  Egg with a message
 the empty cross
 Road to Emmaus prayer foot 
Emmaus road biscuit feet
empty tomb
Egg with a message
crosses on cup cakes
Sheila and Joan story tellers
Sheila leads prayer
 Easter Egg treat
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| | | Messy Church - 28 April 2019 |
The theme for Sunday 28th Messy Church was 'Easter - What happened next?'
 The
first Easter was a confusing time for the disciples: they saw their
Lord put to trial then crucified, they saw him laid in the grave
– the man who had promised eternal life had been taken from them.
And then he rose from the dead: reading Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24
and John 20 and 21, we are able to put together a fairly comprehensive
picture of those events.
It’s clear from the different
accounts just how confused everyone was – apart from considerable
variation in what we are told by the different writers (just like
witness accounts of an accident!) the reactions are interesting.
Jesus
had tried so hard to tell his disciples what would happen – and
yet they were so devastated by his death that they could hardly believe
he had been resurrected. And some found it more difficult than others
– think of the confusion of poor Thomas. For Cleopas and his
friend on the Emmaus road, it was equally difficult – even
walking for some considerable distance with Jesus and talking with him
about the events was not enough for them to recognise him.
 It
was only as he sat down and broke bread with them that their eyes were
opened, and in the familiar words and actions they recognised their
risen Lord. Even on the occasion of the final appearance on the shore,
when the fisherman are enabled to make a huge catch of fish, it’s
only with difficulty that they are able to identify their risen Lord
So
for us today it’s hardly surprising that the concept of the
resurrection can be difficult – after all, if those who had spent
time with Jesus, who had been told by him what would happen, and to
whom he appeared as a physical presence struggled to grasp what was
going on, how much harder is it for us who have only those confused
Bible accounts and our own faith to go by. But, by faith, we do know
that he is indeed risen, and all that means for us and for all mankind.
And we thank God for the opportunities we have, not only today, to share this news with those we meet.
Christ is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Our crafts included -
THE CROSS - We
glued four lolly sticks together to make a square frame. Using wool we
made a cross within the frame, with a flower at the centre of the
cross, marking our frame 'He Lives'
We know that Jesus died on the cross. Why is this “empty” cross a happy and not a sad sign for Christians?
 THE GARDEN and the Tomb - On
a shallow layer of gravel on a tray we placed a flower pot on its
side – this was the tomb. Over the flower pot we shaped some compost with grass seed mixed together,
to make a hill. Finally we chose a stone to cover the entrance
to our tomb. If we water the hill carefully we
hopefully will soon have a grass covered garden!
When the
grass grows in our garden we say it has come to life. When Jesus rose
from the tomb, he came back to life – and he did this to give us
“life”.
AN EGG WITH A MESSAGE
- We covered our egg in tissue scraps, then carefully cut it into
four pieces, sticking them on a card so that we finished up with a
cross surrounded by the pieces of card. Finally we wrote 'He is
Risen across the centre of our cross.
How many of us
received an Easter egg? What was inside it? The egg is a sign
of new life – the cross shape reminds us that Jesus rose from the
grave so that we can have new life, a life where we are forgiven for
our sin.
 ROAD TO EMMAUS PRAYER FOOT - We cut a card round the shape of our foot, using pipe cleaners to make straps, decorating with beads.
The
two men need Jesus to help them understand he was alive again. What
things do you need Jesus to help you with – to be good? Your
school work? Your friends? Something that’s worrying you? To
trust him more? Or to get to know him? We wrote these on our
“foot” as a reminder of the things you can pray about
at home.
Even though it can be hard to know if God is really
there, or that Jesus really did come to life again for us, he loves us
and wants us to get to know him. We can still bring him our prayers
even if we’re not quite sure who he is.
FISHERS OF MEN
- Our fish were balloons and we had to catch as many in a minute
and put them in the 'net' to win the challenge to see who  is the best “fisherman”.
Jesus
left his disciples with jobs to do – they were to go and make
disciples all over the world, they were to be fishers of men. We are
asked to do these things too – what does this mean and how can we
do it?
EMMAUS ROAD BISCUITS
- A dry biscuit was spread with soft cheese, representing our road to
Emmaus. A cheese slice was cut into 'feet' shapes, with each foot stuck
onto our soft cheese biscuit road. Finally we sprinkled on some
flax seeds to represent the dirty road.
Cleopas and his friend knew
Jesus, and yet were so sad that they could not recognise him as he
walked beside them. What helped them to realise who was talking to
them? What could help us to know Jesus is speaking to us?
 CELEBRATION TIME Joan
Cape and Sheila Anderson led our celebration time in the church, where
our blindfolded volunteers had to guess what an item was based only on
touch. Joan then related the story of six blindfolded men trying
to work out what was the 'big picture' that they were all touching
a part of?
The
result of all the small parts when put together was an elephant! We can
be so blinded by what we do not see, and draw the wrong conclusion. We
have to have faith that Jesus, even though we cannot see him, is with
us all the time.
An
'all day breakfast' was the treat when we returned to the hall for our
meal together, giving us time to talk about what we had heard, and
what we had learned.
Messy Church; learning about God and Jesus through story, craft and song.
The next Messy Church will be Sunday 26 May
Published - 29 April 2019
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