Childrens Sermon Service

These verses from John’s Gospel can feel more like a minefield than a hopeful message to teach to children. Some of these verses have been used to exclude people and justify terrible actions against humanity. At it’s essence though, Jesus is trying to convey a connectedness between himself and God. He also wants us to see how we are connected to the trinity, the trinity to us, and us to other people. We are like a puzzle made up of pieces of the people in our lives and God. We also become a part of the people we meet. Those pieces all come together in God’s kingdom, with each of us having our own special place to fit in.

In your lesson say something like:

I wonder how many of you have done a puzzle while staying safe at home. If you have ever done a puzzle you know your job is to fit all the pieces together, and in the end there is an image we can see when every piece is exactly in its place. Most people start their puzzles with the outside edge. The edge pieces are easy to find and guess where they should go. Then they fill in the middle pieces.

If you have done a puzzle you know the feeling when a piece pops into its correct place. It makes a little click as it connects with the pieces around it and we feel so good and proud of finding the right spot. It feels really good when we put the last piece in place and can see the pieces working together to create the image.

In the Bible lesson today Jesus talks about people being a part of our puzzle. Jesus says he and God fit together like puzzle pieces and the Spirit fits together, too — and together they create the trinity. God, Jesus, and the Spirit are pieces of a bigger puzzle. They need each other to be complete.

This may seem a little hard to understand and that’s okay. Lets think about this together. I want you to think of something you are good at. It might be a sport, or you might be good at talking and like having conversations, or it might be something else you are good at. That thing you are good at is a part of you, it makes you special. You might even find joy in being given a title that shows you are good at this thing. You might call yourself a soccer player because you are good at soccer, or call yourself a writer because you like to write. The things we enjoy doing become a part of who we are.

Well at some point someone helped you learn how to do that thing. Maybe it was a parent who taught you to talk, or a teacher who taught you math, or a coach who taught you a sport. The knowledge that those people had was given to you. Then you put that piece of knowledge into your mind, into yourself, to help build who you are. Other people can give us pieces of our own puzzle. They kind of become part of us in our memories and skills.

This can be very comforting to think about when someone dies. That someone may have gone to be with God but pieces of them stay with us in our memories and the things they taught us. In that way, in us they stay with us forever.

Just like we are made up of all the people who have helped us, the trinity is made up of all the parts of God. The creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It might still be confusing but that is what makes faith fun, we always have something more to learn.

Let’s say a prayer to help us keep learning and keep collecting the puzzle pieces that will make us who we are.

Giving God, Thank you for all the people who have helped us and taught us. We will hold onto their memory and the things they gave us forever. Help us to keep learning and becoming who you created us to be. Amen.