Last Friday some of our regular families gathered at St Agnes for the first of our children friendly Advent group. Like the Adults the children will be focusing on the Kingdom of God for the four weeks up to Christmas. We began thinking about the change of season. In the natural we see the signs of the seasons changing. In the Church the liturgical year has different seasons and we see them change by the colours in church. Purple tells us it is a time of preparation and pondering. It is a time for thinking about what is wrong in the world and what needs to be put right. We started with a story about how things were in Israel at the time of the prophets:

Many years before Jesus was born things were not the way God intended them in his Holy land. God’s people cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.” The kingdom had forgotten God’s laws and things were happening that made God sad.

Those who were poor were thrown out of their houses to make way for those who were rich to have them. The poor cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come. Where people will live in their own houses for all of their years.” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

Farmers, whose land had been owned by their father and their father’s, father, had their land taken from them. The farmers cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come, when the farmers will reap a big harvest in safety.” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

Those who were hungry were cheated and got even less food than they needed. The rich took more than their fair share piled their tables high. The hungry called to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come, when the poor will be fed and the rich sent away empty” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

Those who were peaceful found themselves attacked by those who were strong and cruel. The peaceful cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come and those who are peaceful will be my children.” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

Those who walked down the streets were robbed by thieves who jumped from the shadows. Their money all gone, the people cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come when those who fear will walk where they want for violence will have no place there.” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

When those who loved God went to the Temple to pray they found priests who charged them too much for their offerings. Those who loved God cried to the Lord “Life is hard for us. Please put this wrong right.”

And God said through his prophets “I have a plan. A Time is coming when my Kingdom will come when all people will come to the Holy hill and worship me. I will teach them my ways and they will walk with me.” The people cherished this promise in their hearts.

After that we looked at some passages from the prophets in the Bible that speak of God’s promise to bring about his Kingdom. The images included the city rebuilt on a hill, filled with laughter; the abundant harvest; people flocking to God’s Holy mountain; the scattered sheep being gathered into the sheep fold; farmers sitting under their vines and being safe. The children took one of these images and used art materials to do pictures, collages and one 3D model (possibly the first time the mountain of the Lord has had a hybrid dalek-goat on it.) At the end of the session we reflected on what it must have felt like for people suffering in an unjust kingdom to hear this promise of ‘wrongs being put right’ and to cherish in their hearts God’s promise.