What Are We Going To Do With The Weeds?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
At first the reaction across the country was incredulous disbelief -- then as the reality of the Casey Anthony verdict set in, the public mood seemed to darken as it morphed into frustration and righteous anger. Stoked by the white-hot spotlight of cable news channels that had turned what might have been just another murder trial into a ratings bonanza, national interest was focused last week on the puzzling outcome of a case that had clear-cut villains -- or so commentators had told us for months. In next installment of The Immediate Word, team member Roger Lovette suggests it's yet another example of the many troubling news stories that make us feel like our world is just like the situation Matthew describes in our gospel text this week -- a field being overtaken by weeds. But while most people's initial impression was that the Casey Anthony jury had refused to pull out what was obviously a weed -- and as any gardener knows, without resolute attention to keeping weeds at bay they are capable of quickly taking over the entire garden -- Jesus' parable includes a cautionary note about judgmentalism that ought to get our attention. He reminds us that we are not to worry about pulling the weeds, because in the process we might destroy healthy plants. Instead, we are to concentrate on developing those good plants and let God deal with the weeds. That certainly goes against our instincts -- but as the Anthony verdict, as well as recent developments in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case indicate, things are rarely as clear-cut as the media's casting directors would have us believe. (Nancy Grace, who on the night of the verdict opined that "the devil was dancing," apparently didn't receive Jesus' message to tread carefully.) But while it's tempting for us to feel as if the world is "going to hell in a hand basket" -- or that the weeds are taking over and choking the life out of the good seed -- Roger points out that Jesus told that parable for a reason: because if we focus on the negative -- the weeds -- we not only run the risk of destroying good plants in our jihad against them, but we are also distracted from placing our focus where it belongs -- on cultivating a good, healthy life. Besides, Roger notes, that doesn't give God enough credit for the power of his redemptive grace to turn what we perceive as weeds into some of the most productive plants we can imagine.
Team member Ron Love shares some additional thoughts on the Genesis passage and the striking imagery of Jacob's dream. While we often focus on the ladder and the proximity of heaven to earth that it symbolizes, Ron finds the image of Jacob using a stone for his pillow to be illuminating as well. Ron reminds us that it's easy to seek the comfort of a feather pillow instead of the relative discomfort of a stone -- but we are called to the spiritual discipline of contemplation that the stone symbolizes rather than the selfish luxury of a feather pillow. That seems to echo the theme of delayed gratification in the epistle text, with its imagery of labor pains as a necessary part of the joy of childbirth. As Ron pointedly asks us, are we willing to make the tough choices about where to lay our heads?
What Are We Going to Do with the Weeds?
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Look around you -- it looks like we are about covered over with weeds. Are there any healthy plants left? In the Deep South we have the curse of kudzu. It is a vine that climbs, coils, and trails over everything around it. Some say it grows 18 inches in a single day. Abandoned houses, cars, and barns are sometimes totally covered in kudzu. This weed-plant will destroy a tall tree by blocking out the sun.
The weeds are everywhere, it seems -- especially when one looks at the headlines.
THE WORLD
In his play The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, William Inge talks about a changing world. Rubin is talking to his wife Cora, and says:
I s'pose all this time you been thinkin' you was married to one a them movin'-picture fellas that jump off bridges and hold up trains and shoot Indians and are never scared a nothin'. Times are changin', Cora, and I donno where they're goin'. When I was a boy, there wasn't much more to this town than a post office. I on'y had six years a schoolin' cause that's all the Old Man thought I'd ever need. Now look at things. School buildin's, churches, fine stores, movie theatres, a country club. Men becomin' millionaires overnight, drivin' down the street in big limousines, goin' out to the country club and gettin' drunk, acting like they was the lords of creation. I donna what to think of things now, Cora. I'm a stranger in the very land I was born in.
Many folk today can resonate with Rubin's feelings, even though his changing world was much simpler than ours. The weeds are even coming up in the cracks in our concrete. Mothers charged with murdering their little babies. Gridlock in Washington. Principals and schoolteachers cheating on official reports to make them and their schools look good. Illegal immigrants crowding our schools and hospitals. An economy that seems to be going nowhere. Our gardens are not a pretty sight.
THE WORD
It all began because Jesus' critics were concerned... furious would be more like it. Jesus was calling people to follow him, even outsiders -- people who had no unearthly idea what the laws were all about. Newcomers. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees pursed their lips and said, "These people have no standing before God." And they were right. These people -- slaves, women. Later they would add Gentiles and foreigners to the list. People with shady pasts, some with criminal records. Lepers. Poor people with no manners whatsoever. Things had gotten out of hand. And so the religious leaders whispered, "We've got to do something."
Remember Jesus' response. He told a story. He talked about the kingdom of God, as he often did. He compared this kingdom to someone who sowed good seed in the field. The farmer went home to bed and while he slept an enemy came and sowed some very different kinds of seeds in the man's garden. It was hard to tell the difference at first. Everything looked alike. But when the wheat came up there were these other plants. Darnel! Poisonous weeds. In desperation, the workers were ready to pull up all these dangerous plants. But the owner shook his head. "Leave them. At harvest time I will take care of the weeds." The workers shook their heads and walked away. This gentleman farmer didn't know much about farming. You never leave the weeds -- you pull them up.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Living in a time of momentous change, often people respond strangely. Several states, worried about the growing problem of illegal immigrants, have passed laws which scare all immigrants, particularly Hispanics. One worker who has picked onions in the state of Georgia for 16 years will move to North Carolina because of Georgia's new anti-immigration law. Farmers are up in arms in that state. Georgia's Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association reports that in May and June they had half to two thirds as many workers as they had last year. Migrant workers seem to be skipping the state of Georgia. They estimate that the state's $1.1 million fruit-and-vegetable industry could suffer a $300 million loss. Is there a better example of this parable?
