Here is the Weekly devotion for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost – August 4, 2013
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Prepare: Bring a toy of some kind. Anything will work.
Have the toy out as the children gather. Ask them about their favorite toys, and what toys they would like to have.
The story we hear from the Gospel today is about some people who really, really like things. Kind of like us and the toys that we like, or toys we wish that we had. Jesus says some things that are hard for us to understand, and maybe even harder to do!
It all gets started by a man who is mad at his brother for not sharing. He asks Jesus to make his brother share with him, and Jesus says, sorry, that isn’t really my problem, it is your problem. I’m not here to make your brother share with you. In fact, Jesus says, it isn’t really something you should worry about either. He wanted his brother to give him half of his money (Ok, it’s more complicated than this, but we are talking to children. Feel free to tell more of the story if you want) and the brother wouldn’t do it. Jesus told him that he was worrying about stuff, and he was ruining his friendship with his brother because he wanted more stuff.
I think that most of us do that sometimes. We see things that we want that belong to other people and we want those things so much that we don’t think about how upset or angry we are making other people. Jesus says that the amount of stuff that we collect doesn’t really matter, that there is more to being alive than collecting stuff! Instead of filling our lives with stuff we should fill our lives with the love of God and share that love with everyone that we can.
Loving God, fill us with your love! Fill us so full of love that it spills out of our hearts and into the hearts of the people around us. Amen
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you are loved by God. (have children repeat this)
~GB
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – July 21, 2013
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 7, 2013
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – June 30, 2013
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – June 23, 2013
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Prepare: You will need an empty cookie jar, with crumbs in it would be even better. If you want to have a cookie or small treat ready at the end that is fine, but not necessary. Just make sure you think about allergies!
As you invite the children to gather, make a big show of the empty cookie jar. Things like, ”Oh man, where did all my cookies go?”
I know what you’re thinking. It’s pretty disappointing to see me come in with an empty cookie jar, isn’t it? Well, I think that I ate them all. I didn’t mean to, but I just couldn’t help myself! Do you forgive me? Oh, good.
You know, today’s Gospel story is about forgiveness, too, but it’s kind of funny how Jesus talks about it. In the story there is a woman who has had a bad life, and she has done some bad things so that she could survive and have food to eat. When the other people see her with Jesus, they tell Jesus that he should leave her alone, that she is not a good person to be seen with. Instead, Jesus turns to the woman and tells her that all of her sins are forgiven!
Well, that makes the other people a little angry. They know that she has done bad stuff, most of them think that she has done far worse things than any of them, and they tell Jesus what they think. Now here’s the funny, or strange part. Jesus says, “She has done lots of bad things. When I forgive her she loves me more. You have done very few bad things, so for you my forgiveness is not such a deal. But for her, forgiveness is life and love.”
Hmmmm. So, do you think that means that we should do bad things so that God forgives us, so that we can love God more? Should I be happy about eating all the cookies because that means I can love you more? That seems a little backwards, doesn’t it?
I think what Jesus is saying is God love all of us enough to forgive whatever we do wrong, whether it is something big or something small. We should not be angry about God forgiving other people, because they deserve forgiveness, too. It also means that we should live like people who are loved and forgiven. Always doing our best to love each other as God loves us.
Merciful God, thank you for the amazing gift of forgiveness in our lives. Thank you for the forgiveness that you show to us, and thank you for the ways that we can forgive others. Teach us to live in your love and to share your love with everyone we meet. Amen
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you are loved by God. (have children repeat this)
~GB
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – June 16, 2013
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Prepare: The best possible set up for this is to find some “Pied Pipers,” Maybe a group of youth who are willing to follow you first and help call some of the children along. The idea is to generate excitement about something that has yet to be seen. You will also need something fun at the other end, like a Martin Luther bobble-head, or a cool poster of Jesus, or a beautiful cross, or . . . It almost doesn’t matter, as long as it’s something unexpected. Hide it somewhere so that you can lead the children around for a little while.
Start in a different spot than you usually would, and call for the children to follow you. Make sure that you “Pied Pipers” are ready to get up and encourage the children to come along, too. When you find the object, be excited about it and show the children what you found as you head the usual spot.
Well, that wasn’t what I expected to find! What did you think we were looking for? (take a few answers) I think that we were a little like the crowd in the Gospel story today. See, they were following Jesus even though they didn’t know where he was going or what he was planning to do. They were just following to see what would happen – kind of like you following me! Now I have to admit that what we found was fun, but it was nothing compared to what Jesus showed them.
The story goes like this, Jesus had just healed a slave that belonged to a Centurion (a Roman soldier) and the people were amazed that Jesus could heal him, and that Jesus would help a Roman soldier! So they all started to follow him. Then, as people saw the crowd, more people started to follow, even though they didn’t know what they would see. When they got to the next town they saw something amazing and unbelievable! Jesus talked to a widow! Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, why is that amazing? Well, a widow is a woman whose husband has died, and when Jesus was teaching widows were worse to talk to than Roman soldiers! People couldn’t believe that Jesus would talk to her. To make things worse, Jesus was interrupting a funeral – the widow’s son had also just died. Jesus, seeing how hard this was for the woman raised her son from the dead! Now the crowd was blown away by the things they had seen. So much better than the (whatever your object was) that we found.
I think that this is still true for us today. We often try to follow Jesus, even though we don’t know where Jesus is leading us. But, it we do our best to follow, and keep our eyes and ears open, we might hear and see some amazing things!
Amazing God, we do our best to follow you and see the things that you do in the world. Teach us to rejoice in the work that you do. Teach us to not just follow you, but to help you do the work that needs to be done. Amen
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you are loved by God. (have children repeat this)
~GB
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Here is the Weekly devotion for the Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 9, 2013
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