Our principle scripture for this morning that the kids will be getting to learn from is John chapter nine. It is the entire chapter, so if you will turn with me.
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’
Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam,’ which means ‘Sent.’ So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some others said, ‘It is he,’ others said, ‘No, but he is like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.’ They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight, and he said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.’ Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’ But others said, ‘How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?’ And there was a division among them.
So they again said to the blind man, ‘What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?’ He said, ‘He is a prophet.’ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’ His parents answered, ‘We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age; he will speak for himself.’
His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’
So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know: that though I was blind, now I see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’
And they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man answered, ‘Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.’
They answered him, ‘You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?’ And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshipped him.
Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into the world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’
Following our children’s story, they typically have a focused verse for that Sunday, one that they are going to emphasize and perhaps even start to learn as they go on through. The verse for today comes from First Thessalonians chapter 5, and it’s verse 11. Paul writes, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
So if the kids would come on forward along with Carrie. Carrie has some instructions for us.
Good morning! I have some tasks for the kids to do today, and I think we are going to start first with Maya, Silas, and Aries. Could your grandma Wanda please come up? Good morning, thank you for doing this.
Okay, so grandma is gonna put on some headphones—maybe in theory. Sorry guys, technical difficulties. They’re adult—are they? Wanda, your head’s just too big. There we go. Alright, okay.
Now what we’re gonna do is you guys are gonna take turns, one at a time, give your grandma an instruction. Now it’s going to be hard for her to hear you because she’s facing away and she’s got earmuffs on. So let’s see if she can hear your instructions and do what you’re asking her. Aries, would you like to tell her something?
She didn’t hear you. Maya, would you like to try? Nope. Silas, you can try. Nope! Alright! Oh, who wants to try the microphone? Say something different. ‘Clap your hands five times.’ Oh, still nothing. Maya, you want to try something? Stay without the mic and see if she hears you.
Alright! ‘Pat your head.’ Oh man, she can’t hear anything! Alright, Silas, last try, ready? You know what you want to suggest? ‘Pat your head.’ No success, guys. Good try! You didn’t hear anything, did ya? Good thing because they were asking you to do silly stuff.
Alright, you’re all done now. Henry, are you ready? Oh, actually, we should probably do the Scott girls first. Mrs. Scott, would you please—or Ashley, sorry, I’m used to Mrs. Scott for preschool—come tell your children what to do?
Okay, we’re improvising this morning. So Cali, come over here. You’re going to close your eyes, okay? No peeking! Okay, Kaylynn, you’re going to come over now. Cali can’t see! Okay, and Kaylynn is going to guide her up the stairs around and down the other side. I’ve instructed Cali to walk slowly so nobody falls. We’ll see how this goes.
Okay, alright, step forward. Oh, okay, lift up your leg. Yes, now do that again. You’re not going to—uh, one more. Okay, now walk forward a few steps. There’s no more stairs! Okay, now turn to the right. Now walk forward! Yeah, big steps.
[Music] Stop! Now turn to the right. Now go forward till I say stop. Keep going! The stairs aren’t close—I’ll tell you when to stop. Stop right there. No, okay no, take another step, not too big! Now one more. There! Good work!
[Applause] Good job, girls!
Alright, Henry, what you’ve been looking forward to all week. Henry is going to feed Pastor Jay some pudding following only his mother’s instructions. See how well you listen to your mom, kiddo? Come here! Now be nice to poor defenseless Pastor Jay!
Okay, ready? Hold the spoon in your right hand. Scoop some pudding. Walk closer. Put the spoon straight, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight up. Go further! Alright, good job! How’s your day? Let go! One more! Ready? You did good! That was excellent! Now straight—oh, you got him on the nose! Good, good job, Henry. Here, let me feed him a little bit of pudding! Ready? War paint! There you go!
Oh, sorry, Henry did a better job than the grown-ups! Thank you, Pastor Jay, for being our pudding demonstrator. It’s a facial mask as well, moisturizing.
Lois, can you come on down? I’d like you to sit right here, please, ma’am. Nothing but luxury for you, lady.
Lois, that’s a microphone—oh shoot! Should I yell? No, no!
Okay, I broke my leg right here, right here where Leigh joins the hip. I’m doing something—I went into a dark half bath. Well, anyway, they did surgery on me and they couldn’t have a cast on, so they just put it back together where the leg meets the hip. Can you tell that by looking at me?
