Jesus, Prayer, And Mtv's 'my Super Sweet Sixteen'
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
This week's Old Testament and gospel texts suggest that our relationship with God is like that of children to a parent -- an analogy that Jesus makes explicit in the first line of the Lord's Prayer when he addresses God as "our Father." But the Hosea passage also points us to thinking of God like a parent, as its emphasis on reconciliation with an unfaithful Israel calls to mind the predicament of parents who deeply love their wayward children, yet at the same time must deal with their petulant behavior. As parents, we strive to keep our children's long-term best interests at heart and aim to impart life lessons to them -- but we all know it's a difficult endeavor fraught with peril. Moreover, our children are usually not appreciative of the limits we place on them until they are much older (and become parents themselves), because children want what they want, when they want it. Children need the protection of their parents, but they are also demanding about having their desires accommodated. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Kate Murphy points out that we see that same dynamic of children and parents acted out in the way many of us approach prayer. All too often, people think of prayer as a list of transactions we ask God to grant -- and then we actually resent God when, like a protective parent, he says "no" and doesn't let us have our way. When God acts toward us like the stubborn children we are (who think we know it all), that's quite a contrast with the overly permissive parenting we often see in contemporary culture, which is embodied at perhaps its most extreme in the spoiled teenagers on MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen. Many of us want God to act toward us like modern parents who seem to think that the primary way to demonstrate love is through materialistic excess and/or maximum freedom -- but Kate asks us to ponder if we are willing to accept the role of obedient children to our Father, who gives us our daily bread.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Colossians text, drawing on an incident from his own ministry to discuss what makes the church important -- and keeping our focus on the primary goal without getting distracted by other trivial matters. Paul tells the Colossian Christians not to get sidetracked by religious rituals such as circumcision and observing dietary laws -- reminding them that the only requirement for being in the body of Christ (i.e. what really matters) is baptism. Dean reflects on the circumstances surrounding a funeral he recently conducted for someone in his congregation to make an important point about how the church should not be concerned about appearances. When we concern ourselves too much with the more trivial matters of social practice and worry about "fitting in," then the church becomes an instrument of division rather than a community of believers that is accepting of everyone, even those who might sometimes make us uncomfortable.
Jesus, Prayer, and MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen
by Kate Murphy
Luke 11:1-13
THE WORLD
Last week I attended centering prayer with a woman whose ministry includes serving as a lay wedding coordinator at one of our city's largest churches. She confessed that she was dreading the weekend's upcoming "extravaganza" wedding, saying she understands now why so many pastors prefer funerals to weddings: "There's just so much pressure. When you shell out for live pony rides at your kid's eighth birthday party, by the time the wedding rolls around her expectations are pretty high. And the wedding industry makes spending 4,000, 8,000, or even 12,000 dollars on a dress seem normal. When parents are investing that much money, it raises everyone's stress levels. It makes it hard to focus on the holy."
Families are bombarded with messages from our culture that equate parental love with material indulgences. Consider the wildly popular MTV show My Super Sweet Sixteen. Maybe you haven't heard of it, but I guarantee the youth in your congregation have watched multiple episodes. The series, whose tag line is "sometimes sixteen isn't so sweet," follows wealthy young people and their parents as they plan extreme birthday parties. Now in its seventh season, every episode has some common elements: the birthday child having a meltdown when a parent tries to limit spending or a wish cannot be fulfilled (for example, Elena was devastated when the hotel manager informed her she could not have an indoor fireworks display and furious when she learned her parents wouldn't hire transvestite entertainers), public distribution of invitations so that uninvited kids can be filmed as they are realize they are left out, and the big finale -- the "reveal" of the gift. Expensive cars are standard (Hummers, BMWs, Land Rover Range Rovers, etc.), but gifts have also included diamond-encrusted tiaras, a $150,000 horse, and breast enhancement surgery.
In case you didn't get enough, the MTV website features an "after party" for each episode. Nikki's includes an interview with her father. When asked about the final tally for the party, he says he hasn't added up the receipts. When asked if he regrets spending so much on one party, he appears confused by the question, explaining that "when you look at Nikki... and see the smile on her face and the glow in her eyes, you don't even give that a thought. You just know that you've done the right thing."
Good parents want to "do the right thing" for their children. But when the child's smile is the tool we use to evaluate our parenting choices, we often end up wounding our children even as we intend to bless them.
THE WORD
In this week's gospel passage, Jesus' friends ask for prayer lessons. Luke tells us this request comes just as Jesus finishes one of his own frequent prayer pilgrimages. Jesus' followers have already begun to teach in his name and work miracles -- but they recognize a great gulf between their own prayers and those of Jesus. One can imagine them watching wistfully as Jesus loses himself in prayer -- and longing themselves for that same incredible intimacy with God. Jesus' instructions are stunningly simple. When you pray, call God your Father. Remember God is holy and that God will prevail over evil. And ask for what you need -- give us bread, forgive us, save us. Jesus' prayer shows us that God is our good, powerful, and loving parent: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
But this passage won't feel like good news to many in the pews this Sunday. Many of our people will be silently wondering why they haven't been given what they asked for, why they haven't found what they're searching for, and why the door is still closed even though they've knocked until their knuckles are raw. Is it because Jesus was wrong? Is it because their prayers are wrong? Is God somehow a loving, good, and powerful parent to everyone else except me?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The preacher needs to honor these questions. Three months ago I listened to Sherry tell me about the death of her daughter's fiancee in Iraq. She said for months she'd been praying for Owen's safety -- that she'd particularly asked God to guide his feet and prevent him from stepping on a IED. But that's exactly how he died. She was crying so hard she could barely speak, but she choked out the question "Did I not pray hard enough?" For those grieving a child or a failed marriage, for those out of their minds with worry over an unpaid mortgage and a fruitless job search, this scripture is a terrible indictment of self, God, and faith. The preacher pours salt on these wounds by ignoring this pain or pretending to have an easy answer.
