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Choose from the following children's sermons:

• Learning to Serve, Mark 1:21-28
  by Rev. Randy Quinn     (see below)
   
• I'm Right, You're Wrong, 1 Cor. 8:1-13
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer    (see below)
   
• Doctor Jesus, Mark 1:21-28, by Rev. Frank Schaefer
  (please scroll down)

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Learning to Serve
Mark 1:21-28
by Rev. Randy Quinn

How many of you know how to make your bed? (I suspect most of them will say they do – if not, I’ll ask them how many know how to get themselves dressed.) How did you learn to do that?

Do any of you know how to make macaroni and cheese? (Some might.) If you don’t know, how could you learn?

Do any of you know how to make a space ship – a real one? That might take a lot of time to learn how, but if you really wanted to, I suspect you could learn.

But in each of those cases, the first step is to find someone who has already done it before. No matter who is teaching us, the most important thing is that the teacher knows how to do what they’re teaching us, isn’t it?

Well, you know what? Jesus wants us to teach people about God’s love. And in the Bible, we read stories to learn how he did that so we can learn from him. Just like we can learn to make our bed or ride a bike or make a space rocket.

The best teacher was Jesus. And in our scripture today, we’ll read about Jesus teaching people and then showing them how to help someone. That story reminds us to pay attention to what Jesus says and what Jesus does so we can learn from him how to love God and how to love other people.

 

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I'm Right, You're Wrong
a children's sermon based on 1 Cor. 8:1-13
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

"I'm right, you're wrong!"  Have you ever heard anybody say that?  Has someone said it to you?  Have you said it to someone else?

I think it is in our nature--all of us people--to think that we are right. 

But it's not always that easy.  Imagine two of your friends would come to you and they were having an argument.  And both of them are good friends of yours; and both of them think they are right.  On of them says:  (name an example appropriate for the age of the children you're dealing with)

The other one says: (name an example appropriate for the age of the children you're dealing with)

What would you say to your friends?  Would you side with one against the other; tell one of your friends: "you're right" and the other one: "you're wrong"?  Or would you say: "maybe both of you are right?

What do you think: Is it possible that both of them are right? Even though they say different things?

In today's bible lesson, we read about a situation in a church where some people thought it was wrong to eat certain meats.  And they thought they were right.  And there were other people who thought there was nothing wrong with eating those meats.  And they thought they were right.

And they turned to the pastor of this church, both groups saying: "tell them that they are wrong."

Do you want to know what pastor Paul said?  Being full of the wisdom of God, he said to them: "you know, more important than being right is to show love."

And then he said: if I know that you get upset because I am eating this meat, then even if I think it's ok to eat it, I won't.  You know why?  Because I love you.  And you are more important to me than eating the meat.  Because I love you; I don't love the meat--I only like the meat, but I love you.

So, the lesson we can learn this morning is that sometimes it is more important to show love to a person we disagree with than to insist that we are right.

Besides, we should never say to anyone, ever: ""I'm right, and you're wrong!" Because, sometimes we might actually be (wrong) mistaken about something, and that could be really embarrassing.  

 

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Doctor Jesus
a children's sermon based on Mark 1:21-28
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

props: a box with over-the-counter medicine

Greetings, my little friends; today I want to talk about Jesus the doctor.   We often  call Jesus God, Savior, and Lord.  But, if you think about it, Jesus could also be called Doctor because he healed so many people.

In our lesson today, Jesus heals a man from a mental disease.  The madness the man was suffering from was so bad that he wasn't allowed to live in town, but instead he lived in caves near a cemetery.  This man was known to hurt himself.   Nobody took care of him; because back then they didn't have many hospitals and institutions, like they have today.

When Jesus met the man, he knew right away that he wasn't healthy.   And Jesus felt so sorry for the man that he healed him.  Jesus made his madness, his fears, and his loneliness go away.

And even to this very day, Jesus heals people through the church.  I brought a few samples of medicine that we use every day?  Do any of you recognize any of these meds?  Tums for heartburn, Aspirin for headaches,  Nyquil for colds, etc.

Today we bring healing to many poor people in the world thought medication like this and others.  We send doctors and send boxes filled with medicine to Africa, India, and Russia because the people there cannot even afford medicine, or where they simply have no doctors.  For example, every year we help heal many thousands of blind people with a simple operation that they could otherwise never afford.

What do you think about that? Isn't that great?  We can follow in Jesus' footsteps and bring healing to many people around the world.