Tag Archives: Faith in the home

Faith + Alive January Remembrance of Baptism

 

20130822-223520.jpg Gather your household. Have a candle (or everyone’s baptismal candles if you have them) and a bowl of water on a table.  Light the candle (or all of them) and say: “Come Holy Spirit.” Open in prayer: Dear Jesus, through your baptism we too are named as God’s beloved children. May our lights shine in the darkness to glorify our Father in heaven. Amen.

20130822-223633.jpg Read Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22. Or Pages 242-245 in the Spark Storybook Bible.

For Children: What do we use water for in our day? (Bath, clean dishes, clothes, drink, cook, etc.) We use water all day long and we also need it for our bodies to be healthy. God uses water and words of love to tell the whole world that we belong to God now and forever. When you were baptized we splashed water on you three times (can you count to three?) and said, “In the name of the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.” Then we lit a candle just like we did here to remember that Jesus is the light of the world and that we reflect Jesus’ light in the world too. How can you show Jesus’ love at school? At home? At soccer/ballet/piano etc.?

For Adults/youth: Do you know the story of your baptism? Or do you remember your baptism? These stories are more than just a nice memory with family, but mark the day that you parents/sponsors proclaimed that life in and with God and the people of God is important. Not just important but vital-life and death. Water has much power in our world: it can clean, erode, give life, cause death, have beauty and be destructive. God uses water to tell the story of love between God and his people from the beginning. This story is continued with Jesus. Baptism, living water, woman at the well, thirsting on the cross and water flowing from his pierced side. Water is powerful but so is God’s word, God’s story in our lives. This story begins at birth, is proclaimed through water in baptism, is nourished at the table with bread and wine and is shared with us in community.

For All: From whom did you first hear God’s story? Or who was a primary teller of the story in your life? With whom do you tell the story of God’s love? Who would you like to tell about what God is doing in your life? What difference does this story of God’s love make in your daily life?

20130822-223749.jpgGod of living water, we find ourselves rooted in your story of love. We are part of what you are doing in the world to show everyone that they are loved, forgiven and belong to you. We pray for your kingdom to come. Amen.

20130822-223908.jpg Dipping your fingers in the bowl of water, make the sign of the cross on one another and say:  +You are God’s beloved child. Go tell the story.+

FaithCross_Worship Remembering God’s story! Have the Luke reading printed off in large print and on a large piece of butcher paper (you will want blank space around the words). Invite people to bring in a copy of their baptism picture to place on the banner with the reading and/or draw an image or a symbol of baptism that is meaningful to them. Other options: invite people to write/draw where they experience God’s story in their lives or a prayer for where they could share God’s story.

At home:  With children: Have copies (not precious originals) of baptismal pictures. Using construction paper or plain paper, make a small story book of your baptismal day.

With adults/youth: Place a picture of your baptism or a symbol of baptism (dove, candle, sea shell) on your bathroom mirror and every morning remember that you are being made new to go and share God’s love.

FaithCross_ServeALT Take an old water bottle, decorate it with symbols of baptism. Place it where people in the household can place their spare change each day. At the end of Epiphany (Feb. 7th) donate the change to the ELCA World Hunger. www.elca.org

 

 

 

Holy Week Devotional Gospel of John, Year A

20130822-223520.jpg Share with one another the days or week’s concerns and celebrations. Be sure to write them down in order to pray for each other.

20130822-223633.jpg Read and reflect on the following passages each day:
Monday: John 12: 1-11
FaithCross Love can seem lavish and extraneous but Mary’s actions remind us that love can also keep us present with those whom we love. How can you show people in your life that they are important to you today? What are ways that we can remind ourselves that God loves us all in this same lavish and sacrificial way?
20130822-223633.jpgTuesday: John 20: 20-36
 FaithCrossThink of examples from nature or from your own experiences where something (or situation) had to “die” in order for something new to come about. Does the new life make the death any easier? How does knowing that God is still creating and making things new sustain us when we are experiencing all of the big and small “deaths” (losing job, divorce, empty nesters, moving, physical death, loss of independence) of life?
20130822-223633.jpgWednesday: John 13:21-32
FaithCross This is a difficult passage as it read that Satan entered Judas when he took the bread from Jesus. What does it mean that Judas, as one of Jesus’ disciples, still did not believe in Jesus and betrayed him? Does it change anything that Satan entered Judas? “The devil made him do it”? What do you think about that as a response to harmful behavior?
20130822-223633.jpgThursday: John 13: 1-17,31b-35
FaithCross To wash the feet of people was to be in the position of a very lowly servant in Jesus’ time. How do Jesus’ actions of foot washing along with the commandment to “love one another” as Jesus loved the disciples and loves us change how we treat other people? How do we truly serve those around us? How does the world know that we are followers of Jesus who came to serve, die and be raised to give us all freedom and eternal life?
20130822-223633.jpgFriday: John 18:1-19:42
FaithCross Trade off reading this long passage or assign parts. Light three candles at the beginning of your devotional time together. After John 18: 27, 19:16 and 19: 42 (the end), extinguish a candle and hold a minute of silent prayer before continuing on in the story. End your devotional time with silence.

20130822-223749.jpg Pray for the concerns and celebrations of those gathered. Pray to show lavish love to others, to allow new life to grow, for the wrestling with what we don’t understand, for the world to know God’s love and thanksgiving that God so loved the world that God gave Jesus so that no one is ever separated from God.

20130822-223908.jpg On Monday give each person in the household a cross of some kind (you can create one from cardstock or however you would like to), and write on it, “God’s love brings life from death.”

Faith + Home Connection February 2014

20130822-223520.jpgShare your highs and lows of the day. Write them on post-it notes and put them on the refrigerator and pray for each other at your next meal.

20130822-223633.jpgWeek 1: 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31: Do you consider yourself called to God’s mission and work in the world in anyway? Why or why not? Do you think God calls us all or just some? How do you think God can use you in your school, job or community to share the love of Christ?

Week 2: 1 Corinthians 2: 6-16: What are some gifts that God has given you? How have you used them? What do you think it means to have the mind of Christ?

Week 3: 1 Corinthians 3: 1-9: It’s very easy to forget that we belong to God and not to anything else. Paul speaks of belonging to “people” but in our culture we belong to pro sports teams, groups, work places, neighborhoods, gyms, and many other organizations. (Which is not a bad thing.) How can we remember that above all else we belong to God? Who shares God’s love and nurtures your faith?

Week 4: 1 Corinthians 3: 10-11, 16-23: What is your faith foundation? Are there spiritual practice that help to lay the foundation for you? If you are holy and God’s temple how does that change how you are in your daily life? How you treat other people?

20130822-224425.jpgGod of life, we forget that we belong to you. We forget that we and all people are your holy temple. Help us to treat one another as with the “mind of Christ” so that the whole world will know your love. Amen.

20130822-223908.jpg(Make the sign of the cross on one another): You belong to Christ and God’s Spirit dwells in you.

FaithCross_ServeALTAsk each week who is in need in your neighborhood or faith community? Find out if a meal, shoveling the walk, house cleaning or babysitting would be a way to bolster someone struggling. Pray for them each day.