The resources for today's worship ideas for you to do at home have been prepared by Rev Roddy Hamilton from New Kilpatrick Parish Church, Bearsden. This is part of a continuing collaboration with Spill the Beans, Fischy Music and Rev Gayle Taylor to bring family-oriented worship resources to you for Holy Week.

Reading

Read together Mark chapter 14, verses 32 to 36 from your own Bible or you can use:

Jesus and his followers went to a place called Gethsemane. He said to his followers, “Sit here while I pray.” Jesus told Peter, James, and John to come with him. Then Jesus began to be very sad and troubled. He said to them, “I am full of sorrow. My heart is breaking with sadness. Stay here and watch.”

Jesus walked a little farther away from them. Then he fell on the ground and prayed. He prayed that, if possible, he would not have this time of suffering. He prayed, “Abba, Father! You can do all things. Let me not have this cup of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.”

Retelling

And Jesus went out to pray,
to be alone with God.
And the place he went
was a garden
of olive trees.

Olive trees are twisted and gnarled;
it was how Jesus felt this night:
confused at what best to do.

He had so many questions about what was going to happen,
and he knew the best thing to do
was go and pray.

And so he did.

He found a quiet place,
and spoke to God,
about exactly how he felt,
all the hurt,
all the worry,
all the questions.

And there he knew,
somehow,
God was with him
through all things,
all the way,
for that is what love does.

Praise

Sing together or listen to Go To Dark Gethsemane (CH4 377), note that you can get the words by turning on Subtitles/Closed Captions in the YouTube video clip.

All-Age Prayer

Father God,
we are all a bit worried about the virus just now.
Thank you for all the nurses and doctors and paramedics 
who are working hard to look after people in hospitals all over the world.

Dear God,
please look after all our friends and members of our family 
whom we can’t see just now.
Please be with anyone who is feeling sad or lonely.

Dear God,
we want everyone to have a safe home to live in
and the medicine that they need. 

Even though this is a difficult time,
please help us to enjoy the good things in your world
like hearing the birds singing when we go out for a walk
and talking to our friends and family on the phone and internet.

Thank you that we can still share our prayers
and be a church even though we can’t go to church right now. 

Amen. 

Fischy Song / Activity

Jesus in the garden tells us about how honest you can be in prayer. Jesus was very honest with God. Why not create a prayer tree that reminds you of this story and also is a place for honest prayer.

Find a few twigs from the garden and place in a vase. Cut out leaf shaped pieces of paper and tie a piece of wool or string or thread through a hole in the leaf.  During today whenever you things of a concern or a problem or a worry, like Jesus, share it with God but writing that prayer on a leaf and hanging it on a branch.