A Prophet in Her Hometown
Children's sermon
Object:
none
First Thoughts: It is hard for us to realize, sometimes, how God can speak and work through just regular, everyday people. People we know, people we've KNOWN our whole lives. But God works through anyone available -- including our own friends, family, and even our children! Today's lesson highlights one of the difficulties in Jesus' ministry: his hometown of Nazareth. In this passage from Mark we are told that, although Jesus tries to share the good news to his hometown, they reject him. He is unable to teach or do any healing works among them, because they are hung up on the fact that they know him. They've known him since he was a child; how could they possibly take him seriously as an instrument of God? We may find ourselves struggling with this idea too. God's word has to come from a place of distant authority like a Bible scholar from Yale or a world-famous preacher. At least somebody who's graduated seminary, right? But this is a grievous mistake. As faithful Christians we must keep our heart awake and ready to receive God's word from any source, including the most unlikely in our own eyes. God can speak through the familiar, the ordinary. God can use our children. God can use us. This is the target of Jesus' teaching, the disciples who are called to be faithful to the gospel message whether or not the crowd sees them as authoritative. In your prayer time, ask God where you need to stretch in your own faith journey. Do you need to be more accepting of God's messengers? Do you need to be more empowered in your own work as God's messenger? Carry your reflections with you in your time with the children.
Teaching With A Team:
(Leader 2 looking glum)
Leader 1: Hey (name), you seem kind of down. Is something wrong?
Leader 2: Yeah. Last Sunday in Sunday school our class talked about how God calls us to care for each other -- so if some of us have a lot of something, and others don't have enough, we who have too much should share. So everybody has enough.
Leader 1: That sounds about right.
Leader 2: So my friends and I were having a picnic yesterday and each of us brought so much food that we had a lot left over. Well, I remembered that Sunday school class, and I told my friends that I thought Jesus would want us to share our food with other people who might not have enough to eat.
Leader 1: What did your friends say?
Leader 2: They laughed at me. They told me not to be so "preachy," telling them what to do. They said I wasn't any better than any of them and they didn't have to listen to me.
Leader 1: Sounds like your friends made the same mistake as the people of Nazareth.
Leader 2: What do you mean?
Leader 1: Well, Nazareth was Jesus' hometown, the place where he grew up. So, naturally, when Jesus was traveling around sharing God's word and healing people, he went to Nazareth as well. But the people there didn't want to hear what he had to say. You know why?
Leader 2: Why?
Leader 1: Because they thought Jesus was just like them. They knew his parents and had seen him grow up from a little boy. They thought, "Why should we listen to this little pipsqueak? He's a nobody, just like us." And because they didn't want to hear Jesus' message, Jesus couldn't do any healings in that place.
Leader 2: That must have made Jesus sad.
Leader 1: I'm sure it did. But he reminded his friends that this happens sometimes. It's hard for people to believe that someone they know, a regular person, just like them, can be God's messenger. He told the disciples not to get too upset by it but to keep on sharing God's news with those who would receive it. And to remember that, whatever anyone else thought, they were doing God's will and that was the most important thing.
Leader 2: So does that mean I should keep trying to share God's news with my friends?
Leader 1: Sure. Just remember sometimes people will listen and sometimes they won't -- but God ALWAYS notices and appreciates it.
Teaching On Your Own: Hey guys, I have a problem. Want to hear about it? Last week in Sunday school our class talked about how God calls us to care for each other -- so if some of us have a lot of something, and others don't have enough, we who have too much should share. So everybody has enough. That sounds right, doesn't it? So my friends and I were having a picnic yesterday and each of us brought so much food that we had a lot left over. Well, I remembered that Sunday school class, and I told my friends that I thought Jesus would want us to share our food with other people who might not have enough to eat. But you know what my friends said? They laughed at me. They told me not to be so "preachy," telling them what to do. They said I wasn't any better than any of them and they didn't have to listen to me. What do you think about that? Are my friends right? No! In fact, I think my friends made the same mistake as the people of Nazareth in our story today. Nazareth was Jesus' hometown, the place where he grew up. So, naturally, when Jesus was traveling around sharing God's word and healing people, he went to Nazareth as well. But the people there didn't want to hear what he had to say. You know why? Because they thought Jesus was just like them. They knew his parents and had seen him grow up from a little boy. They thought, "Why should we listen to this little pipsqueak? He's a nobody, just like us." And because they didn't want to hear Jesus' message, Jesus couldn't do any healings in that place. Which was sad, don't you think? Jesus told his friends that this happens sometimes. It's hard for people to believe that someone they know, a regular person, just like them, can be God's messenger. He told the disciples not to get too upset by it but to keep on sharing God's news with those who would receive it. And to remember that, whatever anyone else thought, they were doing God's will and that was the most important thing. Does that mean we should keep sharing God's news with our friends? Absolutely. We just need to remember that sometimes people will listen and sometimes they won't -- but God ALWAYS notices and appreciates it.
Closing Prayer: God, thank you for giving us your teachings and your love so that we can share with others. Help us to be strong in our faith, even when others don't understand. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Follow-Up Lesson: To reinforce this message in a home or classroom environment, spend more time talking about the good news that Jesus teaches us. See how many different lessons the children already know: those who have much should share with those who have little, we should love those who hurt us, we should not judge others for bad behavior but focus on our own actions, and so on. Which of these lessons is hard to live? All of them, likely. What is a situation in which they might feel led to share each teaching? (For example, a friend of theirs is bullied by another person, and their friend is angry or hurt about it. Would you remind them of the need to forgive and pray for that person?) How do they imagine a friend would respond to the lesson? Give the children a chance to envision the scenario and maybe even act it out. The gospel tells us that we are to share God's teaching with others not to make others feel bad but to help them have more loving, healthy lives. Sometimes people aren't ready to hear it, and sometimes they just don't want to hear it from us. What is our job? To stay faithful to God's teachings and to do our best to live in love. For a craft idea, give each child a template that looks like the front page of a newspaper, with the title "Good News for the Day." Ask each child to think about what good news God wants them to share and then invite them to describe that good news either with words or with pictures. Give each child a chance to share their "good news" and then close with a prayer for courage that they will always be ready to share God's love even when it's hard to do so.
