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Children’s Sermon

John 2:13-22

Jesus Clears Out The Temple

March 3, 2024

Third Sunday of Lent

Lectionary Year B

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
Let's talk about something that's a little bit gross.
Have you ever had a cold or had allergies where your nose was all stuffed up and you had to breathe through your mouth? (yes!)
Do you like that – being all stuffed up? (no!)
So…what do you do to "unstuff" your nose? (blow my nose! take medicine!)
Why do you do take medicine AND blow your nose? (gotta do whatever helps, do whatever makes things better)
Does someone else, usually a parent, give you medicine to take? (yes)
And at least in the past, maybe when you were younger, would a parent help you blow your nose by putting a tissue to your nose and telling you to blow your nose? (Yes, but maybe you were so young, you don’t remember)
So when a parent gave you medicine and helped you blow your nose, that person was helping you get your breathing all cleared up, right?

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

Thank you for talking about gross stuff with me. I think it will help us think about today’s scripture story.
In today's scripture story, Jesus is starting his life's work (which we might call his "ministry").
What Jesus did during his ministry was teach people how to better pay attention to God.
Jesus also shared God's healing love with the people around him.
One way to think about what Jesus did, then, is to say that Jesus helped clear things up.
Jesus helped clear up people's confusion about God and Jesus helped people's sicknesses get cleared up.
And, in today’s scripture story, we hear about another area that Jesus helped clear up.
That place was the Temple.
There were all these things in the Temple that were stuffing it up, that were keeping the people from being able to pay attention to God – so Jesus went and cleared it out.
It’s sort of like Jesus held up a tissue to the Temple and said, "Temple, you are TOO STUFFED UP! You need to blow your nose!"

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

Sometimes, our lives get stuffed up, just like the Temple got stuffed up.
And when that happens, we have a harder time paying attention to God – just like when our noses are stuffed up and we have a hard time breathing.
But today’s story reminds us that when we invite Jesus into our lives, then Jesus can help us get our lives cleared up, just like he cleared out the Temple.
This is one of the ways that Jesus helps us to better pay attention to God.
That's the good news for today. Let’s pray…

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

…who helps us clear up…

…our stuffed up lives…

…so that we can…

…pay better attention to you.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted February 21, 2015

Updated on February 8, 2021
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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