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Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Jesus is Risen! Luke 24: 1-12 (or John 20: 1-18) Easter Year C 2016
*Offer this children’s time near the beginning of your worship service. After the opening hymn or even prelude (depending on how your worship is structured) invite the children to come forward. Have someone from the congregation come running in toward the children (Idea: could be Mary Magdalene, or one of the disciples in costume!) saying: “The tomb is empty! Jesus is not there! He is raised from the dead like he said he would be!” (Or if you are using the John 20: 1-18 text change it to Mary saying, “I have seen the Lord!”) “Do you remember that just on Friday we laid him in the tomb but now-it’s empty! The stone was removed and there were men, like angels, saying that Jesus would rise from the dead! It’s true! We’re so happy! We could shout happy words all day long such as Hooray, Yippee, or I know Alleluia! Jesus is alive and now we can live with Jesus forever too! We need to shout this to the whole world! Alleluia!
It would be fun to have a way to make the “Alleluia” even more exciting…let’s see I know! Every time you hear the word Alleluia today you can… (here is your choices from easiest to pull off to more planning: the children and adults can clap, ring jingle bells, wave a streamer, wave their hands, use a clapper, or if you have chime bells to hand out). We might be singing Alleluia or saying Alleluia, it doesn’t matter! Wave, clap, ring every time! Let’s practice! (Hand out the objects if you are choosing to do that.) “Alleluia!” Alleluia!” “Alleluia!” Listen for that word all morning!
*If your pastor can, add the word “Alleluia” into his/her sermon a couple of times at least to engage the children. And let’s face it, the adults too!
Have a large drawing of the tomb with the stone rolled away either hanging where it’s accessible to people, or on a large table. Somewhere on the tomb or around the tomb have verse Luke 24: 5c “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” As people enter worship or during a dedicated worship station time, invite people to write in the empty space of the tomb where they look for and/or experience Jesus in their daily lives. Where do they see new life each day?
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Living God, we look for you in our lives. We look for all of the ways that you give us life, hope and love. Like Peter, we are amazed and like the women at the tomb we can’t wait to share this good news! Alleluia! Jesus lives! Amen!
+You are made alive in Christ+
Are we there yet? Mark 13: 1-8 Pentecost 25B Nov. 15th, 2015
Gather the children together: When I was your age, when we went to see grandmas and grandpas or aunts and uncles, we always drove our car. Sometimes the trip was a day, sometimes two days and sometimes even when we planned for a trip to take a day or two it might take three or four because of things happening that we didn’t predict, such as a flat tire, someone not feeling well or bad weather. I’m not the most patient person, so if it seemed that the trip was taking a long time I would ask my parents, “Are we there yet?” I discovered that if I asked that a lot, they would stop answering me.
How many of you have ever been on a car trip? As you drive down the highway there are signs along the road. What do some of those signs say? (Accept all answers.) Yes, some will tell you where the next gas station is, where a restaurant or a hotel might be, or how far to the next town or rest stop. Does every sign you see mean that your trip is over? No. Sometimes we see a sign for the town that we are going to and get really excited only to find out we have a long way to go. Or we go for hours or days without seeing the name of the place we’re going and so we ask: “Are we there yet?” It’s really hard to not know how much time until we get to grandma and grandpas, or a friends house, or whatever fun place we’re going. It can be hard to wait for fun things like our birthdays and what’s coming soon? Christmas! We don’t like to wait but to know when things will happen.
Jesus had been telling his disciples, his friends, all about when he would come to see them again. Jesus wanted them, and us, to know that there will be a time when we are all with God forever… but not yet. We don’t know when Jesus will come back and the disciples were wondering if there would be a “sign,” like a road sign that would let them know exactly how long until Jesus comes back to us. But Jesus says that the signs may not help us to know. Jesus also says that we don’t need to worry about if we’re there yet, we don’t need to be scared about anything because God promises to be with us forever. The important thing for us to remember are the signs of Jesus’ love such as water at baptism and the bread and the wine at communion. What are other signs of Jesus’ love in our lives? (Accept all answers: homes, moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, friends, sharing, hugs, praying, etc.) Jesus wants us to share these signs of love with the whole world! We are a sign, almost like a billboard of Jesus’ love for the whole world to see!
Have someone with a digital camera take pictures of people. Print them out and place them on a big piece of butcher paper or poster board. Have the title: Signs of God’s Love. You can also have pictures of the different ministries from your community to add to the sign. Or have people write stories or draw pictures on the butcher paper (poster board)of who shows them signs of God’s love. Place the banner where it is seen as people enter your building or better yet, can be seen by those on the street!
Thank you for all of the signs in our lives of your love, especially your son Jesus. Make us signs of your love and hope for the whole world to see. Remind us to not be afraid but to trust your promise to be with us always. Amen.
+You are a sign of Jesus’ love+
Children’s sermon John 14: 1-14 Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A May 18th, 2014
Preparation: Have a couple of maps handy to show the children. Have one that is very simple that even a young child could point to a well defined location on the map. Use that map for your object lesson. Have crosses (one for each child or for everyone present!) cut out some printed off or old maps to hand out.
Be reading a map as you ask the children to join you where you lead children’s time. Look confused and turn the map every which way. Say to the children, “So I’m trying to figure out how to get to (town or location close to your church marked that they would know). I’m looking at this map but I can’t make heads or tails of it. Can you help me?” Show the children the map and hopefully they will point to the location! If not, you can help them. Say, “Oh thank you so much for pointing the way to ______. I sometimes get a little lost and confused and need help. We have maps and phones to help us get places don’t we? Sometimes we have to ask another person for help too!”
In the Bible story for today, Jesus is telling the disciples that there is room for everyone in God’s house and that he would soon be returning to God to live there. Jesus says that they should know the way because they have been hanging out with Jesus. But the disciples were confused and didn’t know the way. They were probably thinking that they could use a map! But Jesus tells them that HE is the way. Jesus is like our map in life. When we wonder what to do or say we can look to what Jesus did and said. Should we be nice to people? Yes! Should we help people? Yes! Should we tell people about how much God loves them? Yes! Jesus also says that if we get confused that we should stop and ask someone for help! We need each other to help us to remember the way to love and follow Jesus. Do you think that all of these people here will help you? Yes!
To help us remember that Jesus is our map in life, here is a cross made out of a map for you to take home.
Let’s pray: Dear Jesus, thank you for showing us the way to love each other. Thank you for reminding us that even if we get confused there are people who will help us. Help us to show your love to everyone. Amen.
Make the sign of the cross on each other and say: Remember that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.