Luke 7.36-8.3, Forgiveness, Children’s Message — Tod Gobledale, UK

Luke 7.36-50, 8.1-3, Pentecost 4 Year C
‘Walking the talk… I forgive you with all my heart.’

Start with the four pictures and two tiles in your bag. Also have a container with broken tile pieces in it, also in your bag.

Picture 1: Amy & Will

 

Pull out first picture from your bag and ask these two questions:
What do you see? [2 children; boy and girl]
What are their names?  [Amy & Will]
It turns out they are sister and brother.
Give picture of Amy & Will to someone to hold.

Picture 2: 2 tiles

Pull out one tile from bag.  If you don’t have a ceramic tile, use the picture.
Ask:  What’s this?  Do you know?  [a tile]
Pull out second tile from bag.
Amy and Will’s parents use two tiles to put their coffee cups on.
Give one tile (or picture) to a child to hold. Keep the other near to hand.

Picture 3: Amy & Will playing catch with the tile

Pull out picture 3, playing with tile.
One day Amy and Will were playing with one of the tiles. [You might toss your tile from one hand to the other.]
What do you think happened?  They…dropped it!
What do you think happened when it dropped?   Yes, it broke! [Pull out container of broken tile pieces.]
How do you think Amy and Will feel when the tile breaks?  [sad, afraid, worried, sorry]
How do you think their mum and dad will feel when they find out what happened? [angry, upset, disappointed, sad…]
What do you think Amy & Will should do?  [Let the children share their thoughts; tell their parents, clean up the pieces…]
What do you think their mum and dad will do?
Are there mum and dad going to be angry at them, at Amy and Will, forever?  [Hopefully, they will forgive them.]  
Let’s see what happens.

Pull out  picture 4 (of Amy & Will without their names).

Who’s this?   [Amy and Will]

Amy and Will tell their mum and dad that they broke the tile.  They say they are sorry and that they will try to find a new one.
Mum and Dad feel angry, and sad that one of their special tiles is broken.  But when they see that Amy and Will are sorry, what do you think they do?
Yes, they forgive Amy and Will.  And of course, they still love Amy and Will.

Just as Jesus teaches us that God loves and forgive us when we say we are sorry.

Let’s pray.  God, thank you for loving us.  Help us, like Amy & Will, say sorry when we have done something wrong.  Help us forgive others.  Amen.

 

Click here to share this post: