Juggling act
Children's sermon
Object:
juggling balls
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (v. 3)
Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have ever seen someone juggle? (allow answers) Do you know what it means to juggle? (allow answers) Juggling is when you toss balls or some other object in a circle. Many people have a hard time learning to juggle. It's difficult to keep all the balls in the air.
When you watch someone juggling, is there one ball that is more important than the others? (allow answers) No, there's not. Each ball may be at a different part of the circle -- one may be high in the air, one may be in the juggler's hand, one may be in mid-toss from one hand to the other -- but each ball is equally important. Each ball takes equal effort for the juggler to keep in the air. (find someone in the congregation who can juggle)
Nobody thinks one juggling ball is more or less important than another. Our second reading today talks about something similar to that idea. The reading talks about everyone in a congregation filling different roles. Some of us might play music. Some of us might go to Sunday school. Some of us bake for church dinners and some of us share God's word with our neighbors. We all have different gifts.
It's good that we all have different jobs. It would be boring if we all did the same thing all the time! But when we all do different things, it can be easy for us to start thinking that we are better than someone else. That is not good! Like balls in the hands of a juggler, each of us is equally important in creating something wonderful. No one part is greater than any other.
When we start to think that we are more important than everyone else, we have what is called "pride." Does anyone know what the opposite of pride is? (allow answers) The opposite of pride is something called "humility." What do you think it means to have humility? (allow answers) When we have humility, or when we are being humble, we know that we are equal to others, not better than them. We see that we are all an equal part of God's plan -- equal parts of a beautiful, intricate juggling act made up of all God's children. And while pride gets in the way of juggling, humility is what it takes to keep the act running smooth, beautiful, and amazing. Amen.
Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have ever seen someone juggle? (allow answers) Do you know what it means to juggle? (allow answers) Juggling is when you toss balls or some other object in a circle. Many people have a hard time learning to juggle. It's difficult to keep all the balls in the air.
When you watch someone juggling, is there one ball that is more important than the others? (allow answers) No, there's not. Each ball may be at a different part of the circle -- one may be high in the air, one may be in the juggler's hand, one may be in mid-toss from one hand to the other -- but each ball is equally important. Each ball takes equal effort for the juggler to keep in the air. (find someone in the congregation who can juggle)
Nobody thinks one juggling ball is more or less important than another. Our second reading today talks about something similar to that idea. The reading talks about everyone in a congregation filling different roles. Some of us might play music. Some of us might go to Sunday school. Some of us bake for church dinners and some of us share God's word with our neighbors. We all have different gifts.
It's good that we all have different jobs. It would be boring if we all did the same thing all the time! But when we all do different things, it can be easy for us to start thinking that we are better than someone else. That is not good! Like balls in the hands of a juggler, each of us is equally important in creating something wonderful. No one part is greater than any other.
When we start to think that we are more important than everyone else, we have what is called "pride." Does anyone know what the opposite of pride is? (allow answers) The opposite of pride is something called "humility." What do you think it means to have humility? (allow answers) When we have humility, or when we are being humble, we know that we are equal to others, not better than them. We see that we are all an equal part of God's plan -- equal parts of a beautiful, intricate juggling act made up of all God's children. And while pride gets in the way of juggling, humility is what it takes to keep the act running smooth, beautiful, and amazing. Amen.
