Category Archives: Children’s Sermons

Children’s Sermon Epiphany 6A Deuteronomy 30: 15-20, Matthew 5:21-37

February 12, 2014 lb Leave a comment

Preparation: Take the biggest paper or sheet that you have and make a BIG heart, markers or crayons, and a Valentine you received if you did receive one(and if you did not receive one, I am sorry and God loves you and so do I)
optional–smaller hearts cut out of paper

Gather the children up front. “So, did any of you get or give a Valentine this week?” (take answers) “Me too, I especially like the one my dad (or whoever) gave me because even though I know he loves me it was really nice to get this card as a reminder.”

“We heard some difficult to understand readings from the Bible today. I heard a lot of words about how we can live together as a community and what things not to do. One part that stuck out for me is that it says in Deuteronomy that all these ways of living out the commandments God gives us are ways that we can walk with God and live with one another. It can be difficult to figure that out sometimes–do you every problems with the people you live with? Me too, sometimes I get frustrated or sad or angry, these things we all feel sometimes. We can also remember though that the commandments from God and the rules we live with in a home or at school or work or daycare come from a place of hope that love will be the first thing we are about.”

“So how big of love do you think God has for us? This much? (put your fingers a little bit a part) or this much? (put your hands a part) No? This much? put your arms wide. I know that God’s love is so big and wide that we can’t even imagine it because it stretches over the whole world holding all people. I thought I’d try though and I made this God sized Valentine (bring out your large Valentine). Now I know that it can’t find the actually whole world in it but I would like us to imagine it does and that all the ways that we help other people or show love to those that we even have a difficult time with can fit in this heart. Especially I want you to know that YOU fit in this heart and that God’s commandments and love are for you.”

Have each child put their name in the heart–You could also have smaller cut out hearts that you hand out for them to put their name on and then stick to the big heart. You could have them do this right then or if you have a sacred space time or a prayer time or even at offering have the children come up and put their hearts in God’s heart.

Loving God, thank you for your commandments of love. Help us to love one another as we walk with you.

You are loved child of God

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Epiphany 5A Matthew 5:13-20

February 8, 2014 lb Leave a comment

Preparation: you will need salt and a candle

Gather the children with you. Ask, “Did you notice anything in the gospel reading today?” (or if they have not heard it, summarize for them) Take answers. “I noticed that Jesus was talking to us about how to be in the world and he used two things that I think are pretty common…. salt and light.”

Read or summarize how Jesus uses salt and light to give examples of how we are to be in the world. Show them the salt and say, “So, what is it about salt that it does that makes it special? Well nothing really, salt is just being salt, being what it was made to me. How about this candle? (light the candle) what is it doing to be special in the world? Right, it’s shining light–it’s just doing what it was made to do too. Jesus is saying the same thing to us–that being who we are, and being in the world as God made us is giving light and life and saltiness to the world. God claims us as children and says that everything we are is precious to God and we can use our gifts and our love and our hearts to show the world what God is like. That God is love and opens this gift to everyone.”

You can also teach the song “If I were a Butterfly” by Brian Howard
For time you can even just teach one verse and the chorus.

Holy God, thank you for making us your children and help us to show your love. Amen

You are a precious child of God made to light up the world with Jesus’ love +

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Epiphany 4A Micah 6:8 and Matthew 5:1-12 February 2, 2014

January 31, 2014 lb Leave a comment

Preparation: create blocks either by writing on ones you have, labeling them or using big boxes or shoe size boxes. On the largest ones–the foundational blocks–write words like love, kindness, mercy, blessed, peacemaker, etc (depending on what you want to highlight and how many blocks you want to use) One largest block should say love or God’s love.
On the smaller blocks write action words like ‘serve’, ‘feed’, ‘give money’, ‘help at home’, ‘care for sick’, etc. Decide which scripture or which parts of each you want to emphasize and adjust the children sermon accordingly.

Gather the children around you and have the blocks out. Say–“We have just heard two places in scripture where God is letting us know how to be followers of Jesus in the world. Do you remember in key words? (they likely won’t….) Well, what do you think it is that God asks us to DO because we are Christians?” (take answers, when they say a word you have written on a block show it to them.)

