Childrens Sermon Service

First Thoughts: Often we hear faith described as a solution to a problem, such as helping us deal with stress or bringing us wealth. We see faith in terms of how it can gratify our current experience of anxiety or need. This is the position of the folks who are following Jesus now: following Jesus (who can produce bread) will ensure their ongoing physical survival. But Jesus is challenging them to understand their needs differently. It is easy for us to identify physical needs as our highest priority in life, but often what we experience as physical need indicates a deeper spiritual need underneath. Have you ever been hungry, but nothing you ate really satisfied you? Have you ever been bored, but no activity you picked really seemed to engage you? These are possible indications that hunger is coming from a different place inside us, a place that can't be addressed with worldly things but only with the living bread of God. Jesus knows the truth of our human needfulness and encourages us to get in touch with our spiritual hunger. If we can feel and know our deepest spiritual hunger, it will lead us to what we need the most -- the Living Bread. But are we willing to allow our hunger to live within us, to restrain ourselves from automatically filling our lives with distractions that drown our discomfort and instead allow our hunger to guide us to what we truly need? It's one of the most difficult spiritual disciplines to cultivate -- to be still and wait on God to act. It's a posture of being, not doing; receiving, not giving; waiting, not acting. In preparation for your lesson today, spend a few minutes in meditation, allowing yourself to grow still and to experience your own spiritual hunger. Lift that hunger to God and notice how God responds. Bring that experience with you in your time with the children.

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Teaching As A Team:
(Leader 2 is holding his/her stomach, groaning a bit)
Leader 1: Hey, (name), are you okay? You look like you're sick.
Leader 2: I am! When I got home from soccer last night I was really, really hungry. I almost couldn't stand it. So I ordered a large pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni. (makes face)
Leader 1: Let me guess -- you ate it all by yourself?
Leader 2: Yep, and I've had a tummy ache ever since.
Leader 1: I think pizza might have been the wrong way to go. When we're hungry our bodies are telling us that they need more fuel -- you know: protein, vitamins, and fiber. But pizza, well, that's just not really good fuel for your body.
Leader 2: But it tastes good. How do I know it's not good fuel?
Leader 1: Well, for one thing, the way you feel right now! When we fill our body with good fuel, we don't feel tired or sluggish afterward. We feel energized and strong. Also, when you eat good food in a few hours you want more. That lets us know that our bodies are running right along, staying active and growing healthy.
Leader 2: Yeah, the way I feel now, I don't think I'll ever be hungry again.
Leader 1: Your body just needs to recover a bit. This reminds me of our Bible story today. Jesus performed a great miracle in which he fed thousands of people with just a little bread and fish. The people were so excited to see this that they decided to follow Jesus around all the time. They thought it would be great to have food available to them all the time.
Leader 2: I can understand that.
Leader 1: But Jesus wanted them to understand that, even greater than our body's hunger, is the hunger of our souls.
Leader 2: What is good fuel for our souls?
Leader 1: We need love and compassion. We need to feel understood and valued. And we need to be challenged to be generous and to be connected all other people. These are very deep needs in each person's life and Jesus knew that. He also knew that people sometimes don't pay attention to these needs and just stay busy doing lots of other things to ignore them.
Leader 2: How do we ignore soul hunger?
Leader 1: We might work really hard at our jobs, watch a lot of TV, or play sports. Anything, really, that can distract us from our thoughts or feelings can be used to avoid soul hunger. But all these things aren't good fuel for us.
Leader 2: Like pizza wasn't good fuel for me.
Leader 1: Right. The only fuel that feeds our souls is the Living Bread of God's love. Christ told them if they would seek him in prayer and meditation, if they would read the scriptures and worship together, they would always find their souls well fed and grow strong in their lives as Christians.
Leader 2: But don't our souls get hungry again?
Leader 1: Yeah, that's how we know things are going well. When we spend time with God, we feel strong and healthy, and we want to spend more time with God. The good news is that God will meet us every time we need him to give us the Living Bread we need.
Leader 2: Like the pizza delivery guy -- only a phone call away!