Teaching With A Team:
(Leader 2 looking glum)
Leader 1: Hey (name), you seem kind of down. Is something wrong?
Leader 2: Yeah. Last Sunday in Sunday school our class talked about how God calls us to care for each other -- so if some of us have a lot of something, and others don't have enough, we who have too much should share. So everybody has enough.
Leader 1: That sounds about right.
Leader 2: So my friends and I were having a picnic yesterday and each of us brought so much food that we had a lot left over. Well, I remembered that Sunday school class, and I told my friends that I thought Jesus would want us to share our food with other people who might not have enough to eat.
Leader 1: What did your friends say?
Leader 2: They laughed at me. They told me not to be so "preachy," telling them what to do. They said I wasn't any better than any of them and they didn't have to listen to me.
Leader 1: Sounds like your friends made the same mistake as the people of Nazareth.
Leader 2: What do you mean?
Leader 1: Well, Nazareth was Jesus' hometown, the place where he grew up. So, naturally, when Jesus was traveling around sharing God's word and healing people, he went to Nazareth as well. But the people there didn't want to hear what he had to say. You know why?
Leader 2: Why?
Leader 1: Because they thought Jesus was just like them. They knew his parents and had seen him grow up from a little boy. They thought, "Why should we listen to this little pipsqueak? He's a nobody, just like us." And because they didn't want to hear Jesus' message, Jesus couldn't do any healings in that place.
Leader 2: That must have made Jesus sad.
Leader 1: I'm sure it did. But he reminded his friends that this happens sometimes. It's hard for people to believe that someone they know, a regular person, just like them, can be God's messenger. He told the disciples not to get too upset by it but to keep on sharing God's news with those who would receive it. And to remember that, whatever anyone else thought, they were doing God's will and that was the most important thing.
Leader 2: So does that mean I should keep trying to share God's news with my friends?
Leader 1: Sure. Just remember sometimes people will listen and sometimes they won't -- but God ALWAYS notices and appreciates it.
Teaching On Your Own: Hey guys, I have a problem. Want to hear about it? Last week in Sunday school our class talked about how God calls us to care for each other -- so if some of us have a lot of something, and others don't have enough, we who have too much should share. So everybody has enough. That sounds right, doesn't it? So my friends and I were having a picnic yesterday and each of us brought so much food that we had a lot left over. Well, I remembered that Sunday school class, and I told my friends that I thought Jesus would want us to share our food with other people who might not have enough to eat. But you know what my friends said? They laughed at me. They told me not to be so "preachy," telling them what to do. They said I wasn't any better than any of them and they didn't have to listen to me. What do you think about that? Are my friends right? No! In fact, I think my friends made the same mistake as the people of Nazareth in our story today. Nazareth was Jesus' hometown, the place where he grew up. So, naturally, when Jesus was traveling around sharing God's word and healing people, he went to Nazareth as well. But the people there didn't want to hear what he had to say. You know why? Because they thought Jesus was just like them. They knew his parents and had seen him grow up from a little boy. They thought, "Why should we listen to this little pipsqueak? He's a nobody, just like us." And because they didn't want to hear Jesus' message, Jesus couldn't do any healings in that place. Which was sad, don't you think? Jesus told his friends that this happens sometimes. It's hard for people to believe that someone they know, a regular person, just like them, can be God's messenger. He told the disciples not to get too upset by it but to keep on sharing God's news with those who would receive it. And to remember that, whatever anyone else thought, they were doing God's will and that was the most important thing. Does that mean we should keep sharing God's news with our friends? Absolutely. We just need to remember that sometimes people will listen and sometimes they won't -- but God ALWAYS notices and appreciates it.
Closing Prayer: God, thank you for giving us your teachings and your love so that we can share with others. Help us to be strong in our faith, even when others don't understand. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.
Follow-Up Lesson: To reinforce this message in a home or classroom environment, spend more time talking about the good news that Jesus teaches us. See how many different lessons the children already know: those who have much should share with those who have little, we should love those who hurt us, we should not judge others for bad behavior but focus on our own actions, and so on. Which of these lessons is hard to live? All of them, likely. What is a situation in which they might feel led to share each teaching? (For example, a friend of theirs is bullied by another person, and their friend is angry or hurt about it. Would you remind them of the need to forgive and pray for that person?) How do they imagine a friend would respond to the lesson? Give the children a chance to envision the scenario and maybe even act it out. The gospel tells us that we are to share God's teaching with others not to make others feel bad but to help them have more loving, healthy lives. Sometimes people aren't ready to hear it, and sometimes they just don't want to hear it from us. What is our job? To stay faithful to God's teachings and to do our best to live in love. For a craft idea, give each child a template that looks like the front page of a newspaper, with the title "Good News for the Day." Ask each child to think about what good news God wants them to share and then invite them to describe that good news either with words or with pictures. Give each child a chance to share their "good news" and then close with a prayer for courage that they will always be ready to share God's love even when it's hard to do so.
