AWANA: Week 1 (Acts 1:1-10)

Thought I'd post up the scripts that Brahms and I are using for AWANA. Here's week 1. MOE is a horse puppet and JOE and JIM are twin iguana puppets.

Acts 1:1-10

(basket, pulley, carabineer)

JOE is in the basket hanging from the ceiling, JIM is holding the rope. MOE is watching.

MOE: What are you doing, JIM?

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

MOE: (ignoring JIM, hallooing): JOE, you’re really high up. Aren’t you afraid of heights?

JOE: (nervous), Yes

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

JOE: (faintly) Help.

MOE: JIM, maybe you want to bring him down now?

JIM: (more emphatically) But, I just can’t figure out how he did it! I’ve got to keep trying until I figure out how he did it.

MOE: What are you talking about? Who did it? What are we talking about?

JIM: Well, it says in the Bible that after Jesus died, he came back to life

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: It says he was with his disciples for 40 days, and they talked with him and ate with him.

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: Well, it says in the book Acts, chapter 1, verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So somehow, Jesus left them by going up into heaven. I wondered how Jesus did it. So I rigged up this pulley, and hooked it up.

MOE: And I suppose this pillow is the pretend…

JIM: Clouds! You got it.

TIM: I think you’re kind of missing the point, though.

JOE: Yeah, yeah, you’re missing the point! I’m way up here.

JIM: No, no. You see, the disciples could have pulled on this string, and it pulls up Jesus in the basket. And then, if he was high enough, the clouds block them from seeing him.

TIM: But you are having some problems with your theory?

JIM: Two problems: #1: What did they hook the pulley on to? Did Jesus have an airplane?

TIM: That is a problem. What is the second problem?

JIM: What happened when the disciples let go of the rope. Like this (let’s go, JOE falls, TIM catches)

MOE: Whoa! JIM, you almost hurt JOE. Are you ok?

JOE: (moaning) Yeah, I am ok.

TIM: I think JOE needs to rest and I think JIM needs to put that all away.

TIM: You know, sparkies, it says in the Bible, that right after Jesus went into heaven, all of Jesus’ friends, including the disciples, were standing there, looking into the sky. It was pretty incredible. Where did he go? Is he going to come back? Some of them were probably trying to figure out just how he did it, just like JIM.

BRAHMS: Just then, two men—two angels—appeared from heaven and said to them “why do you stand here looking in the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go back into heaven” (Acts 1:11b)

TIM: They were so busy trying to figure out “how” Jesus did that, that they were already forgetting the directions he gave them. Have you ever had that happen to you? You are looking at something really cool, maybe a toy or a present or a TV show, and you forget what your Mom or Dad told you to do?

BRAHMS: Jesus had spent over one month with his friends, teaching them about something new: the church. The church is the people who trust in Jesus to help them and who do what he wants, right now. How many of you go to church? … Good. Church helps us to (1) grow up the way God wants us to grow up, (2) help other people the way God wants us to help other people, and (3) tell other people about God the way that Jesus did.

TIM: Jesus told his friends two things, just before he left: (1) He told them to wait. They didn’t want to wait. They didn’t want Jesus to leave. They wanted everything to happen now. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to wait. Jesus said (Acts 1:4b), “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.”

BRAHMS: We’ll learn more about that next week.

TIM: But the people were in a hurry. “So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They wanted to know. Is it now? Are you going to be a king now?

BRAHMS: But Jesus told them they had to wait. And they weren’t going to know how long. Sometimes when someone tells us to wait, we think they really mean “No.” Dad, can I drive the car? Wait til your older. And maybe you think he means “Never”

Jesus knew that some things had to happen first, before he would become the king over the whole world. First, everyone in the whole world was going to have to hear about Jesus.

TIM: Now Jesus was God, but he could only talk a few people at a time. There was no TV, there were no cell phones.

BRAHMS: But God had a different idea. What would happen if he told his friends, and then his friends told their friends and then their friends told their friends about Jesus. That would be a lot faster way for people to learn about Jesus. That’s why he said: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (people who tell people) in Jersualem, in Judea (that’s like in the next state), and Samaria (that’s like the next country, like Mexico or Canada), and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

TIM: Jesus doesn’t want to be your secret. Tell your friends. Bring them to AWANA. Bring them to church. If you keep Jesus a secret; if you don’t tell them that Jesus cares for them and paid for everything so that they can know about God the way you do; maybe they’ll never find out. Don’t be like Jesus’ friends, staring up at the sky, when you already know what he wants you to do.

Psalm 84: Pilgrimage Has A Destination

In his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick probed the universal human tendency towards pilgrimages. In the novel, the religion Mercerism connects people together emotionally as they share the journey up an unspecified hill while pelted by rocks from unknown adversaries.