You could talk about the fact that the Pharisees misunderstood the reality of farming. There was (and is) no such thing as a perfect garden. We all have weeds in our lives. There are weeds everywhere. We are all a mixture of good and evil. Recognizing our frailties ought to save us from sanctimony and judgment.
Jesus explained that you cannot pull up the weeds without pulling up a great deal of the wheat. We can't always tell darnel from wheat. They are rooted together. Sometimes the cure just might be worse than the disease.
Our Romans text talks about patience -- and perhaps our parable in Matthew is also a lesson in patience. We cannot take matters into our own hands. We should not make premature judgments. We are imperfect people in a not-so-perfect world. Maybe we can at least put brakes on our judgments. We only know partial truths. Judgment belongs to God. So we "can-do" folk must remember we are to be patient with ourselves and our brothers and sisters everywhere. Gardening is not an overnight business.
We need to remember the power of seeds. In last week's account of the sower and four soils, we learn that even after the loss of many seeds there still a great harvest. We are to tend the soil -- but the seeds come from God. We are only the caretakers and often in our despair we forget that God gives the seeds -- and in those seeds there is power enough.
This is a parable of hope. There may be a multitude of weeds but there is also wheat that did not come up on its own. We planted those wheat seeds. Because of our faithfulness, the power of the seed will do its work. Once my son and I planted a flower in the backyard and day after day he would dig it up and see how much the roots had grown -- he finally killed the plant. There are some things that are best left to God.
As I mentioned above, in the South people spend a great deal of energy and money trying to keep the destructive power of kudzu under control. Left alone, this plant covers everything and grows at an alarming rate. But in studying this pesky plant, I learned that it actually does have some value. Native to southern Japan and Southeast China, kudzu has been used to make lotions, jellies, and compost. In some cultures it has been used for medicinal purposes. Some farmers use kudzu as part of their animal's feed. The plant has also been used for erosion control. The point? God can even take the weeds of life and recycle them into meaningful products. Could it be that God can take the troublesome weeds in our lives and our time and bring something redemptive out of something so destructive?
SECOND THOUGHTS
Where Shall I Lay My Head?
by Ron Love
Genesis 28:10-19a
One evening during his journey to Beer-sheba, Jacob laid down to rest. For a pillow, he placed his head gently upon a rock. Sometime in the course of the night he had a dream. Jacob saw a ladder extending from earth to heaven. Even more marvelous, he saw God's angels descending and ascending on the ladder. Obviously, as God's ambassadors, they were on a pilgrimage to bring God's message to the human inhabitants on earth. Many people might have discarded this dream, but Jacob, a spiritual man, understood that it was more than a dream -- it was a message. The message was God's reaffirmation of the covenant that he made with Abraham. Unable to dismiss the significance of this vision, Jacob built an altar in worship of God. In doing so, he demonstrated that he was always going to live a God-oriented, God-centered life. His life would be one of contemplation and reflection before he acted in haste or haughtiness.
We live in a world straddling between laying our heads on the hard rock of spirituality and the ease of a feather pillow. The former directs us to acts of righteousness; the latter to acts of selfishness. So for us it really becomes a question of: "Where shall I lay my head?"
The evening news may lead us to conclude that the entire human race resides on the soft mattress of the feather bed:
* The serious trial of Casey Anthony became less about the tragic death of an innocent child and more of an entertaining non-fiction soap opera. Why was it such a media attraction, as opposed to other tragic murder tales? Reuters reported it was because Nancy Grace and her cohorts were driven by television "ratings, ratings, ratings" (http://news.yahoo.com/casey-anthony-trial-turned-media-frenzy-031041514....).
* One can sympathize with schools and their need to acquire federal funding through the "No Child Left Behind" program where success is measured in standardized test scores. But does this justify 178 principals and teachers in the Atlanta school district changing students' false answers to true?
* Who really knows who Dominique Strauss-Kahn had had consensual sex with and if he had forced sex with others? Certainly, though, the length of allegations should give one pause.
* After 168 years in publication, the British tabloid The News of the World is printing its last issue -- the result of many unsavory activities, the last of which was tapping into the phone of a murder victim, a 13-year-old girl named Milly Dowler.
* One wonders why our congressmen would rather remain separated by an ideological aisle than work together for the economic benefit of a nation.
* Pope Benedict, now using Twitter to stay in touch with the younger generation, may seem to some as progressive; but instant communication in 140 characters is hardly a reflection of contemplative prayer.
If you lay your head on a feather pillow, ratings and sensationalism will take precedence over truth.
Thankfully, there are still those who lay their heads on the rock of contemplation, seeking God's truth and guidance:
* With the final launch of the space shuttle heralding the close of the shuttle program, CNN.com ran a piece titled "The surprising history of prayer in space". The article mentions Christmas Eve 1968 and the crew of Apollo 8, the first humans to orbit the moon. On this sacred Christian day they read from the book of Genesis on a live television broadcast. Their religious endeavor was challenged by a national atheistic organization; but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, citing "for want of jurisdiction."
* While Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral has gone bankrupt, it appears the Roman Catholic diocese may purchase the facility to accommodate their 1.2 million parishioners in Orange County. This would provide a worship center at far less of a cost than building a new one for themselves.
* Sixty congregations in Orlando, Florida, have pulled their resources and have hired nurses from the University of Central Florida's College of Nursing. These nurses will be a part of each worshiping congregation, teaching and motivating congregants to adopt healthy living habits.
* Quietly and without fanfare a law went into effect ending capital punishment in Illinois, while Texas executed a Mexican citizen despite a request from the President of the United States for a stay until a new law is reviewed.
Life choices are not easy. But surprisingly, they are easier if you choose a rock for your pillow rather than one stuffed with down. So the question really does become: "Where shall I lay my head?"
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Review the story of Jacob and what it means to be spiritual.
