Who knows what Jesus said was the most important thing? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). Good. That’s right. Jesus said….. (Give them a chance to answer and respond). And Jesus said the most important thing we can do is to LOVE (Give them a chance to answer and respond). We have to love God and we have to love who else? (Give them a chance to answer and respond).That’s right!
Sometimes people have a hard time loving each other. Why do you think that is? (Give them a chance to answer). Good. Tell me about when YOU have a hard time loving other people. (Give them a chance to answer and respond). Well, in today’s gospel story AND in our story about St. Paul, people were making excuses about why they weren’t being loving to EVERYONE. Instead, they were pointing out rules to each other and saying they only had to worry about breaking specific rules. Has that ever happened to you? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). They were only worried about getting in trouble. They were thinking about themselves and they weren’t understanding WHY it was important to try to be nice all the time, and not just because they thought they would get in trouble if they didn’t.
That made Jesus upset. They weren’t getting the point! So, since we want to make sure we get Jesus’s point, I have brought a book that will help us understand how to treat other people and why. Would you like to hear it? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). Okay, let’s put on our listening ears. Here we go:
Read, “Do unto Otters by Laurie Keller.
What did you think of that book? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). What did you learn? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). Good. That’s right. We need to treat other people the way we would like to be treated. (Give them a chance to answer and respond). That means that we have to try to be nice not just so we can say we are following the rules but because it’s the right thing to do. Does that make sense to you? (Give them a chance to answer and respond).
So, do you think that you would be willing to try to treat everyone exactly the way you would want people to treat you? (Give them a chance to answer and respond).And to always THINK about how you are going to treat people before you do something? (Give them a chance to answer and respond). Good! What do we say in church when we agree on something? (Give them a chance to answer). That’s right. We say “amen.” AMEN.