needle (Christ) pierces the fabric (death), and draws the thread through with it. We pass through death with Him, and are brought into a New Creation life (v.17) which is what allows us to live so differently to how we did before (v.15). Or there is the idea of reconciliation… and of how we are caught up into that ministry as we take on the role of ambassadors, representing Christ and speaking on His behalf: Be reconciled to God. How can we do this more often? Can you get involved with CE somehow this term? Maybe provide a meal one evening? or bring someone along? …or Messy Church is now running monthly at all three sites… who could you bring along to that?

Or how differently the Cross looks depending on whether you are a Christian or not. I love the way the same thing can look so different, depending on who is looking at it…

Do you see people or pillars?

Looking at Christ ‘from a worldly point of view’ (v.16) leaves you watching a tragedy, a chronic injustice at best, a wasted life, but nothing more. But when we gaze on the cross with the eyes of faith, we see the moment in which our God is most fully displayed and most powerfully active in His love. And, says Paul, we no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view. What does it look like to do that? How does the way we see people change depending on whether we see them from the world’s or Paul’s (the Christian’s) perspective?

Paul talks about us being a New Creation (or perhaps the idea is of our becoming part of the New Creation). This - along with Paul’s understanding of history in Christ, and his vision of our future in Christ - gives us the basis for confidence in spiritual growth. Remember: the Spirit is at work in us, transforming us from one degree of glory to another. Parents often mark their child(ren)’s physical development. This could be measuring their height at regular intervals, or marking a significant milestone. What might this look like in terms of spiritual development. What milestones can you anticipate… the first time they did ‘x’… what is the equivalent of measuring their height? How can you mark their growth as a Christian? How can you build that in to the life of your family?

This a great passage for memory verses. How about:

5:15, He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

OR

5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

OR

5:21, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Catechism Questions:

My First Book…. try sections 208-217 (not all at once though!).

To Be a Christian… Q&A 63-69

All this talk of the Cross… this could be a great time to talk about Communion. If you want your children to start taking communion, have a chat with us…

II Cor.4 Ideas for family worship

There are a number of very powerful ideas at work in this passage – any or all of which you could use to structure your family worship throughout this week.  I’ll lay some ideas out around each of these aimed at different ages, and you can use whichever seem like they might work for you, if any!

Here’s the first one:  In contrast to the false teachers Paul was critiquing in Ch.3, Paul is adamant that he doesn’t ‘distort the Word of God’, rather, he ‘sets forth the truth plainly’.  OK, so before we get into the chapter any further than the first 2 verses we have an incredibly significant and potentially revolutionary issue in our hands.  Especially if you have older children / young people in the family, this opens up an important question about different ‘interpretations’ of the Bible.  We tend to operate in a relativistic mind-set (courtesy of our cultural norms).  This means that there is huge pressure to accept any sincerely held interpretation as legitimate because it is sincerely held.  Would Paul accept that?  Does he consider all interpretations equally valid?  Should we?  How can we tell whether someone is ‘using deception’, or ‘distorting’ the Word of God?  Why can a Christian never ‘hide behind’ the idea that what we believe is just our opinion, or just our belief, as if others are free to hold their opinions or beliefs?

If you’res truggling to find a way through the conversations, then maybe have a look at The Basics of Bible Interpretation, or perhaps this article onwhy there are different interpretations of the Bible at GotQuestions…

Paul has a great way of taking serious theological ideas and breaking them down into pictures that we can see and understand.  He does it twice in this chapter.  The first is when he draws the distinction between veiling/blindness and light / seeing.  He works with this image 4:3-6.  He is picking up the image he used in Ch.3 (veil) to explain why people can’t understand / accept the message about Jesus.  This isn’t primarily an intellectual issue, but a spiritual one.  The god of this age is blinding the minds of unbelievers.  You can play all kinds of blindfold-related games with younger children to help them grasp the idea that Satan is at work to stop people seeing Jesus.  it would be great to pray as a family for people you know who can’t see the truth about Jesus.  Maybe then invite them to this term’s CE Course starting next week?