Oh, you want the microphone? Okay, well anyway, I started out with a walker because I couldn’t walk right after I had the surgery. And then it has four legs—good! I’m glad the Lord didn’t give me four legs!
But do I need this now, do you think? So what do you think? It’s kind of a crutch in a way. You hang on to this when you should be looking upstairs to Jesus. He did it for us; he can heal me better than the surgeons. Maybe, I don’t know. But through it all, I learned something. We gotta have a motto on one of our coins: In God we trust. But do we? Do we always trust God? We think we can do it all, but we can’t!
Fifty years ago, I taught preschool. Do you think I could do it now? I think maybe you could, sit over there! I’m not good at this, you know, but I’m having fun!
I can bear to get back where I belong, back where in the back so you can’t all see me because I’m a crazy person! But I’m having fun. My gosh, I didn’t know it was so much fun up here!
Hello everyone, it’s my turn now. So, Pastor Jay read the scripture for today and you guys learned this story last week—the man who was born blind. So this is just a refresher. Normally we’re in a classroom, normally we have a table, but we brought all of our things with us today. So under their chairs are their little buckets that they have that has crayons, markers, glue, scissors, colored pencils. We don’t need all of that today, but we are going to color something first, though our story.
We’re going to highlight, kind of, what Lois was talking about: disabilities. Caleb, are you joining us? Alright, there’s your chair right there!
Yeah, we’re going to try something a little different! So our story we’re going to talk about disabilities, okay? So a little bit different. First I want you to stand up! So put everything down, and everyone out here can do this as well. Our Bible verse is “encourage one another and build each other up.”
So right where you are—stay right there—we’re gonna hug ourselves for ‘encourage one another’ and for ‘build each other up.’ I’m going to put the microphone down so let’s all try it together, ready?
Encourage one another and build each other up! One more time! Oh, we’re gonna learn that in a minute! Okay, ready? Hug! “Encourage one another” and “build each other up”!
This is a hard word to say; this comes from the Bible. The book in the Bible, First Thessalonians—can you say that? Five eleven. Okay, ready? First Thessalonians 5:11. Okay, you can have a seat. We’re going to come back to that.
Okay! Has anyone seen this sign before? What’s this mean? What’s this mean? Go ahead, shout it at me!
Yeah! Handicap means handicap sign; you’re right! So we can follow Jesus’s example in loving people with disabilities. So I want you to look around at everyone out here, okay? Look around, and everyone out there can look around. Look at your friends here! Look at your friends!
Okay, I noticed something wonderful and I think maybe you noticed it too. Do we all look alike? I don’t think anyone in this room looks exactly like the other person. Not exactly! You might look a little like because you’re family, but we’re not all exactly the same. God made each of us really neat and special.
And some of us have qualities about us that make it difficult to do things in life that might be easier for others to do. Kenley wears glasses; I wear contacts; and Cali wears nothing! Cali has perfect eyes!
In our family, it’s kind of weird, but you know she was blessed with some perfect eyes. But in our story, there’s a man that was born blind. What does that mean to be blind? Does anybody know what that means?
What’s it mean to be blind? Oh my goodness, my girls—they’ll answer all day! This is in class too! They—um! See, you can’t see! So this man was born blind. Sometimes, when we see someone with a disability, we don’t know what to do. It can make us feel a little nervous and uncomfortable. You aren’t sure what to say, what to do. You don’t want to say or do something wrong.
But the really cool thing is that our big idea today is that we can just treat the person as a person; we can just love them! Okay, I’m going to have Kenley come help me with this one.
Alright, so when a person can’t hear—remember we had Wanda up here and she had those headphones on? Did she hear anything you were saying to her? No!
And when we were talking before this, Aries, Silas, and Maya told me that something that people who can’t hear can do is read. Yeah! They can read their mouth. So when you’re facing somebody who can’t hear very well, they often look at somebody’s mouth to kind of figure out what they’re saying to them.
Another way to communicate is by sign language. Okay, so you’re going to need your hands for this! If you have a board, put your board down so you can use your hands!
Alright, Kenley, can you show them the sign for ‘more’?
