Village Shepherd

Call to Worship:

Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." In our worship today, let us search, knock and ask.



Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, sometimes we don't bother to search because it all seems too difficult.

Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, sometimes we blame you for not finding us, when actually we haven't searched very well.

Christ, have mercy.

Jesus, we don't always want the door to be opened in case you demand too much of us.

Lord, have mercy.



Reading:

Luke 11:1-13 (NRSV)

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." [2] He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

[3] Give us each day our daily bread.

[4] And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial."



[5] And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; [6] for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' [7] And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' [8] I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

[9] "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. [10] For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. [11] Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? [12] Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? [13] If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"





Story:

Even for people who take time out to be with God, prayer can be difficult, especially at times of stress. But if we have an armoury of different types of prayer, we can use them on different occasions - as Molly discovers in this story.



Molly's Prayer

Molly knew about listening prayer because she loved to lie on her back on the grass and gaze at the clouds scudding by. She discovered that when she was quiet and just wandering amongst the trees at the bottom of her garden or gazing at the clouds, unexpected thoughts would pop unbidden into her mind and she realised that these thoughts often came from God.

Occasionally she had even asked God for help, like when she lost her silver bracelet. God had helped her to find it.

But today was different. Molly had just heard that her Grandma was seriously ill in hospital. Molly was so upset by the news that she found she couldn't settle on the grass and she couldn't wander amongst the trees. She was angry and anxious all at the same time and nothing she did seemed to help.

So she followed her mother round until her mother said sharply, "For goodness sake, Molly! You're driving me mad! Can't you read a book or watch television or something?"

And Molly pouted and ran out of the room and slammed the door.

She was desperate for somebody to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be all right. But nobody even seemed to want her around just at the moment.

As Molly mooched in the garden not knowing what to do with herself, her Sunday School teacher happened by.

"What's up, Molly?" she asked. "You don't look too happy."

With that, Molly burst into tears. She poured out all about her Grandma to her Sunday School teacher who listened carefully then said, "Shall we say a prayer together, Molly, asking God to help your Grandma?"

Molly nodded vigorously but she was scared. She didn't know how to pray out loud or what to say. But it was all rightbecause her Sunday School teacher prayed out loud and Molly was able to manage "Amen" at the end of each little prayer. That seemd to be enough and Molly's Sunday School teacher didn't mind a bit.

After a few minutes Molly felt strangely calmer. She still didn't know whether her Grandma would get better, but somehow she felt she could begin to cope even if the worst happened and Grandma died.

Later that day, Molly's Mum took her to see Grandma who was sitting up in bed looking and feeling much more cheerful.

"My Sunday Schoolteacher prayed for you and I helped her," whispered Molly.

Grandma beamed at her and squeezed her hand. "Prayer helps no end," she said. "I feel so much better, just knowing that you're all praying for me. I'm sure that's why I'm recovering so quickly."

Molly felt better too and she decided then and there that she would learn to pray out loud, just as her Sunday School teacher did.

When she got home she went and lay on the grass and watched the clouds scudding by, and told God all about it. And although she couldn't see anything, she was sure that God smiled.



Activity:

You need:

A whiteboard and pens

A large twig or small tree branch planted in a pot

Lots of different leaf shapes, cut out of coloured card

Pens

Glue or double-sided sticky tape

Elicit from the children the different types of prayer - asking prayer, listening prayer, "sorry" prayer, "thank you" prayer, prayer for others. They could tick them off on the fingers of one hand, to help them remember. Ask the children for examples of each type of prayer and write them on the white board. Then ask the children to decide which sort of prayer they most want to say today (avoid listening prayer if you did it last week.) They may all decide on something different. Give them each a leaf and get them to write a short prayer on the leaf, then stick the leaves to the twig. If you're in the church, give everybody a leaf and ask them to write their prayers on it. Then stick all the leaves onto the prayer "tree".

Have a short time of silence for everybody to pray silently. Then pray over all the prayers on the tree ,asking God to hear and answer them. If you like, you can leave the tree in church with some spare leaves, so that people can come in during the week and add their own prayers.



Prayers:

God our father, help us to remember that when we can't pray, other people throughout the church are praying for us. But remind us too, that we must pray for other people, so that when they have dry times, someone is praying for them.

God our father, increase the prayer of the nation so that we may centre ourselves on you and experience real life with a capital L.

God our father, teach us how to pray. May we learn many different methods of prayer so that we are never at a loss and can always communicate with you.

God our father, hear our prayer as we remember before you those who are sick. Soothe them, strengthen them and calm them, that they may be ready to receive your healing love.



Blessing:

May you wait upon God in prayer,

be aware of his response to you

and thus do his will.

And may the blessing of God Almighty,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Be with you, be in your homes

And in your families,

With those whom you love

And with those for whom you pray,

Both now and always. Amen.