Paul connects the whole things back to the story of creation.  One of the more tragically humorous arguments against the Bible’s account of creation is that light appears in Day 1, but the sun, moon and stars don’t appear until Day 4.  That is of course to miss the point totally!  The Light of the World that God speaks into creation is Christ (Jn.1:5-10; 8:12).   Only when Christ is ‘present’ can there be life and order, beauty and joy.  Until then there is only chaos, formlessness, instability and darkness.  You may well have a ‘children’s Bible’ in the house already – it’s worth re-visiting the creation account and heling your child(ren) grasp this.  Paul captures this dynamic and brings it into his argument in II Cor.4 to reflect the reality of what happens when people become and grow as Christians.   Again – in an act of New Creation – Jesus is spoken into a person’s life.  Only then is there the Light that can dispel the darkness of a satanically inspired blindness.  Why not think about who you can speak about Jesus with in your own circle of friends and family?   

My First Book, section 107 (Light of the world), or 128 (witnessing) might help here.

Paul’s second image in this chapter is that of clay pots.  Before we even explore what the image means, here’s a great craft idea that can last all week!  Get some ‘air-dry’ clay.  Make a clay pot, let it dry and paint it.  break it and glue it back in a way that allows cracks and gaps to remain.  Put a tea light in there and see the light shine out of a ‘broken’ jar of clay.   And while you’re doing all that, you can be talking about what Paul is driving at. 

First of all, what does Paul mean when he talks about ‘treasure’?  What does that make you think of?  What makes something a ‘treasure’?  If you need to do something while the clay is drying, why not set up a treasure hunt (maybe to find the words of this week’s memory verse which you’ve hidden around the house)...  why do people search for treasure?   Why does Paul talk about the message of Jesus as a ‘treasure’?  Would you think of it like this? 

Why does he describe us as ‘jars of clay’?  It captures our fragility and our vulnerability to damage.  Paul has a specific sort of damage in mind.  It’s the damage that comes when people don’t like us because we are Christians and because we keep talking about Jesus.  When we insist on telling people about Jesus we can create all kinds of problems (see vv.8-12).   We often try and avoid those problems, but Paul is saying that our weakness when we experience opposition is precisely what shows God’s power at work in people becoming Christians!!  So we keep going, even when it seems like we’re making no progress, or even getting pushed back.  Nothings stops us talking about Jesus – even if we get in trouble for it.

Does that seem scary?  Paul feels scared too, but he knows that the ‘Spirit of faith’ is at work helping him to believe in Jesus, and to help him help others to believe in Jesus.  So he keeps speaking (vv.13-14).  How can you help your children think about the help that the Spirit gives?  have you stories you can tell from your own experience about how you haven’t lost heart (v.16) in telling someone about Jesus?  Or perhaps you could watch a Torchlighter film together (see bottom of this post)?  …or read a short biography of a missionary?  Maybe pray for Tracey Needham as she gets this term’s CE course up and running..?  Or write a card to someone inviting them to come to the CE course with you?    Or maybe the Youth Alpha Mark Brailsford is running at St. Andrew’s on Sunday mornings?

And if none of that captures your imagination, then how about the question of whether your vision of the New Creation is compelling enough to help you endure the struggle of being a Christian, and telling others about Jesus (vv.16-18).  How can you cultivate an excitement about the New Creation?  What is it like to look forward to something?  Christmas isn’t too far away, so maybe that’ll be a helpful analogy?  What is there about our future that is glorious?   Can you write a prayer, or a poem about all the things you are looking forward to?

If you’re struggling here, why not look at a couple of Jesus’ parables where he describes the New Creation in terms of feasting and partying, or To Be a Christian Q&A 114-120

Memory Verse:

For younger kids, I’d go for II Cor.4:7, ‘we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us’.

Older children might be able to grasp the more conceptual ideas in 4:11-12, For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Or for a different angle, why not try 4:17-18?

Enjoy!

II Cor.3 Ideas for family worship

OK, let’s get the big picture in place, so that you can explain it to the kids. This is a big part of family worship - once we understand the passage well ourselves, we can usually think of ways to help our children make sense of it as well!

