The Gospel text (Mark 10:46-52)

And they came to Jericho; and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimae'us, a blind beggar, the son of Timae'us, was sitting by the roadside.

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart; rise, he is calling you."

And throwing off his mantle he sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Master, let me receive my sight."

And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well."

And immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

Aim

To have the children meditate through the Gospel, to think what it was like for Bartimae’us, and what it is like to be able to see for the first time.

To lead the children think about things about us and around us as gifts from God.

Preparation

Remove all the tables and chairs from the room, and create an area on the floor around which the children will sit.

Place there a board for candles and the Bible, opened to the Gospel reading

Place around it items which you can use to help them think about the things which we see, things we have

make it decorative, and attractive

we found a board for the candles, ringed it with tea-lights, and had a bowl of water candles, and one main large candle

we gathered leaves from the park and placed them around the board

on the leaves we placed some flowers, a toy (hulk), a bat and ball (see logistics notes below), a big loaf of break, with some fruits, and cups, peacock feathers, and had a sparkly fibre optics light for effect

Have the lights turned on before the children arrive, but turn off the room lights to test how much light you get from the candles. You want enough light so that they children would not be scared. We left the doors to the corridor open to let in more light.

Order

Invite the children in, and sit them down, have them greet each other

Welcome --- song

Short talk about the story of Bartimaeus, who he was, what Jesus did,

Ask them to try and imagine what it was like for him at the time

Then start getting them to meditate on the reading, as you talk through the story, creating the atmosphere

Have someone turn off the room lights when you get to the part when you talk about Bartimae’us being blind, so the room is left in candle light

Turn back on the lights at then of the meditation

Ask them about they feel about the story, and lead them to think of things they can see, to appreciate them as gifts

End with a prayer bringing what they described together, maybe something like

Dear Lord,

You helped Bartimaeus to see, and he followed you

Thank you for (list the things the children mentioned) that we can see

And help us to use them to follow you

Return to join the main congregation

Main Material

Meditation (saying out the following words slowly as guide)

... look around, look at the person next to you, and where you are

... now of a place far away, in a place called Jerico, at a time when Jesus was visiting there.

... it is a hot place, very hot

... it's the middle of the day, the sun is shinning on you, ... you're hot, sweaty, your clothes are dirty, you’re a bit smelly

... there are people everywhere, it's a very busy street, it is very noisy,

... you're tired, and thirsty, and hungry, you want to go somewhere sit down, and rest, where you can hide from the sun

... there are stores along the street, and it's cool in there,

... everyone is there, they’re drinking cold drinks

... but you don't have any money, and they won’t let you in without it, so you sit on the road, and put your cloak over you to shade the sun

... you try to beg for money, but no one sees you, everyone walks past without hearing you

... now close your eyes, imagine you are blind (turn the lights off so the room is lit by candles only)

... you can't see the people, but you can hear them, there is a great crowd coming ... some of them push you, they don't see you, some of them kick you by accident

... you try to get up, everyone is pushing you,

... you can't see, you’re scared, you try to use your cloak as a shield

... "Jesus", "Jesus", you hear people calling him

... Jesus is talking, you can’t hear what he’s saying, you can’t see where he is, so

... you call out too, "Jesus! Have mercy on me!", "Jesus! Have mercy on me!"

... you wave you cloak to try and get attention ... others push you away, tell you to shut up,

(wait for a moment)

... someone comes up to you, he takes your arm, and says, "Jesus is calling for you"

... you forget it’s hot, you forget you’re tired. Your’re excited, and you get up, leave you cloak behind

... you can’t see, they take to Jesus

... "What do you want me to do?" Jesus asked ...

... "Let me see"

(wait for a moment)

... "Go, your faith has made you well", Jesus said

... You open your eyes, you can see everything, the crowd, the road, all the colours, you can see the smells and the noise!

... You see Jesus, he smiles at you, he moves on ... you follow him

Leading Questions

Did you like imagining you were in Jericho? In the heat, and the crowd?

Was it easy for Bartimaeus? Not being able to see?

What did Jesus do for Bartimaeus?

What do you think he saw?

What do you think is the best gift that God gave Bartimaeus?

How did Bartimaeus use his gift?

What do you think are your best gifts from God?

How will you use your gifts?

Feedback from the session:

It worked quite well, the children were excited by the change in the setup, and they quite willingly took part.

They jumped on the toys and it was a bit of an effort to get them to leave them alone.

There were two groups of boys who needed a stern talking to before they would settle, but pretty much they were focussed and quiet

Most closed their eyes to imagine what things were like, and turning the room to candle light had the desired effect

The was space to lengthen the meditation time by being slower, to allow them time to get into role

When the light came back on they were eager with their answers and thoughts

We tried to have them write a prayer, thinking it may be nice to take up, which was a mistake. It disrupted the atmosphere too much, and we didn’t have time in any case. In the end, we just brought them all back to a prayer, and ended well.

Logistics notes

The bread was a pain to tidy up, but they loved it, wanted to get a piece to eat. Getting an uncut loaf would be better

We had a bat and ball --- avoid the ball, it got rolled into the candles, knocked some over, and you had wax from the tea-lights spilling, plus the risk of fire from it.