Activity Before Story:
Make a list of sins and decide how "bad" each one is. (Most students will say that lying isn't a bad as killing; stealing falls in the middle). Ask students if they should be punished the same way no matter what the sin is and discuss.
We're going to make a sin cityscape today using construction paper. A cityscape is a view of the skyline when you're standing at a distance from the city.
Use 1 1/2" construction paper rectangles to create a cityscape using each sin. The taller the building, the "worse" the sin. Students' cities will likely look a little different.
Jesus told a story about two men who went into the temple to pray one day. The first man was kind of like our cityscapes. He was a Pharisee, and when he stood up to pray, he said things like, "God, I thank you that I am not a bad person. I am not like other men- I'm not bad like robbers, or evil-doers. I don't sin very much. I don't sin nearly as much as other people do. I give money to the church and mostly do what I am supposed to do."
This Pharisee in Jesus' story thought that because he only sinned a little, it wasn't a big deal. He thought as long as he wasn't doing any of the "big" sins (like killing people) then he was good. Do you agree?
Now we're going to use 1 1/2" squares to make a second cityscape. This one, however, isn't from a slight distance, like our first one. This one is from up high, in the sky. If we look straight down, as if we were in an airplane, all of the buildings would be square shaped. So for this cityscape we will be using squares. Put a square for each sin, just as you used the rectangles at the beginning.
The second man who went into the temple to pray, Jesus says, stood away from the altar. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. He said, "God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner." This man did not boast that his sins weren't very bad. He recognized that he made mistakes and didn't follow God's teachings, even if they weren't big sins.
Let's compare our two cityscapes. From our position, on earth, we usually see sins like the Pharisee. When we're down on the ground, our sins don't look as bad as other people's. Sometimes we might not ask for forgiveness or recognize that we've made God unhappy because we are too busy comparing ourselves to others.
From God's point of view, however, things look a bit different. If you imagine Him looking down on us from above, each of our cities look the same! A sin is a sin, no matter how big or how small. We need to remember that when we tell a little lie to our moms, it's going against what God wants for us, just like killing someone would be. We need to ask for forgiveness whenever we sin, and try not to do it anymore!
Here is what their cardstock background looks like:
And the final project:
We just got in some new construction-paper crayons so the kids can draw colorful lights in their cityscape.
Make a list of sins and decide how "bad" each one is. (Most students will say that lying isn't a bad as killing; stealing falls in the middle). Ask students if they should be punished the same way no matter what the sin is and discuss.
We're going to make a sin cityscape today using construction paper. A cityscape is a view of the skyline when you're standing at a distance from the city.
Use 1 1/2" construction paper rectangles to create a cityscape using each sin. The taller the building, the "worse" the sin. Students' cities will likely look a little different.
Jesus told a story about two men who went into the temple to pray one day. The first man was kind of like our cityscapes. He was a Pharisee, and when he stood up to pray, he said things like, "God, I thank you that I am not a bad person. I am not like other men- I'm not bad like robbers, or evil-doers. I don't sin very much. I don't sin nearly as much as other people do. I give money to the church and mostly do what I am supposed to do."
This Pharisee in Jesus' story thought that because he only sinned a little, it wasn't a big deal. He thought as long as he wasn't doing any of the "big" sins (like killing people) then he was good. Do you agree?
Now we're going to use 1 1/2" squares to make a second cityscape. This one, however, isn't from a slight distance, like our first one. This one is from up high, in the sky. If we look straight down, as if we were in an airplane, all of the buildings would be square shaped. So for this cityscape we will be using squares. Put a square for each sin, just as you used the rectangles at the beginning.
The second man who went into the temple to pray, Jesus says, stood away from the altar. He wouldn't even look up to heaven. He said, "God, have mercy on me. I am a sinner." This man did not boast that his sins weren't very bad. He recognized that he made mistakes and didn't follow God's teachings, even if they weren't big sins.
Let's compare our two cityscapes. From our position, on earth, we usually see sins like the Pharisee. When we're down on the ground, our sins don't look as bad as other people's. Sometimes we might not ask for forgiveness or recognize that we've made God unhappy because we are too busy comparing ourselves to others.
From God's point of view, however, things look a bit different. If you imagine Him looking down on us from above, each of our cities look the same! A sin is a sin, no matter how big or how small. We need to remember that when we tell a little lie to our moms, it's going against what God wants for us, just like killing someone would be. We need to ask for forgiveness whenever we sin, and try not to do it anymore!
Here is what their cardstock background looks like:
We just got in some new construction-paper crayons so the kids can draw colorful lights in their cityscape.