This is probably the most complicated chapter in Second Corinthians.  It’s an incredibly visual passage though, leading Paul’s readers once again into the most ancient parts of the Bible, into the books of Moses.  Lying behind II Cor.3 is a story from Exodus 34:29-35.  Moses comes out of the presence of the Lord, and his face is radiant with God’s glory.  Like everything Moses does, he is foreshadowing the work of Christ, giving us a picture-drama to help us understand Jesus better.

Moses is a shadow, or better, a fore-shadow.  In reality, it is of course Jesus who comes from the presence of the Father, and in whose face we see the glory of God (Jn.1:18).  Whereas Moses simply reflects that glory, it emanates from Christ.  Paul links to this passage because it one of the favourite passages used by those who are trying to ‘cancel’ him at Corinth.  They use it to bolster their claim that Moses is really where God can be met.  For Paul’s opponents, ‘Moses’ is shorthand for ‘the Law... and specifically the Law being used as a way of earning your place before God’.  ‘Moses’ means being good enough by keeping enough of God’s Laws enough of the time.

Paul disagrees.  The Law can be a mirror to show us our need for Jesus (Rom.3:20; 7:7).  But it can’t ever make us like Jesus.  It can describe Jesus to us, and by doing so, it can show us we aren’t like Him.  But it can’t make you like Him.  When you try and use it to make you like Jesus, that just creates problems – specifically death (v.7) and condemnation (v.9) .  Only Jesus can make you like Jesus – something He does by His Spirit. 

For you as a family, this might be where you decide to camp out.  How can we use the Law to show us our need for Jesus?  There are any number of ‘crafty’ ways you can explore the 10 Commandments.  Younger children might enjoy this one. Older kids might need something slightly more challenging…

While we think of things like ‘Christ-likeness’ in vague or general terms it is quite easy to kid ourselves.  But when we get down to specific issues, it becomes more difficult to avoid our falling short.  Leading your family in Confession and Repentance would be a very powerful act of worship in the home. 

Getting back to II Cor.3...  Paul is highlighting a serious problem for a Church that wants to use the Law as a way of proving to God how good they are, rather than allowing God to show them how bad they are... and therefore how badly they need Jesus.  If you insist on mis-using the Law in this way, you get trapped.  Actually it’s a bit more disturbing than that.  God traps you. 

Have a look at v.13.  Why does Moses not want the people to see that the glory is fading?   Or to put it in a more pointed way:  What (Who?) is the ‘end’ of what was passing away?  And why would God want to stop people seeing that ‘End’? 

Because if you are going to reject Christ and the righteousness He offers, and insist on trusting in your own, that is a problem.  As soon as you turn to Christ and trust Him, the veil is removed (v.16), and instead of the slavery to sin, compounded by our own legalism (Rom.7:14), we are given the freedom that comes from the Spirit – the freedom to be God’s slave (I Pet.2:16).

The real joy in this chapter is in the incredible potential for spiritual growth held out in 3:18.  As we contemplate on the glory of God in the face of Christ, the Spirit is at work changing us so we become like Him.  God has a human face, and we can learn again to look like Him.

There are a number of Catechcism Q&As that will help here, and which follow on from last weeks.  For younger children, just the one or two is likely to be sufficient.  Maybe a variation, or simplified version of:

363  How does Jesus heal you?

Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as I continue in repentance and faith, Jesus mends my disordered soul from the effects of sin in my mind, will and desires.

(II Chron.7:12-14; Ps.25:4-11; II Cor.3:17-18)

364  What is this healing called?

This healing is called ‘sanctification’ which means to be made whole and holy.  By the work of the Holy Spirit, my mind, my will and desires, are increasingly transformed and conformed to the character of Jesus Christ.

(Prov.2; John 17:15-17; Rom.12:1-2; Eph.2:1-10; 3:14-21)

Older children and young people would benefit from working through, To be a Christian, 357-368

Some ideas for family worship:

Memory verse?  I’d focus on some part of II Cor.3:17-18, depending on age and enthusiasm!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

• ·        Other activities could include anything that involves key themes or ideas in the passage – hiding/hiddenness, freedom, glory, temporary/permanence...

• ·        For older children and teens, why not do a couple of case studies in reading the OT.  Have a look at Ps.45 or Ps.102, and ask how reading these as about Christ changes what you think their meaning is (see Heb.1).  Or even more directly – how does the story of Moses model and enact for us the story of Jesus?

