22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

Year B:  August 30, 2015

First Reading: Song of Solomon 2:8-13

Love Song for a Baby by Marion Dane Bauer

(Written for ages 4-8)

Comment: With this text we are invited to step into a love song, where the one singing is, according to professor Wil Gafney, “besotted with every little thing [her beloved] does…” (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1402)  Bauer’s Love Song is a window into the world of parents besotted with their new child. “Your laughter was the sun. Your smile, the moon. Even your burps were bells, since we loved you.” Using this text and story, wonder together with your congregation about the types of love present in their own lives and consider inviting them to write some love songs of their own.

Second Reading: James 1:17-27

Shoebox Sam by Mary Brigid Barrett

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: “But be doers of the word… care for orphans and widows in their distress.” Often it is much easier to speak of justice than it is to actually enact it. The children in Barrett’s story are hesitant when Sam invites them to help him care for people on the fringes of society, but as they become doers of the word, they are blessed with great joy. Wonder together with the children of your church about what doing God’s word might look like in their own lives.

Gospel Reading:  Mark 7:1-8, 14-15; 21-23

Andrew’s Angry Words by Dorthea Lachner

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” Lachner’s book helps children understand that the things that come out of a person can have a huge ripple effect on their community. When exploring this text and story with children, take time to name together what words and actions lead to right relations with God and others, and what words and actions harm those relationships. Thanks be to God that the grace extended to Andrew by the lady at the market is one extended to us through Christ again and again.

Thanks to Noell Rathbun-Cook for writing the Lectionary Links for the last four weeks. Noell serves as Minister of Children and Youth Discipleship at Grace Baptist Church and was our only Links writer for three years! We are always happy to have us back writing for us.

Lectionary Links: Sunday, August 30, 2015 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.