Children’s Story for October 24th, 2004

By Barrette Plett, Bethel Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, MB

Bible Passages

Joel 2: 23 -32 or Jeremiah 14: 7 – 10, 19 - 22
Psalm 65 or 84
Luke 18: 9-14
2 Timothy 4: 6 – 8, 16 – 18

Theme/Scripture Connections

Psalm 65 and Psalm 84 both tell us to praise God for the bounty that God has provided for us. Joel and Jeremiah also speak of the benevolence of God and of the way that people are blessed. The Old Testament passages speak to a people who attributed their livelihood to the grace of God and who praised God daily for their daily bread. In Jesus' time, as in our time, people often took their blessings for granted and considered their wealth their own. Jesus' story of the tax collector speaks, on one level, of the dangers of believing in appearances. On another level, it forces the listener to consider the motivation behind giving to God – out of praise for God's blessing or out of obligation or for appearance. 2 Timothy brings this line of thinking to its conclusion: our blessing is not here on earth in material things; it will be waiting for us in Heaven when we have run the good race.

Supplies Needed

a dirty, rumpled paper bag with a toy or other prize in it
a beautifully wrapped gift box with a peach pit or other undesirable item in it, like a giant pretend cheque

Object Lesson

Tell the children that you got two presents before church but that you can only keep one. Show them the different presents and ask which one you should open. Open the pretty one first. Then open the ugly one. Ask them which present is better. Ask them if you could tell by looking at the outside, which present would be good.

Story: God Cares about What's Inside

This is a story about two people. One person was a very famous person. Everybody loved this person and thought she was fantastic. They liked her because she was very beautiful and did exciting things. Plus, they were worried that other people wouldn't like them if they didn't like the famous person. This person was very popular. The second person in this story was also sort of famous. But she was mostly famous because people didn't like her. She was the garbage woman in the town. She didn't have an exciting job and always smelled stinky like garbage. Lots of people made fun of her clothes and the way she talked. The famous person was very rich and very stingy. She never gave anything to anyone. But one of her friends told her it would be a good idea to share some of her money with poor people, because then, people would think she was even nicer. She didn't want to, but she agreed to pretend. One Sunday, both the famous person and the garbage woman went to the same church. When the offering time came, the famous person took out a giant pretend cheque. She went to the front of the church and said, “I'm very famous and very important. I'm going to give $0.10 to the offering. Now clap for me!” Everybody clapped for her. When the offering basket came to the garbage woman, she quietly put her money into the basket. She put in $100, but she had it in an envelope, so no one knew how much was in it. When she tried to pass the basket to the next person, the person didn't want to take it because the stinky garbage woman had touched it. Later, when the ushers counted the money, they realized that the garbage woman had given much more money than the famous woman and the famous woman's cheque had bounced. They wondered why everybody thought the famous woman was so much better than the garbage woman.

Questions

Why did the people like the famous person?
Why didn't they like the garbage woman?
Do you think that God loved both people?
Which person did what God wanted her to do?
Did God care if the garbage woman was stinky?
Did God care if the famous woman was mean?
What do you think God likes when God looks at you?
What do you have that you can give to God?

Teaching

Explain that God looks inside us and wants us to follow Jesus and wants us to help other people follow God. Explain that in the story, the garbage woman was a very good woman on the inside, even though she seemed to be stinky or dirty.

Prayer

Dear Jesus. Help us see people the way you see them as we try to follow and listen to you. Help us do what you want us to do, and not to worry about what we look like to other people.