Childrens Sermon Service

Object: A small bowl made of clay or plain ceramic. The beggar’s bowl would probably have been very plain-looking, strong enough to be carried around in a sack, and looking very well-worn.

Note: This is optional. I have used hand motions to help the children reinforce the message of the story. When you talk about how the people saw the bowl, hold your hands out in front of you with your palms down, like you have made the decision and the conversation is over. When you talk about the man who carries the bowl, hold your hands out in front of you with your palms up, like you are open to listening and caring. At the end, I ask the children to make the motions with me.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Then let me get started. Our story today is about a bowl. (Show the bowl.) It doesn’t look like a very fancy bowl, does it? (Let them respond.) It looks pretty plain, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) But the bowl in our story is a very important bowl to the man who owns it. He got the bowl when he was a little boy, and he has carried it with him everyday since then. In fact, the bowl was about the only thing the man owned. All the man had in the entire world were the clothes that he was wearing, and his bowl. It was his beggar’s bowl.

A long time ago, when the man was born, something was wrong with his eyes. The doctors didn’t understand why it had happened, but he was born blind. A lot of people believed that it happened because the baby’s mother or father had done something that God didn’t like, so they were being punished. Some people even believed that God was just punishing the baby for some reason. They didn’t believe in things like germs and viruses that might make someone sick. They believed that if someone was blind or is sick in some way, it was because they were a bad person and God was punishing them. And they believed that since God was punishing those people, everyone else needed to stay away from them and let them learn their lesson.

So as the blind boy grew up, he wasn’t allowed to go to school. He wasn’t allowed to be with other kids or do the things everyone else did. (Show the bowl.) As soon as he was old enough, his parents gave him his bowl and showed him what to do with it. He would get up every morning, get his bowl, and walk down to the gate by the fountain at the edge of town. Then he would sit on the ground by the gate, hold his bowl in his hands, look down at the ground, and hope that someone walking by would throw a coin into his bowl so he could buy something to eat that day. He did that every morning of every day. And so did all of the other beggars who sat with him by the gate. They all had their bowl in their hand.

As people came through the city gate and saw the bowls, do you know what they did? (Let them respond.) Some of them went, “Ewww!” (Make a face and show the palms-down movement.) And they stayed away from the beggars because they believed they were bad people that God was mad at. Once in a while, someone would toss a coin into one of the bowls, but most people just tried to ignore them.

Well, one morning, Jesus was walking through the gate and one of his friends saw the man sitting with his bowl and asked Jesus, “Is God punishing that man because his parents were sinners, or because he is a sinner?” All Jesus’ friend saw was the bowl and believed that the man must have been a sinner that God was punishing.

Jesus looked at his friend and said that the man was not a sinner that God was punishing, but he was a child that needed help, and God was going to give him that help. And everyone stopped and watched as Jesus walked over closer to the man and actually reached out and touched the blind man. And do you know what happened then? (Let them respond.) The man who had been blind ever since he was born, blinked his eyes and could see!

(Show the bowl.) Most people saw the bowl and stayed far away from the man holding it. All they saw was the bowl. (Show the palms-down movement.) But Jesus saw the bowl and moved closer to the man, and even touched him. (Show the palms-up movement.) Everyone saw the bowl, but Jesus saw the man holding the bowl.

We have all seen someone like the man with his bowl, haven’t we? (Show the bowl and let them respond.) Sometimes they are holding a sign or pushing a cart or sleeping on a bench somewhere. Sometimes they just look differently than we look or talk differently than we talk. Just like the people who saw the bowls at the gate, we see people and we think we know about them, so we choose to ignore them or stay away from them.

Jesus made some people angry when he helped the blind man because they believed that God didn’t like people who were different than them. (Show the palms-down movement.) But Jesus didn’t stop. He flipped things over and helped people no one else would help. (Show the palms-up movement.) Jesus said that God loved all of us and that God wants us to do that, too, even if they look different that us. (Show the bowl.)

Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us, and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created, and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.