Okay, can everyone try that? And you can try that out there! It’s just putting your fingers together. A lot of times, parents—because I did this with my girls—I taught my babies sign language because they couldn’t talk yet! But they could communicate to me that way!
How about ‘please’? So ‘please’ is just rubbing your chest up here. So a lot of times, the babies would tell me “more please” and that’s how I knew they wanted another bite or some more snacks!
Um, what’s another one we do? Oh yes! Yes! It’s just moving your hands! No! There’s two different ways. You can just shake your head ‘no’ or two fingers. I used to do this when I taught my toddlers because when you’re in the middle of talking and somebody over here is doing something you might not want them to be doing, you can just quietly give them the sign for ‘no’ or ‘stop.’
That was something that I learned as well, so I mean it can be helpful with even our littles! Thank you, Kenley! That can’t communicate with us as well, but those are great things to learn!
Alright, so grab your board. We don’t have a table today; this is going to be your table! And Kaylyn’s going to give you something! Often in the room, our kiddos get squirmy, as you can tell! So we give them something to do while we’re reading the story; it’s kind of like using a fidget!
So they are going to color, give one to each of them! They’re going to color this man right here! He’s from our story, so we just have something small to color today, and then we’ll explain the rest of that in a little bit, okay?
So we talked about using sign language. Some people are blind, and what would you miss the most if you couldn’t see? You’ve never been able to see anything, so that’s kind of like, “Well, I really don’t know what it looks like.” But some people, like my grandma, she has macular degeneration and so she’s losing her eyesight.
And so some of the things that I go to show her pictures of my kiddos doing playing soccer, dancing, and stuff—she can’t see the pictures. So we really have to describe things to her.
But let’s see. Silas, if you couldn’t see anymore, what’s something that you might miss seeing? What’s something you see every day?
Oh, I know, I know one for you, Silas! Would you miss playing your video games? Huh? Oh, not that much! Okay, would anyone miss watching their cartoons? Oh, I know! That’s my girls—yup! You might miss some things!
Okay, so in our story today, it comes from—like Pastor Jay read—John 9. In the Bible times, people with disabilities, like blindness, they couldn’t earn money. They had to sit and beg; they couldn’t earn money to eat for food or anything like that, so they had to beg for money.
And some people would give them the crust of the bread, and others would give them just a few small coins. One day, a man who was blind heard some people walking by. ‘Teacher, why is this man blind? Did he do something wrong? Or did his parents?’ Did he do anything wrong? No, he was born that way!
‘That’s not why this man is blind,’ said Jesus. ‘This happened to show who God is and what he does.’ The blind man could tell Jesus was standing right in front of him and it sounded like Jesus spit on the ground. Remember, he can’t see! He can’t see him spitting!
So Cali, I’m going to come have you help me! We’re not going to spit this morning; we’re going to do it a little different. Alright, Cali is going to make our mud!
So Jesus was spitting on the ground in the dirt to make mud. Okay, we need a little water, so pour a little water in here! This is our dirt! Yeah, she’ll come show you how about when she makes that mud! She’ll come show you!
Cali, you gotta have—pour way more than that, girl! Dip it in! Keep going, keep going! Jesus had a lot of spit that day!
Alright, stir it up now! Maybe a little too much? Maybe she was on to something—trial and error here! Keep stirring! There we go! Oh yeah! Okay, can you go show them?
I know Caleb was really wanting to get a closer look there!
Okay, so I’m gonna come rub mud on your eyes today! No, I’m just kidding! I’m not gonna do that!
Okay, but Jesus spit on the ground, and then he took that mud and put it on the man’s eyes. Do you think the man kind of thought, “What is happening?”
He can’t see; he doesn’t know what’s being put on his face! Right? Jesus spoke to the man and said, ‘Go!’ Thank you, Cali! And he said, ‘Go wash off the mud in the pool of Siloam.’ The man got up—the blind man got up—and made his way to the pool. He splashed cold water on his face—kind of like this! He splashed cold water onto his face. Suddenly something happened: “I can see!”
The man must have shouted. I know I would have! He ran to tell his family and friends about how Jesus made his eyes well, but not everyone believed the man! What do you think people said to him when he said, ‘I can see. He put mud on my eyes; I washed it off, and now I can see!’
What do you think they said to him?
