Jesus Walks [confirmation lesson for Mark 1-2]

"If you could meet anyone in the world, who would you choose?"

I handed out blank note cards and markers and the 7th graders wrote some of the people they would like to meet

Aside from Justin Bieber, actors, musicians, athletes and fictional TV characters made the list. 

I read part of Mark 1 about the very first people that Jesus met. Apparently they weren't rich or beautiful or specifically smart or athletic or anything really desirable.  They were just people who needed something, people who had nothing to give and everything to receive. 

We split up into groups. Boys and Girls. 

Taking turns by verse, the girls and I read Mark 1:35 through 2:12. Man, the bible is hard to read! We answered some questions that geared us towards looking into our study bibles for help. What is leprosy? What is a scribe? Why did Jesus make people angry?

After our bible study, we switched with the boys and watched a video. The video, really. The Jefferson Bethke "Why I Hate Religion but Love Christianity" video that has been seen by over 14 million people world-wide.

Watch it, here:

After listening to their reaction, I asked them about some of the quotes:

“If grace is water, then the church should be an ocean”

The church “is not a museum for good people, it’s a hospital for the broken.”

“Now let me clarify, I love the church, I love the bible, and yes I believe in sin, but if Jesus went to your church, would they even let him in?” 

This spoken word poetry was written and performed by a young man who actually goes to church and is active in it.

About the time that we were starting the video, a group of saints from the hosting congregation came into the room to set up for a funeral. In the past, Wednesday funerals meant that we would go to a different room in the church, but this Wednesday we did not hear that there would be a funeral.  I kindly told the funeral servers that we would be finished in about 15 minutes. To which they replied. We need to set up for the funeral, please leave.  I told them we would be done in about 15 minutes.  

To close, all 19 7th graders gathered for our closing reflection, the song "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. I am so glad I downloaded the "clean" version. About half way through a frustrated older man came up to me and told me to clear out. I explained that we had permission to be there. I was wearing my collar and was treated like I didn't belong there.  Imagine how the kids felt. 

We finished the song and I said this:

Like we learned in our story today, Jesus walks not with those who have power, not with those who are in charge...but those who need him.  Kanye says that’s hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, strippers, people living in welfare.  

[and read from Mark 2] Jesus said it this way: 

Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.  And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

Let us not forget that Jesus changed the lives of the people he walked with. They were never the same.  They became his followers, they became a church, they are our ancestors of faith and in some ways they are us, people who need Jesus.

I prayed while the funeral workers hustled and bustled about. I asked that God would be with everyone as they went about their days, at school and at work. I gave thanks that Jesus meets us where we are and calls us good not because of who we are or what we do, but because of his love for us.

One of the servers greeted her grandson who happens to be in our class.  

And then our kids helped set up for the funeral. They put chairs in the right place, dug tables out of the closet, set place mats on tables, and picked up every evidence that confirmation had been there. I could not have been more proud...and brokenhearted.  Would that we believe that Jesus Walks with people who don't deserve it, haven't earned it, and cannot give but have everything to receive.