Monthly Archives: February 2019

Children's Sermons

CHILDREN’S SERMON, 7TH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY (LUKE 6:27-38)

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Prepare: Ideally this works best as a little skit. You can set up something with another worship leader, or with one of the children. You can also try to just set it up to happen as you go! The idea is that the other person takes something from you and walks away. It can be almost anything, your cup of coffee, a pencil, your Bible, anything! You can work out what the goal of them taking it was – it could be because they don’t have a Bible, or that they needed something to write with, or that they were just trying to have fun and didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. You decide.

Set your skit in motion as the children gather! Have the other person in the skit walk up to you and take whatever they were set up to take from you. Say something like, “Hey! What are you doing? That’s mine!” They should respond with something typically bully-ish, like, “Well it’s mine now!”

OK – wait a minute . . . I read something about this very situation in the Bible! Even though they just took something from me I should treat them with love. I think it’s today’s Gospel reading! Let me look . . . yes, Jesus says that we should love our enemies, we should treat other people as we would want them to treat us. Ok, that’s super not easy in this case. I need that back and they were just really mean to me. I don’t want to be loving! And I would never just walk up and grab something from someone, so why should I have to be nice back?

I have a hard time with this, too. Jesus is asking a lot of us. It’s hard to be loving when we don’t feel loved in return. It’s hard to be caring when we are afraid we will be hurt. It’s hard to give up the things that we like and care about because someone else might need them more.

And it gets even harder! Being loving and caring doesn’t mean you should put yourself in danger of getting hurt, and it doesn’t mean that you should just let people take anything they want from you. Because when you think about how you would want to be treated, you would probably want to know if what you did hurt someone else’s feelings, right?

This is one of those really hard stories from Jesus. It was difficult for the disciples to understand, and it’s still difficult for us!

So (turn to the person who took you stuff), I don’t think that you really wanted to be mean to me. Is there some reason that you took that? Is there something that you need?

(let the story play out the way you decided when you set it up)

Loving God, you give us some many good things, and so often we forget that the people around us are part of those good things! Teach us to be loving, especially to the people who are the hardest to love. Amen.

God Loves you no matter what!

Make a “ways to be loving” list. Even better if this is part of a congregational idea to think about being loving as a church in the community. Ask people for ideas about how to care for the neighborhood, or for a park, or for the people in your town, etc.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon, 6th Sunday after Epiphany (luke 6:17-26)

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Prepare: Bring a small simple snack that the kids can eat. Like Goldfish crackers, or rice crackers. Nothing big or fancy!

As the children gather ask a few of them what the best part of last week was (know that this will take some time!). Then ask a few of them what was really hard about last week (again, this will take some time!). If you need it to be shorter you can volunteer your own best and worst for the week, or make something up that leads in that direction.

Most weeks, and even most days have good things and bad things, or highs and lows, or, to use the words from the Gospel today, blessings and woes.

I was thinking about what Jesus was saying and I was a little confused about it. (if you have already read the story you can just remind them, if you haven’t already heard it, read at least the blessings and woes now.)

What does that even mean? If I’m hungry I’m blessed? If I’m full then woe to me? That seems really backwards, doesn’t it? Let’s look at this a different way. OK, I’m going to give about half of you a cracker, so let’s divide the group in half. You guys get a cracker! You can eat it right now! The rest of you don’t get one. But you will get one later, ok?

Alright, now about half of you have had a cracker – woe to you! You don’t get another cracker! But you over here haven’t had one yet, but one is coming! You are blessed! Now does it make more sense what Jesus is saying? Sometimes having everything you think you want doesn’t make things better, but know that good things are still coming can make things better!

Giving and gracious God, we thank you for all the things that we have and all the things that you give. Help us learn to be content and happy with the things that we have. Help us to learn how to share the good things we have with those who need it. Amen.

God loves you and know your needs.

For the worship station invite your congregation to pray for each other! Create a “Blessings” station and a “Woes” station that are facing each other. People who are feeling blessed go to the “blessing” station to pray for the people who are at the woe station. No one has to say anything about what their blessings or woes are, just be present where they need to be!

And they can switch! Go to both stations!

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Epiphany 5 C, Feb 10, 2019 (Luke 5:1-11)

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Prepare: For the children’s sermon you will need some type of need some type of fishing gear. It can be as simple as as toy fishing rod, or it you can go crazy with all kinds of fun things!

For the worship station you will need a large glass bowl, pencils or pens, and enough slips of paper for the whole worshiping assembly. The ideal thing would be paper fish, or even paper with fish on them. But just blank paper will do, too.

Set up your fishing gear as the children gather up for the children’s sermon. Make a little show of going through your stuff. Even better if you can get them to ask you some questions about what you are doing, but if they do not ask – prompt them!

What am I doing?  I’m going fishing!  I was reading the story from Luke that we hear today and I got so excited! Jesus is telling people to go fishing! So I thought that I would get my gear ready, because Jesus said to go fishing. And if Jesus says to do it, it must be a good idea!

. . . the only thing is, I’m not sure that I read the whole story. I got to the part where Jesus tells his disciples to throw the nets out in the deep water and when they do it there are so many fish that the boats start to sink! I figured that since I follow Jesus I could probably just ask Jesus to get me a good catch of fish, too!

. . . But the more I think about the more I think that I should read the end of the story. Hmmm, let’s take a look here. (read the story a little), yep, lots of fish, boats sinking, disciples amazed and a little scared . . . wait, fish for people? How do you fish for people! This story isn’t about going fishing at all! It’s about tell the story of Jesus! After this one there are stories about Jesus and the Disciples traveling all over the place spreading good news and healing people. I like fish, but getting to tell people about God’s love is really great! And I don’t need all this stuff with me, I can just go tell the good news.

I’m really glad I read the end of that, now will you pray with me?

Good and wonderful God, we thank you for the abundance on this beautiful planet that you have created. Help us to serve you and help others through all the good things you have made. Send us out with joy to those who are hungry or cold, sad or worried, to bring them comfort and good news.

God loves and cares for you!

Ask the congregation what they fish for! Do they fish for compliments, for help, for love, for food? Offer each person the chance to write down what they fish for in the world and write it on a piece of fish paper. Then put it in the bowl to create a giant fish bowl.

Use the bowl as part of the prayers of the church, holding the wants and needs of the people of God up.