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‘God Colours’ series - Week 3

’Never Pick on People - Always be Kind’

(Matthew 7 v 5 verses 1-5 [The Message] “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbour’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbour.)

There is a set of PowerPoint slides for week 3 to accompany this session’s intro, lead-in session drama and this week’s teaching material.
PowerPoint, Leaders’ notes and other items downloadable from the bottom of this webpage.

SLIDE 1 - ‘God Colours’ series theme slide
This slide includes our previous two ‘God Colours’ You might like to ask the children what they can remember about last week’s ‘Putting Things Right’ theme.  

So kids we’re in our series ‘God Colours’. God has filled the world with colour, the sky, the land, the plants, people, the rivers and sea. But not just with colours like green, red, yellow, blue but with special colours, colours that make a huge difference in the world, colours of goodness, kindness, love and many other things. God is totally artistic and creative and He wants us to help Him shine out His special colours in the world.

SLIDE 2 - This week in ‘God Colours’ we’re looking at how God wants us to ‘Never Pick on People - Always be Kind.’

Let’s see what happens in our drama.

PART 1 - LEAD-IN SESSION Funny Drama.

Characters: Laurel & Hardy (or Lauren & Harriet)
Props: Roll Christmas paper, roll wall paper, mallet, tube of glue, glue tub / bucket, dust sheet, face paint, mirror.    

The Decorators
The two characters arrive on stage with their decorating buckets and kit to the traditional Laurel & Hardy intro tune or a similar quirky, funny tune.

Hardy: Well, we’d better get on and decorate this wall then!

Laurel: (Holding up a roll of Christmas paper) Yes, and I’ve brought the paper

Hardy: (Shaking his head) That’s no good, we’re papering a wall, not a present. And it’s not even Christmas. (Holding the wallpaper up and then laying the roll of wallpaper onto the table) Here’s the proper paper.

Laurel: (Holding up a mallet) I’ve got a hammer and nails; we can put the paper up with them

Hardy: (looking dismayed) You don’t use nails – you use glue to put wallpaper up!

Laurel: (Pulling a tube of glue from his pocket) Well, I’ve got some glue

Hardy: (Shaking his head again) We’ll be here all week if we try and use that! (Nodding his head and picking up the large glue tub.) I’ve brough the proper stuff!

Laurel: (Tries to open the wall paper roll but discovering it just curls itself back up again – scratching his head)

Hardy: (Shaking his head again – rolls the wall paper out but it goes off the table and onto the floor. Hardy pulls a face, shakes himself)

Hardy: (Gets a little mark on his face)

Laurel: Starts to snigger and then laugh

Hardy: (Hands on hips) Now what’s the matter with you?

Laurel: (Laughing and pointing) You’ve got a mark on your face

Hardy: (looking a little sorry for himself and then annoyed) Well I’m glad you think that’s funny. Now do something useful and put this dust sheet down.

Laurel: (Gets all wrapped up in the dust sheet whilst Hardy looks on bemused. Laurel emerges with several marks on his face)

Hardy: Has a little snigger

Laurel: (Looking sheepish) What’s the matter?

Hardy: (Looking a little smug) Well, I suggest before you laugh at my face, you take a look at your own.

Laurel: (Pulling a mirror from his bucket) Well, I don’t mind if I do.

Laurel: (Jumping up and down and disappearing off stage) Ahhh! Oh no! Where did that come from?

Hardy: (Stands hands on hips laughing)

Bible Chat based on the woman accused of adultery and brought to Jesus by the religious leaders. John 8 verses 1 - 11

Ideas for props which may be used when telling this story.
* A homemade scroll representing the religious laws would be good. (There is also a picture of a scroll on the PowerPoint - SLIDE 5)
* A large sandy coloured piece of paper mounted on an easel, together with some darker sandy coloured paint for finger painting. When Jesus stoops down to write in the sand, a finger could be dipped into the paint and some wiggly lines representing writing drawn onto the paper. The same can be done the second time when Jesus stoops and writes.
When commenting what people thought Jesus may have written, a few legible words like cheating, telling lies… may also be finger painted.
* The word ‘forgive’ on a piece of card and some way of attaching it to your sandy board at the end of the chat..

Chat for kids

Kids, Jesus tells us in the New Testament, part of the Bible that we should never pick on people. We shouldn’t criticize other people’s faults, embarrass others in a nasty way or make fun of one another. Name calling is bad too.

Here’s an account of how Jesus Himself stopped some men who were picking on a lady.

Early one morning Jesus went to the temple, a kind of church and many people crowded round to listen to Him. Suddenly, Jesus’ gathering was interrupted by some very religious people who had brought along a woman, who they accused of breaking religious rules. They stuck the poor woman right in the middle of the crowd.

How unkind of them! Even if the lady had done something wrong, who would throw her into the middle of a crowd like that and embarrass her in such a way.

The men who had brought the woman along said, “Teacher, (a name Jesus was often called) this woman has broken the religious law, and, according to that law she should be severely punished. What do you say?”

Jesus didn’t say a word. But he did something very strange. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with His finger.

The men who had brought the woman continued to question Jesus. So, Jesus stood up and spoke “The one of you who hasn’t done anything wrong, can be the first to punish this lady.” Jesus then bent down and wrote in the ground again. As the men who had dragged the woman along to Jesus heard what He said, one by one they left until they had all gone.

Now only the woman was left there in front of Jesus with the crowd standing all around. Jesus stood up and said “Where are they? Is there no one accusing you?” “No one sir” the lady replied. Jesus said, “Neither do I accuse you. Go your way and leave your life of doing wrong.”

No one knows what Jesus wrote in the ground with His finger. But, people think, Jesus may have written a list of things that the men who brought the woman to Him may have done wrong, and having seen the writing and heard what Jesus said, the men decided to leave.

The men who had brought the lady to Jesus were what we call hypocrites. They were accusing the lady of having done something wrong when they too had done wrong things. They should never have picked on this lady in the first place.

We too should not pick on people, because of what we see as their faults, we shouldn't criticize others either.
WE SHOULD AWAYS BE KIND to one another. None of us are perfect, and Jesus knows that. If we ask Him, He will forgive us for the wrongs things we’ve done and help us to always be kind.

So, let’s ALWAYS BE KIND

PART 3

RESPONSE TIME (SMALL GROUPS IF POSSIBLE)

1. What would you say about the men bringing the woman in this story? (Unkind, hypocrites, they too had done wrong, they picked on this woman…)

2. What happened to the men accusing the woman of breaking the religious rules? (They walked away)

3. What would you say Jesus was like in this story? (Kind, forgiving, loving, understanding…)

Week 3 DOWNLOADS

Lead-in Drama script, Bible Chat and Response Time Leaders’ Notes
Week 3 PowerPoint slides