Here is the devotion page for Baptism of Our Lord – Year B. (Click on the words!)
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Tag Archives: John the Baptist
Children’s Sermon Advent 3 year B: John 1: 6-8, 19-28
Tell the children at the beginning of worship to go and find an object or a picture that gives a clue about who they are and one example of who they are not. Have an example such as, I might bring my running shoes as I’m an avid runner and a plant as I am not a gardner.
Tell the children to hold up their objects and tell why that object tells us who they are and who they are not. If it’s appropriate, remind them of your objects and why.
Then talk about the John the baptizer story: John was asked by some leaders who he was. They wondered if he was the Messiah, Elijah, or another prophet. He answered that he is not the Messiah, he’s not Jesus, or any of those other things, but he is someone who God sent to show others to Jesus. He’s important because he tells others about Jesus. And Jesus tells us about how much God loves us and who we are: God’s great joy. You are God’s great joy! You might be a dancer, a soccer player, a musician, an artist, etc. but most important, who you are is loved by God and God’s great joy! And our job for God is to be that joy to everyone we meet so that they know that they are God’s great joy too!
Let’s pray: God you sent Jesus to show us that we are loved and your great joy forever. Help us to never forget this and to always be who we are: yours. We joyfully pray in the name of Jesus, amen.
+You are God’s Great Joy+
Faith + Alive January Remembrance of Baptism
Gather your household. Have a candle (or everyone’s baptismal candles if you have them) and a bowl of water on a table. Light the candle (or all of them) and say: “Come Holy Spirit.” Open in prayer: Dear Jesus, through your baptism we too are named as God’s beloved children. May our lights shine in the darkness to glorify our Father in heaven. Amen.
Read Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22. Or Pages 242-245 in the Spark Storybook Bible.
For Children: What do we use water for in our day? (Bath, clean dishes, clothes, drink, cook, etc.) We use water all day long and we also need it for our bodies to be healthy. God uses water and words of love to tell the whole world that we belong to God now and forever. When you were baptized we splashed water on you three times (can you count to three?) and said, “In the name of the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.” Then we lit a candle just like we did here to remember that Jesus is the light of the world and that we reflect Jesus’ light in the world too. How can you show Jesus’ love at school? At home? At soccer/ballet/piano etc.?
For Adults/youth: Do you know the story of your baptism? Or do you remember your baptism? These stories are more than just a nice memory with family, but mark the day that you parents/sponsors proclaimed that life in and with God and the people of God is important. Not just important but vital-life and death. Water has much power in our world: it can clean, erode, give life, cause death, have beauty and be destructive. God uses water to tell the story of love between God and his people from the beginning. This story is continued with Jesus. Baptism, living water, woman at the well, thirsting on the cross and water flowing from his pierced side. Water is powerful but so is God’s word, God’s story in our lives. This story begins at birth, is proclaimed through water in baptism, is nourished at the table with bread and wine and is shared with us in community.
For All: From whom did you first hear God’s story? Or who was a primary teller of the story in your life? With whom do you tell the story of God’s love? Who would you like to tell about what God is doing in your life? What difference does this story of God’s love make in your daily life?
God of living water, we find ourselves rooted in your story of love. We are part of what you are doing in the world to show everyone that they are loved, forgiven and belong to you. We pray for your kingdom to come. Amen.
Dipping your fingers in the bowl of water, make the sign of the cross on one another and say: +You are God’s beloved child. Go tell the story.+
Remembering God’s story! Have the Luke reading printed off in large print and on a large piece of butcher paper (you will want blank space around the words). Invite people to bring in a copy of their baptism picture to place on the banner with the reading and/or draw an image or a symbol of baptism that is meaningful to them. Other options: invite people to write/draw where they experience God’s story in their lives or a prayer for where they could share God’s story.
At home: With children: Have copies (not precious originals) of baptismal pictures. Using construction paper or plain paper, make a small story book of your baptismal day.
With adults/youth: Place a picture of your baptism or a symbol of baptism (dove, candle, sea shell) on your bathroom mirror and every morning remember that you are being made new to go and share God’s love.
