Getting on and falling out assembly on unity Col 3.1-25

This assembly/unity sermon illustration takes the overall theme of the Colossians passage.  There are some parts that if you read it you may have to adapt slightly depending on the culture you are talking to.  So in an assembly you may have to use ‘wives and girlfriends’ instead of just wives, and ‘boyfriends’ instead of simply husbands, to reflect marriage statistics.  Likewise there are few slaves, but you can equally talk about employees.

If this is for an assembly then talking about getting on together works well, and narrowing down the marks of unity (vs 12-16) can be done by picking up on the main points of being kind, gentle, forgiving.

No props are needed.

Have 6 volunteers come out who can be put into pairs of roughly the same size.  Have each equal height pair sit back to back on the floor and link arms.  They should now attempt to stand up.  Smaller children find this easier because of flexibility and being near to the ground/short limbs!  Bigger people will struggle.  The only way of succesfully doing this is by pushing up against one another.  Point out this fact – they need to rely on each other but more than that, it’s called an opposite force.

We often look at the people who are different from us – opposite in their likes, dislikes, or how they look – and say that we don’t like them because of it.  And yet because they are different and opposite we can do amazing things together.

Get everyone to look at their hands.  They have opposable thumbs.  That means that the thumb can touch each of the other fingers of the same hand.  That’s really useful (see more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb and http://www.thefreedictionary.com/opposable+thumb Imagine trying to pick up things without your thumb.  As an example of how strong your opposable thumb is, press finger and thumb together and suggest one of the children tries to pull them apart. (if there are some wallbars in the assembly hall with permission you could demonstrate how strong your hand is by climbing!)

Challenge one of the children to pick up a pen and write with it without using their thumb.  It would be worth noting that some people don’t have a thumb because of accident or not being born with one, and how we have to help those people.

Point out that working together is very important.  Paul wrote to some people in a church about what it was like to live together as Christians together.  It wasn’t easy, there were probably often squabbles.  People were getting to know Jesus, and coming together to pray and sing songs, but often came from different cultures or lifestyles and they just had to work out how to get along.  Paul came up with a list of how they could get along – three of those things were being kind, being gentle (which didn’t mean little flowers, it meant not being nasty to one another and being careful with how they spoke to one another) and forgiving one another their mistakes.  He was helping them to know all about getting on and not falling out.

He even gave some examples of how to do it.  One of his examples concerned children who had to do what their parents said, but dads had to encourage them and not just boss them around or shout at them all the time.

And together they would be strong – just like pushing together to stand up, or the strength that comes from having an opposable thumb.

So next time you think about not liking someone because they are opposite to you, take a moment to look at your hand and remember that opposites can achieve some amazing things

Finish with a prayer about working together and getting on together

Short link http://wp.me/pDlJe-1a

• Memory jogger:
  Push up game – 6 volunteers
  Opposable forces achieve things together
  Differences
  Opposable thumbs
  Kind, Gentle, Forgiving
  Children and parents
  Children opposite to us in school

Alternative story…

If you are interested in another story from the Bible, check out my new retelling of the story of Jacob and Esau

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