‘You may be lying!’ Oh, they thought he was lying! Does anybody else think maybe they thought he was lying?
Yeah! What do you think the people were? Amazed? They took the man who had been blind to the religious leaders.
Okay! Now I’m going to give—are we done coloring? Are we okay? We’ll hold off on that a little bit. They’re still coloring!
‘Tell us why you are now able to see!’ the religious leaders demanded. And once again he told the story about how Jesus spit on the ground, put mud on his eyes, and he went and washed it off and now he can see.
But it started an argument: “Jesus is a sinner; he healed the man on the Sabbath! That’s against the rules!”
“What about you?” they asked the man who had been blind. “Who do you think he is?” Oh, they’re challenging him!
“He must be a prophet,” the man said. The Pharisees certainly didn’t like the man’s answer, so they tried a new argument: “He must not have really been born blind!”
Do you think a man was lying his whole life? No, he was born that way! They even asked his parents about it, but his parents told the Pharisees that their son was old enough to answer for himself.
“All I know is that I was blind, but now I see!” You ever heard that before? You have some songs like that!
The man repeated this again and again, but the Pharisees were not happy. They wanted the man to explain what happened again, and he said, “I’ve told you over and over! Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to follow him too?”
Now the Pharisees were mad! They were furious! “We don’t want to follow this Jesus! We don’t even know where he comes from!”
So listen! I’m going to turn in the Bible here. We read this earlier—John 9:30 through 31-33—and he said, “Nope, we are going to 30. That is really surprising! You don’t know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes!
We know that God does not listen to sinners; he listens to the godly person who does what he wants them to do. Nobody has ever heard of anyone open the eyes of a person born blind. If this man had not come from God, he could not do nothing.”
“If you tell me who he is, I will believe.” This is when Jesus came to the man and said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ And the man said, “If you tell me who he is, I will believe.”
And Jesus said, “It is me that you’re talking to! I am the Son of Man. You have seen him; you’re talking to him right now!”
The man who was once blind called out, “I believe in you!” and he worshipped Jesus, the Son of God, who had loved and cared for him.
Okay! So now we’re going to make our blind man that you have. We’re going to make him see. So Caleb, give everyone one of these.
I’m going to hold on to one, okay? Got it? Okay, this is how it’s going to work. Let me show you his eyeballs a little bit higher!
You can tell the story again. Fine! Now you can even make—did you get him working? Okay.
Has anyone ever seen this? Have you ever seen a picture of this or somebody who’s had one of these? Have you seen it? Registered, didn’t it?
So this is a pole here; it’s red and white. Normally, what is this used for? Do you know what this is for?
Okay, so Cali could have used this earlier when she was walking up these stairs. She was doing one of these side steps! But this—that stick helps them feel things in front of them so they don’t run into things, and it helps guide them around!
That’s right! So Jesus said that God wanted to use the man who had been born blind to show people who he really is.
When Jesus made the man able to see, he helped the man know who he really is—the Son of God! So regardless of our disabilities, whether you need glasses, contacts, like Lois needed a cane, a walker, somebody has hearing aids, lots of different disabilities out there—no matter what our abilities are, our disabilities—we have the opportunity to know God and have a relationship with God.
And the really cool thing is our Bible verse taught us: encourage one another and lift each other up! We don’t have to treat people differently; we just treat them as humans, people, and we love them.
And I want to ask you guys, what are some ways that we can show somebody that we—okay, so what are some ways we can show somebody that we care? I’m going to ask you to think, think, think!
Okay, what are some ways we can show others that we care? I’m going to ask them first because I think this question’s coming to all of you as well. If someone’s blind and you help them walk around, it could be their guide.
Has anyone ever made somebody a card? Have we made somebody a card? I think we’ve done that in kids on worship even, haven’t we? Yeah! So we made somebody a card.
Has anyone ever picked somebody flowers? Yeah, could that make them feel good? How about holding the door open for someone? That’s a really big one!
Sometimes people have either a lot of things in their hands or, like Lois had her walker up here, if somebody needs help and they don’t have the hands to get through, holding the door open could be a really good one.
I won’t go too much further into that because I think that question’s coming, alright? Before we go, and I have you guys go back to your seat, everybody stand up again! We’re gonna do our Bible verse one more time! Do you remember what it is?
