Pre-Christmas Study: Advent

For Sunday Dec 14th, 2008

[Note: For this study, make sure to bring blindfolds and earplugs.]

1) Is it hard to wait for Christmas? [Note: Encourage them to be honest and especially to be kids. It's ok to enjoy Christmas and gifts.]
Does your family do anything special in the time before Christmas? (Advent wreaths, caroling, decorating, etc)

2) Activity: Waiting to be restored
[Note: This will require the kids to feel safe, so make sure they understand the importance of the activity. It may require a fairly large space.]

• Everyone gets a blindfold and a set of earplugs.
  
• While blindfolded, keep the blindfold on and earplugs in, and do not try to "pester" others.
  
• Someone will come around after a minute and remove your blindfold. Once they do, get up quietly, remove your earplugs, and go help someone else remove their blindfold.
  

[Note: Leave the blindfolds on for at least 2 full minutes if not more. The goal is to have them reach a state of anticipation and to be alone with their thoughts. Once everyone is "restored", move on to the questions.]

3) What was it like waiting to have your sight and hearing restored? (difficult, peaceful, etc) What did it feel like to finally have your sight and hearing restored?

4) Read: Mark 8:22-26

As Jesus and his disciples were going into Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch the man. Jesus took him by the hand and led him out of the village, where he spit into the man's eyes. He placed his hands on the blind man and asked him if he could see anything. The man looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees walking around." Once again Jesus placed his hands on the man's eyes, and this time the man stared. His eyes were healed, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus said to him, "You may return home now, but don't go into the village."

Having done our recent blindness/deafness exercise, how does this affect your experience of this reading?

5) Read: Acts: 1:3-5, 15-26

For forty days after Jesus had suffered and died, he proved in many ways that he had been raised from death. He appeared to his apostles and spoke to them about God's kingdom. While he was still with them, he said: Don't leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit, just as I told you he has promised to do. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. One day there were about one hundred twenty of the Lord's followers meeting together, and Peter stood up to speak to them. He said: My friends, long ago by the power of the Holy Spirit, David said something about Judas, and what he said has now happened. Judas was one of us and had worked with us, but he brought the mob to arrest Jesus. Then Judas bought some land with the money he was given for doing that evil thing. He fell headfirst into the field. His body burst open, and all his insides came out. When the people of Jerusalem found out about this, they called the place Akeldama, which in the local language means "Field of Blood." In the book of Psalms it says, "Leave his house empty, and don't let anyone live there." It also says, "Let someone else have his job." So we need someone else to help us tell others that Jesus has been raised from death. He must also be one of the men who was with us from the very beginning. He must have been with us from the time the Lord Jesus was baptized by John until the day he was taken to heaven. Two men were suggested: One of them was Joseph Barsabbas, known as Justus, and the other was Matthias. 24Then they all prayed, "Lord, you know what everyone is like! Show us the one you have chosen to be an apostle and to serve in place of Judas, who got what he deserved." They drew names, and Matthias was chosen to join the group of the eleven apostles.

Jesus asks the disciples to wait for his sign, but that sign does not come right away. How do the disciples spend this waiting time?
When you were blindfolded, what were you thinking about while you waited to be "restored"?

6) The season of Advent is about waiting and preparing. As Christians, we celebrate Advent by preparing a place in our hearts for Jesus. This is symbolic of the time before Jesus' birth when faithful people were preparing themselves for the coming of the Messiah.
What's something you can do to make a place in your heart for Jesus during the remainder of Advent?