1. Say you’re going to be a little part of (name your church) church at home today.
2. Light a candle and pray:
With the light of this candle, we remember the light of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God, you are here with us now and also with our friends and family in their homes today.
Especially we remember that you are also with… (invite everyone to remember people from church, school, extended family, neighbourhood)
Thank you, Jesus, light for the world. Amen
3. Say: You all have three minutes to go and find the strongest smelling thing you can and the nicest smelling thing you can. Bring all the items to the table and decide which is the winner in each category. (You could add ‘worst smelling thing’, but frankly, that could get very unpleasant indeed…) Talk about the sense of smell. Do a Google search on ‘amazing facts about your sense of smell’ and find out something you didn’t know.
4. Say: We’re thinking today about the holy habit of ‘worship’. There are so many ways we can worship God! Even through our noses! Read John 12:1-3 Ask everyone which of the smells on your table they think is most like the smell of Mary’s perfume at that meal.
- How would you describe Mary’s worship of Jesus here?
- Why do you think she worshipped him as she did?
- Do you think she was concerned about what all the other dinner guests thought of her?
- What is the most important thing about worship you can take away from this story?
5. Draw a rough picture of a pinperson on a sheet of paper. Draw an arrow pointing to the nose and label it ‘Mary poured out expensive perfume’. Ask everyone to suggest ways we can worship God using different parts of our body and in different parts of our lives and label them on the paper.
6. Invite everyone to doodle a praise doodle on a piece of paper, (just listen to the music and draw whatever comes to your mind) while you play The Heart of Worship or your family’s favourite Messy Church song of praise.
7. Pray this prayer together with everyone joining in on the line in bold (from Holy Habits Worship p17 BRF 2018)
When life is good and my heart feels glad
I will praise you, beautiful God
When life is dull and every day feels the same
I will praise you, beautiful God
When I feel hopeful and life is falling into place perfectly
I will praise you, beautiful God
When I feel no hope for the future and I can’t see a way forward
I will praise you, beautiful God
(Then invite everyone to suggest a line that starts ‘When….’ and respond with the same line of praise)
8. Say the Lord’s Prayer together, with or without actions and point out the line about giving us today our daily bread.
9. Say the Messy Grace if you usually do that at Messy Church
10. Blow out the candle, changing the light from visible to invisible light
Extra challenge: Who can learn the short Psalm 100 off by heart?
