"40 Days" Family Dinner Liturgy: "Rules and Love"

During this "40 Days of Faith" (Lent), we encourage you to try the Family Dinner Liturgy once a week. We hope that this will be a fun way to take a moment to turn toward God together as a family. How do you do it? It’s easy.

1. Pick a day of the week when you are most likely to have everyone in the family at the dinner table. 
2. Take 3-5 minutes to do the liturgy below before the dinner.
3. Repeat weekly during the "40 Days of Faith."
4. Consider getting together with other families for dinner and liturgy.

For this week's "Rules and Love" liturgy, click here and/or see below.

Family Dinner Liturgy: "Rules and Love"
 
Opening Prayer
(Together holding hands)
We make room for you,
Come and fill us with your Spirit.

Candle Lighting
(Any kind of candles; as many as you want)
 
Blessing
(This is worth memorizing. A grown-up can say the blessing as she/he looks into everyone’s eyes OR everyone can recite this together for each other.)

“The Lord bless you
   and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine on you
   and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you
   and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

Story of the Week | Rules and Love
(Families with young kids might want to skip this part.)

Luke 6:1-11, Mark 12:29-31
In Jesus’ time, it was extremely important to keep the Sabbath. Every seventh day was the Sabbath, the day of rest. The people were not allowed to do any kind of work on the Sabbath day. One Sabbath day, Jesus and His friends were walking along the fields. Jesus’ friends were hungry so they broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. Others who were watching them were not happy because gathering grain was considered work. They said, “Why are you breaking the Sabbath?” Jesus replied, “The Sabbath is made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”

On another Sabbath day, a woman with a bent back was listening to Jesus with a crowd of people. People were watching Jesus closely to see if He would break the Sabbath rule by healing this woman, because healing was considered work. Jesus knew what they were thinking so He asked, “Does the Bible allow you to do good on the Sabbath day? Is this a day to save life or destroy it?” He looked around them and then put his hand on the woman and said, “Be freed from this sickness.” The woman immediately stood up straight! 

Jesus showed that people are more important than the rules in the Bible, and that loving people comes before keeping the rules. Jesus said, “The most important rules in all the Bible are these: 'Love your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ No other rule is more important than these.” 

Reflection

• “Jesus is __________ in this story”
• Discuss how you would fill in the blank (e.g. “forever,” “loving,” “humble”).
• Together, decide on one word.
• On a post-it, draw an upside-down heart and write the word inside it.
• Stick the post-it where it will be visible for a week. Every time you see it, hold the word inside of your heart for a few moments.