II. Discuss those who reject the firm discipline of contemplation and how that focuses their life perspective.
III. Discuss those who accept the contemplative life and how that focuses their life perspective.
IV. Challenge the congregation to be imitators of Jacob.
ILLUSTRATIONS
We say "the proof is in the pudding," but most of us don't really know what that old axiom means. That's because it comes from an archaic form of English when the word "proof" meant "test." It was a shorthand way of saying that the only way to test the recipe was to taste the pudding. If the pudding tasted good, the recipe was good.
The point of the proverb is to warn us about rushing to judgment based on preconceived notions or impressions. The true test of a dish is not in how it looks but how it tastes. If this was not the case, who would ever eat lobster, limburger cheese, prunes, or pizza for that matter?
The point is the same in the Matthew parable. Weeds? Wheat? The seedlings were probably indistinguishable. Not until they matured was it possible to know which was which.
* * *
If you were asked to weed out men who were just not meant to play professional basketball and all you had to judge by was what you saw, you would probably include in your list some names like Nate Robinson, Earl Boykins, Spud Webb, Calvin Murphy, and Muggsy Bogues. Why? Because they're just too short to play in the big league, right? I mean, just look at them.
Oops, better look again. Nate Robinson is 5'9" and played with the New York Knicks from 2004-2010. Earl Boykins is 5'5" and played for eight NBA teams from 1998-2008. Spud Webb is 5'6" and played from 1985 to 1998 -- even famously winning the NBA slam dunk championship in 1986. Calvin Murphy is 5'9" and played from 1970 to 1983. One of the best free-throw shooters of all time, Murphy is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Muggsy Bogues is 5'3" (the shortest man to ever play in the NBA) and played for four teams during his 14-year career.
* * *
The horse was too small, the jockey was too big, the trainer was too old, and the owner knew absolutely nothing about horses. He had been quoted as saying that he wouldn't give five dollars for the best horse in the world. But something changed his mind.
In the movie Seabiscuit, the narrator describes it this way: "The first time he saw Seabiscuit, the colt was walking through the fog at five in the morning. Smith [the trainer] would say later that the horse looked right through him... as if to say, ëWhat the hell are you looking at? Who do you think you are?' He was a small horse, barely fifteen hands. He was hurting too. There was a limp in his walk, a wheezing when he breathed. Smith didn't pay attention to that. He was looking the horse in the eye."
Seabiscuit went on to finish in the money in 89 races, with 33 wins. His total lifetime earnings was $437,730 -- and that was during the Great Depression. He won ten "major" races, including the Breeders Cup twice and the famous two-horse race against War Admiral in 1938, the same year he was named horse of the year.
* * *
Leland Stanford Jr. was a student at Harvard when, during his freshman year, he contracted typhoid fever and died. His parents were heartbroken over the loss of their only son and not long after his passing they went to the university and asked if they could erect a monument in his memory.
The story goes that the university president took one look at the simply dressed old couple and dismissed the idea. It would be impractical, he said, if Harvard allowed monuments to be erected for every student or former student who died.
Oh no, the couple said, they were hoping to donate an entire building.
Again, the president took in their clothing and their bearing and dismissed them. "I don't think that would be possible. Why, we have over $7.5 million invested in the buildings on this campus."
The old couple looked at each other, astonished. "Well," the old man said, "if that's all it takes to build a college, why don't we just build one of our own."
And that's what he did. On October 1, 1891, Leland Stanford Sr., co-founder of the Central Pacific Railroad and former governor of California, established Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in memory of his son.
* * *
Jesus clarifies himself pretty explicitly in the parable of the wheat and weeds -- but unfortunately many people don't get a grip on its meaning. The principle seems plain enough but folks are slow to apply it.
What was Jesus' point? Simply put, that it's really hard to determine who the real Christians are. My wife loves to plant wildflowers. Every spring she has me digging a new area where she can plant them. When wildflowers first emerge, it's difficult for me to distinguish some of them from weeds. If it was up to me, I'd remove lots of expensive flowers because in early stages they resemble pesky plants.
The hearts of people are even more difficult to judge. Some folks think they know so they quickly judge the behavior and motivations of others. If we remember Jesus' parable, we'll wait for the judgment. There'll be many surprises that day.
* * *
Jesus reminds us in this parable that God's truth has a power of its own and God's truth is going to prevail in the long run. The kingdom of heaven is not a power that comes with guns and armies and military might or even by ripping up weeds that we didn't plant. The servants are reminded that there will be a harvest but it will be God who makes the decisions and God who does the judging. It's like the mighty Mississippi River. That water is headed for the Gulf of Mexico. You can dam it up, you can build levees, you can do all kinds of things to divert it, but ultimately that water will end up where it was headed and no power on earth can stop it.
* * *
When young children weed a flower bed, they may accidentally pull up the flower seedlings or even the flowering plants. They simply do not have the mental capacity to distinguish weeds from flowers and they may not have the physical skills required to remove the weeds without also destroying the flower plants.
When a new teacher is faced with a classroom of children, including some very disruptive ones, he or she may not know how to control the disruptive ones without dampening the spirit of the entire class. A more adept teacher might know how to discipline in a way that makes the consequences fall only on those who are at fault. More experienced teachers might have discovered methods of connecting the stronger students with those who tend to be disruptive, thereby allowing the good children to positively influence the others.
In our lives, it is a struggle to sort out the good habits from the bad, to capitalize on our strengths and downplay our weaknesses. Though it is often painful, our friends and family may love us enough to help us sort through the mixture of healthy and destructive behaviors and attitudes in our lives.
The weeding, the disciplining, the sorting through are essential -- and are most effectively done in a spirit of love when the time is right.
* * *
The Dean of Students stood in front of the freshman class at a small, church-related college, and after a brief welcome began to speak of rules and regulations for the dormitories. "We are a conservative, religious school. We do not have co-ed dorms. There are boys' dorms and girls' dorms. Boys caught in the girls' dorms will be fined $100 the first time, $200 the second time, and $300 the third time."
One handsome member of the football team raised his hand and was recognized by the dean. Smiling, he asked, "How much for a season pass?"
There are no shortcuts to any discipline worth pursuing -- especially the spiritual ones.