I have all these blocks here because I was thinking of way to show what the scripture is saying. You are right there are many things we can do like (share the examples they have said and/or what you have on the blocks.) These are all good and important things to do. And I also heard words like blessed, happy, mercy, love, (share the foundational blocks). I often wonder about how to be a good follower of Jesus and sometimes I get caught up in the details of all the little blocks and what kind of decisions I should make and how I should spend my time. I heard the prophet Micah ask a question and answer it today–He said, “what does the Lord require of you?” and then the answer is “to do justice, love kinds, and walk humbly with God.” Those are the words on my biggest blocks here. Whenever I am not sure exactly what God is asking of me, I can go back to the big words like love and justice and words like Jesus said to the people that were to be peacemakers and act merciful. If we begin with love and mercy, begin with caring about others and showing them compassion, then we have our foundation for making all those other decisions about how to be in the world.
Build your tower of blocks starting with the foundational words as you are talking to demonstrate–Starting with the one that says love.

My biggest block says love–that reminds me that God’s love is first and then comes to us and sends us to love others through all the things we do in the world.

Loving God, be with us today as we love others and walk with you in serving the world. Amen

God calls you to love, serve, and care. +

Children's Sermons

Matthew 4: 12-23 Children’s Sermon Year A January 26th, 2014

January 23, 2014 bw 1 Comment

Start from the back or side of your worship space (whatever makes sense but just not from where you usually gather the children). Call the children to come to you. As they come move closer to the doors or area that leads out of your building. (If you have cordless mics you will be able to go further but be aware that you want the adults to hear this as well.)

Ask the children: “Why do you think we are by the back doors and not up front where we usually are with the altar and the candles?” (Accept all answers) “Well, in today’s Bible story we see Jesus calling people to follow him and to help him tell the whole world about God. Does Jesus tell only pastors or priests to follow him? No, he tells ordinary fisherman to help him talk about God’s love for the world. Does Jesus tell the fisherman to go to the temple or the church in Jerusalem? No, he tells them to follow him out into the world with all kinds of people. This is what Jesus means by “fishing for people.” The fishermen didn’t actually throw nets on people and drag them to Jesus. But Jesus knows that showing love “catches” people and lights up their lives with God’s love and care.”

“Does Jesus ask us to follow him, too? Should we only tell people here in this church about Jesus and not anyone else or should we tell everyone who is outside of these doors (point to the back doors)? Jesus knows that all of us have a special way to tell others about God and that we don’t need special powers or to have read special books to know how to talk about God. All we have to do is to talk about God in our own words. We don’t need any special powers or classes; God says that God will help us. God’s love lights up our lives and we want that light to be everywhere for everyone. So let’s move our candles by/on the altar to the doors to remind us that we are to take God’s love and light to the whole world every day and in every place that we go.” (Have some adults prepped to help move candles or if your altar candles don’t move have some special candles on the altar this day that can go by the door. Or have some tables by the doors and lots of votive candles for each child to move from the altar to the door.)

“God of love and light, you ask us to share your love with the whole world. May we share your love at school, work, piano lesson, baseball, soccer, volleyball,____, and all places in our day. In Jesus name, amen.”

“God’s light is with you always.”

Children's Sermons

Children’s sermon Epiphany 2, Jan. 19th, 2014, John 1: 29-42 Year A

January 16, 2014 bw 2 Comments

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 Sermons

Children’s sermon January 12th Baptism of Our Lord, Matthew 3: 13-17 Year A

January 11, 2014 bw Leave a comment

Preparation: You will need several balls of blue yarn or ribbon and a couple of pairs of scissors. Depending on the size of your congregation, you will want to be able for the yarn to stretch down aisles and rows. If you are too large for that, have enough for everyone to make a yarn bracelet. Be sure to have water in your baptismal font as well!

Gather the children at the baptismal font if possible. Read the story of Matthew 3: 13-17 from a children’s Bible. Ask them if they know if they were baptized or if they have ever seen a baptism. What happens at a baptism? Do we do a baptism alone or in a group of people? Do we pray? Why do we baptize?

Today we heard the story of Jesus being baptized by John. Jesus went under the water and when he came out God said that this was God’s son and God loved Jesus very much. Jesus came to show us how much God loves us and wants to be with us. We baptize because the water reminds us that just as Jesus died and was raised so we too will be raised to live with God. Water also reminds us that nothing separates us from God and anything that might has been washed away. (Sprinkle them with water!) We baptize in a large gathering because in Jesus we are all connected to God and to one another. This is very important because when we gather together we can pray for each other, we can work together to show God’s love in the world and we can learn from one another.

I have this big ball of blue yarn (or large spool of ribbon, have several). I want your help! Can you stretch all of this yarn all over the worship space so that everyone is holding a part of the yarn? Ok, go! When the yarn is stretched out and everyone can touch a strand say: “I am going to hand out these scissors. Everyone is to cut a piece of the yarn they are holding and tie that piece around their wrist.” (Allow time for this.)

