Let's Celebrate

Short Talk (SHT129) Let’s Celebrate! © Jane Hulme 2018 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: SHORT TALK: “Let’s Celebrate!” To encourage people to celebrate who God is and what He has done for them. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. Advent, Mary, Celebration, Joy, Magnificat Luke 1: 39-45[46-55] Year C – The 4th Sunday of Advent Have some percussion instruments, flags, ribbons etc. available for children to use. You will also need either a flipchart and pens, or if you are using a projection system, someone who is able to add words to a slide at the appropriate points. In preparation, write up the following words on the flipchart or PowerPoint slide:  We praise you Lord for You are  We praise you Lord for You are  We praise you Lord for You are  We praise you Lord for You have  We praise you Lord for You have  We praise you Lord for You have .................................................................................................................. I wonder if anything has ever happened to you that was so good that you had a big celebration.  Maybe you reached a special birthday.  Perhaps your sports team won an important game.  Maybe someone asked you to marry them.  Perhaps you were offered your dream job,  or maybe you won a big prize at school for a piece of work that you did. Whatever it was that happened, it was so good that you had to celebrate.  Who would like to tell us something good that they have celebrated? (Receive a couple of responses)  So what did you do to celebrate? Did you shout at the top of your voice? Did you do a little dance? Did you have a party? (Receive a couple of responses) Celebration is a good part of life isn’t it? © Jane Hulme 2018 2 Today we discover in our Bible reading that a celebration went on when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, shortly after the angel Gabriel had told Mary that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah – the Saviour. The celebration began as soon as Mary met Elizabeth!  Elizabeth shouted out words of praise in a loud voice.  The baby inside of Elizabeth “leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:44)  Then Mary joined in....pouring out words of praise from her mouth in a song so full of joy that it has come to be called the Magnificat. The celebration wasn’t so much about Mary being pregnant with a baby....wonderful as that was.  It wasn’t even about Elizabeth being pregnant with a baby in her old age.....wonderful as that was. The 2 women were actually focusing on God and celebrating Him;  celebrating who He is and what He had done for His people. You can imagine the 2 women singing and shouting out their words of praise,  possibly even dancing around their kitchen! I wonder how often you and I celebrate God in our daily lives;  for who He is and for what He Has done for us. So we are going to give ourselves an opportunity to do that now.  Let’s see how big a celebration we can make it! (Unveil your flipchart paper or PowerPoint slide that you prepared earlier.) How would you finish the following sentence?  We praise you Lord for You are......  I’ll give you the 1st word.....I am going to write the word GOOD (Complete the 1st sentence by writing up the word GOOD) Who would like to give me the 2nd word to describe the Lord’s character? (Receive response and write up the word suggested in block capitals to complete the 2nd sentence) Who would like to give me the 3rd word to describe the Lord’s character? (Receive response and write up the word suggested in block capitals to complete the 3rd sentence)  I am sure that you can think of many more words to describe the Lord’s character but these 3 will help us celebrate in a moment. Moving on to our next sentence.....how would you finish the following?  We praise you Lord for You have..... I am going to write SAVED US (Complete the 4th sentence by writing up the words SAVED US)  Now it’s your turn. © Jane Hulme 2018 3 Who would like to give me the next word to describe what the Lord has done for us? (Receive response and write up the word suggested in block capitals to complete the 5th sentence) Who would like to give me the last word to describe what the Lord has done for us? (Receive response and write up the word suggested in block capitals to complete the 6th sentence)  Again, I am sure that you can think of many more words to describe what the Lord has done for us but these 3 will help us celebrate in a moment. So how are we going to celebrate God today?  I have some musical instruments here for anyone who would like to use one. (Hand out instruments)  I have some flags/ribbons (Anything else you have provided) to help us celebrate. Some of you may like to come and dance in the aisles....  All of us can clap! Solet’sgetaclappingrhythmgoingaswebegintocelebrateGod! (Starttoclapasimplesteady rhythm)  As we continue to clap let’s get the instruments playing. (Instruments are shaken, rattled, hit etc)  Now let’s get the flags waving and the dancers dancing. (Flags are waved, dancers dance)  Finally let’s add the words that are celebrating God written on our flipchart / PowerPoint slide (Lead the chanting/rapping/singing of the words on the chart/slide. Use whatever style suits your congregation making it as exuberant as possible!) Let’s end with a shout of Praise.....shouting “Praise God” after the count of 3.  1,2,3, PRAISE GOD! Well done.  Maybe tonight as you lie in bed you can think of 3 more things to celebrate who God is, and 3 more things to celebrate what God has done, just as we have done today. So let’s keep celebrating God as we go into Christmas week,  remembering that whatever is going on in our lives, He is always worthy of our praise for who He is and for what He has done for us. © Jane Hulme 2018 4