Faith Formation Journeys

Walking Together in Grace

Tag: Children’s sermon

  • Children’s Sermon December 1st, 2013. Advent 1A Isaiah 2:1-5

    Children’s Sermon December 1st, 2013. Advent 1A Isaiah 2:1-5

    Preparation: if you would like to pattern your children’s sermons off of our take home devotions for advent the pick an ornament that reminds you of peace or says something about peace.
    You also need a picture of a sword and plowshare to show how they look alike. You can simply google for images.

    Faith+ Connect: Gather the children with you and near the advent wreath. “Good morning! Look around and tell me if you notice anything different about our space today” take answers and highlight any Advent preparations you have made.

    Faith+ Bible: “Today is the beginning of Advent, a season where we prepare for… (Let them say Christmas if they know the answer). You have noticed some things we have done to prepare and you may be making preparations at home too. Today we hear from the prophet Isaiah in our Bible reading. Isaiah is talking to the people about the promises of God that one day we will all walk I the light and on the path of God. We know that this light is in Jesus. One way Isaiah tries to describe what this is like is to say that God will turn swords into plowshares. Do you have any idea what that means? I bet you know what a sword is though, right? So a sword would have been used for fighting and for taking land or things away from someone else. The vision that Isaiah has is for people to come to God and put away their weapons and live together. A plowshare is a part of a farming tool called a plow and it looks like a blade that is also in the shape of a sword. So Isaiah calls people to come together to live in Gods ways and to live in peace.” (Show your picture or toy plow)

    If you’re using the home devos take out the ornament that you picked and talk about why it reminds you of peace. Show the children the devotion book and give them each one. Take a few minutes to talk about how to use it and that each week they (and you) will pick an ornament to share.

    Faith+Chat: Another way he says this is to say that we will walk in the light. Each week of advent we will light a candle. Today we light the candle and remember the promise that we are people of the light and we can work to live in peace with others in the world. You can light a candle at home as well this week to prepare for the birth of Jesus and to live in the light.

    Faith+Prayer: Jesus, we wait your coming and pray for peace in our days and in our world. Thank you for being our light in all ways and all the time.

    Faith+Blessing: Walk as a child of the light. +

  • Children’s Sermon Luke 23:33-43, Christ the King Sunday, Year C

    ffjChildrenSermonPreparation: Have an object (any object will do) in a box or bag or in some way covered up. You are going to play the game 20 questions with this object.

    FaithCross_ConnectALTGather the children around you and show the box that contains the object you have chosen. You can tell the kids whether it’s an animal, vegetable or mineral if you would like. Then have the children ask you only “yes” or “no” questions about the object. You don’t have to keep track if they ask 20 questions or not, that is up to you! It also doesn’t really matter if they guess what the object is or not for this lesson. When the children have either guessed or reached question number 20, say, “It was hard to only ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions wasn’t it? Were you wondering if I was telling the truth or if there was more information than ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Even though being told ‘yes’ or ‘no’ seems like an easy way to go, it’s actually harder than being able to get a longer answer from someone isn’t it? It’s better to have a real conversation and get more information.”

    FaithCross_BibleALTWho can help me remember the story from the Bible about Jesus we just heard? (Accept all answers and guide them through a retelling of the gospel.) Is this the time of year when we think about this story? This sounds more like Good Friday doesn’t it? Well, we are hearing this story today because it is the last day of the Church’s calendar-kind of like our New Year’s Eve and this story is really important to us but this story comes with a lot of questions to. People in the story are even asking questions: Are you not the Messiah? Do you fear God? Can’t you save yourself Jesus? Jesus doesn’t give a yes or no answer to these questions does he? Do you think if he told them they would have believed him? Maybe yes, maybe no-but the most important thing is that Jesus heard their questions. And then Jesus tells the people listening something more important than anything: that they will be with Jesus. This is why we hear this story today. It helps us to remember what is most important as we celebrate Christmas, that Jesus is with us always and loves us. Jesus will never leave us, no matter what questions or how many questions we may have about God. We can ask God whatever we want, even if it is a hard question. We can talk to each other about our hard questions too, can’t we? We can talk to our moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas and everyone here. We all have questions about God and we should talk about them together.

    FaithCross_PrayALTDear God, thank you for listening to our questions. We know that we can talk to you anytime we need to about anything. Thank you for families who talk to us about you. In Jesus name, amen.

    FaithCross_BlessALT“Jesus is with you today.” (Make the sign of the cross on one another.)