Children’s Message, Sunday, December 16, 2007--Grace

Raise your hand if you have treats in your house. Now, raise your hand if you need to finish your dinner or eat your veggies, or try one bite of everything on your plate if you want to get your hands on those treats.

In our house—that is the rule—no treats until you eat dinner.

Let’s call that “treats through works”. A good solid idea. You’ve got to fill your stomach with things that are full of nutrients and vitamins, and things your body needs to grow big and strong before you get the especially yummy, but not particularly wholesome, treat.

Treats through works is the rule in our house—except for one area.

The chocolate Advent calendar. Granny Veitch sends our daughters each an Advent calendar every November. And starting on December 1, each day you open a little door and get a piece of chocolate and read a little snippet of the Christmas story.

Now here is the tough part for me as a mom. When you haven’t eaten a thing on your plate, should you get the chocolate heart?

And this is the one area of our family life where the rule is not “treats through works” but is instead, “treats through grace”.

You all have heard the word “grace”. It is a lovely name for a girl. It is what we call the prayer before a meal, but at its heart, grace is the belief that good things that come to us come not because of anything we have done or anything we earned—but come out of God’s love for us.

Grace is like getting a chocolate when you haven’t eaten a thing on your plate. You have no idea why you are getting this gift that you so obviously do not deserve given the huge pile of untouched casserole on your plate.

I would be in big trouble with the other moms if I didn’t point out that works have their benefits. It makes us healthy and strong when we eat nutritious food. It makes us feel great when we share what we have with others. It makes all the difference when we are kind to others.

But even beyond those things that we can earn, are those things that we are lovingly given. The good things that God gives us are things that we don’t really deserve-things that we could never in a million years earn.

So work like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on God and enjoy every bit of grace that comes your way.

Let’s pray: Loving God
We haven’t earned it
We don’t even deserve it
But we are thankful every day
For the love you give us. Amen.

Great mock children's sermons

I'm not sure what the correct "nettiquette" is for sharing things found on others blogs, but check out these hilarious fake children's sermons--get ready to cringe!!

http://philosophyovercoffee.blogspot.com/2007/08/childrens-sermons-that-textweek.html

Also, for a reminder on how not to do a children's sermon check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBWrKEh_v2E&feature=user
(no offense is meant to this guy--he definitely likes kids, and at least he is honest enough to start by saying that he is trying to amuse the adults. . . I just think the premise of using a conversation with kids to amuse adults is a bit of a problem!)

Children’s Message, Sunday, December 2, 2007, Advent and Christmas

Yesterday I went to the post office. I had to buy stamps for my Christmas cards. There were two options. One had different winter designs that look like they have been knit, like a reindeer, a Christmas tree, a teddy bear and a snowman. The other had the image of a very old painting depicting Jesus and Mary. I couldn’t decide. The knit snowman stamp was too cute not to buy, but I liked the idea of having the stamps on my cards reflect Jesus’ birth. In the end, I bought one book of each type of stamps. But that got me thinking that maybe there are two Christmases.

There is snowman Christmas. The shopping, cookie making, card mailing, party going Christmas. I love that Christmas! I like hearing Christmas music in the mall (even if it is “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer“!). I love picking out the perfect present--finding a new Christmas cookie recipe. It is a fantastic time of year, and --I wouldn’t want to give it up.

There is also the Mary and Jesus Christmas. The advent wreath lighting, singing silent night in church on Christmas eve Christmas. I love that Christmas so much. I think these four Sundays of Advent are such a gift. They are a way to count down the time, to build up our excitement, but most of all, they are a gift because they are a time to quiet the Christmas of the mall for even one hour so that we can soak up the Christmas of Jesus.

Sometimes when I am getting into the shopping and baking, I need to stop and remember a phrase that, funnily enough, I saw on a shopping bag that said, “Jesus is the reason for the season”. Oh yeah.

So I hope this Advent is a fun time for you. I hope you get to bake cookies and have parties. I hope you sing every Rudolph song there is and watch some Christmas movies, too.

But I also hope that you have lots of special moments where you remember the reason for the season. I hope you have the chance to light the candles on your family’s advent wreath every Sunday evening (and by way of a commercial, if you don’t have one already, you can make one after church today!). I hope you get to read the story of Mary and Joseph’s journey and the Birth of Christ at least once. And I hope that you get to share at least some of the love that Jesus put in your heart with someone else this advent season. After all, Jesus is the reason for the season.

Let’s pray: Loving God,
Thank you for snowmen and reindeer
For advent wreaths and carols
For friends and parties
And for Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
Amen.