Take an old water bottle, decorate it with symbols of baptism. Place it where people in the household can place their spare change each day. At the end of Epiphany (Feb. 7th) donate the change to the ELCA World Hunger. www.elca.org
Children’s sermon Epiphany 2, Jan. 19th, 2014, John 1: 29-42 Year A
Gather the children around you. Have some sort of treasure with you (maybe a neat rock, or something special that you found). Ask the children if they have ever found something that was really cool and exciting. Maybe it was a rock, a bird feather, or an animal. What did you do when you found it? Did you keep the excitement to yourself? No, you went and told your mom or dad or a brother or a sister. Why did you do that? (Accept all answers) Was it to have that person share in your excitement and to see with you what you found? It’s much more fun to share exciting things with other people than just by yourself isn’t it?
In today’s story from the Bible, John the Baptist sees Jesus and points him out to other people around him. One of those people is Andrew, a friend of John. Andrew is so excited about Jesus and the first thing he does is find his brother Simon and tell him about Jesus! Andrew tells his brother that he has found God’s son. Simon is also excited and goes with Andrew to see Jesus.
Have you ever told anyone about Jesus? A friend or a family member? What would you tell someone about Jesus if they had never heard of him? Jesus shows us what about God? (Accept all answers) These are all wonderful things aren’t they? These things are exciting enough to tell people about! But it can be hard can’t it? So let’s practice right now (invite everyone in the congregation to join in!) telling people about why Jesus is good news and exciting for our world.
Find someone in the worship space to tell about why you are excited about Jesus in your life. (Have the kids find someone in the chairs/pews and invite the adults to leave their seats to talk to someone new if they would like.) You can also word it differently: maybe ask how they have experienced the love of Jesus in their week.
Invite the congregation to join hands as one people of God and pray: Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to show us your love. Help us to share the excitement of your love and forgiveness with the world. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Make the sign of the cross on each other’s hands and say: May you see Jesus in your life today.
*Thanks to Rob Moss for the idea!
Children’s Sermon Dec. 9th 2012, Second Sunday of Advent Luke 1:68-79
Scripture: Luke 1:68-79
Prepare: This series of children’s sermons in Advent will utilize your Advent wreath in your worship space. Each week the as the candle is lit you will explain what the candle means and then give them a take home. Please see the attached sheet. The sheet has an ornament to print and the devotion to print on the back of it. The devotion will change each week. Have a copy made on card stock for each child and household.
Faith +Open: Gather the children to the Advent wreath. Say, Last week we talked about the Advent wreath, the color, the number of candles, and what Advent means. Who remembers why we light a candle each week? (Accept all answers) That’s right to remind us that Jesus is the light of the world and that Jesus will come again to us. Last week we lit the candle of Hope, this week we light the candle of Love. (Have an acolyte, or an older child light both candles.)
Faith +Connect: What is love to you? This week in our Bible stories we hear about how much God has loved us-all people from the very beginning of time. When you love someone, some place or something you want to be with that person, that place or that thing (like a doll or blanket) all the time don’t you? Well God also wants to be with us and everyone all the time. And God wants us-all of God’s people whom God loves-love to be together too. We hear in Luke 1 a blessing from Zechariah-John the Baptist’s father-to his son John, and the blessing is that John will tell the world about God’s love and that God will make all of us peaceful with one another.
How can we show our family, brothers, sister, neighbors God’s love and peace?
Each of you will get this candle ornament that you can take home and color blue (or purple if you do purple in Advent). You can hang it on your Christmas tree and each week you will get another one to add to the tree. So now you will have two. On the back is a Bible passage from Luke 1 to read, a prayer and a blessing. You can do this at dinner, in the car or before bed. Let’s practice it now!
Faith +Pray: God of Hope, you free us from whatever keeps us from you. Thank you for being with us always, amen.
Faith+Bless: Have everyone in the congregation turn to one another and say this blessing while making the sign of the cross on their forehead or hand: “Child of God you are free in God’s love.”
~BW