* * *
I recently saw a teenage girl playing basketball in the park with the following written on the back of her T-shirt: "Somewhere right now someone is practicing and when you meet him on the field of competition he will beat you." That girl knew the value of practice.
The spiritual disciplines are called disciplines for a reason. They require practice. If we want them to be efficacious for us we have to become proficient in doing them, just as athletes and musicians become proficient at their disciplines through practice.
After the great golfer Lee "Supermex" Trevino won the PGA Senior Championship in 1994, it is said that a young fan said to him: "Mr. Trevino, I'd give my life to be able to play golf like you do." Lee reportedly smiled, shook hands with the young man, and said, "I did."
* * *
Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, near Bristol where she attended school and discovered a love for writing fantasy stories, often reading them to her little sister, Di. Later she graduated from Exeter College and in 1991, after her mother's death, she moved to Porto, Portugal, to teach English as a second language. In Portugal, Rowling married and gave birth to a daughter but the couple separated in 1993.
Mother and daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, but Joanne had trouble finding regular work, lived on welfare, and soon became depressed and even contemplated suicide. She never lost her love for writing, however. Every day after walking her daughter to school, she would go to a local cafe where she would sip tea and continue to work on a novel she had begun before her mother's death, writing it in longhand. After a number of rejections, she finally sold the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the word "Philosopher" was changed to "Sorcerer" for its publication in America), for the equivalent of about $4,000.
Today, J.K. Rowling is worth about $1.1 billion and is said to be the 13th richest person in the United Kingdom, richer even than the queen. She has sold over 400 million books.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God has searched us and known us.
People: God knows when we sit down and when we stand.
Leader: God searches out our paths.
People: God is acquainted with all our ways.
Leader: Such knowledge is incredibly wondrous.
People: There is no where we can go that God is not there.
Leader: Search us, O God, and know our hearts.
People: Lead us in the way everlasting.
OR
Leader: Come, God calls us all into the loving presence.
People: All? What do you mean by all?
Leader: God so loved the world, the whole world....
People: The bad and the good?
Leader: Jesus said only God is good!
People: Those whom God loves, we will not despise. We come together welcoming all God's people.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
Renew: 46
"Your Love, O God"
found in:
UMH: 120
CH: 71
"There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"
found in:
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587/588
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"In Christ There Is No East or West"
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive"
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
Renew: 184
"O God of Every Nation"
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
"I Am Loved"
found in:
CCB: 80
"Only by Grace"
found in:
CCB: 42
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
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is the Reaper of the Harvest: Grant us the faith to trust you with the harvest and remove from us the desire to judge others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your courts, O God, to acknowledge you as the one, true God. We come as we are -- a mixture of weeds and wheat, both as a congregation and as individuals. As we hear your word, help us to submit ourselves to your cleansing fire so that we may be your cleansed harvest. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
O God, shine the light of your Spirit upon our hearts and our minds that we may discern with gladness the good news of your word as we hear it proclaimed today. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we are so quick to judge others and excuse our own faults.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look around us at people who do violent crimes that seem to want to destroy everything decent. We look at our actions and see only minor mistakes. We have lost sight of how pride and anger make our hearts just as ugly as theirs. Help us to remember that we all are in need of your grace and to allow you, the only good and true one, to make judgments. Forgive us our folly and fill us once again with the love of your Spirit, not only for you, but for all your creatures. Amen.
Leader: God does love us all and freely forgives us and welcomes us into community with God and all God's creatures.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for your great love that reaches out to every part of your creation. Your loving kindness is deeper and wider than the greatest sea.
(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 look around us at people who do violent crimes that seem to want to destroy everything decent. We look at our actions and see only minor mistakes. We have lost sight of how pride and anger make our hearts just as ugly as theirs. Help us to remember that we all are in need of your grace and to allow you, the only good and true one, to make judgments. Forgive us our folly and fill us once again with the love of your Spirit, not only for you, but for all your creatures.
We give you thanks for your loving grace and all the signs that remind us of your care. We thank you for our good earth and all that it provides for us. We thank you for family and friends and for your church that nurtures and guides us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all, anywhere, who have not discovered your grace and love. We pray for those whose circumstances of life make love seem like a cruel joke. As you embrace them in your love, grant that we may be true to our calling to be the Body of Christ. Help us to stretch out our arms and embrace them in your name.
(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.
Children's Sermon Starter
Have a number of plastic eggs. Put a piece of candy or a small toy in all but one. Put some piece of junk in the remaining one but be sure all of the eggs look, sound, and feel about the same. You might even make sure the children can't tell the "bad" egg by making several of the "good" eggs a little heavier. Tell each child to choose an egg. Ask them which child has the "bad" egg. (No one knows until they open the eggs.) Tell them to open their eggs. If a child has received the "bad" egg, give them a "good" one. If no one has it, open the others until it is found. Talk about how people are like eggs. We don't know what is inside and unlike eggs we can't open people up and find out. Only God can see inside us and know who is good and who is bad, so we need to let God decide that and be kind to everyone.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Weeds
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Object: some weeds along with some healthy grass or flowers
Good morning, boys and girls! Do any of you play in the yard or near a flowerbed? (let the children answer) Have you ever seen something like this growing in your yard or flowerbed? (show them the weeds) What do we call things that look like this? (let them answer) That's right, they are weeds. Do you like weeds? (let them answer) We don't like weeds because they spread out in the yard or the flowerbed and damage the grass or flowers. When you are trying to grow grass or flowers, you don't want weeds.
What do we do about the weeds in the yard or in the flowerbed? If we start pulling them out with our hands, and sometimes we have to pull pretty hard, then we will also pull up the grass or the flowers. The best way to take care of the weeds is to spray them with a safe spray that kills the weeds but lets the grass and flowers grow.
Sometimes we hear a lot about bad people. We wonder why God lets people who do really bad things live. Why doesn't God have a really bad storm that only gets rid of all of the bad people?
