Tag Archives: stewardship

WEEKLY DEVOTION PAGE FOR LECTIONARY 30 – YEAR B (OCTOBER 23-29)

October 14, 2024 gb Leave a comment

Here is the devotion page for Lectionary 30 Year B. To be used on the Sunday that falls on or between October 23 and 29. (Click on the words!)

NOTE: There has been some confusion about the dates on the Devotion pages. The dates are the range of Sundays that the pages are for. If you are using starting on a Sunday in the range, then you are using the correct one! Read below for a longer explanation.

Did you miss a week? Go to the Weekly Devotion page to download past weeks!

Lectionary dates and time after Pentecost

We are working on developing a complete 3 year cycle of devotion pages for the Revised Common Lectionary. To make this really work the pages need to be tied to the lectionary Sunday, not the specific date. For most seasons of the church year this is pretty easy to do. The First Sunday in Advent is 4 weeks before Christmas, every year, so the date floats around, but the readings are always the same. It is similar for Epiphany, Lent and Easter. The Second Sunday after Epiphany is always the same readings, as is the Second Sunday of Lent and Easter. Pentecost and the season after are different. Unlike the other seasons where the first reading of the season is set, in the time after pentecost the last reading is set. The readings for Christ the King are always lectionary 34 and Christ the King Sunday is always on the Sunday that is between November 20 and 26, inclusive of those dates (five weeks before Christmas). This wouldn’t be a big deal if Easter was also set, but Easter moves – by as much as 5 weeks! So the Day of Pentecost can be closer or further away from Christ the King, depending on when Easter falls. So if the Easter is early, the season after Pentecost is longer, and there are more readings leading up to Christ the King. If Easter is late, there are fewer. Since the last Sunday is of the season is set, that means the early Sundays are not always the same readings. For example – in 2017 the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost used the readings for Lectionary 11 (Easter was relatively late that year). In 2018 the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost used Lectionary 9 (Easter was early). So, indicating which Sunday after Pentecost on the devotion pages is not clear from year to year – so we use lectionary numbers that are tied to a range of Sundays.

Weekly Devotions

WEEKLY DEVOTION PAGE FOR LECTIONARY 29 – YEAR B (OCTOBER 16-22)

October 7, 2024 gb Leave a comment

Here is the devotion page for Lectionary 29 Year B. To be used on the Sunday that falls on or between October 16 and 22. (Click on the words!)

Did you miss a week? Go to the Weekly Devotion page to download past weeks!

Lectionary dates and time after Pentecost

Weekly Devotions

WEEKLY DEVOTION PAGE FOR LECTIONARY 28 – YEAR B (OCTOBER 9-15)

September 30, 2024 gb Leave a comment

Here is the devotion page for Lectionary 28 Year B. To be used on the Sunday that falls on or between October 9-15. (Click on the words!)

Did you miss a week? Go to the Weekly Devotion page to download past weeks!

Lectionary dates and time after Pentecost

Weekly Devotions

WEEKLY DEVOTION PAGE FOR LECTIONARY 25 – YEAR B (SEPTEMBER 18-24)

September 9, 2024 gb Leave a comment

Here is the devotion page for Lectionary 25 year B. To be used on the Sunday at falls on or between September 18 and 24. (Click on the words!)

Did you miss a week? Go to the Weekly Devotion page to download past weeks!

Lectionary dates and time after Pentecost

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 22:34-46, October 26, 2014

October 18, 2014 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You are going to play a word game, so you will need several cards with either a noun or a verb on them and one more that says “LOVE.” The number of cards you use depends on how much time you have, but you probably need at least 3 of each plus the “LOVE” card. They should be simple and obvious, like RUN, or DOG.

Worship Station: The worship station can be done without added stuff, but if might be helpful to have paper for everyone to write on, or even better small note cards.

NOTE – I am using this with my congregation as part of our stewardship/giving commitment Sunday, so I will also include that idea, but you can leave out the giving commitment part if it does not line up with what your congregation is doing.

Ask the children if they know what a noun is and what a verb is. You might have to explain it, and if they are too young you can also just use “thing” or “action.”

Alright! Good, now we are going to play a word game! I will hold up a card and you tell me if it is a noun or a verb.

Start with the easy ones, and offer lots of encouragement! Then hold up the LOVE card last.

What do you think of this one? Is love a noun? You can feel love, right? We know when we love someone or when someone loves us, so maybe it is a noun. But, maybe it is a verb, too. Love is something that you do, too! Think about that for a minute. When you love somebody you want to do good things for them. You want to make them feel good, and you want to take care of them. So love is not just a noun, love is something that we do.

In this Bible story that we read today we hear Jesus talking about love because someone asked him a very difficult question. They want to know what the greatest commandment is. I think that they were thinking of the 10 commandments – you know, “have no other gods,” “Honor you parents,” “Don’t kill.” But Jesus, like he so often does, answers the question in a completely different way. Instead of picking one of the 10, he kind of picks them all. He says the most important thing you can do is to love. Love God, love yourself and all the people around you. Remember, love is not just a noun, it is a verb! To love all these people we have to do something! We have to care for them, we should do good things for them, we should work to make them feel good, joyful and safe. That is a difficult thing to do, and I think that Jesus knew that when he said it. Let’s pray for a little help learning how to be more loving.

*Stewardship Emphasis* If you intend to collect pledges you can have baskets out or whatever your custom is. If you are not colleting pledges you can just have people do the prayer work and write down their love commitment.

Ask the people to think for a moment about the person or situation that most upset, angered, frustrated, or otherwise made them unhappy in the past week. Then ask them to turn to the person next to them and just share the one word that they felt in that situation. Nothing more! Not what was happening, not who was involved, just one word about how they felt.

Next have them think about how they could have been more loving in the situation and write that on the paper (if you are using paper). That is their commitment to be more loving this week.

If you are collecting pledges, do that now, and tell them that they are making a double pledge. One to support the church financially in the coming year and the other to be more loving, even in the most difficult times of their daily lives.

Loving God, we often fail to be the loving people you created us to be. Help us to see past our own hurts and anger and to live out your love in our lives. Amen.

God loves everything about you.

~GB

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Weekly Devotions

Weekly Devotion Pages for October 20, 2013

October 8, 2013 gb Leave a comment

Here are the Weekly devotion pages for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost – October 20, 2013

For the month October we have two devotion pages for each week. There is a set that has a “Faith on the Go” section based on the Gospel readings for the month and as set focused on stewardship and using the 2 Timothy readings.