The Transfiguration is about as mysterious a text as you’ll find in the Gospel. That makes preparing a children’s sermon on Matthew 17:1-19 pretty challenging. How do you help kids find something useful in a story that their parents probably find baffling? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. And of course you […]
A Children’s Sermon on Matthew 5:21-37
Developing a children’s sermon on Matthew 5:21-37 is challenging on two fronts. First, this passage is not a story. Second, it contains several distinct and difficult teachings. Here he talks about four separate kinds of law. I think it is wise to take just one topic for a children’s sermon. That leaves the question of […]
A Children’s Sermon: Matthew 5:13-20
Matthew 5:13-20 Though Matthew 5:13-20 is one Gospel reading in the lectionary, the passage is actually three distinct units. For a children’s sermon I think it is wisest to just pick one. When telling a Bible story to children, I like to imagine the conversations that might have led to the little scene included in […]
A Children’s Sermon: Matthew 4:12-23
This children’s sermon is my retelling of Matthew 4:12-23, the calling of the first disciples. Stories in the Bible are often bare outlines of things that happened, leaving many details to our imaginations. One knows there must have been more conversation than made it onto the pages of the Gospels. What were the bits that […]
Letters to a Young Pastor: The Children’s Sermon — Metaphors
Dear ______: Sorry I haven’t written for a while. I launched a new class, and that took my attention from most other things. But it sounds like in your field education position you are getting to continue your thinking about children’s sermons. As you wrote, My supervisor has a unique way of doing his children’s […]