Children’s Story for February 6th, 2005

Heroes

By Janet Penner, Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship, Winnipeg, MB

Bible Passage

• Matthew 17: 1-9
• Exodus 24: 12-18
• 1 Kings 19: 8-13

Theme

• Transfiguration and Jesus’ heroes, Moses and Elijah

Display

• pictures or figurines of Superman, Spiderman, Catwoman, your parents, a teacher, and Jesus etc. could be used but is not essential.

Heroes

What is a hero? Who are your heroes? Why? What would you say if you could meet them? E.g. when my 3 year old daughter had a chance to meet Fred Penner, she just stood there staring at him with an open mouth. But when she was 8, and she met Jake Chenier, she offered to help clean up the stage and chatted casually with him as they worked.

Tell the children about one or two of your heroes. Possibilities are: a sports star who inspired you to work hard at the sport and keep trying when practice was tough, a teacher of yours who got you through a tough year of learning or inspired you to go into a certain profession, a caregiver who nurtured you into who you are, a singing or movie star who came through hard times to rise to the top. E.g. Seline Dion who lost her parents at an early age and was hungry and poor for many years.

Today’s Gospel Scripture is about Jesus meeting two of his heroes. Moses was given the difficult job of leading the Israelites out of Egypt where they were slaves and had to work really hard. In the Old Testament Bible reading today, we heard about Moses going up the mountain and spending 40 days and nights with God before he brought down the Ten Commandments. Elijah was a great prophet. He also spent 40 days and nights on a mountain of God. God let him see his back and spoke to him in the gently blowing wind. God gave Elijah the difficult job of getting the Israelites to listen and obey God again. The gentle voice on the mountain gave him the strength to do it.

Wondering questions

• I wonder why they were Jesus’ heroes. (They were heroes for all the Jews because of their leadership and special relationship with God.)
• What do you think Jesus talked about when he met with his heroes?
• I wonder if he asked them questions about being a leader as they talked on the mountain.
• I wonder if he talked about his 40 days and nights in the desert and compared it to their mountain experiences.
• I wonder if they talked about what it is like to do a hard job for God.

Whatever they talked about, it was a turning point in Jesus’ ministry, just like his baptism had been. God repeated the compliment out of the clouds, “This is my Son; the Beloved, with him I am well-pleased. Listen to him.” The first time, that compliment helped Jesus start his ministry. This time it gave him the courage to start his journey towards the cross.

Heroes are people we look up to, their example can help us do hard and right and important things, but they don’t often care about us. Human heroes can also disappoint us, but Jesus is a hero who will never disappoint us and who cares about us. Jesus wants to help us do the right thing, even when that is hard. If you could meet Jesus on a mountain, what would you talk about?