• ·        The Law teaches us about Jesus... sometimes by way of contrasts / opposites.  Jesus is Life, therefore we do not murder; Jesus is faithful, therefore we don not commit adultery...  using the 10 Commandments (especially if you used a craft activity to represent them) can you work out how each describes the Person of Jesus.

• ·        Over the last few weeks, we’ve been asking ‘what makes a good Church?’  This might be a good time to revisit that question.  It’s a good idea to ask the question in as open-ended a way as possible.  In the light of II Cor.3, the answer has to include something about focussing us on Jesus – that is the only way the Spirit will grow us into the likeness of Jesus.  It is a spiritual law that we become like that which we worship (see Ps.115:8, for the negative side of this). Why not pray for those who teach thorughout the life of MIE… that they would be faithful in showing us Jesus.

II Cor.2 Ideas for family worship

Sometimes family worship works well, other times, not so much.  The first one or two might work well because of a novelty value.  But sooner or later, you’ll have a time of family worship that just falls apart.  That’s OK.  That’s pretty much the story of family life.  But don’t give up on something so precious.  Like I said last week, it might take some experimentation to find a way of doing this that works for you as a family, but even when you find a way that works, some days will be bad days...

We tend to mix things up.  Sometimes we do something quite formal.  over the years we’ve built up a folder with some opening and closing liturgy, some songs and hymns.  Sometimes we get those out.  Other times, we chat and pray about what been said in the sermons.  Some days it flows well, other days it feels like getting blood out of the proverbial stone.  Some days it doesn’t quite happen at all...  that’s all part of it.  The key is to keep going...

So how do we get into II Cor.2?  It’s probably the hardest Chapter in the letter (from a Family Worship point of view), so this is a longer offering than usual.  I’m just trying to help you get a feel for what’s going on, for how you might reflect on it together as a family, and for some ideas of conversations that might open up things to pray about. 

It’s quite a ‘bitty’ chapter, but this might be a helpful question to get the ball rolling:

What does it mean to love someone? 

It’s good to have a couple of family stories about this, and to hear what different people in the family think.  But at some point you’ll want to introduce the idea that we want to learn from Jesus.  What does it mean for Him to love the Church?  You might want to camp out in I Cor.13.  But it may be more helpful as we go through II Corinthians to look at something Paul tells us in Eph.5, that ‘Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy’ (vv.25-26).  When we love someone our desire for them is to be holy (like Jesus), and we’ll do whatever we can to help that happen. 

How can we help other people grow to be more like Jesus? 

That might be enough of a conversation.  Maybe stopping there and praying for people to keep growing to be like Christ would be a great way to bring this week’s worship-time to a close.

I promised another Catechism question.

97.  Why is the Church called ‘holy’?

The Church is ‘holy’ because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, and sanctifies its members, setting them apart to God in Christ, and calling them to moral and spiritual holiness of life.

(Ex.19:3-6; Lev.19:1-2; Ps.15; John 17:17-19; Acts 26:16-18; I Cor.3:16-17; Col.3:12-15)

Paul’s love for the Church is what makes sense of the decisions Paul makes.  He going to talk later about how his behaviour is ‘compelled’ by the love of Christ (5:14).  His decision about whether to visit them or not was shaped by his love for the Corinthian Church...  in other words, by what he thought would help them become more like Jesus.  That’s why he wrote what he did in First Corinthians (see II Cor.2:4)...  And that’s why he is writing what he is now in II Cor.2. 

You might feel this gives you enough material to work with...  this feeds in to all kinds of conversations about what’s going on in Church and in your own family.   There are some great images here that I’m sure you could use as a basis for craft-ideas to help concretise the conversations?

Maybe with older children and y.p. you’ll want to do something that is more engaged with the passage? 