Even as we acknowledge this pain, we need to proclaim the holy truth of this word for followers of Jesus Christ. Many of us have grown disillusioned with prayer, not because we are suffering from a traumatic event, but because we've found out that it isn't magic. We prayed hard as adolescents, but we didn't become NBA superstars or get asked to the prom or gain admittance to our "reach" college. We learned early that even when we ask in Jesus' name, we rarely get what we want. So prayer began to feel pointless to us.
We can recognize the lunacy and unintended negative consequences of a wealthy parent trying to indulge his child's every whim to earn a smile. Although we acknowledge the Father's omnipotence, we don't understand why God wouldn't answer our prayers. Perhaps the problem isn't that we don't understand Jesus' ideas about prayer very well -- perhaps the problem is that we don't understand Jesus' ideas about parenthood very well, or that we don't really want to accept our role as beloved children. Good parents know that loving a child often means making her cry. ("No, you can't watch TV on school nights." "Yes, you are grounded." "Nothing good happens after midnight, that's why your curfew is 11 p.m.")
When we look at this text more closely, we see that Jesus isn't teaching us a magic incantation, but promising us that God will not fail to give us -- his beloved children -- God's most precious gift. And that isn't a super-sweet 16 party, or our dream job... or even protection for our own most beloved children. God's most precious gift is the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit that Jesus assures us we will receive. It is only the Spirit that can strengthen us, sustain us, and ultimately heal us when our world falls apart.
ANOTHER VIEW
Philosophy's Captive?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Colossians 2:1-15 (16-19)
In the epistle lesson, Paul warns the Colossian Christians against those things that might divide the church, excluding certain members because they did not think or behave like everyone else. The two things that are most likely to divide us, he says, are 1) philosophy and 2) human tradition.
People today don't spend a lot of time thinking about philosophy. We don't hear much about the merits of existentialism over stoicism or how the problems of phenomenology are addressed by post-structuralism. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are not part of our dinner conversations -- but that doesn't mean we don't have philosophies of life that guide us.
Some of us are skeptics who like to question claims until they are scientifically proven. Others are pragmatists who value only that which can be used in day-to-day situations. Some of us are romantics who thrive on rich and robust feelings, and others are stoics who prefer to keep our feelings to ourselves. More often, our personal philosophies surface in our political discussions. Contemporary people have often substituted political principles for philosophies of life.
The problem, says Paul, is when we let our philosophies (or politics) shape our theology, when it should be our theology that shapes our politics. When we Christians let ourselves be divided over politics -- or any kind of human philosophy -- we violate the very essence of what it means to be the body of Christ.
Likewise, we let ourselves be divided by what Paul calls our "human traditions" -- what we would call our "customs." Anyone who has spent more than a week in a Christian church has run up against this problem: People who are so locked into their customs and traditions that they can't consider a new way of acting or thinking. How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb? Change? Change? But we've always used that light bulb!
The delightful musical comedy The Church Basement Ladies addresses this very issue with wit and sometimes painfully honest humor. Four ladies assemble regularly in the church kitchen to provide help and support to members of the church by providing comfort food. When the pastor's "new wife" of only 11 years brings lasagna, however, they throw it away because they have never served lasagna after a funeral before.
When we Christians let ourselves be divided by customs and traditions and our inability to change, adapt, and grow, says Paul, we violate the very essence of what it means to be the body of Christ.
What a joy and a blessing it is when churches overcome their differences and cultural expectations so they can reach out and love one another.
A few years ago a lady came to our church who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. In her mid-50s, she had long since become estranged from her family who had for the past 30 years been embarrassed and humiliated by her sometimes bizarre behavior. If she forgot or decided not to take her medication, she would see things that weren't there and often read motives (good or bad) into perfectly innocent remarks or gestures of other people -- sometimes falling in love, sometimes flying into a rage, sometimes fleeing in panic.
Feeling rejected by her family in another state, she came back to her hometown to live and to our church because she remembered coming here as a child. I wondered how this small-town, county-seat church would accept and deal with her -- if, indeed, they would at all.
As it turned out, I needn't have been concerned. When she was lucid they accepted and affirmed her. When she manifested her symptoms they calmed her and responded to her with reassurance and reason. Their acceptance went beyond just tolerating her, however. When they found she was taking a taxi to church every Sunday, an elderly couple in the church offered to pick her up and take her home, and sometimes invited her to go out to lunch with them. The young women's game and movie club invited her, and she discovered that she had friends with them.
When she died unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago, her family rushed into town with the intention of having a quick, quiet funeral and getting back to their lives -- but the funeral director reminded them that this was a small town and they might be surprised at the number of people who cared about their mother and would want to pay their respects. The crowd was not huge. There were no long lines around the block. But there were more people than anyone expected, and many from the church. Flowers adorned the pedestal where the urn with her ashes was displayed.
One might reasonably expect that in a small, rural town, the customs, traditions, and philosophies people hold so dear would not make it possible for a woman who so suffered from mental illness that she often spoke of herself as "crazy" would or even could be accepted.
In this case at least, people set those lesser things aside and reached out across the divide. They did not condemn her, disqualify her, reject her, or exclude her. They welcomed her into the Body of Christ.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Pakistan is a Muslim country that is known as the "Land of the Pure." But to remain that way -- pure in the faith -- government officials are blocking 17 websites and monitoring seven others for fear that exposure to other religions may result in conversions from Islam. The surveillance is to prevent individuals from viewing blasphemous material, which is punishable in that country by execution. Yet Google reports from its vast tracking and database that Pakistan, on a per person basis, ranks the highest of all nations in web searches for pornographic material. It far surpasses all countries with these search terms: horse sex, camel sex, animal sex, dog sex, donkey sex, rape sex, rape pictures, rape sex video, and child sex video. Religious sites are either blocked or monitored by the government, but the sex sites are left accessible.