We are all connected in the waters of baptism to God and to one another. Let this yarn remind you this week that you are connected to this community.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to love us. Thank you for connecting us to you and to each other. Help us to connect everyone we meet to you. Amen.

Make the sign of the cross on one another and say: You are God’s beloved child.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon 2nd Sunday in Christmas, John 1:10:18, Ephesians 1:3-14, and/or Jeremiah 31:7-14 – January 5, 2014

December 27, 2013 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Bring a beautifully wrapped box. There doesn’t need to be anything in it, it is just a visual aid. However, if you wanted to you could have a small baptismal remembrance in the box for each child. Maybe a small shell, or a dove. It would be a fun addition, but it is not necessary.

Welcome the children with a big “Merry Christmas!” You may get a few strange looks or “Christmas is over” comments, but that is exactly what you want.

What do you mean Christmas is over? We still have one more day, today! This is the last day of the Christmas season – it is the twelfth day of Christmas, just like that song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Do you know that song? I can’t always remember all the gifts that were given in the song, but I do remember that a gift was given for each day of Christmas. (This is where you would have the gift box out.) I have a box here all wrapped up like a Christmas gift. Maybe you got gifts on Christmas, I know that I got a few.

Maybe you are wondering why we are talking about Christmas gifts here? Well, it’s because all of the readings from the Bible today talk about an amazing gift that God gives to each of us. God adopts each one of us as God’s children. Each of us are loved, forgiven, given God’s mercy, accepted by God for who we are. God sets aside any and all bad things that we have done and loves us more than any of us could imagine.

Wow! What a gift! Now, what are you going to do with that gift? Think about it – What did you do with your other Christmas gifts? I, for example, got some new pants (ok, insert a gift that you got here) and I am going to wear them! I might even point them out to people, “Hey, check out these great new pants!” Well . . . maybe I won’t point them out to everybody, that might be a little weird . . .

Some of you might have gotten Legos, and I bet you will build them and show them to your parents and friends and aunts and uncles. Some of you might have a new doll or toy truck – I bet you will play with that and take it with you friends houses. Or maybe you got a new game or a bike! You will probably play with all of them.

So, what will you do with God’s gift? Will you keep it a secret? Will you hide it and not let anyone know that God loves you? Or will you share God’s amazing love and forgiveness with others?

(If you did bring a reminder for each child hand it out now)

Here is a little reminder that you are loved by God. Take this with you and share God’s love with everyone you meet!

Loving God, we praise you for your generous gift of love and forgiveness. We thank you for the grace that gives us another chance when we don’t get things right, and we thank you for the love that surrounds us when we are sad or afraid. Help us to share your love and grace throughout our lives. Amen

May God’s Word shine a light into your life today and always.

~GB

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

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon 1st Sunday in Christmas, Matthew 2:13-23, December 29, 2013

December 19, 2013 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Bring a pillow, you are going to talk about dreams!

Welcome the children and then tell them that you are going to take a little nap. Make a big show of getting the pillow just right and talk about how you are trying to figure out what to do next with a big project, or wondering about what advice to give to a friend, and you are hoping for a good dream to help you out. This might get a reaction of “no, that’s silly” or it might not. Work with whatever you get to start talking about dreams.

So, you don’t think that I will figure out what to do by waiting for a dream? Maybe you’re right. I mean, dreams don’t usually mean too much. It seems like most of the time they are just our brains replaying some of the things that happened during the day. I mean, even dogs dream! Or at least they seem to. Have you ever seen a dog dream? Sometimes they bark a little, or they look like they are running. Maybe they are dreaming about chasing a squirrel or cat that they saw. I know that most of my dreams seem to be about the things I did during the day. (Tell a quick dream story here. I will give an example) I remember I always used to have dreams about work when I used to be a waiter at a restaurant, especially after a really busy night. I would have dreams that I was running around the restaurant trying to keep up with all the people. I would wake up more tired than when I went to sleep!

Ok, so if dreams are usually about things that we did during the day, why would I think that I could go to bed to figure out how to help my friend? In the story we hear from the Gospel today that is exactly what happens! When Jesus was born there was a king named Herod who heard about a powerful king being born in Bethlehem – that’s was Jesus. He thought that Jesus was going to take over his kingdom and he didn’t want that to happen. He was willing to do anything to make sure that Jesus would never get old enough to be king. Mary and Joseph had no idea what was being planned, until one night when Joseph had a dream where an angel told him to get up and take Mary and Jesus to Egypt, far away from Herod and danger. That was a pretty special dream. What’s even more amazing is that Joseph had another dream when it was safe to bring Jesus back home!

