At-Home Family Worship for the 4th Sunday After Epiphany
Every other week we are offering a simple family service for children and families to follow together at home. We hope this can act as another spiritual formation resource for families during this time we cannot meet in-person for worship.
1. GATHER TOGETHER
Gather all of your household participants in one place. Find somewhere in your home that feels comfortable and inviting! You can sit in a circle, perhaps around the dinner table or in the living room. You could even get pillows and sit on the floor! Wherever you are, take a moment to pause and breathe together, maybe light a candle. Then, invite one person to lead the opening prayer.
2. OPENING PRAYER
Prayer leader: The Lord be with You
All: And also with you.
Prayer leader: Let us pray.
Gracious God,
Come live with us at our home.
Bless us and guide us in your ways.
Widen our hearts to welcome others.
Bind our hearts together so that Christ’s presence
is revealed by our love. Amen.
(adapted from Common Prayer for Children and Families, page 91)
3. Reading
Read the following passage from 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
…we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.
4. Reflection
Watch this short reflection on the reading from our Lay Associate for Christian Formation and Postulant for Holy Orders, Holly Huff!
Optional hands-on activity:
Holly talks about the phrase “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” She compares knowledge without love to a peep puffing up in the microwave — but then dissolving into a pile of goo. Knowledge with love doesn’t just puff up temporarily, love is more sturdy. Love builds up.
Get some peeps and a pile of legos or building blocks. Try an experiment where you microwave your peeps. Watch how they puff up and then dissolve. Then build a building, a tower, or some other creation with your legos or blocks. Compare and contrast your experience.
5. Music
Take a few minutes to listen to Hymn 593, Lord make us servants of your peace. Then try learning a verse or two as a family and singing along!
1 Lord, make us servants of your peace:
Where there is hate, may we sow love;
Where there is hurt, may we forgive;
Where there is strife, may we make one.
2 Where all is doubt, may we sow faith;
Where all is gloom, may we sow hope;
Where all is night, may we sow light;
Where all is tears, may we sow joy.
3 Jesus, our Lord, may we not seek
To be consoled, but to console,
Nor look to understanding hearts,
But look for hearts to understand.
4 May we not look for love's return,
But seek to love unselfishly,
For in our giving we receive,
And in forgiving are forgiven.
6. Closing Prayers
Take a moment to pause. Invite a member of the household to be the prayer leader to lead these or similar prayers:
Prayer leader: Let’s pray together silently or out loud. First, let’s say thank you to God for the good things in our lives. Are there specific things you’d like to say thank you for? (Give time for others to share out loud or silently.) For all these things, let’s say together: Thank you so much, Lord!
All: Thank you so much, Lord!
Prayer leader: Now, let’s pray for the people or animals who are sick or need help. We also pray for the things that worry us. Are there specific people, animals, or worries you’d like to pray for? (Give time for others to share out loud or silently.) Let us say: Please God, help us!
All: Please God, help us!
Prayer leader: Repeat after me
All: Dear God,
Thank you for this time together
Stay with us
This week and always.
Help us to be like Jesus.
Amen.
These family services are inspired by and adapted from the Family Worship: Home Edition services at Trinity Wall Street in New York City.