Lectionary Links (NL): August 30, 2020

13^th Sunday After Pentecost

Year 2: August 30, 2020

Luke 11:2-4 (The Kingdom)

(Written for ages 5-9)

Comment: The words “your kingdom come” (and, in the traditional version “your will be done”) are often said with a measure of resignation, as if saying, “it’s ok if your kingdom comes.” But these words are more of a desperate plea: “make your kingdom come!” This plea might spring to mind in times of personal or national tragedy. We know God has the power to make things “on earth as they are in heaven,” and so we beg for that promised reality. At the same time, we acknowledge our role in the pain and brokenness of the world (more on that next week) – as well as our responsibility to help God’s kingdom to come. “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” This classic line from The Lorax is in reference to an environmental crisis, but it can be applied to the moral and spiritual crises we face as well. It’s important to remind children that even as we cry out for God to repair the brokenness in the world, we, too bear responsibility for setting right what’s gone wrong. What can the children in your community do to help make the world more like heaven? How can be be a part of Tikkun Olam – a jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world?

Thanks to Joshua Andrzejewski, Union Presbyterian Seminary alumnus and chaplain for the pediatric and women’s health units in the VCU Medical Center, for writing the Year 2 Narrative Lectionary Links.

Lectionary Links (NL): August 30, 2020 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.