God used something as normal and common as a dream to tell Joseph what to do to keep Jesus safe. That is pretty cool! Think about all the things that happen to you every day. All those boring normal things that you just don’t think about. Could God use those boring things to tell you something? Keep your eyes and ears ready, you never know when God will tell you something important in an unexpected place!

God of everything and everywhere, help us to be open to hearing and seeing you in every little thing that happens. Fill our days with the wonder of your love and grace. Amen

May God’s Word shine a light into your life today and always.

~GB

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

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Christmas Day, John 1:1-14, December 25, 2013

December 17, 2013 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You will need a nativity set with all the pieces!

Tell them that today we get to hear the Christmas story from the Gospel of John, then read John 1:1-5. Feel free to make the language a little more “child friendly,” like changing “testify” to “talk about,” or something like that.

Huh. That’s a funny Christmas story. Let’s see here, I brought a Nativity set to help me tell the story, but I’m not sure that any of these pieces are in the story that I just read. (Take the pieces out of the nativity scene as you mention them.) I didn’t hear about wise men, or shepherds. There wasn’t an angel, either. Mary and Joseph weren’t there. I didn’t even hear about a baby! Well, I guess I brought the wrong things to tell the story today . . . wait, let’s read a little further in the story. (Read John 1:6-14)

Did you hear that? The Word of God became flesh and lived among us! That sounds like a baby to me! Let’s put the baby back then. When we talk about the Word of God we often think of stories. Well, before we had so many books people had to remember stories so that they wouldn’t get lost. And babies need people to remember them so that they can get food and be taken care of and not get lost, so let’s put Mary and Joseph back.

What good is a story if it doesn’t get told? That’s the best way to learn a story, right? To hear someone tell it and then tell it back? Just like the angels told the story with their song! And who did they tell? A story needs to be heard, right? That’s right, they told the shepherds. So I guess we should put the angel and the shepherds back, too!

Alright, now all the people here know the story, but they all live here. What this story needs is someone to help spread it around. I wonder who we could find to come hear the story and then take it with them? The wise men! That’s it! Three people from a far away land who came to see and hear and who will take the story with them to their homes.

Look! Out Nativity set is complete again! And you thought that this wasn’t a Christmas story!

Word of God, teach us the stories of our faith, be always on lips and always burning in our hearts. Be with as we hear the story again and again, and give us the courage to tell the story again and again. Amen

May God’s Word shine a light into your life today and always.

~GB

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

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Christmas Eve, Isaiah 9:2-7, December 24, 2013

December 16, 2013 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You will need a really good blindfold, so that whoever is wearing it is completely in the dark.

As the children gather find a volunteer to be blindfolded. They do not need to do anything other than sit and listen, they just need to wear the blindfold. Ideally this is one of the children, but if none of them are willing it can be a youth or adult helper. They will need to talk about wearing the blindfold at the end, so it should be someone who is not too shy.

I bet you are wondering why (person’s name here!) is wearing a blindfold. We will get to that, but first we should talk about the reading from Isaiah. Did you hear that? What a great Christmas story, don’t you think? (give a little time) Wait, you didn’t hear the Christmas story in that reading?

Well, let’s see if we can tell the Christmas story together, what do you think? (Prompt the children through the story, starting with the Mary and Joseph traveling, and end with the angels and the bright light that the shepherds saw. Take a little time, we want that person in the blindfold to be there for a while!)

Wow! You guys know this story really well! Well, let’s see if we can find that story in the reading from Isaiah. The story of Christmas is the beginning of something new. Jesus being born changes everything. The Isaiah reading talks about people who can’t see the good things in life, or don’t have hope, finding hope and love. It is about people who difficult lives finding relief from the things that are hard. Some of those difficult things could be being sick, or getting bullied, or just being sad about something. We get used to these things, so when they are taken away it is surprising. All of this is why Jesus came to earth, why he was born!

So, what does it feel like to have a burden lifted? Let’s see – (Take off the blindfold) what do you see? (Give a little time for the blindfolded person answer).

God of hope and light, we praise you for the gift of your son and for the chance to share his love. Help us to keep you in our hearts during this season and throughout the year. Amen

May God’s Word shine a light into your life today and always.

~GB

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

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