Hands and feet
Children's sermon
Object:
a 4-H emblem
"So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." (v. 14)
Hello, boys and girls! How are you today? (allow answers) Have any of you ever heard of 4-H? (allow answers) Do you know what 4-H is? (allow answers) 4-H is a club that people in the country like to join. This is the symbol of 4-H: a four-leave clover with a white H on each leaf. (show emblem) In 4-H, you can learn all kinds of things: how to sew, how to take care of animals, how to cook, even how to build rockets! 4-H members make projects or raise farm animals to take to their county fair. 4-H even has a pledge: I pledge my head to greater thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world. The goal of 4-H is for kids to improve themselves and their community.
When 4-Hers talk about pledging their "hands to larger service," what do you think that means? What is a "larger service"? (allow answers) Usually when we think of larger service, we think of doing things like building a hospital, working in a soup kitchen, or volunteering in some other way. But sometimes "larger service" is something much simpler than that.
Our reading talks about a larger service that seems like a smaller service. The service is washing feet. Have you ever had dirty feet? (allow answers) Sometimes if you run around outside without shoes on, your feet get dirty. Your parents might make you wash your feet before you come inside.
In Jesus' time, people walked around in sandals, and the roads were very dusty. People needed to wash their feet often. Usually servants washed a person's feet. In our lesson, somebody is washing feet, but it isn't a servant! The person washing the disciples' feet is none other than Jesus -- himself!
At first, the disciples didn't want Jesus to wash their feet. They thought it was beneath Jesus. After all, servants were supposed to wash their masters' feet -- not a master washing his followers' feet!
Jesus didn't see it that way. Instead, by washing his followers' feet, he was showing humility. Do you know what humility is? (allow answers) Humility is when we do not act proud or stuck-up. Being humble is when you respect others' talents and abilities and when you consider others equal to yourself. Jesus is God's Son, but he does not think he is better than others. He is not too proud to wash his friends' feet. Jesus wants us to do likewise: to be humble and to serve our friends and neighbors. This may not be by washing their feet; this "greater service" may be something as simple as feeding the neighbor's dog while they're on vacation, or cleaning your room before your mom asks. Greater service is not just big things; it's little things, too. Amen.
Hello, boys and girls! How are you today? (allow answers) Have any of you ever heard of 4-H? (allow answers) Do you know what 4-H is? (allow answers) 4-H is a club that people in the country like to join. This is the symbol of 4-H: a four-leave clover with a white H on each leaf. (show emblem) In 4-H, you can learn all kinds of things: how to sew, how to take care of animals, how to cook, even how to build rockets! 4-H members make projects or raise farm animals to take to their county fair. 4-H even has a pledge: I pledge my head to greater thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world. The goal of 4-H is for kids to improve themselves and their community.
When 4-Hers talk about pledging their "hands to larger service," what do you think that means? What is a "larger service"? (allow answers) Usually when we think of larger service, we think of doing things like building a hospital, working in a soup kitchen, or volunteering in some other way. But sometimes "larger service" is something much simpler than that.
Our reading talks about a larger service that seems like a smaller service. The service is washing feet. Have you ever had dirty feet? (allow answers) Sometimes if you run around outside without shoes on, your feet get dirty. Your parents might make you wash your feet before you come inside.
In Jesus' time, people walked around in sandals, and the roads were very dusty. People needed to wash their feet often. Usually servants washed a person's feet. In our lesson, somebody is washing feet, but it isn't a servant! The person washing the disciples' feet is none other than Jesus -- himself!
At first, the disciples didn't want Jesus to wash their feet. They thought it was beneath Jesus. After all, servants were supposed to wash their masters' feet -- not a master washing his followers' feet!
Jesus didn't see it that way. Instead, by washing his followers' feet, he was showing humility. Do you know what humility is? (allow answers) Humility is when we do not act proud or stuck-up. Being humble is when you respect others' talents and abilities and when you consider others equal to yourself. Jesus is God's Son, but he does not think he is better than others. He is not too proud to wash his friends' feet. Jesus wants us to do likewise: to be humble and to serve our friends and neighbors. This may not be by washing their feet; this "greater service" may be something as simple as feeding the neighbor's dog while they're on vacation, or cleaning your room before your mom asks. Greater service is not just big things; it's little things, too. Amen.
