Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, you we thank you for giving us Jesus to be our Light. Help us to follow Him and be thankful that His light shines on us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Sorry Song (to the tune of If you’re happy and you know it)
When we say that you are sorry, God forgives.
When we say that you are sorry, God forgives.
If our sins are large or small,
God will still forgive them all.
When we say that we are sorry, God forgives.
Then sing the Gloria (tune of Row, Row, Row your Boat)
Praise, praise, praise the Lord, Praise our Father dear.
As we listen to his word, feel his spirit near.
Gospel –John 16:20-23
The Lord be with you. All: And with your spirit. (teach them this)
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John. All: Glory to you, O Lord. (teach them this)
After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you. For you gave him authority over all humanity, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. And eternal life means knowing you, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do. Father! Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was made.
“I have made you known to those you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your word, and now they know that everything you gave me comes from you. I gave them the message that you gave me, and they received it; they know that it is true that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those you gave me, for they belong to you. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine; and my glory is shown through them. And now I am coming to you; I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world. Holy Father! Keep them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one just as you and I are one.”
(Gospel passage taken from Good News Translation®
After Gospel - All: “Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ”
Suggestions for the Discussion
Do you think you are strong? How strong do you think you are? Well, I have a question for you! Pretend I am holding a small stick in my hand - more like a twig. Do you think if I gave it to you that you could break it? Yes- I think you're probably right. You could easily break a skinny twig. Now let's pretend that I have a bundle of skinny twigs in my hands that are all tied together. Do you think you could break the bundle of twigs? No. I agree, I don't think you could either. But the twigs in the bundle are the same as the twig by itself. It's just that when they are bound together, they are much stronger than when they are by themselves.
The twigs can teach us an important lesson about church. Sometimes when we think of church, we think of the building it is in (even if it is in a school). Do you think that our church is a building? Well, it isn't. Our church is made up of men, women, and boys and girls who have chosen to follow Jesus. Just like us.
Some people say they can be Christian without going to church. Maybe they can, but when we are by ourselves, we aren't as strong as when we are together, just like the twigs. If Satan tries to tempt us when we try to go it alone, maybe we could be tempted, but when we are surrounded by others like ourselves, we will probably think more carefully about what we should do. We are much stronger together with our church to support us than when we are on our own.
In our Bible story today, Jesus prayed for His disciples because he knew they would be tempted and that they needed to come together as one to be strong. How can we practice being strong, when we aren't with our church?
We can worship Jesus, pray every day, ask for forgiveness for our mistakes and listen to our parents, carers etc. We can read God's word (the Bible) and remember not to be tempted. We can be kind, thoughtful, truthful, and more sharing.We can also encourage our friends to come to church as we do when we are able to go back, to learn about God and Jesus.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, protect us and help us to be one with other believers just like you are one with Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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