Sunday Connection

Gospel Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus begins to preach in Galilee and calls his first disciples. (shorter form Matthew 4:12-17)

Making the Connection (Grades 1, 2, and 3)

Jesus invited Peter and Andrew, James and John to leave their fishing trade to follow him. He promised that they would catch followers for Christ. They immediately followed Jesus as he traveled to many areas curing people of their ailments.

Materials Needed

• None

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Ask: If you had just begun winning a soccer game with your friends and your parents came walking along and told you to stop playing, how do you think you’d feel? Would you want to finish your game first? Wait for the children to respond.

2. Then say: In the Gospel this week, we hear about four men who felt they were doing something very important. Then Jesus asked them to follow him instead. They were fishermen, and they went fishing every day so that they could sell the fish. But, Jesus wanted them to do something else.

3. Say: Let’s listen to today’s Gospel and see what Jesus asked his first disciples to do. Read Matthew 4:12-23.

4. Ask: What did Jesus ask Peter and Andrew and James and John to do? (Accept all reasonable answers.) Say: He asked them to leave their fishing jobs and follow him instead. He promised that if they did so, they would bring home more than fish. They would bring people home to God. Those fishermen really liked what Jesus said, and they followed him. Ask: What did the disciples do when Jesus asked them to follow him? (They left their boats and immediately went with him.)

5. Say: When we learn how much Jesus loves us, we want more than anything to be close to him.

6. Pray together that we will always be willing to be disciples of Jesus. Pray together the Lord’s Prayer.

Gospel Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus begins to preach in Galilee and calls his first disciples. (shorter form Matthew 4:12-17)

Making the Connection (Grades 4, 5, and 6)

We all experience interruptions in our daily lives. Today’s Gospel tells us about how Jesus’ first disciples responded when Jesus interrupted their daily routine and called them to a new life. We are invited to consider how we might respond to God’s call in our life.

Materials Needed

• None

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Present your group with several scenarios such as the following. Ask the group how they are likely to respond in each situation.

   • Scenario 1: You are doing your homework, and the phone rings. You answer the phone, and it’s your best friend calling.
   • Scenario 2: You are watching your favorite television show, and you are called to dinner.
   • Scenario 3: You are playing outside with your friend, and you are told it’s time to clean your room.

2. Ask: What is something that is common to each scenario? (There’s an interruption.) Say: Today’s Gospel tells the story of how Jesus’ first disciples responded when Jesus “interrupted” their daily routine. Let’s listen carefully to the Gospel.

3. Ask a volunteer to read Matthew 4:12-23.

4. Ask: How did Peter and Andrew and James and John respond when Jesus called them? (They left their work and followed him “at once” and “immediately.”) How do you think you’d react if someone you didn’t know very well asked you to stop doing something important? (Accept all reasonable answers.) What kind of person must Jesus have been to bring forth such a response from the fishermen? (Accept all reasonable answers.) What does the Gospel tell us that Jesus did after he called his first disciples? (He traveled in Galilee, teaching in synagogues, proclaiming the kingdom, and curing people of their diseases.)

5. Ask: How does God call us today? What work does Jesus ask us to do? How do we respond? (Accept all reasonable answers.)

6. Say: It is not always easy to walk away from the things we want to do in order to do what Jesus wants us to do. In order to be able to respond generously to Jesus’ invitation to follow him, we must attend to our relationship with him through prayer, both private prayer and prayer with the community. Today let’s pray together that we will respond as quickly as the first disciples when Jesus calls us to follow him.

7. Conclude by praying together today’s Psalm and/or the Lord’s Prayer.

Gospel Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus begins to preach in Galilee and calls his first disciples. (shorter form Matthew 4:12-17)

Making the Connection (Grades 7 and 8)

At this age, young people are being pulled in many different directions. They sometimes find it hard to prioritize. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus calls us all to repent and follow him, making him our life’s priority.

Materials Needed

• None

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Arrange the young people in pairs. Tell them to imagine that they are working on a stop-smoking campaign. Have the pairs work together to brainstorm arguments that can be used to persuade people to stop smoking.

2. When the young people have finished, invite each pair to share one or two of their arguments that might be used in a persuasive speech. Point out that persuasive speeches are designed to change the beliefs or actions of the audience.

3. Explain that in this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear about how Jesus began his ministry, calling people to repent, which means “to turn around” or “to change one’s mind.”

4. Have volunteers read aloud Matthew 4:12-23.

5. Say: Jesus was able to persuade Peter, James, and John to turn their lives around and follow him. What did they turn away from? (a life of fishing) Jesus calls each and every one of us to turn around our lives and make following him our most important priority. We experience the Kingdom or the Reign of God whenever we allow Jesus to reign as the most important thing in our lives.

6. Say: When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say the words “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” With these words, we ask Jesus to help us repent and to turn away from what we want and to embrace what he wants for us.

7. Conclude by praying together the Lord’s Prayer.

Gospel Reading
Matthew 4:12-23
Jesus begins to preach in Galilee and calls his first disciples. (shorter form Matthew 4:12-17)

Family Connection

Today’s Gospel tells us little about the background of these fishermen, their work, and their families. In today’s Gospel, we are simply told that James and John left their father, Zebedee, in the boat and followed Jesus.

Some details about the families of these first followers of Jesus are found later in Matthew’s Gospel, however. In Matthew 8:14-15 for example, Jesus goes to the home of Peter and heals his mother-in-law of a fever. Matthew 20:20-28 relates how the mother of the sons of Zebedee (James and John) approaches Jesus with the request that her sons be given places of honor in Jesus’ kingdom. These brief references suggest that the first disciples’ separation from their families may not have been as complete as the verses in today’s Gospel might lead us to believe. Matthew points out the separation because he wants to show that Christian discipleship can require a change in our lives and even our family relationships.

Perhaps the message for us today is to balance the radical call to be a follower of Jesus with the challenge to be “fishers of men” even within our own families. Creating this balance may require that we change some of the priorities of our own family life.

As a family, detail the activities of a typical day. Discuss together what priorities are reflected in this daily schedule. How does your family respond when your daily plans are interrupted or must be changed? Together read today’s Gospel, Matthew 4:12-23. Reflect together on the example of the first disciples who dropped everything to follow Jesus. Ask: Does our family schedule give evidence that we put God first in our family life? What might we do to better reflect that God is our priority?

Pray together that your family will always give evidence that God comes first in your family life. Pray today’s Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer.