Secondary: Current Assemblies

RULES
By Stuart Kerner


Suitable for Whole School


Aim

To consider the need for rules.

Preparation and materials

• An OHP transparency with your school rules.
• To prepare an OHP with strange and stupid laws on it. You can find plenty of these at the following websites:
  

  http://www.dumblaws.com/
  http://tjshome.com/dumblaws.php
  http://www.lawguru.com/weird/
  

Assembly

1. Begin by asking for a volunteer to tell you the school rules. When they have told you, show them on the OHP. Ask if anyone can explain what the purpose of these rules is. You should hopefully receive answers like 'to keep everyone safe', 'to maintain the reputation of the school' and 'to protect people and property'.
2. Ask what the effect of changing the rules might be. For instance, what if the Headteacher decided to make it a rule to wear only one sock on Thursdays, or that those students under five feet tall would be banned from playing football. The chances are people would disobey them.
3. Show the OHP with a selection of strange laws on. Ask if anyone can suggest reasons for these rules being made. You should hopefully receive some imaginative answers. Comment that even if we don't know the reason a rule is put in place or we don't agree with it, it does not mean we can choose to ignore it.
4. If a footballer decided the 'Off-side Rule' was useless he couldn't just choose to disregard it. And if a driver considered the motorway speed limit out-dated he couldn't expect to get away with driving at 100 mph.
5. In the Bible, God sometimes told his people to do unusual things, and they did them without question:
   
   
   • The prophet Ezekiel was told to act out his prophecies by lying on his left side for 390 days, then his right side for 40 days (Ezek. 4). This act dramatized his divided nation's sin and the reasons for their punishment. The 390 days represented the 390 years Israel had worshiped the golden calves; the 40 days, the number of years of the nation of Judah's sin and idolatry.
   • God asked Ananias to seek out his enemy, the chief persecutor of Christians, Saul of Tarsus and pray with him (Acts 9.10-19). Ananias would risk his life by meeting Saul who had authority to arrest all believers, but Saul, who had been blinded, not only received his sight as Ananias prayed, but was also filled with the Holy Spirit and baptized.
   • The prophet Isaiah walked stripped and barefoot through the streets of Jerusalem for three years at God's command (Isa. 20). The prophet's shameful behaviour illustrated his own nation's shameful actions in putting their trust in foreign military alliances instead of in God.
6. Rules exist to make life easier for us, and even if they seem worthless or pointless we must remember that they are there for a reason.

Time For Reflection

Prayer:

Lord,
Teach us the value of obeying the rules.
We cannot know the reasons behind everything,
So we put our trust in you,
Who are all-knowing and all-wise.
Through your holy name.

Amen.

Song

'He who would valiant be' (Come and Praise, 44)