Faith Formation Journeys

Walking Together in Grace

Category: Children’s Sermons

  • Children’s Sermon 21st Sunday After Pentecost (Lec 28), Luke 17:11-19 – October 13, 2013

    Children’s Sermon 21st Sunday After Pentecost (Lec 28), Luke 17:11-19 – October 13, 2013

    Prepare: Bring something with you that is “broken”, but that a child could obviously fix.  Something really simple, like two pieces of wood that fit together.

    20130822-223520.jpg  As the children gather be trying to fix whatever it is you that brought, and then ask them for help.  Once it is fixed be sure to NOT say thank you!  Just grab it back, maybe be even a little rude.

    FaithCross  Wait, was that what I was supposed to do?  Shouldn’t I say something to (name of child who helped)?  Yeah, what is it that I should say?  Oh!  “Thank You!”

    We all know to do that, right?  We all say “thank you” when someone helps us, right?  Here’s a question for you, though – how often to you say thank you to God when you ask God for help?  I don’t know about you, but I pray most often when I am scared or worried, or when I just want God to do something for me.  I pray for God to give me good weather when I want to be outside, I pray for God to help people feel better, I pray for God to comfort people who are scared.  You know what else I say when I pray?  I say, “thank you.”

    In today’s Gospel story there are ten people who are really sick, and the disease that they have is really easy to give to other people, so they are not allowed to live in town with all the other people.  They ask Jesus to heal them so that they can go back home, and Jesus does it.  What should they do next?  They should say thank you, right?  Well, only one of them comes back to Jesus and says thank you, just one!  That’s not good!  I said thank you for help with a simple toy, Jesus healed them!  They should all say thank you, and so should we.

    Let’s try it together.  I’m going to start a prayer and then I’m going to stop talking so that we can all say thank you to God for something that we prayed for.  (If you children’s sermon happens as part of the main worship at your church invite the whole congregation to do this!)  Ok, think for a minute of something that you prayed about that you would like to say thanks to God for. . . ready?

    20130822-223749.jpg  Gracious God, we pray to you all the time for help and comfort, but sometimes we forget to say thank you.  Please accept our thanks for these wonderful gifts you have given us ___________.  Amen.

    20130822-223908.jpg  Make the sign of the cross and say, “God be in your head, God be in your heart, God be on your left, and God be on your right.  Amen”

    ~GB

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

  • Children’s Sermon (Updated!) 20th Sunday After Pentecost (Lec 27), 2 Timothy 1:1-14 and/or Luke 17:5-10 – October 6, 2013

    Children’s Sermon (Updated!) 20th Sunday After Pentecost (Lec 27), 2 Timothy 1:1-14 and/or Luke 17:5-10 – October 6, 2013

    Prepare: Find a broom that can be a used as a horse.  Don’t dress it up!  If you are planning on focusing on the Luke passage you should also bring some poppy seeds.

    NOTE:  You could modify this for a different imagination-based toy, but the important part is to make the clear distinction between imagination and faith.

    20130822-223520.jpg  Ride in on your broom “horse” and round-up the children as they gather together.  Make this into something fun!  Maybe a little “YeeHaw!” would be good.  Try to get them into the game.  Once you have them all rounded up and sitting down move on.

    FaithCross  Wow!  That was fun!  Don’t you love playing imagination games?  I just got to ride a horse in church!  Do you like to use your imagination?  That’s great!  Imagination is fun.  For example, I can imagine that this broom is a horse, like I just did, or it could be balance pole and I could be a tight-rope walker, or it could be a shovel as I dig for dinosaurs, or it could be almost anything!  Now here is the tricky question, what is the difference between imagination and faith?  (Give them a little time to think, maybe even take a few answers.)  Maybe I could say it this way, I can imagine that this broom is a horse, but I don’t have faith that I could really ride it someplace far away.

    When we imagine something we know that it isn’t real, that we are just pretending, no matter how real the fun is.  When we have faith in something we know that it is real and true even if we can’t always explain why we know that.  Like our faith in Jesus, we have faith that Jesus loves and came to save us, but sometimes it is really hard to explain why we know it is true, or why we believe it.  (Here is where you can choose between 2 Timothy and Luke, or you can use both!)  We heard part of a letter that is in the Bible today, it was written to a man named Timothy.  In that letter we hear that the faith that we have is a gift from God.  We have faith in God’s love and forgiveness.  There is nothing that we can do to earn more love from God and nothing we can do to make God stop loving us.  We know this is true, but we can’t always explain why we know.

    Faith can be a powerful thing, too.  We heard Jesus say today that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed we could tell trees to go jump in a lake and they would do it!  Do any of you know how big a mustard seed is?  Well, I brought some seeds, these are really poppy seeds, but they are about the same size.  Here, take a look, I brought more than enough in this little jar for each of you to have one!  (Had out some poppy seeds).  See how small that is?  Now, I think that Jesus picked something just silly and crazy when we talked about trees jumping into lakes to show just how powerful faith can be.  We don’t really ever expect trees to jump into lakes, but sometimes those kinds of crazy things happen.  And it’s not our actions or even our faith, it is God’s love and grace moving through us and through the world.

    So, I can imagine that this is a powerful horse that I can ride across the mountains, but I know that it is just a broom.  I have faith that God loves me and cares for me, and I know that it is true, even when I can’t explain why.

    20130822-223749.jpg  Gracious and Loving God, thank you for the amazing gift of imagination!  What fun to be able to pretend to be people and things that we are not and to have things that we don’t.  Thank you also for the gift of faith, to know that you are real and that you care for us, love us and forgive us everywhere and all the time.  Amen.

    20130822-223908.jpg  Make the sign of the cross and say, “God be in your head, God be in your heart, God be on your left, and God be on your right.  Amen”

    FaithCross_Worship

    You will need postcards or something similar and some poppy seeds.  Invite people to tape a (or some) poppy seed to the card. Write “Our faith is a gift from God” on the card.  Then write or draw 3 ways that they can live out their faith this week.  These can be individual cards, or household cards, or cards with friends.

    ~GB

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