Again, the Chapter breaks down into two section (well, it does if you see vv.1-4 as really belonging to what Paul was talking about in Chapter 1).  The first section (vv.5-11) is pretty difficult because of what it is dealing with.  As (grand-)parents, you’ll have to decide for your own family if you want to tackle it, but if you do it might look a bit like this:

2:5-11

Paul’s Christ-like love for the Church also helps us understand some hard things that happen at Corinth.  Can you imagine someone choosing over and over again to not do something Jesus wanted them to do?  It’s such a strange idea that you might not be able to, but sometimes it does happen.  In fact, something like that was going on in Corinth.  And because Paul loved the person involved, he actually thought they shouldn’t be allowed to come to Church anymore!  Maybe if they weren’t allowed to be a part of the Church for a while, they’d realise that it was more important to them than they thought?  Maybe they’d realise that Jesus was more important to them than they thought?   How would you feel if we did something like that at MIE?

You’d really have to love someone if you were prepared to do something like that to help them learn how to love Jesus and to live the way He wants us to.

Well, strange as it may seem to us, it worked at Corinth...  But now there was another problem.  The Church weren’t sure that he was sorry.  And so they kept him out of Church longer than they should have.  Paul urges them to ‘reaffirm their love for him’ (2:9), to forgive him and welcome him back... 

As a family, you might want to talk about why it is so important to live as Jesus calls us to.  And how the Church can help us with this.  How does that shape what we want and expect from our Church services and our Church family?  ...from our Sunday Groups?  ...youth groups? etc.

vv.12-17

Evangelism.  Paul uses an image here that again I’m sure lends itself to all kinds of activities.  smell.  In our Sunday Groups this week, we’ll be thinking about whether we ‘smell’ like Jesus (though it’s likely Paul had in mind the burnt offering [Eph.5:2], so make of that what you will...).  But the key thing to understand is that – just as some people became disciples, while others didn’t like Jesus at all in the Gospels, so when we are like Jesus, and talk about Jesus, there will be people who will want to follow Him, and some who won’t.  It isn’t our job to work out ahead of time which is which.  Like the Sower (Matt.13:1-8), we simply ‘spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere’. 

Some ideas for activities?

Memory Passage:

It’s a tricky passage to isolate a helpful verse to memorise, but maybe 2:14?  Or perhaps I Cor.13:4-7, if you wanted a bit of a challenge that might last a few weeks.  Rewards help!  for years I gave our boys little toy knights for memorising a certain number of verses!

·        Would it be helpful for us to organise a Pizza and movie night for y.p. to watch American Gospel?  Drop me an email if you’d find that helpful?

·        for younger kids – can you recognise the smell..?  have a variety of strong smelling objects – anything from onions to perfume, from spice to socks!! – can you identify them by smell only?

·        during your time of praying together for people you know who aren’t Christians, light an aromatic candle?  And then send those you’ve been praying for a card inviting them to Christianity Explored, which starts on 2nd October...

·        For older children and y.p.  If you’ve looked at vv.5-11, why not take a look at the introduction to Holy Communion in the book of Common Prayer.  I’ll be talking about it on Sunday morning:

If a minister be persuaded that anyone of his cure who presents himself to be a partaker of Holy Communion, ought not to be admitted thereunto by reason of malicious and open contention with his neighbours, or other grave and open sin without repentance, he shall give account of the same to the Bishop, and therein obey the Bishop’s order and direction, but so as not to refuse the sacrament to any until in accordance with such order and direction, he shall advertise him that in any wise he should not presume to come to the Lord’s Table: Provided that in the case of grave and immediate scandal to the congregation the minister shall not admit such person, but shall give account of the same to the Bishop within seven days and therein obey the Bishop’s order and direction…

As a family, how might it be helpful for you to prepare together for your next Communion Service?

II Cor.1 Ideas for Family Worship

When it comes to Family Worship, the key thing is flexibility.  You have to find something that fits with the culture of your family, and that works for you.  Some keep it fairly informal, perhaps incorporated into a mealtime; others have a designated time, and may use a candle to signify what we’re now doing...  some incorporate crafts and activities, others keep it as a simple discussion.   Some sing, some listen to sermons.  If you’ve never done it before, it might take some experimentation to get something that works for you.

It might be a straightforward as talking over the sermon, or perhaps reading part of II Corinthians Ch.1, asking some questions, talking about the answers, and praying.   In our experience sometimes it works better than others...  Anyway – here are some ideas for building a family worship time around II Corinthians 1.  So much depends on age, personality, time...  if these help, feel free to use them, if not, do something else!

