Home: Where is my home?
Is it the house where I live,
The garden where I sit in summer,
The country where I roam,
Or the church where I worship?

The place I call home
Is where my heart is at rest.
And my heart is most at rest
When it turns to God in prayer.
So wherever I pray is home.

~ From Celtic Parables: stories, poems, and prayers by Robert van de Weyer.

This week we hear a biblical story of the human experience of divine presence – Moses’ craving to physically see God. This is a feeling that other people may also have experienced as they confront times of uncertainty. Through the story we hear that there is an assurance that God desires to be in an authentic, mutual, loving relationship and through the session material we explore experiences of God’s presence in others’ and our own lives. Biblical scholars discourage readers of the story from thinking of God in human form (anthropomorphic). They note that the Hebrew word translated “my back” (v. 23) is achorai , which refers not so much to something spatial as temporal. What God actually says to Moses is that Moses can see “my afterward.” In other words, Moses like us, can experience the effect or the power and presence of God without seeing a being called “God.”

As we read this ancient story, let’s feel the bedrock of God saying all the things that God will do. Let’s be comforted by the craving of Moses to physically see God. Let’s find ourselves as often as we can in the clefts of rock where, if we are patient, we will at least see the “afterward” of God, to whom we orient our living. Let prayer be the moment-to-moment, lively conversation with God who desires a reciprocal loving relationship with us.

Holy Companion, the place I will not go is the one where you are not. The rock I will not hold is the one you will not pass. The rest I will not have is the one you have not given. The friendship I will not live is the one that is not of you. Amen.

• Access Spirit Sightings for connections between current events and the focus passage.
• Review articles “Finding Meaning in Biblical Text” (Multiage; Ages 9-11; Ages 15-18) and “God’s Presence, Favour, and Advocacy” (Extra Resources folder on Ages 15-18 disk).

• storytelling box (Ages 3-5) continued from October 2.
• Unfolding fabric ritual (Ages 6-8) continued from October 2.
• Conversation with God resource sheet offers a “walking reading” of the text (Adult; Ages 15-18).
• Option: use the paraphrase “Moses Sees God” (p. 222) of the Lectionary Story Bible, Year A; also available as an mp3 and projectable art download)

• There are many options for exploring “willing relationship” such as hearts and people and memory game (Ages 3-5); ribbon bracelets and group book (Ages 6-8); rock reminders (Ages 9-11); timeline and drawing (Multiage); friendship art (Ages 12-14); reflection path and abstract art (Ages 15-18); prayer path (Adult).
• Note: reflection or prayer path (Adult, Ages 15-18) that is made by writing words on paving stones or paper could be an intergenerational activity

• Posters: “Moses” and “Midsummer Night in Harlem” are used to engage with the focus scripture. Ages 3-5 and 6-8 use figures from the Storytelling poster.
• Create artwork/sculpture that symbolizes friendship like the deep friendship between God and Moses (Ages 12-14)
• Creating abstract artwork that symbolizes both the mystery and certainty of God’s presence in our lives (Ages 15-18).
• Music: “I Feel God Around Me”  (available as a downloadable mp3 purchase)

October 23: God’s Story, Our Stories

(Deuteronomy 34: 1-12). In Moses’ dying the significance of his life became clear – what it was and what it was not. Above all, it is a story of great friendship between God and Moses. The great stories told by the community of faith, generation after generation, include themes and values to which our individual and communal stories are connected. What are the ways that your story is connected to God’s story?

For SeasonsFusion (which inspires worship in a setting for all ages) see the new SeasonsFusion blog and sign up to receive the SeasonsFusion Tip of the week. In Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Fusion, page 25, you will find and idea for a Christmas Pageant with a difference – a Powerpoint telling of the age old story using art created by children and adults in your congregation.