Paul, in Colossians, warns not to be taken "captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy." Paul realized there can be a chasm between what we claim to believe and how we actually live. His letter would be well worth reading by the leaders of the "Land of the Pure." And for those of us who desire to be "alive with Christ," it is a message we should equally ponder.
* * *
In an arson spree that during February 2006 that garnered national headlines, nine churches in Alabama were destroyed. The terror only ended after three young men were arrested and convicted.
Dancy Baptist Church in Pickens County, Alabama, was one of the affected congregations, and its pastor, Walter Hawkins, has used this terrible experience to teach the fundamental truths about the gospel. Looking back on the day his church building was destroyed, Hawkins said, "While the immediate response was anger, we had to teach forgiveness." Hawkins continually instructed his people with these words from Jesus: "Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do." This incident is in the news again because on June 27, Dancy Baptist Church had a mortgage-burning ceremony for their new building.
When Matthew Cloyd, one of the young men responsible for these acts, is released from prison he must perform 300 hours of community service. Cloyd has asked if these hours could be spent serving the churches he tried to destroy. A benevolent Hawkins responded that for Cloyd, "We have open arms."
Pastor Hawkins reflects what Paul refers to in Colossians as being "alive with Christ." Let us all be alive in Christ as we put the gospel message into the practice of daily living.
* * *
Meg Whitman, who was the president and CEO of eBay, is running for governor in California. Her opponent is running a television and print campaign that is most interesting. It reads: "Meg Whitman didn't vote for 28 years -- now she's spending $150 million for our vote?" For 28 years the gubernatorial candidate never went to the polls, but now she is encouraging everyone to come out and vote for her. When asked why she did not vote once in over two decades, the only response she gave was "I just didn't."
How many of us have stayed away from the church for 28 years, only seeking it in need of a funeral or as a nice place to have a wedding? If we are to be "alive with Christ," as Paul summons, then each Sunday we need to be in the pew casting our vote for Jesus.
* * *
Once there was a family who used the Lord's Prayer as their table grace. One night, as they were gathered around the dinner table and the father got to the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread," the youngest child said in a loud whisper, "Ask for cake."
Luther reminds us that when Jesus taught us to ask for bread, he was instructing us to ask for everything a Christian needs to sustain life. All necessary food, clothing, shelter, and also the work we do, our family and friends, and even the government that protects us, we should ask for in prayer. Bread means everything we need to have a safe and happy life. But when the little child asks for cake, it represents our asking for things we don't absolutely need, such as luxury cars, designer clothes, and more sweet desserts than our bodies can handle. We have a lifestyle that even kings in another era would envy. Perhaps it is all right for us to have many of these things, but it is not God's duty to see that we do. We have no right to expect them as our due. When Jesus taught us to ask for bread, he meant bread, not cake.
* * *
Although the word "Father" can be problematic if it is too closely associated with a male person, it does, in the Lord's Prayer, denote our new close relationship with God in Christ. It is the personal word transforming our very lives into being the children of the household. It is a prayer which, when uttered from the first, says, "We thank thee that we have a father, and not a maker; that thou hast begotten us, and not molded us as images of clay; that we have come forth of thy heart, and have not been fashioned by thy hands. It must be so. Only the heart of a father (or a mother) is able to create. We rejoice in it, and bless thee that we know it. We thank thee for thyself. Be what thou art -- our root and life, our beginning and end, our all in all. Come home to us. Thou livest; therefore we live. In thy light we see. Thou art -- that is all our song."
-- George MacDonald, "The Castle: A Parable," The Gifts of the Child Christ, p. 294
* * *
We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. [God says] "I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at ever step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brothers, your sister, your lover and your spouse... yes, even your child... wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one."
-- Henri Nouwen, from Life of the Beloved (Crossroad, 2002)
* * *
There is something Fatherly, Far-away:
in still nights,
as by the breath of a star,
my soul grew small and clear again.
Here in life I am alone
and apart from me there is only one Other,
and I am afraid, because I am farther
away from him than he from me.
-- Rainier Maria Rilke
* * *
I always envied boys I saw walking hand-in-hand with their fathers. I thirsted for the conversations fathers and sons have about the birds and the bees, or about nothing at all -- simply feeling his breath, heartbeat, presence. As a boy, I used to sit on the front porch watching the cars roll by; imagining that one day one would park and the man getting out would be my daddy. But it never happened.
When I was 18, I could find no tears that Alabama winter's evening in January 1979 as I stood finally -- face-to-face -- with my father lying cold in a casket, his eyes sealed, his heart no longer beating, his breath forever stilled. Killed in a car accident, he died drunk, leaving me hobbled by the sorrow of years of fatherlessness.
By then, it had been years since Mama had summoned the police to our apartment that night, fearing that Daddy might hurt her -- hit her -- again. Finally his alcoholism consumed what good there was of him until it swallowed him whole.
It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation, that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become. I told him about how much I wished he had been in my life. And I realized fully that in his absence, I had found another. Or that He -- God, the Father, God, my Father -- had found me.
-- John W. Fountain, "The God Who Embraced Me," from a reminiscence broadcast on National Public Radio's All Things Considered
* * *
One of best illustrations of the concept of God as our Father -- as Abba -- comes from Jesus himself. When he tells his famous Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father in the story -- the one who waits faithfully at home while his crazy son is sowing his wild oats and squandering his fortune -- is not so much a stern, unforgiving patriarch as he is the kind and welcoming papa. Remember how the unfaithful son in the parable sits off at the hog farm in the far country, planning out that formal speech in which he begs his father's forgiveness and begs for employment as a hired hand? Yet his father will have none of this -- for he is not merely a "Father." This is not the family patriarch -- this is Abba.
