Try to be me and try not to laugh

I was involved in the local high school's assembly today. When I say involved - I closed in prayer and wished the pupils a good Easter and holiday.

The whole assembly was shared by the chaplaincy team. Though there were a few there, it was slickly organised, with one person at a time doing a piece.

The thing I 'struggled' with was the concentration of Jesus' death on the cross being all about sacrifice, yet with overtones of God being a loving father. I wonder how the children were thinking through how a loving father would require the sacrifice of his son? As you may have gathered, I don't think that should be the focus of the Christian message, but that's a discussion for another time.

So, having been asked 5 minutes before the assembly began to pray and sat through an assembly all about sacrifice I was aware I had to choose my words carefully in my prayer. I also was mindful we'd run over and could see people waiting to gain access to the hall. None of these factors were my fault, but I didn't want to make things worse. So, I was short and to the point. I think I found a tone which neither undermined the assembly as a whole nor my own theology. I never thought that would be a skill I'd develop, but there's times when it's useful.

The main thing I learnt today was how to not corpse when this was played. On so many levels this was funny (even though it shouldn't ave been)...