Children's sermon--July 24, 2005

Children’s Sermon
Sunday, July 24, 2005
The Parable of the Leaven—Matthew 13:33

So all week, I have been thinking about rice krispy treats. I think it is because I have been wanting to make something sweet and cookie-ish, but it has been so hot, that I haven’t wanted to warm up the kitchen--so rice krispy treats seemed like the perfect treat to me.

Now, I have also been thinking about today’s scripture and how I was going to talk with you all about it. Today, we get a whole bunch of parables--6 to be exact. I’d like to read you one of them: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Do you know what yeast is used for? It is used to make bread rise. As I was reading this parable, I pictured a woman working really hard at kneading a hunk of dough, working all of that leaven through it.
And because I was hungry for rice krispy treats, I thought about how much work it takes to mix the krispies into the marshmallow.

So here’s what I came up with. . . Without yeast, bread would just be a sticky flat dough. Without the marshmallows, there would be no “treat”--only a bowl of dry cereal. They become a part of each other. I think that is how God works in us as Christians. Can you imagine if someone handed you a rice krispy treat and asked you to take out all of the marshmallow? You couldn’t do it. Maybe it is the same with us. Being a Christian is just a part of us--mixed into who we are so much that we cannot separate the Christian from the rest of us.

In the Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith, the last line states, “We rejoice that nothing in life or in death can separate us from the love of God Through Christ Jesus our Lord.” AMEN!!

Let’s Pray:

Loving God
We are thankful that you are a part of us
and we pray
that you remain in us--
now and always.
Amen.

Children's seermon--Jacob's Ladder/Prayer Rock

So, as you can see by the time of this post, I have had a lot of difficulty with this children's sermon. The first reason is that it has been rather chaotic at work, so I wasn't asked to do the children's sermon until Thursday afternoon just after 3pm (I leave around 3:15 and don't work on Fridays, so we started out this sermon under the wire!!). In my pastor's defense, he very kindly offered me the option to do or not to do this sermon, but I wanted to do it, so though it would be easy to blame him, I won't.

The last children's sermon I did was fine, but I couldn't help but feel that I am really wanting to get back to a scriptural basis to sermons. I guess this touchy-feely (but ultimately kind of fluffy) general "be a good Christian" variety of children's message was making me feel kind of blah.

So that was one hurdle. With Jacob's ladder as the text for the week, it seemed to me to be a story rich with themes to tackle with kids. That brings me to my second issue--the kids. Every summer, I seem to forget that in the summer, it seems that families who are constrained by the school schedule disappear during breaks. That leaves us with group of mostly pre-school kids, and finding a message for a mostly pre-school audience is not easy.



So, with those 50 disclaimers firmly in place, this is what I have come up with--

Children’s Sermon, July 17, 2005
Jacob’s Ladder (Genesis 28:11-22)—Prayer Rock

So did everyone have a good sleep last night? What do you sleep with? Raise your hand if you sleep with a stuffed animal or special blanket. How about a pillow? How about a rock? No one sleeps with a rock? Me neither! I love big fluffy pillows, so I don’t think I’d like to sleep with a rock! The reason I was thinking about sleeping with rocks is because of the Bible story that we are looking at in worship today. We will be hearing about the story of Jacob’s ladder. This story is about a very special dream that Jacob had, where he saw a ladder that led up to God, and in this dream, God blessed Jacob’s descendants. When Jacob went to sleep the night that he had this dream, he slept with a rock, and in some versions of the Bible, they say that he used it as a pillow. After he woke up, to remember his special dream, Jacob set that stone on a pillar and anointed it.

So, I wanted to think about a way that we could use a rock to help us remember that special dream. I remembered a poem that I had seen years ago about a prayer rock. This poem, using the rock, helps remind us to pray before bed (by leaving the rock in your pillow to “bonk” you in the head) and in the morning (by leaving the rock on your floor to step on).

So I hope that this prayer rock helps you to do two things:
1) remember to take time in the morning and evening to say a prayer to God, and
2) to remember the story of Jacob’s dream about the ladder up to God where Jacob used a rock as a pillow.

Let’s pray:
Loving God
Be with us when we are awake
Be with us in our dreams as we sleep
Help us to remember your stories
And to pray always.
Amen.

* * *

Below is the poem that I used. I had used it years ago at a former church and had no idea where it came from, but with the magic wand I call "google" I found it on my first try. I did "clean-it up" a bit--especially the last stanza where I made the language more inclusive (removing the male pronouns for God) and changing the "you" in lines 2 &3 of that stanza to "us".

Prayer Rock Poem
(Author Unknown)
I'm your little prayer rock
and this is what I'll do.
Just put me on your pillow
'til the day is through.

Then turn back the covers
and climb into your bed,
and, whack! your little prayer rock
will bump you on the head.

Then you will remember
as the day is through,
to kneel and say your prayers
as you intended to.

Then when you are finished
toss me on the floor.
I'll stay there through the nighttime
to give you help once more.

When you get up next morning,
clunk! I stub your toe,
so that you will remember
your prayers before you go.

Put me back upon your pillow
when your bed is made,
and your clever little prayer rock
will continue in your aid.

Because our God in heaven
cares and loves us so,
God wants us to remember
to pray each day, you know.

Children's sermon--July 3, 2005

Children’s Message
Sunday, July 3, 2005

So this spring, there have been two things that I have been working on:
The first is that I have been trying to get my mess of a garden back into shape. Last year we were so busy, we didn’t have time to do anything--we hardly weeded, we didn’t add any new plants, we didn’t prune off the dead flowers at the end of the season, so this year we have paid BIG TIME.


The second has been to do some preparation for a course that I was supposed to take in a few weeks. The classes were going to be all day, every day, for 5 days, and to prepare for it, we were supposed to work through the Bible with this big thick book.

So guess what? This week I got a call telling me that they had to cancel the class. Now I was first off very disappointed, because I really wanted to take this class--I had been planning on it since fall. My second thought, I am a little embarrassed to admit, was, “I wasted all that time doing the work!” I quickly reminded myself that taking time regularly to spend time reading, studying and learning about the Bible is far from a waste of time.

I got to thinking about my other springtime activity--my garden. If I had spent the time on it regularly last year, I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed now.

I think our faith is a lot like a garden. It is full of beautiful plants and flowers, but like our garden, your faith won’t grow very well on its own. Just like we set time aside to care for the things that grow around us, we need to set time aside for the things that grow within us.

So I hope that is what you will do this week. Read your Bible or a Bible story book. Make up a new prayer or a new grace to say at dinner. As you look around your gardens at home, think about why God may have created each plant.

As for me, even though I don’t have to finish my assignments for my cancelled class, I think I’m going to do it anyway--I’m going to think of it as plant food for my faith.

Let’s pray:
Loving God
Help us to remember
To care for our spirits
Help us to learn and grow
In our faiths this week.
Amen.