Okay, girls, you hugging yourselves? Ready? You guys gonna follow along?
Okay, ready? Encourage one another and build each other up! Ready? Let’s try it again. Encourage one another and build each other up! It comes from First Thessalonians 5:11.
We were close! Ready? First Thessalonians 5:11! One more time! Ready? Encourage one another and build each other up!
Alright, kiddos, let’s pray real quick! We always pray before we play! That’s my saying in class! They like to go play with their friends, so we always pray before we play!
We put everything down—everything down! We’re gonna fold our hands and we’re gonna pray, okay?
Alright! Thank you for these children! Thank you for the opportunity to be up here this morning and just highlighting what we do back in class, Lord! We are so excited to plant the seeds in these children’s lives that they may grow up and continue to follow you!
Thank you for the story of the blind man in reminding us that we can help each other, encourage one another, build each other up, and just do simple things that show others that we love them.
We pray that you be with these children and everyone in this room as we go about our week! We love you and praise you! In Jesus’ name we pray, amen!
And Judy, you can come on up! Alright, kiddos, you can go back to your seat! You can take your project with you!
Okay, the last part—the last part is for us to think, and we do this in class with every lesson—we use the whiteboard, and as Ashley just said that we were—her question she asked the children, I’m asking you.
The first one’s the same! What are some encouraging things we as a congregation can do for each other?
What are some encouraging things we as a congregation can do with each other? I heard somebody say something: pray together!
What are some more things?
Listen! Be a good listener! Take a meal to someone when we know someone is down and out!
What are some other ways we can compliment someone? Birthday cards! Great!
Get well cards! Birthday, et cetera—cards! Hugs! We love our hugs! That’s at church in the morning! Smile! That’s a good one! Smile at people! Spend time together!
Okay, we’ll go on to the second question: what are some ways we as a congregation can show God’s love to the people with disabilities and other challenges?
What are some ways we can show people? Like what? Provide accommodations—good! Be a friend! Open doors! Just like they mentioned when they have a walker, you can’t walk up to get a door! In other words, be accommodating!
Shop for them! That’s a good one! I just did that this week for a friend!
And that went along with the story where they don’t treat them differently—in other words, treat them normally! Treat them as a friend!
Don’t exaggerate what you’re doing! Pardon, offer rides to appointments! That’s a really important one!
Pardon! Wonderful! Mulan! Pray for them, for and with them! Walk their dogs! Oh, but that’s a good one!
You can come to my apartment and walk cinders at three in the morning with me, you could! That’s a wonderful one! Help with cleaning and possibly share a meal with them! Very good! Play games with them!
Okay, those are wonderful ideas! And when people are handicapped, a lot of times they’ve been handicapped from birth, but a lot of times it just happens, like with Lois! You had a fall, you had something happen! And like happened with Jane, they need help.
They won’t need help forever, but they are now getting back on their own, and it’s wonderful all the things that you did—the card! I know they appreciated the cards that you and the things that the congregation has done for them!
So keep up the good work! Thank you!
Thank you, Miss Judy! Now if we could please have everybody who is involved with our children’s ministry, whether it’s Kids on Worship, working in the nursery, or involved with the preschool or such, please stand up! And everybody else take a look around.
These are all people who are helping to guide our children. You know, they are leading them; they are teaching them about Jesus and helping them become the adult disciples of the future!
Thank you! And as you just sat back down, everybody stand back up as we are going to do our affirmation of faith!
Which I know this seems kind of unusual, but it’s actually not that strange. The 20th-century Swiss theologian Karl Barth—he was a contemporary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer back during World War II—he was giving a presentation, I think it was in Columbia or the University of Chicago, and one of the students asked him, “Following his talk, if you could summarize all of your theology—everything you believe—in one sentence, what would it be?”
And his answer was, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!”
So please let us all go ahead and affirm our faith with the words: Jesus loves me!
No, we’re gonna say it. Yes, I know that’s why we’re not—it’s different!
So Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones, to him be long; they are weak, but he is strong.
Jesus loves me, he who died; heaven’s gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin; let his little child come in.
Jesus loves me, this I know, as he loved so long ago, taking children on his knee, saying, ‘Let them come to me.’
Jesus loves me, he will stay close beside me all the way. If I love him, when I die, he will take me home on high.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.