Week 11- Loving Everyone (Matt 5:43-48)
Although our congregation is Church of the Brethren I always tell about Saint Patrick, since it's such a popular holiday (especially for young children who love special days and pinching!) I almost always attach him with a lesson on the Trinity (legend goes he used the three leaves on a shamrock to tell about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being "one-in-three") but this year I had inspiration from Matthew 5:43-48 and decided that Pat's story really fits nicely right here, too. So here goes...
I'll start off by letting the kids color a shamrock green, and we'll discuss the holiday and what people think about when they hear "Saint Patrick." Most younger kids use words like "leprechaun" and "gold," and the older ones say "Catholic" and "Irish." Sometimes even "snakes" is added to the list! I'll then have them write people they love on the leaves of their shamrock.
1. Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day. What's that? (A holiday where we wear green)
2. Who was Saint Patrick? Why are we talking about him 1,500 years after he died?
3. When you hear "Saint Patrick" what do you think about?
4. What are you coloring now? (Yes, it's a shamrock)
5. What does a shamrock have to do with Saint Patrick?
Saint Patrick was an amazing person. Even though he lived a long time ago, he was able to share the message of Christ with people who hated him! Crazy, isn't it? Let's read our scripture and see what Saint Patrick did to get a holiday.
Our lesson today is in the book of Matthew, in chapter 5. Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about the Sermon on the Mount (All the people who are blessed?) And last week we learned the Lord's Prayer? Well, this lesson by Jesus takes place at the same time. He said all of these things in one day. Listen carefully.
Verse 43 starts us off. "You have heard the law that says 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy," But I say, "Love your enemies!" Pray for those who are mean to you."
Wow, God wants us to be kind, love, and pray for everyone, even people who are mean to us! Jesus said if we do that then we will be acting like true children of God. He said that God sends sunlight on both evil people and good ones, and He sends rain on both, too. This means that God allows good things to happen to good people, and bad people. God allows bad things to happen to good people, and bad people too. If we only love people that love us, then we are selfish. We are acting like everyone else in the world, instead of acting like Children of God. Jesus said, "If you are only nice to your friends, how are you a Christian? Even pagans do that!" He wants us to try our best to love everyone.
Look at your shamrock. Raise your hand if you put your family on there. How about your friends? Did anyone put that girl in your class that you don't like? How about that boy that's mean to you on the bus? Should his name be on your shamrock? Jesus wants us to love everyone, even those who are mean to us. Otherwise, we're like pagans. *The term 'pagan' can get complicated quickly, so I'm definitely smushing ideas and stereotyping to make it explainable to children!
1. What is a pagan? (Someone who doesn't follow regular rules, they were selfish, and didn't care about anything but making themselves happy. Some of them practiced sorcery, which is like them thinking they could do magic. They definitely didn't care about people they didn't like)
2. Verse 47 says that we should be nice to everyone, even people who are mean. Otherwise we are like pagans. What does that mean? (If we are only nice to people we like, then we are selfish and we don't care about their feelings. We cannot share God's love with them if we hate them!)
A few hundred years after Jesus taught this lesson to His friends, there was a boy who lived in Great Britain named Patrick. He was raised by two Christian parents, but was kidnapped by pagans when he was a young teenager. They took him to Ireland and he was a slave for about 6 years before he was able to escape. He told his friends and family that while he was a slave he prayed to God all the time- about 100 times a day! He knew that God was always with him, even when he was away from his family and surrounded by people who hated him.
When he was about 20, he was able to escape and ran away. He got a ride on a ship back to Britain. His family was SO happy to finally have him home! But Patrick thought about the people who had kidnapped him. He thought about the people who hated him. He thought about the people who ordered him around while he was a slave. Instead of hating them, like people usually do, he chose to love them instead. In fact, he decided that he needed to share God's love with them! He became a priest and travelled back to Ireland. He spent the rest of his life talking to people about Jesus and sharing God's love with them! He helped start new churches all around Ireland so the pagans could learn about Jesus. Then they weren't pagans anymore. They became Christians! Patrick spent the rest of his life loving his [former] enemies.
That's a pretty awesome tale. If I had been kidnapped and taken away as a slave it would be REALLY hard for me to love them. And going back to that strange country to be around people who hated God? No thanks! But Patrick listened to Jesus' teachings and knew that he had to be nice to EVERYONE, not just the people back home that loved him. People were so impressed by him, the Catholic church eventually began calling him "Saint Patrick."
Today we're going to make Saint Patrick paper bag puppets. (The directions are very easy to follow- most kids can look at an example or directions and create their own.) These from Oriental Trading are reasonably priced (on sale) and all pieces are self-adhesive, so kiddos only need to remove the backing from each piece.
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