Faith Formation Journeys

Walking Together in Grace

Tag: Children’s sermon

  • Children’s Sermon Matthew 10: 40-42 Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 29th, 2014 Year A

    Children’s Sermon Matthew 10: 40-42 Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 29th, 2014 Year A

    20130822-223520.jpgGather the children by the entrance to the worship space. Have them cross the threshold so that you are in the worship space but technically they are not. Have them just stand there for 30 seconds or so. It will seem a lot longer to them! Then ask them if they would like to come in and be with everyone else. Hopefully they will say yes! Ask them why? Say, “Why do you want to come in and be a part of this group?” Accept all answers! (This is dicey, I know!) Say, “We want you to belong here too! We want everyone to be a part of God’s family.”

    20130822-223633.jpgIn our Bible story this morning, Jesus tells the disciples that whoever welcomes them welcomes Jesus! And Jesus is God’s son, so welcoming Jesus is the same as welcoming God! If God were standing right here with us at the door to our church, how would we welcome God in?” Accept all answers and try to push them to extravagant welcome. Hugs, music, food, whatever they might have to make God comfortable and feeling loved. Say, “If someone comes to our house, to our church how should we treat them? Now this is not just about someone coming to our house or church but it’s about how we greet people when we walk in our classrooms at school, or your parents go to their work places. It’s about how when we see someone who needs help or is trying to help how we treat them. If God were to walk in right now and we would sing songs, give God a hug, give God only the best food and drinks, the most comfortable spot on the couch, and everyone we welcome Jesus says, is like welcoming God, how should we treat a new kid in our class or in our neighborhood? How does it feel when someone treats us this nice? Does God want everyone in the whole world to feel this loved? YES! God’s love for us never runs out or gets tired or ends. This is the way that God wants us to love each other. There is always enough love for everyone! ”

    Have the kids come back into the worship space. Ask all of the adults on the aisles to greet the kids like they would God. You can suggest high fives, side hugs, (be aware of your safety policies with children), you can give adults notes to hand out ahead of time, confetti, ribbons, etc. Lead the children to the front or a central location to close in prayer.

    20130822-223749.jpgDear Jesus, thank you for showing us how to care for everyone we meet. We pray for everyone to feel loved and to have all that they need to be healthy and whole.Help us to live our lives overflowing with your love. We pray to be a part of your love and forgiveness in the world. Amen.

    20130822-223908.jpgAt the end of worship have people turn to one another and make the sign of the cross and say, “You are welcomed in the name of the Lord.” Suggest that they use this blessing at home and with friends.

    FaithCross_WorshipFor a worship station on this text, there are a couple of ways that you can communicate the abundance and overflowing nature of God’s hospitality towards us. One way is to have a table set up with lots of billowing fabric that overflows the table. Have a light blue to represent grace, white for mercy, and dark pink or red for love. Ask people to write (permanent markers will work the best) how they experience God’s overflowing abundance of grace, mercy and love and ask them to also write how they can spill that out onto others in their lives. Another way is to have strips of blue fabric that people can write about grace, mercy and love in their lives as explained above. But have them but their cloth in the baptismal font (empty the water for this) and hopefully all of the strips will overflow and spill out of the font! In the water, bread and wine we tangibly experience God’s abundance of love, mercy and forgiveness overflowing in our lives! You could have the strips of cloth put on your altar as well. for communion.

     

  • Children’s Sermon, Pentecost 2, June 22, 2014 – Matthew 10:24-39

    Children’s Sermon, Pentecost 2, June 22, 2014 – Matthew 10:24-39

    Prepare: Bring a small cross – ideally one that stands up on its own.  If you are doing the worship station you will also need a basket to put under the cross, small pieces of paper and some pencils or crayons.  For the worship station (or even just for the children’s sermon) you can also have small crosses to give to the children.

    FaithCross_BibleALT  Wow!  Did you hear what Jesus just said!  That didn’t sound like Jesus at all!  He said that he comes to bring a sword, not peace, and that he comes to divide families so that everyone is fighting!  What is he talking about!  That seems really scary, and I thought Jesus was kind and loving!  (ok, enough exclamation points, you get the idea, be excited.)

    FaithCross  Let’s back up a minute and look at this again.  Do you think that Jesus really means that he came to make people fight?  No, I don’t think so, either.  So what does this mean?  Maybe we can think about it a different way.  Nearly all of the things that Jesus did with his disciples, nearly all of the stories that we read about Jesus were things that made people really uncomfortable and angry when he was doing them.  That doesn’t make much sense to us today because we have nearly 2,000 years of people talking and thinking about Jesus that helps to make all of this being Christian stuff seem pretty normal, but I bet I can still make you feel uncomfortable about doing what Jesus asks us to do.

    Think about this – imagine that you are at the pool with a few of your best friends.  You are laughing and joking around, splashing each other, and just having a good time when you see someone from school that none of you really like.  All your friends decide to pick on that person, and they start splashing and yelling, which obviously hurts that persons feelings, but your friends don’t really care and they keep splashing and being mean.  Now, you know that if you make your friends stop, or go help the other person that your friends are going to be mad at you, but you also know that it’s the right thing to do . . . so, what do you do?  Stay with your friends where it’s safe and comfortable or defend and help someone who you don’t like?

    When people choose to follow Jesus 2,000 years ago there was a risk of real violence and danger, there was a risk of swords!  Thankfully most of us will never need to deal with that, but we do sometimes have to make difficult choices because of what we believe and what that means for how we behave.  Sometimes doing what we should do comes with the risk of loosing a friendship.

    (if you are doing the worship station, just skip to the prayer here)

    I have a cross here.  Let’s take a few seconds to think about what other things we risk or give up when we follow Jesus.

    FaithCross_Worship  Worship Station: Have your cross set up (or your basket of crosses if they are going to take one with them) with the basket, paper, and pencils near it.  Invite the children (or whoever else wants to join in) to take a piece of paper and think about two things: 1. What do you risk (or give up) when you follow Jesus  2. What is the reward for the risk?

    Write the risk on the piece of paper (or draw), and leave the paper in the basket.  Then say a prayer for courage and of praise at the cross (or over the cross that they are taking with them).  You are welcome to print out the prayer below for people to use if they would like.

    20130822-224425.jpg  Loving Christ, following you is difficult.  We often have to make choices between the things that make us feel safe and comfortable and the things that are right and good.  Sometimes following you means that we might upset someone that we love and care about.  Give us courage to do what is right and good even when it is difficult.  Amen.

    20130822-223908.jpg  May God give you strength to love everyone you meet.

     

    GB