He does a most uncharacteristic thing for a Near-Eastern father. As soon as he sees his son coming, he immediately runs out and greets him. In a land of long robes, this means that the father must hike up his robe and show his ankles -- maybe even his calves! For a patriarch this is most undignified. Yet for Abba -- for Papa rather than Father -- it is a matter of no consequence, for the one thing that matters most to Abba is that moment when he and his son come together once again in a loving embrace.
* * *
The book God Is For Real, Man was quite popular a number of years ago. It was compiled by the chaplain of a juvenile detention home in Buffalo, New York, and contains many of the thoughts and prayers of the inmates of that institution.
In the preface, the author says that one day he took some of the young men out for a nature walk. Sitting in the calm countryside, the chaplain offered a prayer and then they had a discussion on religion. "What is God like?" asked one young delinquent.
The chaplain replied, after a brief thought: "God is like a father."
Before anything else could be said, one of the other boys interjected: "If he's anything like my old man, I don't want to have anything to do with him."
The disciples had closely observed Jesus at prayer and had seen the peace it brought him. So they reverently requested him to teach them to pray. He told them to pray to God as Father. He is not addressed as the old man or even the old God. He is the ever-young God, the creator of life and giver of love. We pray to him as Father. Jesus encourages us to pray persistently, reminding us we are his children and the good Father will give good things to his children.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God has forgiven all our iniquities;
People: God has pardoned all our sins.
Leader: Restore us again, O God of Salvation;
People: Put away your indignation toward us.
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
OR
Leader: God calls us to enter into life that is full of glory.
People: How do we enter this life?
Leader: God has sent us Jesus to show us the way.
People: Tell us about Jesus and that we may follow him.
Leader: You must know him in your heart, as well as your head.
People: We invite the Christ into our hearts to lead us to life.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"Spirit of the Living God"
found in:
UMH: 393
PH: 322
AAHH: 320
NNBH: 133
NCH: 283
CCB: 57
Renew: 90
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
UMH: 394
PH: 565, 573
CH: 299
Renew: 145
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Let There Be Peace on Earth"
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
Renew: 151
"More Love to Thee, O Christ"
found in:
UMH: 453
PH: 359
AAHH: 575
NNBH: 214
NCH: 456
CH: 527
"All Hail King Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
"Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created us and desires nothing more than for us to have eternal life: Grant us the wisdom and courage to follow Jesus so that we may know you and your life more fully through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God of Creation, so that we might praise you and enter into your life now and forever. Open our hearts and minds to the message of Jesus, so that we might follow him with love and devotion this day and all our days. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways we are content to allow our faith to be only in our heads and not in our hearts.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have claimed to be your people with our mouths, but our hearts betray us to the truth that we have centered our lives on things other than you. We have filled our time and our hearts with greed, retaliation, and anger, and have not allowed Jesus to purge us of our sins. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to open our hearts to the cleansing fire of our Savior, that we may truly be your children. Amen.
Leader: From the moment the divine breath, Spirit, wind entered into humankind, God has desired to dwell fully within us. God hears your prayer and grants you the Spirit so that you may allow the Christ to dwell in you fully.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for you have created us to be the residence of your own presence and spirit. You have made us to be filled with yourself and placed us here to be your image, your ambassadors.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have claimed to be your people with our mouths, but our hearts betray us to the truth that we have centered our lives on things other than you. We have filled our time and our hearts with greed, retaliation, and anger, and have not allowed Jesus to purge us of our sins. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to open our hearts to the cleansing fire of our Savior, that we may truly be your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which we find your presence and power in and among us. We thank you for those who have been faithful in allowing Christ to live in them so that we found ourselves drawn to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your creatures that we may learn to turn to the power of the Christ who comes to dwell in us and transform us into the glory you created us to be. Help us who call ourselves Christians to truly be those who indwell with the presence of the Christ.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
a picture of the Christ knocking on the door
Children's Sermon Starter
(Personally, I would do the children's sermon on one of the other texts rather than the Hosea passage -- I'd stick to the gospel text.) I would talk about asking, seeking, knocking -- the kind of thing where you start by asking the children, "If so and so knows something and you want to find out what it is, how would you go about doing that?" Then talk about God always being ready to answer, to reveal, and to open the door for us. God is very hospitable and is always ready to respond.
If I had to deal with the topic, I think I would begin by telling the children that today's lesson is really hard to understand. Even adults don't understand it very well. Then I would talk about how sometimes when I am doing something I can hear my mother talking to me. Of course, it is just my memory of my mother -- she doesn't really live in my head. But it feels like she is there. With Jesus it feels like that too, but it is very different because Jesus really does live in me.
CHILDREN'S SERMON What Is Prayer?
Luke 11:1-13
Object: a copy of the Lord's Prayer
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you know the Lord's Prayer? See, I have a copy of it right here. Let me read it to you. I'll bet you'll know it once I get going. (read the prayer) Remember it? It's one of the most important prayers we have in the church, because Jesus gave this prayer to us. In our Bible reading today, one of the disciples asks Jesus to show them how to pray. The disciples weren't really sure what they were supposed to say when they prayed. Jesus taught them this prayer.
Have you ever wondered how to pray? I have. We talk a lot about prayer in church and Sunday school, but I used to wonder what prayer really is and why it is so important. Prayer is what we do when we talk to God. Just like I am talking to you right now, we can talk to God about all kinds of things. It's just like having a conversation with a friend. We can tell God about our day, ask for help if we have a problem, and thank him for the blessings we have. Sometimes we need to pray and ask God to forgive us for something we did wrong. We can pray and ask him to help someone else, too. Prayers don't just have to be about us.
We pray at the end of our children's sermon time, don't we? What are some of the things we've prayed about during this time together? (Give the children time to remember some of the prayers, if they are able.) In those prayer times we've talked to God about all kinds of things. It doesn't matter what we tell God, because he wants to hear about everything. In fact, God will talk back to us sometimes, but we have to listen very carefully.