If there was a bad storm, then the bad people would not be the only ones hurt, would they? Everyone who was in the storm would be hurt and everyone would have damage. God doesn't cause those kinds of things to happen. God is not sending storms to hurt anyone or punish anyone.
Jesus taught us that when the time comes and we are all prepared for heaven, God will choose the ones who are faithful to him and have not caused hate and fear to live with him in a new world. The people who have caused hate and fear will be taken away from us into their own place. That's the promise. So there are some people who act like weeds and they live with us but God knows who they are. God will take care of everyone of us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 17, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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 Ron Love shares some additional thoughts on the Genesis passage and the striking imagery of Jacob's dream. While we often focus on the ladder and the proximity of heaven to earth that it symbolizes, Ron finds the image of Jacob using a stone for his pillow to be illuminating as well. Ron reminds us that it's easy to seek the comfort of a feather pillow instead of the relative discomfort of a stone -- but we are called to the spiritual discipline of contemplation that the stone symbolizes rather than the selfish luxury of a feather pillow. That seems to echo the theme of delayed gratification in the epistle text, with its imagery of labor pains as a necessary part of the joy of childbirth. As Ron pointedly asks us, are we willing to make the tough choices about where to lay our heads?
What Are We Going to Do with the Weeds?
by Roger Lovette
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Look around you -- it looks like we are about covered over with weeds. Are there any healthy plants left? In the Deep South we have the curse of kudzu. It is a vine that climbs, coils, and trails over everything around it. Some say it grows 18 inches in a single day. Abandoned houses, cars, and barns are sometimes totally covered in kudzu. This weed-plant will destroy a tall tree by blocking out the sun.
The weeds are everywhere, it seems -- especially when one looks at the headlines.
THE WORLD
In his play The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, William Inge talks about a changing world. Rubin is talking to his wife Cora, and says:
I s'pose all this time you been thinkin' you was married to one a them movin'-picture fellas that jump off bridges and hold up trains and shoot Indians and are never scared a nothin'. Times are changin', Cora, and I donno where they're goin'. When I was a boy, there wasn't much more to this town than a post office. I on'y had six years a schoolin' cause that's all the Old Man thought I'd ever need. Now look at things. School buildin's, churches, fine stores, movie theatres, a country club. Men becomin' millionaires overnight, drivin' down the street in big limousines, goin' out to the country club and gettin' drunk, acting like they was the lords of creation. I donna what to think of things now, Cora. I'm a stranger in the very land I was born in.
Many folk today can resonate with Rubin's feelings, even though his changing world was much simpler than ours. The weeds are even coming up in the cracks in our concrete. Mothers charged with murdering their little babies. Gridlock in Washington. Principals and schoolteachers cheating on official reports to make them and their schools look good. Illegal immigrants crowding our schools and hospitals. An economy that seems to be going nowhere. Our gardens are not a pretty sight.
THE WORD
It all began because Jesus' critics were concerned... furious would be more like it. Jesus was calling people to follow him, even outsiders -- people who had no unearthly idea what the laws were all about. Newcomers. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees pursed their lips and said, "These people have no standing before God." And they were right. These people -- slaves, women. Later they would add Gentiles and foreigners to the list. People with shady pasts, some with criminal records. Lepers. Poor people with no manners whatsoever. Things had gotten out of hand. And so the religious leaders whispered, "We've got to do something."
Remember Jesus' response. He told a story. He talked about the kingdom of God, as he often did. He compared this kingdom to someone who sowed good seed in the field. The farmer went home to bed and while he slept an enemy came and sowed some very different kinds of seeds in the man's garden. It was hard to tell the difference at first. Everything looked alike. But when the wheat came up there were these other plants. Darnel! Poisonous weeds. In desperation, the workers were ready to pull up all these dangerous plants. But the owner shook his head. "Leave them. At harvest time I will take care of the weeds." The workers shook their heads and walked away. This gentleman farmer didn't know much about farming. You never leave the weeds -- you pull them up.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
Living in a time of momentous change, often people respond strangely. Several states, worried about the growing problem of illegal immigrants, have passed laws which scare all immigrants, particularly Hispanics. One worker who has picked onions in the state of Georgia for 16 years will move to North Carolina because of Georgia's new anti-immigration law. Farmers are up in arms in that state. Georgia's Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association reports that in May and June they had half to two thirds as many workers as they had last year. Migrant workers seem to be skipping the state of Georgia. They estimate that the state's $1.1 million fruit-and-vegetable industry could suffer a $300 million loss. Is there a better example of this parable?
You could talk about the fact that the Pharisees misunderstood the reality of farming. There was (and is) no such thing as a perfect garden. We all have weeds in our lives. There are weeds everywhere. We are all a mixture of good and evil. Recognizing our frailties ought to save us from sanctimony and judgment.
Jesus explained that you cannot pull up the weeds without pulling up a great deal of the wheat. We can't always tell darnel from wheat. They are rooted together. Sometimes the cure just might be worse than the disease.
Our Romans text talks about patience -- and perhaps our parable in Matthew is also a lesson in patience. We cannot take matters into our own hands. We should not make premature judgments. We are imperfect people in a not-so-perfect world. Maybe we can at least put brakes on our judgments. We only know partial truths. Judgment belongs to God. So we "can-do" folk must remember we are to be patient with ourselves and our brothers and sisters everywhere. Gardening is not an overnight business.
We need to remember the power of seeds. In last week's account of the sower and four soils, we learn that even after the loss of many seeds there still a great harvest. We are to tend the soil -- but the seeds come from God. We are only the caretakers and often in our despair we forget that God gives the seeds -- and in those seeds there is power enough.
This is a parable of hope. There may be a multitude of weeds but there is also wheat that did not come up on its own. We planted those wheat seeds. Because of our faithfulness, the power of the seed will do its work. Once my son and I planted a flower in the backyard and day after day he would dig it up and see how much the roots had grown -- he finally killed the plant. There are some things that are best left to God.