Teaching On Your Own:
(doubled over, holding stomach) Oooh, I have such a tummy ache! You know what I did last night? I got home from a soccer game, and I was so hungry I almost couldn't stand it. So I ordered a large pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni. And guess what I did? I ate it all by myself. Not a good move, right? What do you think it means when we feel hungry? It means our bodies need more fuel, doesn't it? We need protein, vitamins, and fiber. But I'm afraid pizza isn't very good fuel. What do you think? How do you feel when you eat really healthy food? Well, you don't feel sluggish and icky, do you? No, you feel energized and strong. And you know something else? When you eat good food, you get hungry again in a few hours, because good fuel keeps our bodies running and growing. That's another way I can tell pizza isn't great fuel for my body because right now I don't think I'll ever want to eat again! You know, this reminds me of our Bible story today. Jesus performed a great miracle in which he fed thousands of people with just a little bread and fish. Well, the people were so excited to see this that they decided to follow Jesus around all the time. They thought it would be great to have food available to them all the time. But Jesus wanted them to understand that, even greater than our body's hunger, is the hunger of our souls. You see, our souls need good fuel too. What do you think might be good fuel for our souls? Well, we need love and compassion. We need to feel understood and valued. And we need to be challenged to be generous and to be connected to all other people. These are very deep needs in each person's life and Jesus knew that. He also knew that people sometimes don't pay attention to these needs and just stay busy doing lots of other things to avoid them. What are some things we can do to ignore our soul hunger? We might work really hard at our jobs, watch a lot of TV, or play sports. Anything, really, that can distract us from our thoughts or feelings can be used to avoid soul hunger. But all these things aren't good fuel for us, just like pizza wasn't good fuel for me. The only fuel that feeds our souls is the Living Bread of God's love. Christ told them if they would seek him in prayer and meditation, if they would read the scriptures and worship together, they would always find their souls well fed and grow strong in their lives as Christians. But you know what? Just like our bodies, our souls grow hungry again and again. That's how we know things are going well. When we spend time with God, we feel strong and healthy, and we want to spend more time with God. The good news is that God will meet us every time we need him to give us the Living Bread we need. Just like the pizza delivery guy -- only a phone call away!

Closing Prayer: Bread of Life, thank you for giving us the hunger that calls us to you and for filling that hunger with your love. Help us each day to grow stronger in receiving your care and in offering your care to the world. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Follow-Up Lesson: To reinforce this message in a home or classroom environment we're going to expand our meditation on how God is Living Bread to us. Ask the children what their greatest needs are. If they seem stuck in the physical realm (clothes, food, air), help them to go a bit beyond that. Ask them what they need most when they're feeling frightened, lonely, or guilty for doing something wrong. Help them to understand that these needs for comfort, companionship, and forgiveness are soul needs, and they point us to our hunger for God. When we have soul hunger, we can do one of two things. We can come to God and ask God to feed us, or we can stay really busy and pretend it's not there. Ask them to think back to a time when they were busy playing outside and realized they were hungry or thirsty. Maybe they decided that, instead of taking time out to eat or drink, they would just ignore it and keep on playing. What happened next? Did they get weak, grumpy, or get a headache? The same thing that happens to us when we don't feed our souls. As an object lesson you might provide each child with his or her own small bread roll. Ask the children to think about this bread as the Living Bread of God's love. Together break off bites of the roll and decide what need is being met by this bite. For example, you might tear off a piece of bread, hold it up and say, "This is God's forgiveness. What do I need forgiveness for today?" Give the children a chance to reflect silently on their need for forgiveness, then everyone eats the bread together. As an additional craft or as a craft alternative, you could also provide loaves of bread cut from construction paper and invite the children to do the same activity by cutting the bread into "bites." They could then write the spoken needs on the bites and glue them on a piece of paper to take home. Close with a time of prayer and reflection.