The most important thing to remember about prayer is that it is very simple. Sometimes we'll hear people say complicated prayers in church, but not all prayers have to be complicated. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best. Tell God you love him. Ask God to help you. Ask him to help someone else. The main thing is to talk to him in the first place.
Prayer: For our prayer time today, let's say together the Lord's Prayer. If you don't know it, just listen as the rest of us pray. (pray together)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 25, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Dean Feldmeyer shares some additional thoughts on the Colossians text, drawing on an incident from his own ministry to discuss what makes the church important -- and keeping our focus on the primary goal without getting distracted by other trivial matters. Paul tells the Colossian Christians not to get sidetracked by religious rituals such as circumcision and observing dietary laws -- reminding them that the only requirement for being in the body of Christ (i.e. what really matters) is baptism. Dean reflects on the circumstances surrounding a funeral he recently conducted for someone in his congregation to make an important point about how the church should not be concerned about appearances. When we concern ourselves too much with the more trivial matters of social practice and worry about "fitting in," then the church becomes an instrument of division rather than a community of believers that is accepting of everyone, even those who might sometimes make us uncomfortable.
Jesus, Prayer, and MTV's My Super Sweet Sixteen
by Kate Murphy
Luke 11:1-13
THE WORLD
Last week I attended centering prayer with a woman whose ministry includes serving as a lay wedding coordinator at one of our city's largest churches. She confessed that she was dreading the weekend's upcoming "extravaganza" wedding, saying she understands now why so many pastors prefer funerals to weddings: "There's just so much pressure. When you shell out for live pony rides at your kid's eighth birthday party, by the time the wedding rolls around her expectations are pretty high. And the wedding industry makes spending 4,000, 8,000, or even 12,000 dollars on a dress seem normal. When parents are investing that much money, it raises everyone's stress levels. It makes it hard to focus on the holy."
Families are bombarded with messages from our culture that equate parental love with material indulgences. Consider the wildly popular MTV show My Super Sweet Sixteen. Maybe you haven't heard of it, but I guarantee the youth in your congregation have watched multiple episodes. The series, whose tag line is "sometimes sixteen isn't so sweet," follows wealthy young people and their parents as they plan extreme birthday parties. Now in its seventh season, every episode has some common elements: the birthday child having a meltdown when a parent tries to limit spending or a wish cannot be fulfilled (for example, Elena was devastated when the hotel manager informed her she could not have an indoor fireworks display and furious when she learned her parents wouldn't hire transvestite entertainers), public distribution of invitations so that uninvited kids can be filmed as they are realize they are left out, and the big finale -- the "reveal" of the gift. Expensive cars are standard (Hummers, BMWs, Land Rover Range Rovers, etc.), but gifts have also included diamond-encrusted tiaras, a $150,000 horse, and breast enhancement surgery.
In case you didn't get enough, the MTV website features an "after party" for each episode. Nikki's includes an interview with her father. When asked about the final tally for the party, he says he hasn't added up the receipts. When asked if he regrets spending so much on one party, he appears confused by the question, explaining that "when you look at Nikki... and see the smile on her face and the glow in her eyes, you don't even give that a thought. You just know that you've done the right thing."
Good parents want to "do the right thing" for their children. But when the child's smile is the tool we use to evaluate our parenting choices, we often end up wounding our children even as we intend to bless them.
THE WORD
In this week's gospel passage, Jesus' friends ask for prayer lessons. Luke tells us this request comes just as Jesus finishes one of his own frequent prayer pilgrimages. Jesus' followers have already begun to teach in his name and work miracles -- but they recognize a great gulf between their own prayers and those of Jesus. One can imagine them watching wistfully as Jesus loses himself in prayer -- and longing themselves for that same incredible intimacy with God. Jesus' instructions are stunningly simple. When you pray, call God your Father. Remember God is holy and that God will prevail over evil. And ask for what you need -- give us bread, forgive us, save us. Jesus' prayer shows us that God is our good, powerful, and loving parent: "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
But this passage won't feel like good news to many in the pews this Sunday. Many of our people will be silently wondering why they haven't been given what they asked for, why they haven't found what they're searching for, and why the door is still closed even though they've knocked until their knuckles are raw. Is it because Jesus was wrong? Is it because their prayers are wrong? Is God somehow a loving, good, and powerful parent to everyone else except me?
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The preacher needs to honor these questions. Three months ago I listened to Sherry tell me about the death of her daughter's fiancee in Iraq. She said for months she'd been praying for Owen's safety -- that she'd particularly asked God to guide his feet and prevent him from stepping on a IED. But that's exactly how he died. She was crying so hard she could barely speak, but she choked out the question "Did I not pray hard enough?" For those grieving a child or a failed marriage, for those out of their minds with worry over an unpaid mortgage and a fruitless job search, this scripture is a terrible indictment of self, God, and faith. The preacher pours salt on these wounds by ignoring this pain or pretending to have an easy answer.
Even as we acknowledge this pain, we need to proclaim the holy truth of this word for followers of Jesus Christ. Many of us have grown disillusioned with prayer, not because we are suffering from a traumatic event, but because we've found out that it isn't magic. We prayed hard as adolescents, but we didn't become NBA superstars or get asked to the prom or gain admittance to our "reach" college. We learned early that even when we ask in Jesus' name, we rarely get what we want. So prayer began to feel pointless to us.
We can recognize the lunacy and unintended negative consequences of a wealthy parent trying to indulge his child's every whim to earn a smile. Although we acknowledge the Father's omnipotence, we don't understand why God wouldn't answer our prayers. Perhaps the problem isn't that we don't understand Jesus' ideas about prayer very well -- perhaps the problem is that we don't understand Jesus' ideas about parenthood very well, or that we don't really want to accept our role as beloved children. Good parents know that loving a child often means making her cry. ("No, you can't watch TV on school nights." "Yes, you are grounded." "Nothing good happens after midnight, that's why your curfew is 11 p.m.")
