Children’s Message, Sunday, May 20, 2007--Unity (John 17:20-26)

There are lots of places where the Bible tells us the importance of unity—the importance of us being together.
In Matthew, Jesus tells us that , “. . .where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matt. 18:20).
In the Bible reading that the adults will hear today after we leave, Jesus , in prayer, asks for us all to be one just as Jesus and God are one. And one neat thing about this reading is that Jesus, in a way, talks about all of us. Jesus says, “I ask not only on behalf of these [his disciples] but also on behalf of those who will believe. . . “ (John 17:20)
People say that there is strength and safety in numbers.
We are kind of like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. A neat looking picture on its own—different shapes and colors, curves and lines. . . but when you link them together, they show a different picture—tell a fuller story.
Every piece is wonderful and unique. . . but every piece also has a place in the whole that only that piece can fill.
When the pieces of a puzzle are all together, you can see a picture. When the pieces of the people of God are together, you can see Christ’s love.

Let’s pray: Loving God
Thank you for making each one of us special
Thank you for making us part of your big picture
Help us to live and work together
To show your love to the world. Amen

my newest children's message problem

So in a nutshell, my problem is the big red bow.

I keep ruining a perfectly good children's sermon (or at least a fairly inoffensive one!) by trying to tie it all up in a big red bow.

I find myself at the end of the sermon part, but before the prayer with that nano-second of silence in which I have recently started inserting bits of verbal diarrhea like, "so that's what I wanted to share with you all today" or "so that is what I hope you remember about love" or something dumb like that. I must keep reminding myself that less is more!

Any thoughts? If you're reading, I'd love comments--and even more than that--I'd love to see some other children's sermons! Why not start blogging yours! I will happily put a link on this blog to any other children's sermon blogs out there!

Children’s Message

Raise your hand if you’ve ever used a phone book. . . At the top of each page in phone books, it gives the first name on the page and the last name on the page alphabetically so that you can find what you are looking for. Our phone number is on the “Vaughn-Vendel” page. I always liked the “Smith” pages—in our phone book in Rochester, there are 4 whole pages of just Smiths.

There’s another book that is organized like the phone book—it is called a concordance, and instead of telling you the phone number of everyone who lives in Rochester, this concordance tells you every place a word appears in the Bible. Some words, like “jumping” only appear once or twice. Other words are the “Smith” and “Jones” of the Bible—like “Love”. The concordance that I looked in listed 586 entries for “love”.

The most central messages of the Bible center around Love—In Deuteronomy 6, God told us , “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” In Leviticus 19, we are told to , “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Last week, we were shown a wonderful message of love in the youth musical, “10th and Luke” which reminded us that anyone who shows Christ’s love is our neighbor. Today’s gospel reading shares these words of Jesus to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Later in the service, 6 of the youth of the church will be received into membership as part of the commissioning class. Our affirmation of faith today uses parts of all of their faith statements, and in nearly every line, they mention love. The Love of God, the Love of the church, and all the ways that we, as God’s people share and spread that love.

Let’s Pray: Loving God,
Help us to live out the challenges
Given to us in scripture:
To love the Lord with all our hearts
To love our neighbors as ourselves
And to love one another as Christ loves us. Amen.