This week’s sermon and Sunday Groups is based on II Corinthians Ch.1.  Paul – an Apostle – is writing to a Church in Greece.  It’s a Church that is pretty confused about what it should believe about Jesus, and about what it means to be the Church!

This might be where you want to camp out as a family.  Can you structure a conversation about what we should believe, and why it matters?   Or about what the Church is, and what it should do?  What makes a good Church?  How do you know if a Church is doing its job?  How do you feel about someone (even if they are an Apostle) telling you that you are doing it wrong?   Maybe you could pray for MIE to grow as a Church?

If you come to DTP you’ll be familiar with ‘To Be a Christian’, An Anglican Catechism we use at MIE.  Here are a couple of questions that might be helpful:

92. What is the Church?

The Church is the whole community of faithful Christians in heaven and on earth, called and formed by God into one people. The Church on earth gathers to worship God in Word and Sacrament, to serve God and neighbour, and to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. (Exodus 19:4–6; Psalm 22:22–23; Matthew 28:19–20; Ephesians 2:11–22; 1 Peter 2:4–10; Articles of Religion, 19)

93. How does Holy Scripture teach you to view the Church?

Holy Scripture teaches me to view the Church as God’s family, as the Body and bride of Christ, and as the temple where God in Christ dwells by his Spirit. (Isaiah 54:5–8; Hosea 2:16–20; Matthew 12:46–50; 1 Cor. 3:16–17; 2 Cor.6:14–7:1; Revelation 5:9–10; 19:6–10)

We’ll pick up a couple more questions next week, and I’ll introduce them in the service at St John’s when I’m leading. If you are using ‘My First Books and More…’ wiht younger children, there is a section, Let’s Think About the Church’ which starts on page 73. You might want to especially have a look at Section 113.

Getting in to II Cor.1 though, Paul is working with two ideas.  One of them might be enough to be going on with, or maybe you feel confident to take the Chapter in two sections at two different points in the week?

1:3-11

A bit of background:
Paul is going to have to tackle what we would call today the ‘health, wealth and prosperity gospel’.   If you have older children / teenagers, I’d recommend carving out some time over the next couple of months to watch ‘American Gospel: Christ Alone (2018)’ and to talk about it together.  It is available online.

But in light of the fact that Corinth is wrestling with a version of the Gospel that promises deliverance from suffering, it is significant Paul opens II Corinthians with a testimony to his own experience of suffering, and of his confidence that such suffering is in God’s purpose for him. 

A good conversation could focus on what God wants to achieve in us when we suffer.  As a family you might want to talk about different experiences of suffering?  And asking what God achieved through them?  As well as looking for reasons in this passage, Rom.8:18-27 might be helpful too.   Don’t worry if you don’t feel you get very far in this – we’ll be coming back to it later in the series.

1:12-24

The second half of Ch.1 relates back to I Cor.16:5-8, and the fact that Paul didn’t ever make the visit he said he would.  For Paul the question of his integrity and trustworthiness is pretty important.  He represents a God who always delivers on His promises in Christ (1:18-19).  For Paul – an Ambassador of Christ – it is important that he faithfully reflects God’s faithfulness, and that the Church knows it can trust him. 

How important is it that people can trust us?  How important is it that we can trust our Church leaders?  What should we be able to trust them in?  How do we know if we can trust them or not? 

look at vv.20-22.  Why is it important we can trust God?

Could you spend some time praying for those involved in leading MIE?

Memory Passage:

I’d suggest II Cor.1:20-22 – or some part of it depending on age and enthusiasm! When you’ve decided what to learn, you might want to print it off, colour it in, etc.

Suggested Activities:

·        write a letter to one of our mission partners (https://www.mie.org.uk/global-intro)

·        get a map and trace out Paul’s missionary journey – where did his visit to Corinth fit in?  How did Paul manage to plant a Church there? (Acts 18)

·        for young children – playing a copy-cat style game to help illustrate that the purpose of their Church, and of their family, is to help them  learn how to be able to copy Jesus.

·        use melted wax to create a ‘seal’ of ownership