When we look at this text more closely, we see that Jesus isn't teaching us a magic incantation, but promising us that God will not fail to give us -- his beloved children -- God's most precious gift. And that isn't a super-sweet 16 party, or our dream job... or even protection for our own most beloved children. God's most precious gift is the Holy Spirit, and it is the Spirit that Jesus assures us we will receive. It is only the Spirit that can strengthen us, sustain us, and ultimately heal us when our world falls apart.
ANOTHER VIEW
Philosophy's Captive?
by Dean Feldmeyer
Colossians 2:1-15 (16-19)
In the epistle lesson, Paul warns the Colossian Christians against those things that might divide the church, excluding certain members because they did not think or behave like everyone else. The two things that are most likely to divide us, he says, are 1) philosophy and 2) human tradition.
People today don't spend a lot of time thinking about philosophy. We don't hear much about the merits of existentialism over stoicism or how the problems of phenomenology are addressed by post-structuralism. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are not part of our dinner conversations -- but that doesn't mean we don't have philosophies of life that guide us.
Some of us are skeptics who like to question claims until they are scientifically proven. Others are pragmatists who value only that which can be used in day-to-day situations. Some of us are romantics who thrive on rich and robust feelings, and others are stoics who prefer to keep our feelings to ourselves. More often, our personal philosophies surface in our political discussions. Contemporary people have often substituted political principles for philosophies of life.
The problem, says Paul, is when we let our philosophies (or politics) shape our theology, when it should be our theology that shapes our politics. When we Christians let ourselves be divided over politics -- or any kind of human philosophy -- we violate the very essence of what it means to be the body of Christ.
Likewise, we let ourselves be divided by what Paul calls our "human traditions" -- what we would call our "customs." Anyone who has spent more than a week in a Christian church has run up against this problem: People who are so locked into their customs and traditions that they can't consider a new way of acting or thinking. How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb? Change? Change? But we've always used that light bulb!
The delightful musical comedy The Church Basement Ladies addresses this very issue with wit and sometimes painfully honest humor. Four ladies assemble regularly in the church kitchen to provide help and support to members of the church by providing comfort food. When the pastor's "new wife" of only 11 years brings lasagna, however, they throw it away because they have never served lasagna after a funeral before.
When we Christians let ourselves be divided by customs and traditions and our inability to change, adapt, and grow, says Paul, we violate the very essence of what it means to be the body of Christ.
What a joy and a blessing it is when churches overcome their differences and cultural expectations so they can reach out and love one another.
A few years ago a lady came to our church who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. In her mid-50s, she had long since become estranged from her family who had for the past 30 years been embarrassed and humiliated by her sometimes bizarre behavior. If she forgot or decided not to take her medication, she would see things that weren't there and often read motives (good or bad) into perfectly innocent remarks or gestures of other people -- sometimes falling in love, sometimes flying into a rage, sometimes fleeing in panic.
Feeling rejected by her family in another state, she came back to her hometown to live and to our church because she remembered coming here as a child. I wondered how this small-town, county-seat church would accept and deal with her -- if, indeed, they would at all.
As it turned out, I needn't have been concerned. When she was lucid they accepted and affirmed her. When she manifested her symptoms they calmed her and responded to her with reassurance and reason. Their acceptance went beyond just tolerating her, however. When they found she was taking a taxi to church every Sunday, an elderly couple in the church offered to pick her up and take her home, and sometimes invited her to go out to lunch with them. The young women's game and movie club invited her, and she discovered that she had friends with them.
When she died unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago, her family rushed into town with the intention of having a quick, quiet funeral and getting back to their lives -- but the funeral director reminded them that this was a small town and they might be surprised at the number of people who cared about their mother and would want to pay their respects. The crowd was not huge. There were no long lines around the block. But there were more people than anyone expected, and many from the church. Flowers adorned the pedestal where the urn with her ashes was displayed.
One might reasonably expect that in a small, rural town, the customs, traditions, and philosophies people hold so dear would not make it possible for a woman who so suffered from mental illness that she often spoke of herself as "crazy" would or even could be accepted.
In this case at least, people set those lesser things aside and reached out across the divide. They did not condemn her, disqualify her, reject her, or exclude her. They welcomed her into the Body of Christ.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Pakistan is a Muslim country that is known as the "Land of the Pure." But to remain that way -- pure in the faith -- government officials are blocking 17 websites and monitoring seven others for fear that exposure to other religions may result in conversions from Islam. The surveillance is to prevent individuals from viewing blasphemous material, which is punishable in that country by execution. Yet Google reports from its vast tracking and database that Pakistan, on a per person basis, ranks the highest of all nations in web searches for pornographic material. It far surpasses all countries with these search terms: horse sex, camel sex, animal sex, dog sex, donkey sex, rape sex, rape pictures, rape sex video, and child sex video. Religious sites are either blocked or monitored by the government, but the sex sites are left accessible.
Paul, in Colossians, warns not to be taken "captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy." Paul realized there can be a chasm between what we claim to believe and how we actually live. His letter would be well worth reading by the leaders of the "Land of the Pure." And for those of us who desire to be "alive with Christ," it is a message we should equally ponder.
* * *
In an arson spree that during February 2006 that garnered national headlines, nine churches in Alabama were destroyed. The terror only ended after three young men were arrested and convicted.
Dancy Baptist Church in Pickens County, Alabama, was one of the affected congregations, and its pastor, Walter Hawkins, has used this terrible experience to teach the fundamental truths about the gospel. Looking back on the day his church building was destroyed, Hawkins said, "While the immediate response was anger, we had to teach forgiveness." Hawkins continually instructed his people with these words from Jesus: "Father, forgive them, because they know not what they do." This incident is in the news again because on June 27, Dancy Baptist Church had a mortgage-burning ceremony for their new building.
