Welcome to our assembly, everyone. Today's assembly is the first in a series of ten about a special set of rules that God gave to his people, the Israelites, a long time ago. Does anyone know what the ten rules are called? The Ten Commandments. These commandments were given to help God's people know how God wanted them to live their lives, but I think we can learn something from them too. I'd like us to test that out as we think about what the commandments say.
[PPT slide 1] Let's see if the first commandment teaches us anything about God, or about ourselves. Here's what is says:
[PPT slide 2]
'God said to the people of Israel: I am the LORD your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves. Do not worship any god except me.'
God is telling his people that they are to worship him. Now, I think we should stop there and think about that word 'worship' for a moment. What do you think it means when it says that the people were to 'worship' God? Any ideas? Take suggestions.
[PPT slide 3]
Worship means giving glory, or honour, or respect to something or someone. It means recognising that the person or thing we are worshipping is very special. The word worship means 'giving worth' - in other words, when you worship something you are saying that it is worth something - that it is valuable. In the commandment, God is saying that his followers should only worship him, that he is worth people's praise and honour.
Can anyone think of ways that people worship God? Take suggestions - singing songs, praying, praising him. These are all ways that people worship God when they are in church. But I wonder if there are other ways that people can worship God?
Well, let's stop and watch a short film that might help us think about this a bit better.
Show the clip
Red's Dream (Pixar, 1987) Cert U
[3 minutes 25 seconds]
The short film starts in a bicycle shop where a unicycle is languishing in the clearance corner, a 50% off label round its neck. The unicycle is dreaming that he is in the circus, being ridden by a clown who juggles badly. When the clown drops a ball, the unicycle moves from under him and catches it. This goes on for a while until the clown realises that he is riding on air, and he falls to the ground. The unicycle carries on juggling and receives a rapturous round of applause from the crowd. At this point the dream ends, and the unicycle slinks back to the corner of the shop, its saddle drooping like a person hanging his head.
That was quite a sad story, wasn't it? Why was it sad? Take suggestions - nobody wanted to buy Red. He never got to do any of the things he dreamed about.
What did Red dream about doing? He dreamt about being in the circus and entertaining people. He dreamt that they would clap and cheer his amazing juggling.
Red was designed for a purpose. He was designed to be a unicycle. He was meant to be ridden by a clown and to perform in the circus. But because nobody had bought him he ended up in a drab shop, sitting in the sale corner feeling sorry for himself. He wasn't able to be what he was meant to be.
Now, how can that film help us think about worship? Well, in the film we saw that Red's purpose was to be a unicycle, and the Bible tells us that human beings have a special purpose too. They're not like unicycles or even animals. Human beings are fantastic! [PPT slide 4] Let's think abut some of the things that human beings can do - any suggestions?
Take suggestions - help pupils to think widely about this. Some possible answers might include talking, thinking, creating, doing maths, making up stories, dancing, solving mysteries, knowing right from wrong, crying, singing, following instructions, helping other people etc.
Human beings are different to animals because they can do all these things. The Bible says that human beings are made to be a bit like God! God has created humans to be able to think, and be creative, and know right from wrong, and look after the planet. But he's also made them able to love each other and to love him. And that's what worship is - worship is about humans telling God that they love him. And there are all sorts of ways to do that. Singing songs and praying are just part of that.
There is a verse in the Bible that says that worship is about remembering God in the way we live our lives. Here's what it says:
Read Romans 12:1 [PPT slide 5]
'So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.'
So, the Bible says that human beings are made to be different. They can do amazing things. But the most important thing is that human beings can get to know God! They can worship him with their whole lives. That means honouring him and saying that they love him.
Red was made to be a unicycle and perform in the circus. Human beings are made to worship God and live their lives in the way that pleases him.
Now, you might be thinking, hold on a minute! We are supposed to be testing out whether these commandments can teach us anything, but what about people who are not Christians, or don't believe in God? What are they supposed to do? Well, that's the other thing about being human beings - we have a choice! We can use our minds to work out what we believe, and we can choose to live the way we want to. The commandment is saying that the best way to live is to follow God and worship him, but it doesn't force people to do that. We have to choose what we do with our lives. Jesus said that he had come to give people life to the full - the best possible life - but everyone has a choice about that.
But wouldn't it be sad if we chose never to live our lives in the best possible way? If we made choices that meant we became like Red, forgotten and sad because we'd never lived the way we were meant to?
Reflection
Everyone in this room is a human being. We all have lots of choice about how we will live our lives. We can choose to believe in God or not. We can choose to worship him in our songs and prayers, or we can choose not to do that. It's up to us.
But what's important is that we don't just let life slip by without making choices about what we believe. Maybe because we don't want to look silly in front of our friends. Maybe because we haven't really thought about what we believe.
For a moment let's just sit in the quietness together and think about the choices we make as human beings. What do we believe about God? What do we want our lives to be about?
Prayer
God
Our lives are busy and full of things to do and choices to make.
Sometimes we forget about you.
Sometimes we don't have time or quiet to stop and think about what we believe.
Please help us to discover who we are and help us to worship you with our lives.
Amen
Song suggestions:
Some People Laugh (303, Kidsource Combined, Kevin Mayhew)
Let Everything That Has Breath Praise The Lord (623, Kidsource Combined, Kevin Mayhew)
Obey The Maker's Instructions (623, Kidsource Combined, Kevin Mayhew)
Red's Dream (Pixar, 1987) Cert U