In exploring this aspect of many religions, Dick focuses on the sense of shared experience. Each of the participants in Mercerism does so through an Empathy Box, which links them together with fellow pilgrims and with the pseudo-messiah, Mercer. In the novel, his followers share together in a way that cannot do in real life; a sort of unspoken, mutual struggle against an apathetic or even hostile world. This sense o fthe journey together permeates the travelogues of pilgrims since the time of The Canterbury Tales.

Likewise, Dick attemts to evoke the sense that the pilgrimage itself is a test or a purification process. The journey is like life in miniature. The perseverance in the face of hostility strips away pretension, revealing who we are, stabbing pride and focusing us on what is important. Here, the author draws on existentialists, such as Albert Camus, whose short story The Myth of Sisyphus reflects a similar attempt to create meaning in a ridiculous universe.

But what is notably missing in this stripped-away version of the spiritual journey is a destination. Pilgrimages, by definition, are journeys to the holy. The pilgrimage journey is preparation to meet with God; to receive what He has and we do not. But in the novel, a series of revelations show that the vision shared by adherents of Mercerism was, in fact, crafted on a sound stage in a movie studio. There is no hill; there is no end; there is no arrival; there is no God. Just pixels of their imagination. In the end, this leaves the hero of the story locked in the metaphysical downstairs, wiser and yet, ultimately, pitiful. You are left asking the question (as Solomon did):

Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." - Ecclessiastes 2:15

The book of Psalms contains numerous pilgrim songs. sung by the travelers as they climbed towards Moutn Zion, approaching the city of Jerusalem, and the temple where God dwelt. Compared with the downward spiral of despair of the novel, these songs are filled with hope.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  Psalm 84:1-2

The journey is not an aimless one, but one filled with purpose--a chosen path.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,  who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.  - Psalms 84:5

The trip is wearying; stretches of difficulty as they traveled from one oasis of refreshment to the next, sustained by God himself.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength... - Psalm 84:6-7a

These pilgrims had a destination. It was both a physical destination (see vs. 3) but more importantly, it was the a meeting place: the arrival into the presence of God.

..till each appears before God in Zion. - Psalm 84:7b

What has God brought you through on your pilgrimage? Are you in the rough period of the journey or a period of refreshment? Do you long for the destination (God himself) or have you settled for the rest area?

Psalm 74: Spritual Doldrums

In reading Patrick O'Brien's The Thirteen-Gun Salute, the 19th century sailing ship Diane has just skirted the doldrums, an ocean region known for "light, shifting, and sometimes completely absent winds—[which] are notorious for trapping sailing ships for days (or even weeks) without enough wind to power their sails." When applied metaphorically to people, it refers to someone who is stagnant, or in a slump.

Sometimes our spiritual lives can be like this: stagnant, in a slump; partly because we cannot seem to get a glimpse of where God is or what he is doing.

We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. - Psalm 74:9

There is no sign of God ('miraculous signs'), no word from God ('prophets) and no clue as to how long this period will last. Any one of these would be enough to propel us, spiritually. If God would do something that only he could do, we would be excited. If God would speak as only he can speak, we would be inspired. If we could only know when God would move, we would be patient.

Why doesn't God act?  How can a good God resist acting? The author asks the same thing we do.

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!  - Psalm 74:11

But there is no explaining, much to our frustration. We want to call God into the witness stand of the court and ask him a few questions; force him to give an account of himself. But he will not be cross-examined.

I would like to see the big-time, God-sized, over-the-top miracle in my time. I wish to know God's voice the way the prophets knew it, even just once. Just to delight in it; to replay it; to relish it. How glorious it would be.

Habakkuk gives voice to my own longing:

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.  Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. - Habakkuk 3:2

I am tired of uncertainty. I am weary of the valley. But on the other side of the doldrums is the spirit of God, and when I am there, I will breathe deeply and rejoice.

Psalm 66:10-12: The Refining Season

For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. - Psam 66:10-12

Wimp that I am, sections of the Bible like these make me cringe. I must not be the only one, because I notice that worship song writers tend to skip over these, too. I guess I prefer to be happy and assume that all of the refining that God needs to do will be some sort of dermal micro-abrasion. But the changes that need to occur in me require heart transformation, by bringing my true character to the surface where it can be purified. God uses through four things to do this:

1. Difficult work ("laid burdens on our backs")
2. Personal shame ("brought us into prison")
3. Submission to people we don't like or respect ("men ride over our heads")
4. Physical hardship ("through fire and water")

Why does God do this? Because he is bringing us through to "a place of abundance."; a place of blessing.

 

Most of us would be happy in the land of mediocrity rather than deal with these things. But our soul longs for more. God desires more. The way to the place of abundance is only through the path of transformation. On that path,  we must leave behind what we cling to so that our hands are open to receive what is so much better.

 

After I have passed through this difficult season, how will I be better able to receive from God? What is he asking me to let go of?