ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)
- Good morning!
- I have a question for you – can you remember when Halloween was?
- Do you remember what your costume was?
- What was it?
- So…since you wore that costume of [say a couple of names of the costumes that the
kids just told you ] were you really that person or thing? (expect a lot of yeses
here)
- Oh yeah? You were? Are you sure you weren’t pretending - maybe just a teeny, tiny,
little bit?
TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)
- That’s one of the fun things about Halloween, isn’t it?
- You get to pretend that you are someone else, someone that you usually are not.
- In today’s scripture story, Jesus tells his disciples that the Pharisees are pretending
to be people that they are not…except they NEVER STOP pretending!
- This is not a good thing.
- Jesus says that the Pharisees are religious leaders who only pretend to want to know
God better.
- And one of the things they do in their pretending is wear a costume of long robes
that make them seem like they are paying attention to God even though they are not.
- In other words, the Pharisees did not do what their costume would make you think
they would be doing.
- This is like what we learned about our own Halloween costumes, right? Just because
we wore certain clothes did not mean we were actually Spiderman or Wonder Woman or
a cat.
SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)
- Now, it just so happened that there was another teacher for the disciples to learn
from – someone who was not a Pharisee.
- There was a teacher who did not pretend to pay attention to God, but actually did
the things that he told others to do.
- And he didn’t wear a fancy costume or uniform to try and convince the disciples to
pay attention to him.
- This person was, of course, Jesus.
- Since Jesus wasn’t pretending, his disciples could trust his teachings and actions
as authentic.
- And, just like the disciples learned from Jesus, we can too.
- We can do this by reading and talking about the Jesus stories in the Bible – just
like we’re doing today.
- And the more we learn from Jesus, the more we learn to pay attention to God just
like Jesus did, which allows us to do the same things Jesus did – without having
to pretend.
- That’s the good news for today. Let’s pray.
CLOSING Prayer
- This is a repeat-after-me prayer.
Dear God,
Dear God,
Thank you for Jesus…
Thank you for Jesus…
…who does not pretend about you…
…who does not pretend about you…
…but keeps it real…
…but keeps it real…
…in all that he says and does.
…in all that he says and does.
Thank you and Amen
Originally posted October 25, 2015
Updated on October 12, 2024
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia
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