First Thoughts: Our observation of Lent begins with the imposition of ashes, which marks the faithful pilgrim on his journey to the cross. Whether your church distributes ashes literally or symbolically, the point of this service is to set a prayerful intention for the next forty days. We intend to be honest with God and with ourselves about areas of our lives which need examination and reform. We intend to reduce our spiritual clutter, to allow space of silence for God to speak to us. We intend to face the heartbreak of the cross, engaging and challenging injustice in our community and our world, so we might pass through to the new beginning of resurrection. We set our intention with ashes, as ones ready to die to an old life and begin anew.
Teaching On Your Own: (walks back and forth mouthing words silently, hands folded in "prayer" position, eyes closed but occasionally peeks out at the children; finally pauses and addresses children) Hey you guys! You know what I'm doing? Right, I'm praying! I'm in the middle of a very deep, very important prayer so I thought I would pray out here so you could all see me do it. I mean, what's the purpose of prayer? Is it something you do so others will see and be impressed with you, or is it your time to talk with God? It's talking with God, right? It's talking with God. Let's think of it this way: if you wanted to have a nice long talk with somebody, would you go someplace really loud and busy where lots of people are running around? Or would you choose to go someplace quiet so you could really hear and listen to each other? You'd pick the quiet place, right?
In our lesson today Jesus warns us not to pray just so others will see us. When we do that we can't expect God to hear us because we're not really talking to God at all. Instead we need to go somewhere private to talk to God, so we can share what we need to share and, even more importantly, we can listen to what God wants to say back. And that's also why we're having an Ash Wednesday service. Today is the start of the season of Lent -- forty days of prayer which helps us get ready for Easter. Getting ready for Easter is pretty important, right? Guess I should do a little more private prayer if I'm going to do Lent right.
Teaching As A Team:
(Leader 2 walks on, hands folded in prayer, walks very deliberately in front of everybody with eyes closed, mouthing as if in prayer. Walks in front of Leader 1 while Leader 1 is talking, clearly tries to get attention.)
Leader 1: Hey everybody. Today is Ash Wednesday and... (Leader peeks eye open and walks in front; Leader 1 steps aside and tries to start again.) Does anyone know why we call it Ash Wednesday...? (Leader 2 peeks eye open and walks in front again; Leader 1 steps aside again and tries to continue.) There's a very good reason we call it that and... (Leader 2 walks in front again) Um, (name)? Is there a reason you keep walking in front of me?
Leader 2: I'm in the middle of a very deep, very important prayer.
Leader 1: Oh, okay. But that doesn't really tell me why you're walking up and down out here.
Leader 2: Well, what's the good of praying such an important prayer if there's nobody there to see you do it?
Leader 1: I see. You wanted to make sure we saw you praying, is that it?
Leader 2: Of course. I want you to know what a great Christian I am.
Leader 1: I think you might need to be straightened out a little about prayer. Prayer isn't something you do so that others will see you and be impressed. Prayer is when you talk to God.
Leader 2: But can't you pray and have lots of people see you?
Leader 1: Well, think of it this way. If you wanted to have a nice long talk with somebody, would you go someplace really loud and busy where lots of people are running around? Or would you choose to go someplace quiet so you could really hear and listen to each other?
Leader 2: I guess I'd pick a quiet place.
Leader 1: Right. In our lesson today Jesus warns us not to pray just so others will see us. When we do that we can't expect God to hear us because we're not really talking to God at all. Instead we need to go somewhere private to talk to God, so we can share what we need to share and, even more importantly, we can listen to what God wants to say back. And that's also why we're having an Ash Wednesday service. Today is the start of the season of Lent -- forty days of prayer which helps us get ready for Easter.
Leader 2: Wow. That sounds pretty important. Guess I should do a little more private prayer then, if I'm going to do Lent right.
Leader 1: I think you're probably right!
Closing Prayer: God, help us to find quiet spaces in our lives to meet you in prayer so we can share our hearts with you and listen for your response. Remind us that our prayer time with you is special and important, and not something to be used to impress other people. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Follow-Up Lesson: To reinforce this message in a home or classroom environment, talk more about the season of Lent. Explain again that Lent is the forty days before Easter, and that Christians use this season to get ready for Jesus' death and resurrection. We do this by looking closely at our lives to see if there are ways we can be better Christians in the world. Prayer helps us because it opens a line of communication with God, and God can show us things we need to change. Talk about ways we demonstrate our faith in the world: through sharing with those in need, offering friendship to those who are lonely, gathering with other Christians to worship and read scripture together. Encourage the children to think of special things they might do during the forty days of Lent. Some suggestions might be going through their toys and clothes and picking out nice things to give to charity, or not watching television one day a week and spending that time praying, or visiting a senior living facility to bring joy to the people who live there.
For a closing activity consider doing the imposition of ashes, using ashes to mark crosses on your children' foreheads. Explain that the ashes are a symbol of our willingness to spend the next forty days paying special attention to what God wants to say to us and to living our lives as Jesus did. (A note on the ashes: first dip your finger in olive oil, then in the ashes. Say a blessing, like "God be with you in these forty days" as you draw a cross on the student's forehead.) If you decide not to do the traditional imposition of ashes, you can do a craft variation of the idea.
Provide each student with a piece of construction paper. (I would go with purple since that's the color of Lent, but you don't have to.) Have them fold the top of the paper down, creating a card. Then have each child dip his or her finger in olive oil and into some ashes, and make a cross on the front of their card. They can then open the card and write down a few ideas they have for how they will make this Lent special. Be sure to close in prayer.
