All posts by gb

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Third Sunday in Advent, Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, December 14, 2014

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Prepare: You will need a few mission statements from companies, churches and organizations.  I included a few, but you may want others, too.  For the worship station people will just need paper and pen or pencil.

20130822-223454.jpg  Ask the children if they know what a mission statement is.  You might get a few interesting answers, but see if any of them can really tell you what a mission statement is.

FaithCross Yes, a mission statement is a simple message that tells the world who you are and what you are about.  Here are a few mission statements from companies and organizations that you might know:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

The ELCA’s mission statement is “Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed, gathered and sent for the sake of the world.”

The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.

You should also include your own churches mission statement!

Ok, so why are we talking about mission statements?  I’ll tell you! I think that this passage from Isaiah might be Jesus’ mission statement.  Here, listen to the first part of it again –

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;

Doesn’t that sound like Jesus?  Jesus even reads that passage in his home synagogue and says, “That’s me!  That is what I came to do!”

That is the Jesus that we prepare for during Advent, the Jesus that will bring good news, bind us up, give us freedom and comfort us, so go get ready!

20130822-223749.jpg   God with us, bring us freedom and release.  Bring us healing and hope.  Bring us light and life and joy. Amen

FaithCross_Worship Advent Mission statement time! You can have the paper in the seats or you can set up a station for people to move to.

Think about how you prepare your own heart for this season.  What do you look forward to?  In what ways are you more generous in Advent and Christmas?  What would it be like to prepare your heart in that way every day?

Write down a few words or sentences that describe how you would like to prepare for every day.  Something that talks about how you would like to treat others, how you would like to see the world, and what you can do to make it better every day.

This is your mission statement.

20130822-223908.jpg  Go and be God’s light in the dark.

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.

Sharing the Journey

Symmetry

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2014-11-17 08.36.06Did you know that Easter lilies bloom in the fall? The only reason that they bloom at Easter time is because we put them in hot houses and fool them into thinking that it’s summer in the middle of winter.

Last Easter at First Lutheran Church, we had our usual Easter lily garden. In recent years there have been fewer plants, but it is still an impressive sight. Most the lilies are taken home by the people who brought them for the worship services, but every year there are three or four that are left at the church. This past year those three or four plants were replanted in the courtyard as part of the flower beds there.

Within a few weeks all of the lily plants looked like they were going to die, and in fact, they did all die! Turned brown, fell over, looked dead – but then they all came back! They grew new leaves, fresh green stalks and after a few months even started growing blooms again. We figured that nothing would come of it, it was, after all, late in September before the buds started and we usually get at least one really hard freeze in Colorado in the beginning of October.

The freeze never came. The warm fall weather never broke and the buds kept developing. It was into November and the highs were still in the 60s or even 70s and the buds were growing bigger by the day. Then, on November 10 the weather changed. The temperature fell nearly 20 degrees in about 2 hours, and the snow was coming. The weather changed from highs in the 70s to lows below zero in a day, and there was no way that the lilies would survive outside, so we cut the stalks and brought the buds inside. We put them in water and waited.

One opened, then another, then two more! Four Easter lilies were blooming – almost 2 weeks after being cut from the plants, after living through an amazingly warm fall in northern Colorado, after dying the early heat of summer and growing new green, after blooming in time for Easter Sunday – and they were blooming on Christ the King Sunday.

Christ the King Sunday is, in my experience, the least noticed Festival of Christ Sundays. We all know the big two, Christmas and Easter. Many people also know the Baptism of Our Lord (near Epiphany), and many people also talk about their “mountain top” experiences on Transfiguration. Christ the King, though, always seems to make people slightly uncomfortable. Who is this King? Do we want a King? Why are we talking about the End Times? Who are sheep are who are goats? Christ the King Sunday, though, is strongly linked to Easter and Holy Week. It is a moment of Easter for us. We hear how we must die to this world to be born into the next.

So I think about these lilies and what they have been through. Life, death, rebirth, the trials of fall weather, a narrow escape from the deep freeze and here they are celebrating Christ with us on the last Sunday of the church year.

Symmetry.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 25:14-30, November 16, 2014

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Prepare: You will need a trash can and a couple crumpled up sheets of paper. I would put the trash can somewhere away from the children, you will be throwing the crumpled paper into the (or at) the trash can, and it could be chaos if the trash is too close by.

20130822-223454.jpg  Ask the children if they play any sports. You are aiming for basketball, so maybe steer them in that direction.

FaithCross_ConversationALT Basketball is really fun! Let’s think about basketball for a minute. The basic idea is that you need to throw the ball through the hoop, right? Well I can’t really bring a basketball and a hoop into the church (Or maybe you can?!? Depends on where you worship!) but I did bring a trash can and a couple balls of paper. OK, here’s the thing about this – If I really want this paper to go into the trashcan, or a basketball to go through the hoop, I need to make sure that I throw it hard enough to get there, right? If I just barely throw it, like this, I know exactly where it’s going to go, but it’s nowhere near the trashcan. But, I’m afraid that if I really toss it far enough that I will miss! Then I will have to get up and go get it, which is a pain, so to be safe, I’m just not going to throw it. Sound good? (I hope that you get some encouragement to throw it here, but you may have to get them worked up a little) OK, but what if I miss? Should I worry about it? No? Ok, here goes!

(doesn’t matter if you make it)

Wow, that was much more fun than just dropping the paper!

This is kind of like the story we hear in the Gospel today. Three people were given some money. Two of them risked it, they spent the money on something that they hoped would make them even more money and it worked – kind of like me really tossing the paper. The third person was nervous and kept the money hidden so it would be safe. Well, the man who gave them the money was really happy with the two that invested or spent the money, because they did something wonderful with a gift he had given them, but he was really mad at the third guy because he hid the gift and didn’t do anything!

Now, we all know that when Jesus tells a story there is ALWAYS more going on than what it first seems. Jesus isn’t really talking about money, or about rich people and servants, Jesus is talking about us! Jesus is talking about gifts from God that make us all good at different things. Some of us are really good at figuring out problems, some are good at art or music, or running or caring for people – all kind of different things! Jesus is telling us to use our gifts to make the world better – we should invest our gifts and we will get good things back.

FaithCross_PrayALT   Generous God, thank you for the gifts that you give! Give us all the courage to invest in our gifts and use them to help others. Amen

FaithCross_Worship Prayer partners! Ask people to join together in groups of 2 or 3. These can be household groups or random groups. Somehow distribute these three questions (on a screen or in a worship bulletin or whatever works in you context).

  1. What gifts do you have?
  2. What do you risk if you invest in your gifts and use them?
  3. What do you risk if you hide your gifts?

Prayer partners should ask these questions our loud, but the answers can be silent (better if both people talk, but the important thing is hear the questions so that everyone thinks about them).

After all three questions have been asked (and answered) then invite the partners to pray with each other.

20130822-223908.jpg God loves everything about you.

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.