Items Needed:
- Jenga (or equivalent)
Overview:
Have the Jenga set up on a table where everyone can see it and invite people to form a queue if they would like to play. Explain the rules and then start the game. Try to give a running commentary, keep it pretty light hearted. Try and keep the game flowing and if it starts to slow down reduce the amount of time people have to make their move. As the tower gets wobblier make a big deal of playing up the pressure.
Once the tower falls thank all the participants and get them to sit down. Ask the congregation whose fault it was that the tower fell over then read the following passage:
The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
Genesis 3:1-7 (MSG)
Explain that this is the story of how sin entered the world – sin being the choices we make that hurt God, other people or ourselves. Adam and Eve make a choice to disobey God much like people did throughout the bible and like each of us still do today. When we make those sorts of choices we start to move away from God’s perfect plan for us and (a bit like the Jenga) things start to fall apart.
This morning, as we come to worship we have a choice to make. We can choose to continue to do things our own way or we can choose to confess the things we’ve done wrong, receive God’s forgiveness and ask for his help to live in the way that he wants us to.
You can then use a written confession or a prayer like this one:
Heavenly Father, forgive us for the times that we have chosen to go our own way. Forgive us for the times that we have hurt each other, ourselves or you. As we come to worship you today help us to choose to follow you and to offer all of ourselves to you.
Amen.