Sessions

Starchasers: Sessions

Meeting Jesus

This term we’re going to be looking at some of the people who met Jesus in Luke’s gospel. Through these encounters with Jesus we learn about Jesus Himself and how other people responded to meeting the ‘Son of God’. The challenge to us today is how will we respond to discovering Jesus and meeting Him?

The weeks when we have Starchasers and the message of the mornings are:

29th January: Luke 5:1-11
Theme – Simon Peter, James & John
We started the session with a recap of the first two sessions and the people who met Jesus – Simeon, Anna, the religious teachers and his mother Mary. (For more information see below!). The three people in today’s story were also amazed by Jesus. So much so their response was to leave everything behind and follow Him.
We started with some mock job interviews. In came the first candidate who was very clever, passed lots of exams, was very confident (almost cocky) and seemed to be good at lots of things. Did he want to join? There he ummed and ahhed and made excuses and said he’d see how things were over the next few months, maybe in 6 months he could make a decision.
The second candidate didn’t really seem up to much. Wasn’t really good at school work, couldn’t really read and write, hadn’t amounted to much in life. In fact his main skill was fishing. But he was prepared to join right away. If it was a job interview who would we choose? Would we choose the same sort of people Jesus chose?
We then looked at the story of Jesus calling Simon Peter, James & John. (Simon Peter was called Simon but Jesus later gave him the name Peter – we’ll call him Simon Peter today so we know that he’s same Peter who was one of Jesus closest friends). The kids acted out today’s story with a few chairs (boats) and a football net (fishing net). We saw Jesus coming to the edge of the shore and the crowds were gathering around him. We saw the three fishermen come back from fishing all night but they had caught nothing. Jesus got into Simon Peter’s boat and asked him to push out a little from the shore. Jesus then taught the people from Simon Peter’s boat.
After that Jesus told Simon Peter to head out to the deep part of the lake and try catching some fish. Simon Peter knew that there was no chance of catching fish but did it because Jesus asked him too. And then… the net was bulging with fish, so much so the nets started to break, the boat sunk a little bit and James and John had to come and help them take the catch back to shore. The fishermen new that what Jesus had done was extraordinary, miraculous. They were astonished at this and Simon Peter fell on his knees and said to Jesus ‘Go away from me, I’m a sinner!’.
But Jesus didn’t go away instead he gave the three of them an offer of leaving their fishing boats behind, following Him and come fishing for people. Jesus wanted them to follow Him and help build His group of followers, His church. And Simon Peter, James & John left everything and followed Jesus. This man was so remarkable they had to do as He said and follow Him.
We also looked at the story in the Miracle Marker film to recap and emphasized that the three fishermen knew how remarkable it was for Jesus to do what He did. The miracle of the fishes was tailor-made for them!
We finished in small groups with our heart-notebooks again. We wrote down what we wanted to treasure and be reminded off about Jesus in this story. We also wrote down what things we didn’t quite understand about Jesus but wanted to hold on to.

22nd January: Luke 2:41-52
Theme – Religious teachers
This session we learnt about a time when Jesus was 12 years old. Again his parents were going up to the temple in Jerusalem, this time to celebrate the Passover, just like they did every year. We read the story from Luke’s gospel while the kids listened.
We heard that after the festival Mary & Joseph returned home and although Jesus wasn’t with his parents He was somewhere in the big family group that was heading home. Or so his parents thought. But after a day they looked for Him amongst their family and friends and couldn’t find Him. So Mary & Joseph headed back to Jerusalem to look for Jesus there but for three days they couldn’t find Him. Then, after three days of looking, they found Jesus in the temple with the religious teachers. Jesus was listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were amazed with Jesus’ understanding and wisdom.
When Mary & Joseph found Jesus they were astonished too but more because they wondered why He’d stayed here rather than coming home with them and didn’t He know how worried they were! Jesus replied – where else would I be but in my Father’s house? They didn’t understand what Jesus was saying but we also learnt that Mary treasured these things (and more besides as Jesus grew) in her heart.
Taking up the theme of Mary treasuring these things in her heart we introduced the idea of the heart bucket. In this case it was a small bucket with a big red heart stuck on the front. We looked at some of the things that were inside – silver, gold, coins and a big jewel – all treasure. We said that Mary kept these things about Jesus in her heart, she remembered them, she thought about them. These things were precious to her and they helped her learn more about Jesus. Some of the things she didn’t quite understand but she also held onto them, these precious things.
In small groups we had our own treasure notebook which we also decorated. Inside we wrote some of the things we wanted to treasure, to keep, to remember, to think about. We wrote those things we wanted to treasure about Jesus from the story of Him at the temple – His wisdom, His going to His Father’s house, His understanding. And we also wrote some of the things we didn’t quite understand yet – Didn’t He know His parents would be upset? What did He mean by His Father’s House?

Theme – Simeon & Anna
We started the morning with waiting. Steve came on and sat and waited. And looked at his watch and waited. And drummed and fingers and waited. Through writing down on a pad and getting a kid to read out he conveyed that he was waiting for something to happen. Someone was going to be chosen. But who. And we waited. And then waited some more. Finally the countdown from 10 and then the name was revealed.
It gave us an an idea what waiting was like, even for a short time. You’re wondering what’s going to happen, who it’s going to be, you really want it to come now. We also shared some things we waited for and what that was like. That included birthdays, exams and the London Olympics.
And today’s story was all about waiting. We met Simeon who was given a special promise by God – he would see the Messiah before he died, God’s chosen one. (We don’t know how the promise was delivered but in acting it out Simeon got a letter with his name on it). And so Simeon waited and waited and waited. One day Jesus’ parents Mary and Joseph went up to the temple. They were good people, devout and Godly, and so were keeping the Jewish law by going up to the temple when Jesus was 40 days old. They went with their offering, two turtledoves or pigeons, because they were too poor to afford a lamb.
That day Simeon was led to the temple by the Holy Spirit and when Simeon saw Jesus he knew Jesus was the Messiah. He took Jesus in his arms, thanked God and said this prayer of thanks to God:
Lord, I am your servant, and now I can die in peace
because you have kept your promise to me.
With my own eyes I have seen what you have done
to save your people
and foreign nations will also see this
Your mighty power is a light for all nations, and it will bring honour to your people Israel.
Simeon blessed Jesus’ parents but he also had a warning for Mary that some people would reject Jesus and Mary would suffer.
And the day out at the temple wasn’t over yet! A prophetess, Anna, was also there. She was an old lady of 84 whose husband had died some years ago. Anna never left the temple and she spent all her time there worshipping and praying to God. When Anna saw Jesus she thanked God and told people asking about Jerusalem being saved about Jesus.
Some strange things had happened to Mary and Joseph since Mary found out she was pregnant. We asked the kids what some of those things were, including today’s story. Simeon, his prayer and his warning, Anna and her response to Jesus, angels, strange visitors from the East, shepherds, an unusual star, gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh… it was a lot to take it. We asked the kids what Mary and Joseph might have been thinking and one response was ‘maybe they were believing more and more that Jesus was special’.
We finished by using Simeon’s prayer of praise for some choral speaking. In that we say, not sing, the prayer but go louder and softer in different parts and have some parts with one voice, some with several and some with everyone. We split the kids into two groups and went through the words thinking how they would emphasis the key bits before ending with the two groups choral speaking the prayer.