When Matthew Cloyd, one of the young men responsible for these acts, is released from prison he must perform 300 hours of community service. Cloyd has asked if these hours could be spent serving the churches he tried to destroy. A benevolent Hawkins responded that for Cloyd, "We have open arms."
Pastor Hawkins reflects what Paul refers to in Colossians as being "alive with Christ." Let us all be alive in Christ as we put the gospel message into the practice of daily living.
* * *
Meg Whitman, who was the president and CEO of eBay, is running for governor in California. Her opponent is running a television and print campaign that is most interesting. It reads: "Meg Whitman didn't vote for 28 years -- now she's spending $150 million for our vote?" For 28 years the gubernatorial candidate never went to the polls, but now she is encouraging everyone to come out and vote for her. When asked why she did not vote once in over two decades, the only response she gave was "I just didn't."
How many of us have stayed away from the church for 28 years, only seeking it in need of a funeral or as a nice place to have a wedding? If we are to be "alive with Christ," as Paul summons, then each Sunday we need to be in the pew casting our vote for Jesus.
* * *
Once there was a family who used the Lord's Prayer as their table grace. One night, as they were gathered around the dinner table and the father got to the phrase "Give us this day our daily bread," the youngest child said in a loud whisper, "Ask for cake."
Luther reminds us that when Jesus taught us to ask for bread, he was instructing us to ask for everything a Christian needs to sustain life. All necessary food, clothing, shelter, and also the work we do, our family and friends, and even the government that protects us, we should ask for in prayer. Bread means everything we need to have a safe and happy life. But when the little child asks for cake, it represents our asking for things we don't absolutely need, such as luxury cars, designer clothes, and more sweet desserts than our bodies can handle. We have a lifestyle that even kings in another era would envy. Perhaps it is all right for us to have many of these things, but it is not God's duty to see that we do. We have no right to expect them as our due. When Jesus taught us to ask for bread, he meant bread, not cake.
* * *
Although the word "Father" can be problematic if it is too closely associated with a male person, it does, in the Lord's Prayer, denote our new close relationship with God in Christ. It is the personal word transforming our very lives into being the children of the household. It is a prayer which, when uttered from the first, says, "We thank thee that we have a father, and not a maker; that thou hast begotten us, and not molded us as images of clay; that we have come forth of thy heart, and have not been fashioned by thy hands. It must be so. Only the heart of a father (or a mother) is able to create. We rejoice in it, and bless thee that we know it. We thank thee for thyself. Be what thou art -- our root and life, our beginning and end, our all in all. Come home to us. Thou livest; therefore we live. In thy light we see. Thou art -- that is all our song."
-- George MacDonald, "The Castle: A Parable," The Gifts of the Child Christ, p. 294
* * *
We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses, children, and friends loved or wounded us. That's the truth of our lives. [God says] "I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother's womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at ever step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brothers, your sister, your lover and your spouse... yes, even your child... wherever you are I will be. Nothing will ever separate us. We are one."
-- Henri Nouwen, from Life of the Beloved (Crossroad, 2002)
* * *
There is something Fatherly, Far-away:
in still nights,
as by the breath of a star,
my soul grew small and clear again.
Here in life I am alone
and apart from me there is only one Other,
and I am afraid, because I am farther
away from him than he from me.
-- Rainier Maria Rilke
* * *
I always envied boys I saw walking hand-in-hand with their fathers. I thirsted for the conversations fathers and sons have about the birds and the bees, or about nothing at all -- simply feeling his breath, heartbeat, presence. As a boy, I used to sit on the front porch watching the cars roll by; imagining that one day one would park and the man getting out would be my daddy. But it never happened.
When I was 18, I could find no tears that Alabama winter's evening in January 1979 as I stood finally -- face-to-face -- with my father lying cold in a casket, his eyes sealed, his heart no longer beating, his breath forever stilled. Killed in a car accident, he died drunk, leaving me hobbled by the sorrow of years of fatherlessness.
By then, it had been years since Mama had summoned the police to our apartment that night, fearing that Daddy might hurt her -- hit her -- again. Finally his alcoholism consumed what good there was of him until it swallowed him whole.
It wasn't until many years later, standing over my father's grave for a long overdue conversation, that my tears flowed. I told him about the man I had become. I told him about how much I wished he had been in my life. And I realized fully that in his absence, I had found another. Or that He -- God, the Father, God, my Father -- had found me.
-- John W. Fountain, "The God Who Embraced Me," from a reminiscence broadcast on National Public Radio's All Things Considered
* * *
One of best illustrations of the concept of God as our Father -- as Abba -- comes from Jesus himself. When he tells his famous Parable of the Prodigal Son, the father in the story -- the one who waits faithfully at home while his crazy son is sowing his wild oats and squandering his fortune -- is not so much a stern, unforgiving patriarch as he is the kind and welcoming papa. Remember how the unfaithful son in the parable sits off at the hog farm in the far country, planning out that formal speech in which he begs his father's forgiveness and begs for employment as a hired hand? Yet his father will have none of this -- for he is not merely a "Father." This is not the family patriarch -- this is Abba.
He does a most uncharacteristic thing for a Near-Eastern father. As soon as he sees his son coming, he immediately runs out and greets him. In a land of long robes, this means that the father must hike up his robe and show his ankles -- maybe even his calves! For a patriarch this is most undignified. Yet for Abba -- for Papa rather than Father -- it is a matter of no consequence, for the one thing that matters most to Abba is that moment when he and his son come together once again in a loving embrace.
* * *
The book God Is For Real, Man was quite popular a number of years ago. It was compiled by the chaplain of a juvenile detention home in Buffalo, New York, and contains many of the thoughts and prayers of the inmates of that institution.
In the preface, the author says that one day he took some of the young men out for a nature walk. Sitting in the calm countryside, the chaplain offered a prayer and then they had a discussion on religion. "What is God like?" asked one young delinquent.
The chaplain replied, after a brief thought: "God is like a father."
