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Hi, everyone! (Let them respond.) Who can tell me what I have here in my hand? (Hold up the eyeblasses and let the children respond.) A pair of glasses, right. That wasn’t hard to figure out was it? Now, let me ask you another question that might be a little trickier. Who can tell me why people wear glasses like these? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we need glasses to help our eyes so we can see things so they aren’t blurry, don’t we? Some people need glasses to help them see things that are far away, and some people need glasses to help them see things that are close to them. They wear glasses to help their eyes focus, so they can see things clearly. Glasses help us focus better so we can see things more clearly.

Now, the trickiest question for you. Who can tell me which part of the glasses is the part that helps our eyes see more clearly? Is it this? (Let them respond as you point to the ear piece and fold it back and forth.) No, this just helps us keep the glasses from sliding off of our head, doesn’t it? Is this the part that helps us see better? (Let them respond as you point to the nose support pieces.) No, this is what helps us keep our glasses from sliding down our nose, isn’t it? Is it this? (Let them respond as you point to the lens.) Yes, this is the part that helps us see better, isn’t it? Can anyone tell me what this part of our glasses is called? (Let them respond as you point to the lens.) It’s called the lens. The lens is the part the doctor creates to help our eyes focus better so we can see things better.

You know, sometimes I wish I had a lens that could help other things be clearer for me, don’t you? For example, have you ever been in school and your teacher is talking about something that is really confusing for you? It’s like it’s really blurry in your head? Wouldn’t it be cool if you could pull out a big lens that would help you understand what the teacher was saying and make it less blurry? (Let them respond.) That would be cool, wouldn’t it?

Or maybe someone is talking to us about Jesus, and the things they say are so confusing that they are all just blurry in our head? Wouldn't it be cool if we could just pull out our big lens and it would make what they are saying less blurry so we could understand it?

Well, guess what! I have that super-cool lens right here with me this morning.

A long time ago when the church was just beginning, there were a lot of people talking about things that Jesus had said and done. There were so many people talking about Jesus, and they were saying so many different things, it was really hard to understand who Jesus really was and what he wanted us to do. It’s like Jesus was getting really hard for people to understand, like Jesus was getting blurry. And because they couldn’t see Jesus clearly anymore, some of them started arguing with each other, and that was hurting the church.

Then one day a guy named Mark decided he was going to help make it easier to see Jesus and make him less blurry. He thought about all of the things people were saying about Jesus, all of the stories, all of the things that were so confusing, and he wrote the words in our scripture today. He wrote that Jesus was baptized, he went in the wilderness to get ready, and then he started preaching the good news. That’s it. That’s what we need to know about Jesus.

It’s like Mark created a lens we can use to see Jesus more clearly. It wasn’t made out of glass like the lens in our eyeglasses. He created his lens out of words. Mark said that if we ever get confused about who Jesus was, or if we get confused about all of the things people say about Jesus, we don’t need to worry about it, or fight about it. All we really need to know to see Jesus clearly is that God sent him to be baptized, God prepared him to teach us, and then Jesus told us the good news that God loves us all.

When we put on our eyeglasses, the lenses help us focus so we can see things more clearly. If we try to remember the words that Mark wrote, they can help us focus and see Jesus more clearly too. And when we see Jesus clearly, we remember he taught us that God loves each one of us, all of us, and God sent Jesus to tell us that and to remind us that God wants us to take care of each other. That’s what matters.

Let’s say a prayer to ask God to help us remember what is really important, and help us do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for helping us see Jesus more clearly. Please help us remember to let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.