As I mentioned above, in the South people spend a great deal of energy and money trying to keep the destructive power of kudzu under control. Left alone, this plant covers everything and grows at an alarming rate. But in studying this pesky plant, I learned that it actually does have some value. Native to southern Japan and Southeast China, kudzu has been used to make lotions, jellies, and compost. In some cultures it has been used for medicinal purposes. Some farmers use kudzu as part of their animal's feed. The plant has also been used for erosion control. The point? God can even take the weeds of life and recycle them into meaningful products. Could it be that God can take the troublesome weeds in our lives and our time and bring something redemptive out of something so destructive?
SECOND THOUGHTS
Where Shall I Lay My Head?
by Ron Love
Genesis 28:10-19a
One evening during his journey to Beer-sheba, Jacob laid down to rest. For a pillow, he placed his head gently upon a rock. Sometime in the course of the night he had a dream. Jacob saw a ladder extending from earth to heaven. Even more marvelous, he saw God's angels descending and ascending on the ladder. Obviously, as God's ambassadors, they were on a pilgrimage to bring God's message to the human inhabitants on earth. Many people might have discarded this dream, but Jacob, a spiritual man, understood that it was more than a dream -- it was a message. The message was God's reaffirmation of the covenant that he made with Abraham. Unable to dismiss the significance of this vision, Jacob built an altar in worship of God. In doing so, he demonstrated that he was always going to live a God-oriented, God-centered life. His life would be one of contemplation and reflection before he acted in haste or haughtiness.
We live in a world straddling between laying our heads on the hard rock of spirituality and the ease of a feather pillow. The former directs us to acts of righteousness; the latter to acts of selfishness. So for us it really becomes a question of: "Where shall I lay my head?"
The evening news may lead us to conclude that the entire human race resides on the soft mattress of the feather bed:
* The serious trial of Casey Anthony became less about the tragic death of an innocent child and more of an entertaining non-fiction soap opera. Why was it such a media attraction, as opposed to other tragic murder tales? Reuters reported it was because Nancy Grace and her cohorts were driven by television "ratings, ratings, ratings" (http://news.yahoo.com/casey-anthony-trial-turned-media-frenzy-031041514....).
* One can sympathize with schools and their need to acquire federal funding through the "No Child Left Behind" program where success is measured in standardized test scores. But does this justify 178 principals and teachers in the Atlanta school district changing students' false answers to true?
* Who really knows who Dominique Strauss-Kahn had had consensual sex with and if he had forced sex with others? Certainly, though, the length of allegations should give one pause.
* After 168 years in publication, the British tabloid The News of the World is printing its last issue -- the result of many unsavory activities, the last of which was tapping into the phone of a murder victim, a 13-year-old girl named Milly Dowler.
* One wonders why our congressmen would rather remain separated by an ideological aisle than work together for the economic benefit of a nation.
* Pope Benedict, now using Twitter to stay in touch with the younger generation, may seem to some as progressive; but instant communication in 140 characters is hardly a reflection of contemplative prayer.
If you lay your head on a feather pillow, ratings and sensationalism will take precedence over truth.
Thankfully, there are still those who lay their heads on the rock of contemplation, seeking God's truth and guidance:
* With the final launch of the space shuttle heralding the close of the shuttle program, CNN.com ran a piece titled "The surprising history of prayer in space". The article mentions Christmas Eve 1968 and the crew of Apollo 8, the first humans to orbit the moon. On this sacred Christian day they read from the book of Genesis on a live television broadcast. Their religious endeavor was challenged by a national atheistic organization; but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, citing "for want of jurisdiction."
* While Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral has gone bankrupt, it appears the Roman Catholic diocese may purchase the facility to accommodate their 1.2 million parishioners in Orange County. This would provide a worship center at far less of a cost than building a new one for themselves.
* Sixty congregations in Orlando, Florida, have pulled their resources and have hired nurses from the University of Central Florida's College of Nursing. These nurses will be a part of each worshiping congregation, teaching and motivating congregants to adopt healthy living habits.
* Quietly and without fanfare a law went into effect ending capital punishment in Illinois, while Texas executed a Mexican citizen despite a request from the President of the United States for a stay until a new law is reviewed.
Life choices are not easy. But surprisingly, they are easier if you choose a rock for your pillow rather than one stuffed with down. So the question really does become: "Where shall I lay my head?"
CRAFTING THE SERMON
I. Review the story of Jacob and what it means to be spiritual.
II. Discuss those who reject the firm discipline of contemplation and how that focuses their life perspective.
III. Discuss those who accept the contemplative life and how that focuses their life perspective.
IV. Challenge the congregation to be imitators of Jacob.
ILLUSTRATIONS
We say "the proof is in the pudding," but most of us don't really know what that old axiom means. That's because it comes from an archaic form of English when the word "proof" meant "test." It was a shorthand way of saying that the only way to test the recipe was to taste the pudding. If the pudding tasted good, the recipe was good.
The point of the proverb is to warn us about rushing to judgment based on preconceived notions or impressions. The true test of a dish is not in how it looks but how it tastes. If this was not the case, who would ever eat lobster, limburger cheese, prunes, or pizza for that matter?
The point is the same in the Matthew parable. Weeds? Wheat? The seedlings were probably indistinguishable. Not until they matured was it possible to know which was which.
* * *
If you were asked to weed out men who were just not meant to play professional basketball and all you had to judge by was what you saw, you would probably include in your list some names like Nate Robinson, Earl Boykins, Spud Webb, Calvin Murphy, and Muggsy Bogues. Why? Because they're just too short to play in the big league, right? I mean, just look at them.
Oops, better look again. Nate Robinson is 5'9" and played with the New York Knicks from 2004-2010. Earl Boykins is 5'5" and played for eight NBA teams from 1998-2008. Spud Webb is 5'6" and played from 1985 to 1998 -- even famously winning the NBA slam dunk championship in 1986. Calvin Murphy is 5'9" and played from 1970 to 1983. One of the best free-throw shooters of all time, Murphy is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Muggsy Bogues is 5'3" (the shortest man to ever play in the NBA) and played for four teams during his 14-year career.