Before anything else could be said, one of the other boys interjected: "If he's anything like my old man, I don't want to have anything to do with him."
The disciples had closely observed Jesus at prayer and had seen the peace it brought him. So they reverently requested him to teach them to pray. He told them to pray to God as Father. He is not addressed as the old man or even the old God. He is the ever-young God, the creator of life and giver of love. We pray to him as Father. Jesus encourages us to pray persistently, reminding us we are his children and the good Father will give good things to his children.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God has forgiven all our iniquities;
People: God has pardoned all our sins.
Leader: Restore us again, O God of Salvation;
People: Put away your indignation toward us.
Leader: Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet.
People: Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
OR
Leader: God calls us to enter into life that is full of glory.
People: How do we enter this life?
Leader: God has sent us Jesus to show us the way.
People: Tell us about Jesus and that we may follow him.
Leader: You must know him in your heart, as well as your head.
People: We invite the Christ into our hearts to lead us to life.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"O Come and Dwell in Me"
found in:
UMH: 388
"Spirit of the Living God"
found in:
UMH: 393
PH: 322
AAHH: 320
NNBH: 133
NCH: 283
CCB: 57
Renew: 90
"Something Beautiful"
found in:
UMH: 394
PH: 565, 573
CH: 299
Renew: 145
"I Am Thine, O Lord"
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
"Let There Be Peace on Earth"
found in:
UMH: 431
CH: 677
"Be Thou My Vision"
found in:
UMH: 451
H82: 488
PH: 339
NCH: 451
CH: 595
Renew: 151
"More Love to Thee, O Christ"
found in:
UMH: 453
PH: 359
AAHH: 575
NNBH: 214
NCH: 456
CH: 527
"All Hail King Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 29
Renew: 35
"Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus"
found in:
CCB: 55
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who created us and desires nothing more than for us to have eternal life: Grant us the wisdom and courage to follow Jesus so that we may know you and your life more fully through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your presence, O God of Creation, so that we might praise you and enter into your life now and forever. Open our hearts and minds to the message of Jesus, so that we might follow him with love and devotion this day and all our days. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially the ways we are content to allow our faith to be only in our heads and not in our hearts.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have claimed to be your people with our mouths, but our hearts betray us to the truth that we have centered our lives on things other than you. We have filled our time and our hearts with greed, retaliation, and anger, and have not allowed Jesus to purge us of our sins. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to open our hearts to the cleansing fire of our Savior, that we may truly be your children. Amen.
Leader: From the moment the divine breath, Spirit, wind entered into humankind, God has desired to dwell fully within us. God hears your prayer and grants you the Spirit so that you may allow the Christ to dwell in you fully.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for you have created us to be the residence of your own presence and spirit. You have made us to be filled with yourself and placed us here to be your image, your ambassadors.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have claimed to be your people with our mouths, but our hearts betray us to the truth that we have centered our lives on things other than you. We have filled our time and our hearts with greed, retaliation, and anger, and have not allowed Jesus to purge us of our sins. Forgive us and empower us with your Spirit to open our hearts to the cleansing fire of our Savior, that we may truly be your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which we find your presence and power in and among us. We thank you for those who have been faithful in allowing Christ to live in them so that we found ourselves drawn to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your creatures that we may learn to turn to the power of the Christ who comes to dwell in us and transform us into the glory you created us to be. Help us who call ourselves Christians to truly be those who indwell with the presence of the Christ.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Visuals
a picture of the Christ knocking on the door
Children's Sermon Starter
(Personally, I would do the children's sermon on one of the other texts rather than the Hosea passage -- I'd stick to the gospel text.) I would talk about asking, seeking, knocking -- the kind of thing where you start by asking the children, "If so and so knows something and you want to find out what it is, how would you go about doing that?" Then talk about God always being ready to answer, to reveal, and to open the door for us. God is very hospitable and is always ready to respond.
If I had to deal with the topic, I think I would begin by telling the children that today's lesson is really hard to understand. Even adults don't understand it very well. Then I would talk about how sometimes when I am doing something I can hear my mother talking to me. Of course, it is just my memory of my mother -- she doesn't really live in my head. But it feels like she is there. With Jesus it feels like that too, but it is very different because Jesus really does live in me.
CHILDREN'S SERMON What Is Prayer?
Luke 11:1-13
Object: a copy of the Lord's Prayer
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you know the Lord's Prayer? See, I have a copy of it right here. Let me read it to you. I'll bet you'll know it once I get going. (read the prayer) Remember it? It's one of the most important prayers we have in the church, because Jesus gave this prayer to us. In our Bible reading today, one of the disciples asks Jesus to show them how to pray. The disciples weren't really sure what they were supposed to say when they prayed. Jesus taught them this prayer.
Have you ever wondered how to pray? I have. We talk a lot about prayer in church and Sunday school, but I used to wonder what prayer really is and why it is so important. Prayer is what we do when we talk to God. Just like I am talking to you right now, we can talk to God about all kinds of things. It's just like having a conversation with a friend. We can tell God about our day, ask for help if we have a problem, and thank him for the blessings we have. Sometimes we need to pray and ask God to forgive us for something we did wrong. We can pray and ask him to help someone else, too. Prayers don't just have to be about us.
We pray at the end of our children's sermon time, don't we? What are some of the things we've prayed about during this time together? (Give the children time to remember some of the prayers, if they are able.) In those prayer times we've talked to God about all kinds of things. It doesn't matter what we tell God, because he wants to hear about everything. In fact, God will talk back to us sometimes, but we have to listen very carefully.
The most important thing to remember about prayer is that it is very simple. Sometimes we'll hear people say complicated prayers in church, but not all prayers have to be complicated. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best. Tell God you love him. Ask God to help you. Ask him to help someone else. The main thing is to talk to him in the first place.
Prayer: For our prayer time today, let's say together the Lord's Prayer. If you don't know it, just listen as the rest of us pray. (pray together)
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 25, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
