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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.
 Family Dinner Liturgy: "Serving God and Being Served By God"
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 | Serving God and Being Served By God (Families with young kids might want to skip this part.) John 13:1-17 Right before Jesus’ last meal with his friends on Earth, He knew the time had come to leave this world and return to God. He had loved His friends on earth and now He loved them to the very end, with His Upside-Down, Never-Running-Out Love. Jesus got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash His friends’ feet, drying them with the towel. When Jesus came to Peter, Peter said to him, “This is wrong. You will never wash my feet!” (Washing others’ feet was usually a job for the most lowly servants. Peter felt that it was beneath Jesus to wash his feet. If anything, he should be washing Jesus’ feet to honor him!) But Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.” Peter was shocked. He shouted, “Then wash my hands and head as well!” Jesus must have smiled at this. He replied, “You are clean. Just your feet need washing.” After washing their feet, Jesus put on His robe again and sat down. He said, “Do you understand what I was doing? You need to let Me serve you, for it is you who need life and strength from Me. God does not need help from you. But if you understand my Upside-Down Love, wash each other’s feet. Love one another.” Reflection
By Caroline Park
By Caroline Park Dear River parents,
The next Child Dedication Ceremony is scheduled to be on May 13 during the services! (For more information on what Child Dedication at the River is about, please click here.) The next Child Dedication Class, which is mandatory for all parents who want to dedicate their children at the River, will take place on: Sunday, April 22 @11:30am, 5th Floor. Click here to register! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me at caroline@riverNYC.org. Warmly, Caroline Park 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.
 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
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.
 Family Dinner Liturgy: "The Righteous and the Humble"
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 | The Righteous and the Humble (Families with young kids might want to skip this part.) Mark 2:13-17, Luke 18:9-14 It is easy for us to think that doing the right things and keeping all the rules will please God and make Him love us more. Many people in Jesus’ time thought so, too. So they were often confused about Jesus’ Upside-Down Love. One time, Jesus was having a party with some unpopular people. These were the people who didn’t always do the right things and did not keep all of God’s rules. Many people despised them, but Jesus was friends with a lot of people like this. So some religious leaders asked Jesus, “Why do you eat with such bad people?” Jesus told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor. Sick people do. I am like a doctor. I have come for those who know they need help, not for those who think they are already righteous.” Then He told this story: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, known to be a great rule-keeper. The other was a hated tax collector.* The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like those bad people. I am definitely not like that tax collector over there! I fast twice a week and I give you a tenth of the money I make. I keep all of your rules.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance and couldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven. He prayed with sorrow, ‘O God, be kind to me, for I am not good and I break your rules.’ I tell you, this tax collector received so much more from God than the Pharisee. Those who lift themselves up are brought down and those who understand they need help are lifted up.” That, too, is upside-down! *People thought of tax collectors as the worst kind of people because they took money from the Israelites for the Roman empire. They made profit by taking more money from people than they owed. Reflection
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