* * *
The horse was too small, the jockey was too big, the trainer was too old, and the owner knew absolutely nothing about horses. He had been quoted as saying that he wouldn't give five dollars for the best horse in the world. But something changed his mind.
In the movie Seabiscuit, the narrator describes it this way: "The first time he saw Seabiscuit, the colt was walking through the fog at five in the morning. Smith [the trainer] would say later that the horse looked right through him... as if to say, ëWhat the hell are you looking at? Who do you think you are?' He was a small horse, barely fifteen hands. He was hurting too. There was a limp in his walk, a wheezing when he breathed. Smith didn't pay attention to that. He was looking the horse in the eye."
Seabiscuit went on to finish in the money in 89 races, with 33 wins. His total lifetime earnings was $437,730 -- and that was during the Great Depression. He won ten "major" races, including the Breeders Cup twice and the famous two-horse race against War Admiral in 1938, the same year he was named horse of the year.
* * *
Leland Stanford Jr. was a student at Harvard when, during his freshman year, he contracted typhoid fever and died. His parents were heartbroken over the loss of their only son and not long after his passing they went to the university and asked if they could erect a monument in his memory.
The story goes that the university president took one look at the simply dressed old couple and dismissed the idea. It would be impractical, he said, if Harvard allowed monuments to be erected for every student or former student who died.
Oh no, the couple said, they were hoping to donate an entire building.
Again, the president took in their clothing and their bearing and dismissed them. "I don't think that would be possible. Why, we have over $7.5 million invested in the buildings on this campus."
The old couple looked at each other, astonished. "Well," the old man said, "if that's all it takes to build a college, why don't we just build one of our own."
And that's what he did. On October 1, 1891, Leland Stanford Sr., co-founder of the Central Pacific Railroad and former governor of California, established Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, in memory of his son.
* * *
Jesus clarifies himself pretty explicitly in the parable of the wheat and weeds -- but unfortunately many people don't get a grip on its meaning. The principle seems plain enough but folks are slow to apply it.
What was Jesus' point? Simply put, that it's really hard to determine who the real Christians are. My wife loves to plant wildflowers. Every spring she has me digging a new area where she can plant them. When wildflowers first emerge, it's difficult for me to distinguish some of them from weeds. If it was up to me, I'd remove lots of expensive flowers because in early stages they resemble pesky plants.
The hearts of people are even more difficult to judge. Some folks think they know so they quickly judge the behavior and motivations of others. If we remember Jesus' parable, we'll wait for the judgment. There'll be many surprises that day.
* * *
Jesus reminds us in this parable that God's truth has a power of its own and God's truth is going to prevail in the long run. The kingdom of heaven is not a power that comes with guns and armies and military might or even by ripping up weeds that we didn't plant. The servants are reminded that there will be a harvest but it will be God who makes the decisions and God who does the judging. It's like the mighty Mississippi River. That water is headed for the Gulf of Mexico. You can dam it up, you can build levees, you can do all kinds of things to divert it, but ultimately that water will end up where it was headed and no power on earth can stop it.
* * *
When young children weed a flower bed, they may accidentally pull up the flower seedlings or even the flowering plants. They simply do not have the mental capacity to distinguish weeds from flowers and they may not have the physical skills required to remove the weeds without also destroying the flower plants.
When a new teacher is faced with a classroom of children, including some very disruptive ones, he or she may not know how to control the disruptive ones without dampening the spirit of the entire class. A more adept teacher might know how to discipline in a way that makes the consequences fall only on those who are at fault. More experienced teachers might have discovered methods of connecting the stronger students with those who tend to be disruptive, thereby allowing the good children to positively influence the others.
In our lives, it is a struggle to sort out the good habits from the bad, to capitalize on our strengths and downplay our weaknesses. Though it is often painful, our friends and family may love us enough to help us sort through the mixture of healthy and destructive behaviors and attitudes in our lives.
The weeding, the disciplining, the sorting through are essential -- and are most effectively done in a spirit of love when the time is right.
* * *
The Dean of Students stood in front of the freshman class at a small, church-related college, and after a brief welcome began to speak of rules and regulations for the dormitories. "We are a conservative, religious school. We do not have co-ed dorms. There are boys' dorms and girls' dorms. Boys caught in the girls' dorms will be fined $100 the first time, $200 the second time, and $300 the third time."
One handsome member of the football team raised his hand and was recognized by the dean. Smiling, he asked, "How much for a season pass?"
There are no shortcuts to any discipline worth pursuing -- especially the spiritual ones.
* * *
I recently saw a teenage girl playing basketball in the park with the following written on the back of her T-shirt: "Somewhere right now someone is practicing and when you meet him on the field of competition he will beat you." That girl knew the value of practice.
The spiritual disciplines are called disciplines for a reason. They require practice. If we want them to be efficacious for us we have to become proficient in doing them, just as athletes and musicians become proficient at their disciplines through practice.
After the great golfer Lee "Supermex" Trevino won the PGA Senior Championship in 1994, it is said that a young fan said to him: "Mr. Trevino, I'd give my life to be able to play golf like you do." Lee reportedly smiled, shook hands with the young man, and said, "I did."
* * *
Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, near Bristol where she attended school and discovered a love for writing fantasy stories, often reading them to her little sister, Di. Later she graduated from Exeter College and in 1991, after her mother's death, she moved to Porto, Portugal, to teach English as a second language. In Portugal, Rowling married and gave birth to a daughter but the couple separated in 1993.
Mother and daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, but Joanne had trouble finding regular work, lived on welfare, and soon became depressed and even contemplated suicide. She never lost her love for writing, however. Every day after walking her daughter to school, she would go to a local cafe where she would sip tea and continue to work on a novel she had begun before her mother's death, writing it in longhand. After a number of rejections, she finally sold the book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the word "Philosopher" was changed to "Sorcerer" for its publication in America), for the equivalent of about $4,000.
