Sunday, Sept. 25th Group Gathering Lesson

Parable of the Two Brothers: Sunday, Sept. 25th - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Opening Song: Ha La La La (Same as last week - see 9/18 blog notes for link)

Review of Last Week: I will start our class by asking who remembers what Jesus taught us last week about what is fair and what isn't fair... if they can summarize for us the Gospel that we talked about. The first student who is able to give some sort of a synopsis of last week's class will be invited up to play a "Minute to Win It" type game. Today we will play "Sharp Shooter", where a student takes aim with rubber bands at playing cards set up with clothes pins. You can find and download the blueprint for this game at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksr2JPk2MnM . I use a 60 second timer for the countdown that can be downloaded at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq25cELZozU . If the student completes the task in 60 seconds, he will win a "big prize" of a notepad and pen... if not, the "small prize" is a fun-sized bag of M&Ms.

Mini-Lesson: I will have pre-chosen two children from among the early arrivals to be my helpers for a skit that we will present, and will assign them their roles. The stage will be pre-set with a television and video game. Both children will be sitting in front of the TV, pretending to play the video game. On the opposite side of the stage I will have a broom set up, along with some random objects (toys, papers, etc) to make the area look messy. The skit will proceed as follows, with me playing the mom:

Mom: Kids, the playroom is pretty messy! I need for the toys to be picked up and for you to sweep up the floor of all of the cookie crumbs. Will you please take care of that?
Child 1: Ok, mom! I'll be there in a minute!
Child 2: Awwww, come on, Mom! I am in the middle of a good game! Why do you always make me stop my FUN and do work for you?! I don't WANT to pick up right now! I'm staying right here!
Mom: (Shrugs shoulders and walks away)

Children continue to play for a few seconds.
Child 2: Come on, Mom needs us to clean up. We'd better do it!
Child 1: No way! If I stop now I will lose the high score! I'm not going to do it!

Child 2 gets up, goes and picks up the mess and starts sweeping.
Child 1 continues to play the video game.

That will end the skit, at which point I will summarize what happened and ask the students what they think: which child did the better thing? The one who was polite to the mom and said he'd do it, but then didn't ... or the one who back-talked his mom, but then did what she asked? I will point out that neither one of them was a really good example, but that Jesus has something to say to us about that. I will then read to them the Gospel for 9/25, which can be found at http://www.pflaum.com/readings/sept_2011/sept_25.pdf . We will teach that Jesus is telling us that it is fine to say you are a Christian, to say that you love God, etc., but if you don't ACT like it, you're not doing the right thing. It's much better to ACT like that Christian person and to let your good deeds shine.

Closing song: Let Your Light Shine Before Man - found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMMz5uJKkQ&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLAA76858E183053E1


The kids love this song! The motions are very easy.

If you have any questions about this lesson, please feel free to contact me at jtruitt@stolivers.com !