REEP - Collective Worship

What God Sees

Key Stage

1 and 2

Theme

What God Sees

Preparation

Gather together a collection of seven different chocolate bars and/or fizzy drinks and a five pound note screwed up in a paper towel. All eight items should be in a box or a bag.

Make sure there are seven children sitting nearby who can join you at the appropriate point during the story, together with a smaller one to represent David.

Familiarise yourself with the story in 1 Samuel 16 & 17.

Development

INTRODUCTION:

Begin by informing the children that as you are feeling generous today you have decided to give a present to one child. However, that one child has the difficulty of choosing only one present from the collection which you have in your box/bag. Draw out each of the presents in turn, making sure that the screwed up paper towel is the last present drawn. Tell the children that the paper towel must have fallen into the bag accidentally.

Select a child to choose a present. Almost every child will choose either a fizzy drink or a chocolate bar. Challenge the child's choice. Does s/he know what is in a fizzy drink or a chocolate bar? Read out the list of ingredients and talk about the harm sugar does to the teeth. Is the child still sure about her/his choice? Would s/he not prefer to have the old paper towel? Once the child has confirmed her/his choice, reveal the contents of the paper towel.

Tell the children how looks can be deceptive. Chocolate bars and fizzy drinks are packaged in a way that makes them attractive to children. But when you look to see what's inside, you discover that they're full of ingredients which aren't really good for you. On the other hand, something might look like a bit of rubbish, but inside it there may be hidden treasure.

BIBLICAL EXAMPLE:

Two people in the Bible learnt this lesson, but one of them didn't survive to tell the tale. The first person was a man called Samuel. From the time when he had been a very young boy, Samuel had a special relationship with God. God gave Samuel messages and special jobs to do. Once, when Samuel was grown up, God sent him to a little town called Bethlehem. There was a man living there called Jesse. God told Samuel that one of Jesse's sons would be the next king of Israel.

When Samuel reached Bethlehem, he put on a huge feast and invited Jesse. He arrived with seven of his sons.

Invite seven volunteers to join you at the front. Arrange them in a line starting with the eldest.

When Samuel saw Jesse's eldest son, he thought to himself; "Surely this man must be the next king - he is so tall, so strong and so handsome" (Direct these comments to the first child in the line.) But God said to Samuel, "Forget him. He isn't the one."

Samuel moved on to the second eldest son. "Oh yes!" said Samuel to himself, "This second son isn't as good looking, but he looks much more clever." God interrupted Samuel again. "Samuel," God said, "do not judge a person by the way they look or how tall they are. Judge them on what they are like inside. That's what really counts. Forget this second son."

The same thing happened with Number Three son, and Number Four, Number Five, Number Six and Number Seven. Samuel thought each of them looked the part, but God rejected them all. (Send the seven volunteers back to their places.)

Samuel was confused. "Excuse me," he said to Jesse, "but do you have any other sons?"

Jesse thought for a while. "Oh yes," he remembered suddenly, "my youngest, David. I didn't think to bring him with me. He's out in the field looking after the sheep."

Jesse sent for David. (Choose a small child from the front row.) When he arrived, Samuel saw that David was only a little boy. "He's the one," God said. And Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on the little boy's head, which was a sign to show Jesse and his seven big, strong sons that their little David would grow up to be the next king of Israel. (Send the small child back to his place.)

PART 2:

So Samuel learnt not to be fooled by appearances. Unfortunately another person in the Bible didn't learn this lesson until it was too late. This person's name was Goliath and, like the last story, the story of Goliath also features the little boy, David.

It was a few years after Samuel had visited Bethlehem and the country of Israel was at war with their deadliest enemies, the Philistines. The greatest warrior along the Philistines was a giant of a man called Goliath. Every day he walked up and down in front of Israel's army, taunting the soldiers. "Send out your best man to fight against me. If he wins, we will all become your slaves," he said. But no-one amongst Israel's army dared to fight Goliath.

One day, when David was delivering packed lunches to his brothers, he heard Goliath shouting his daily challenge. He waited for one of the brothers to answer Goliath. None of them did. So David himself volunteered. "I will fight Goliath," David said. At first, the king of Israel thought David was joking. "But you're only a little boy," he said. But when he saw that David was determined, he had him dressed in armour and lent him his own sword. David tried walking around, but the armour didn't fit - he didn't feel at all right in it. Instead, David went out to face Goliath in his normal clothes, carrying not a sword but a sling shot, which he used to fire stones at the wolves which came to kill his sheep.

When Goliath saw David, he sneered at him. "What do you think I am? A wolf whom you can drive away with a few little sticks and stones? After I'm finished with you the wolves and the birds will strip your bones clean!"

Goliath ran towards David. But before he reached the middle of the battle field, a stone from David's sling shot caught him right between the eyes and he fell down dead. Stone dead.

Reflection

Dear God,
Help us to be more like you and not to judge people by the way they look.
Help us to treat people who are smaller or younger than us with respect.
And help us not to be frightened of people who are taller or older than us, even if they do shout a lot.
Amen.

Music

Only a boy called David
He made Me

NOTE:

This collective worship could be developed as two sessions, one dealing with the choice of David and the next with David's triumph over Goliath. If this is done, introduce the second session by asking the children to recall which of Jesse's sons was chosen (you could line up the 'sons' again, as a visual reminder of David being the least obvious) and then lead into the Goliath story to show how David's real strength was revealed.