3^rd Sunday of Advent

Year 2: December 15, 2019

Ezra 1:1-4; 3:1-4, 10-13

What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan

(Written for ages 5-8)

Comment: It’s important to hang onto family stories. In MacLachlan’s book, a young girl learns that she and her family will be leaving home. She doesn’t want to go, and thinks about all the things she’ll miss. Her mother acknowledges the difficulty of loss and encourages her to collect mementos that will help her teach her baby brother about home. As we draw closer and closer to Christmas Day and the birth of Jesus, this passage serves to remind us of several important characters we’ve encountered so far. Two weeks ago, we read Jeremiah’s prophecy that God would restore leadership to the throne and temple in Israel; today, we see the fulfillment of that prophecy through the Persian king Cyrus. In October, we explored the nature of worship with king David; in this passage, we see priests and Levite’s celebrating in accordance with David’s directions. In September, we learned about Moses’ discovery of God’s name; today, we hear about offerings made in accordance with Moses’ law. This story from Ezra is about coming home and remembering what’s important. The Israelites never could’ve recovered their home if they hadn’t kept hold of the most important parts of their faith. This is an opportunity to ask children what things remind us of our faith. You might look around the sanctuary, the Sunday school room, or your house at home to find reminders of our faith.

Thanks to Union Presbyterian Seminary alumnus Joshua Andrzejewski for writing the Year 2 Narrative Lectionary Links this year.

Lectionary Links (NL): December 15, 2019 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.