Tag Archives: 7th Sunday after Pentecost

God Knows Your Name Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 3rd, 2016 Year C

 

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As you have the children come forward have a large piece of butcher paper and numerous crayons available on the floor. Invite them to write their name on the butcher paper as you begin. (Just first names are fine for time sake.) Say, “When you meet someone for the first time, what’s usually the first thing you tell someone about yourself? Yes, your name! Our names are very important and they help other people talk to us, call us on the phone, email us, send us a card or even a present! Without our names, life could be very confusing, couldn’t it? Our names help people remember what is special about us and us about them. Do we learn and remember names of people who we don’t see very often? No, it’s hard to know the names of people who we don’t go to school with, live in our neighborhood or have never even met! But we learn the names of people who are important to us and we see a lot in our lives. Knowing someone’s name is a way to say “I care about you!”

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In our story today, Jesus sends the disciples out to all kinds of different towns and cities where they will meet all kinds of different people. Jesus reminds the disciples and us, that the most important thing to remember as we go along in our life meeting new people, learning new things, and telling people about God is that God knows our name, everything about us and says that we belong to God. When people don’t like you, or don’t want to even meet you, even though that’s hard, it’s ok because God knows you and your name and says “I care about you!” When we baptize babies, children or adults, we say their name because we know that God is  saying that we all belong to God, God knows us and promises to always call us by name to God.

Besides learning people’s names, how can we tell people that God cares for them? (Accept all answers.) There are all sorts of ways to show God’s love! A few ways we do that as a church are….(Fill in with ministries of your congregation). And you are never too little, young or old to help in one of those activities! As you go back to your seat, I want you to draw a heart around someone else’s name (not your own) to show that God cares for them.

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(Invite the children and the whole congregation to join hands for the prayer. Have everyone hold their hands out with thumbs to the left. Then when you join hands, you are supporting someone’s hand and someone else is supporting you. The true meaning of community!)  Dear Jesus, thank you for caring for us. You know our names and everything about us. Help us to share you love and care with our friends, with our families and with people that we meet. May your peace fill us and the whole earth. Amen.

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Take the sheet of butcher paper with the children’s names on it from children’s sermon and place it on a table with more crayons, markers, etc. Have people write their own name as well as draw a heart around someone else’s name. Invite the congregation to pray for the person whose name they drew a heart around. And to try and meet them if they don’t already know each other!

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Children’s Sermon Luke10: 1-11, 16-20, July 7th, 2013 7th Sunday after Pentecost

20130520-224945.jpgGather the children around the suitcase or bag that you have packed with some essentials for travel. Include the items listed in the text (purse or wallet, bag, sandals). Ask the children if they have ever packed a bag for vacation, over night to grandparents or a friends house. What did they take with them? What could they not leave behind?

 FaithCross_BibleALT    Say: Today our story in the Bible is about Jesus sending people out to travel around and tell people about God. Jesus told them not to take anything with them as they went from town to town! Does that seem like a good idea? No, not really to me either! They did not have extra money to buy food or to buy something that they needed. Jesus said that they should trust that the people in the towns will give them what they need. The disciples job was to stay focused on telling people about God and God’s love for everyone.

Jesus did not want them to have heavy bags to carry or to think about collecting more stuff as they went from town to town. If we have too much stuff with us we get worried about carrying it, storing it, if someone will take it, etc. We would forget why we were there: to tell the story of God! Sometimes we think that in order to tell someone about God or show someone God’s love we need lots of stuff, We might think that we need a Bible with us, or our Sunday school papers or  that we need to know a lot of details or have read every single word of the Bible in order to tell someone about God. Jesus is saying that we don’t need anything but ourselves. All we need is to just take time with people-stuff and lots of knowledge isn’t the most important thing. But our love and time is! Jesus promises to be with us as we share God’s love so we don’t have to worry about anything else. So I don’t need this bag of stuff to go another town and tell people about God. But I still might enjoy my toothbrush, huh? 🙂

 FaithCross_PrayALT Dear Jesus, thank you for being with us always. We pray that we can tell other people about you even if we feel we don’t have everything we need. You are all that we and the world needs. Amen.

FaithCross_BlessALT(Make the sign of the cross on one another) Jesus is all that you need as you go on your way.