Today, J.K. Rowling is worth about $1.1 billion and is said to be the 13th richest person in the United Kingdom, richer even than the queen. She has sold over 400 million books.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God has searched us and known us.
People: God knows when we sit down and when we stand.
Leader: God searches out our paths.
People: God is acquainted with all our ways.
Leader: Such knowledge is incredibly wondrous.
People: There is no where we can go that God is not there.
Leader: Search us, O God, and know our hearts.
People: Lead us in the way everlasting.
OR
Leader: Come, God calls us all into the loving presence.
People: All? What do you mean by all?
Leader: God so loved the world, the whole world....
People: The bad and the good?
Leader: Jesus said only God is good!
People: Those whom God loves, we will not despise. We come together welcoming all God's people.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"
found in:
UMH: 103
H82: 423
PH: 263
NCH: 1
CH: 66
LBW: 526
ELA: 834
Renew: 46
"Your Love, O God"
found in:
UMH: 120
CH: 71
"There's a Wideness in God's Mercy"
found in:
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELA: 587/588
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"In Christ There Is No East or West"
found in:
UMH: 548
H82: 529
PH: 439/440
AAHH: 398/399
NNBH: 299
NCH: 394/395
CH: 687
LBW: 259
ELA: 650
"Help Us Accept Each Other"
found in:
UMH: 560
PH: 358
NCH: 388
CH: 487
"Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive"
found in:
UMH: 390
H82: 674
PH: 347
LBW: 307
ELA: 605
Renew: 184
"O God of Every Nation"
found in:
UMH: 435
H82: 607
PH: 289
CH: 680
LBW: 416
ELA: 713
"I Am Loved"
found in:
CCB: 80
"Only by Grace"
found in:
CCB: 42
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
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is the Reaper of the Harvest: Grant us the faith to trust you with the harvest and remove from us the desire to judge others; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come into your courts, O God, to acknowledge you as the one, true God. We come as we are -- a mixture of weeds and wheat, both as a congregation and as individuals. As we hear your word, help us to submit ourselves to your cleansing fire so that we may be your cleansed harvest. Amen.
Prayer for Illumination
O God, shine the light of your Spirit upon our hearts and our minds that we may discern with gladness the good news of your word as we hear it proclaimed today. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we are so quick to judge others and excuse our own faults.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We look around us at people who do violent crimes that seem to want to destroy everything decent. We look at our actions and see only minor mistakes. We have lost sight of how pride and anger make our hearts just as ugly as theirs. Help us to remember that we all are in need of your grace and to allow you, the only good and true one, to make judgments. Forgive us our folly and fill us once again with the love of your Spirit, not only for you, but for all your creatures. Amen.
Leader: God does love us all and freely forgives us and welcomes us into community with God and all God's creatures.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We worship and adore you, O God, for your great love that reaches out to every part of your creation. Your loving kindness is deeper and wider than the greatest sea.
(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 look around us at people who do violent crimes that seem to want to destroy everything decent. We look at our actions and see only minor mistakes. We have lost sight of how pride and anger make our hearts just as ugly as theirs. Help us to remember that we all are in need of your grace and to allow you, the only good and true one, to make judgments. Forgive us our folly and fill us once again with the love of your Spirit, not only for you, but for all your creatures.
We give you thanks for your loving grace and all the signs that remind us of your care. We thank you for our good earth and all that it provides for us. We thank you for family and friends and for your church that nurtures and guides us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all, anywhere, who have not discovered your grace and love. We pray for those whose circumstances of life make love seem like a cruel joke. As you embrace them in your love, grant that we may be true to our calling to be the Body of Christ. Help us to stretch out our arms and embrace them in your name.
(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.
Children's Sermon Starter
Have a number of plastic eggs. Put a piece of candy or a small toy in all but one. Put some piece of junk in the remaining one but be sure all of the eggs look, sound, and feel about the same. You might even make sure the children can't tell the "bad" egg by making several of the "good" eggs a little heavier. Tell each child to choose an egg. Ask them which child has the "bad" egg. (No one knows until they open the eggs.) Tell them to open their eggs. If a child has received the "bad" egg, give them a "good" one. If no one has it, open the others until it is found. Talk about how people are like eggs. We don't know what is inside and unlike eggs we can't open people up and find out. Only God can see inside us and know who is good and who is bad, so we need to let God decide that and be kind to everyone.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Weeds
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Object: some weeds along with some healthy grass or flowers
Good morning, boys and girls! Do any of you play in the yard or near a flowerbed? (let the children answer) Have you ever seen something like this growing in your yard or flowerbed? (show them the weeds) What do we call things that look like this? (let them answer) That's right, they are weeds. Do you like weeds? (let them answer) We don't like weeds because they spread out in the yard or the flowerbed and damage the grass or flowers. When you are trying to grow grass or flowers, you don't want weeds.
What do we do about the weeds in the yard or in the flowerbed? If we start pulling them out with our hands, and sometimes we have to pull pretty hard, then we will also pull up the grass or the flowers. The best way to take care of the weeds is to spray them with a safe spray that kills the weeds but lets the grass and flowers grow.
Sometimes we hear a lot about bad people. We wonder why God lets people who do really bad things live. Why doesn't God have a really bad storm that only gets rid of all of the bad people?
If there was a bad storm, then the bad people would not be the only ones hurt, would they? Everyone who was in the storm would be hurt and everyone would have damage. God doesn't cause those kinds of things to happen. God is not sending storms to hurt anyone or punish anyone.
Jesus taught us that when the time comes and we are all prepared for heaven, God will choose the ones who are faithful to him and have not caused hate and fear to live with him in a new world. The people who have caused hate and fear will be taken away from us into their own place. That's the promise. So there are some people who act like weeds and they live with us but God knows who they are. God will take care of everyone of us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, July 17, 2011, issue.
Copyright 2011 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.
