Preface for Pastors and Parents
This children’s sermon on Luke 6:39-49 will come in handy in years when the date Easter is later than usual. This text is assigned for the 8th Sunday after Epiphany in Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary. We only get to the 7ᵗʰ Sunday after Epiphany this year before we find ourselves in Lent.
But hey, there’s no need to wait for a great text to come around. You could decide this one is just right for the kids in your church some other time.
Now that I’m working on it, maybe I see why the lectionary sort of pushes this text into the margins. The text has no story context to make a children’s sermon on Luke 6:39-49 easy.
Of course this passage is actually several stories. That’s what Jesus’ parables are. But I need a hook, like a sense of why Jesus happened to tell these particular stories on this particular day. The trouble is these parables aren’t all on one theme.
Maybe Luke just knew a whole bunch of stories Jesus told, and so he shoved them together, pretending the collection made sense.
Actually I suspect there is a lot of truth in that. These collections of parables are best treated as separate little texts. If you are preaching, you’ll probably pick one and build a sermon on that. You can do another one in another sermon, taking one teaching of Jesus at a time.
That’s what I’m going to do here in my children’s sermon on Luke 6:39-49. The rest will be on the cutting room floor till I want to do another parable in another children’s sermon. Let me know what you think of the results.
A Children’s Sermon on Luke 6:39-49
Good morning, kids! I am so glad to see you this morning. Thanks for coming up to hear the children’s sermon.
Usually when you come up I tell you a story about things that Jesus did. Today is a little bit different. Today’s reading from the Gospel is a bunch of little stories that Jesus told to his friends.
What led Jesus to tell these particular stories? To answer that, we have to sort of imagine what was going on that day. Here’s how I picture it.
One day all the disciples seemed to be in a grumpy mood. One by one they were coming up to Jesus to complain. And they were all complaining about each other.
Mary
Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, came up first.
“Jesus,” she said “You need to tell my sister to be more helpful. It was my turn to make breakfast for the three of us and she wouldn’t help at all! She wouldn’t even help set the table!”
Jesus looked at her with a twinkle in his big brown eyes, and said, “Oh Mary, I think I remember a time when we came to your house house for dinner. That night you wouldn’t help her at all either. And she had to feed all 12 us us.”
Judas
Before Mary could answer, Judas came up with an angry look on his face.
“Jesus!” said Judas, “You have to do something about Levi.”
“Why’s that, Judas?” asked Jesus.
“Well,” said Judas, “you know you asked me to carry the money bag for the whole group of us? Levi took some money out and he won’t tell me why! And he won’t put the money back!”
“Oh, Judas,” said Jesus, with a sad but gentle look in his big brown eyes. “You and I need to talk about that money bag.”
You see, everybody knew that Judas used to steal from the money bag. But Jesus wouldn’t give the job to someone else. They didn’t understand why Jesus seemed to trust Judas even though he stole from them.
Peter
And just then Peter came up and said “Jesus! You need to tell James to stop it!”
“Stop what, Peter?” asked Jesus, “What is James doing?”
“He’s saying really stupid things!” said Peter. “He was telling people it’s not enough to believe in you. He says we have to prove we believe by doing good things for people. That’s so dumb!”
“Well Peter,” Jesus said, “We can talk sometime about whether James is right or wrong. But haven’t you also sometimes said a few things that were kind of silly?”
And then the other disciples started laughing because Peter said silly stuff all the time. Everybody knew Peter never thought before he spoke.
A Carpenter Story, Part 1
“Okay you guys,” Jesus said, “let’s all sit down. I want to tell you a story.”
So they all sat down to listen.
“You all know that I used to be a carpenter, right?” asked Jesus.
They all nodded.
“Well, imagine that someone came into my carpentry shop when I was sawing wood. Imagine my visitor got a tiny little speck of sawdust in their eye. How would that feel?”
“Terrible!” said Peter. “One time I got a speck of sawdust in my eye and it really hurt!”
“Right,” said Jesus. “What did you do?”
“I had my mom look at it,” Peter said. “She helped me get it out. Then it felt better.”
Carpenter Story, Part 2
“Okay well imagine this,” said Jesus. “Just before that guy came in, I was working away in my shop and I had a terrible accident. A whole log, six feet long, got stuck in my eye!
“Oh no!” said the disciples.
“It was terrible!” said Jesus. “I was walking around with this log longer than your kitchen table sticking right out of my eye. I tried to get out the door and — Wham! — my log got in the way. I tried to work on a chair I was making and — Wham! — the log sticking out of my eye knocked the chair right over. What do you think I should have done?”
“You should have taken that log out!” said Peter.
“Oh,” said Jesus, “but I was okay with my log. I decided to just leave it there, sticking out of my eye.”
“Ew!” “Gross!” said the disciples. “That’s dumb!”
“But I was fine having a log in my eye,” said Jesus, “It didn’t really bother me much. But now imagine: then this guy I mentioned comes into my carpentry shop. Like I said, he gets a tiny little speck of sawdust in his eye.”
“’Ow!’ cries the guy. ‘How can I get this speck of sawdust out of my eye?’”
“So I say, ‘I’ll help you! Come over here and I’ll take that nasty speck out of your eye!’
What to Do?
“Now, what’s gonna happen?” asked Jesus.
“You wont be able to see the speck!” said Mary. “I mean, you have a big old log in your own eye!”
“And you’ll knock him over!” said Judas. “You’ll hit him with your log before he’s close enough for you to help.”
“Oh, Jesus!” said Peter. “That is so silly. How could anyone with a log in their eye think they could get a tiny speck out of their friend’s eye!”
Jesus looked at them all and said “I wonder!”
Wondering
I wonder whether Mary, or Judas, or Peter ever figured out what kind of logs they had in their own eyes?
I wonder what someone with a log in their eye could do to get rid of it?
I wonder if you’ve ever complained about someone doing something you’ve done yourself?
++++++++++++
You are, of course, free to use this children’s sermon, or adapt it as you find most useful. But, if you use it, please do one (or more!) of the following.
- You can let me know that you are using it, either in the comments below, or using the contact form above.
- You can put a little notice in your church bulletin that your children’s sermon is adapted from one published on GaryNealHansen.com.
- You can support my work over on Patreon. (Just $1 per month brings my children’s sermons straight to your inbox about two minutes after they go live. And every little bit keeps me going…)
Leave a Reply