Childrens Sermon Service

First Thoughts: The assigned lectionary reading for Passion Sunday is very long and full of powerful lessons for Easter. We're going to focus on this first story in the passage (Mark 14:1-9), about the woman who anoints Jesus with the expensive ointment. Have you ever found yourself the recipient of a truly lavish gift -- one that not only cost the giver (in time, energy, money) but one that truly responded to your needs? How did it feel to receive that gift? On the other hand, have you ever felt motivated to give another person a lavish gift? How did you feel about offering such a gift? Excited, hesitant, confident, insecure? It's not uncommon for some people to hold off in the offering of lavish gifts, since doing so makes us vulnerable. What if our gift isn't appreciated or even rejected? When we offer someone a gift from the heart, we're really offering the heart itself. And when we do that, we are inside the same Spirit that motivated Jesus in his life -- a love that risks everything and trusts in its own power to persevere. Spend a few moments reflecting on your own willingness to live in this love and carry your prayerful attention to your time with the children.

Props You Will Need: none

Teaching As A Team:
(Leader 2 comes in looking tired.)
Leader 1: Hey, (name). You look kind of tired. Been busy lately?
Leader 2: Yes. Yesterday was my mom's birthday and I spent ALL DAY getting ready.
Leader 1: Wow! What did you do?
Leader 2: I know my mom loves carrot cake, so I decided to make one from scratch. I grated all the carrots and chopped up all the nuts and even made the frosting myself.
Leader 1: That's a lot of work but that probably shouldn't have taken all day.
Leader 2: No, then I remembered that she really likes fresh flowers. So I went across town to my aunt's garden and picked her a nice bouquet of flowers. That took a couple of hours. And then I needed a gift.
Leader 1: What did you come up with?
Leader 2: I made her a scrapbook with all of my baby pictures. That took a long time -- finding the pictures, putting them in the book, and making it look nice.
Leader 1: So you really did take all day, didn't you?
Leader 2: Yeah (looks thoughtful for a moment), do you think I spent TOO MUCH time on it?
Leader 1: Why do you ask?
Leader 2: Well, my friends called in the morning to ask me to play soccer and then in the afternoon to invite me to go for ice cream. I told them I was busy working on my mom's birthday, and they told me I had wasted my whole day.
Leader 1: I don't agree with your friends. You spent your day making gifts of love and that's never a waste of time. Our story today tells us about a woman who gave a gift of love to Jesus. Jesus was eating dinner at a friend's house, and the woman came in with a very expensive bottle of perfume. She broke it open and poured it on Jesus' feet. She gave the very best thing she had to show Jesus how much she loved him. But not everyone thought it was a good thing.
Leader 2: Why not?
Leader 1: Because some of them had the same idea as your friends: they thought she had wasted that perfume. She could have used it for something else or even sold it to raise money to help feed poor people. But Jesus told them that she had done the right thing. You don't have to "save" your love or keep it for a rainy day. Love is amazing because the more you give it the more you have. And Jesus really needed that love too, since in just a few days he was going to die on the cross.
Leader 2: But I don't understand. What good did her love do, if he ended up dying anyway?
Leader 1: I'm sure it encouraged him to be faithful when he was scared, and it helped him to offer love even to the people who were hurting him. Love is a pretty powerful thing. Giving and receiving love makes us stronger.
Leader 2: (flexing muscles) You know what? I do feel kinda pumped up today.
Leader 1: (feeling muscles) Yeah and I bet your mom does too!

On Your Own: Hey, guys! Boy, am I tired today. Yesterday was my mom's birthday and I spent all day getting ready. First I made her favorite carrot cake from scratch! Then I went across town to my aunt's house and picked her a bouquet of flowers. Then I decided that, for a gift, I would put together a scrapbook of all my baby pictures. I started in the morning and didn't get done until late afternoon. That's a long time, huh? Do you think it was TOO long? My friends do. They called me in the morning to see if I could play soccer, then again in the afternoon to see if I wanted to go out for ice cream. I told them I was busy, and they said I had wasted my whole day on something that wasn't really important. What do you think? Do you think I wasted my day? I don't think so. You know why? Because I was giving my mom gifts of love, and I don't think love is ever a waste of time. Our story today tells us about a woman who gave a gift of love to Jesus. Jesus was eating dinner at a friend's house, and the woman came in with a very expensive bottle of perfume. She broke it open and poured it on Jesus' feet. She gave the very best thing she had to show Jesus how much she loved him. But not everyone thought it was a good thing. Some of them thought she was wasting the perfume. They said she could have used it for something else or even sold it to raise money to help feed poor people. But Jesus told them that she had done the right thing. You don't have to "save" your love or keep it for a rainy day. Love is amazing because the more you give it the more you have. And Jesus really needed that love too, since in just a few days he was going to die on the cross. I'm sure it encouraged him to be faithful when he was scared, and it helped him to offer love even to the people who were hurting him. Love is a pretty powerful thing. Giving and receiving love makes us stronger. (flexing muscles) And you know what? I do feel kinda pumped up today, and I bet my mom does too!

Closing Prayer: Creator God, you who created love and grows love in us, help us to be courageous and faithful in sharing our love with others. Help us to always know that love is never a waste of time, love believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. When we live in love, we live in you. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

Follow-Up Lesson: A good way to follow up this lesson in a home or classroom setting is to spend more time talking about the lasting power of love. To do this lesson you will need palm branches and heart ornaments (porcelain, metal, or some other hard material). Start with reviewing the Palm Sunday liturgy (Mark 11:1-11), since many churches include the Palm processional as part of this Sunday's worship. Talk about how the crowd gathered around shouting "Hosanna!" and waving palms. Then ask the question: They were praising Jesus but did they offer love? Why or why not? Now revisit the story of the woman with the perfume. How is what she offered different than the crowd? What they offered was cheap and inconsistent. It didn't cost them much and that same crowd was gone when Jesus was arrested. What the woman offered came from her heart, and her gift of love went with Jesus and gave him strength through his trial and death. Give each child a palm branch and a heart ornament. What is the difference between the two? The palm branch will soon wilt and fall to pieces, but the ornament will last. Help the children think of the difference between "palm branch" love and "heart" love. (Examples: fair-weather friends versus forever friends, giving food to the food bank you don't like versus giving up your favorite cereal.) As a part of the lesson, invite the children to write on their hearts a paraphrase from 1 Corinthians 13:8a; "Love never ends." If you have a Lent tree, invite each child to write their name on the ornaments and hang them on the tree. Otherwise, send the hearts home with them.