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Children’s Sermon

John 17:6-19

Sharing God’s Words

May 12, 2024

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Year B

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

Good morning!
To get started, I’m going to say some things and then I want you to tell me what you think the next thing will be. Ready?
1, 2, 3, ___ (4!)
Yes, “4” – very good. Here’s another one:
A, B, C, D, ___ (E!)
Yes “E” – very good. You’re good at this. Let’s do one more:
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, ____ (Sunday!)
Yes, “Sunday” – well done again!

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

The fancy word we use to describe things that are in a certain order is called a sequence.
You were able to tell me what the next thing in the sequence was going to be because you knew the order of the things I was saying.
There are lots and lots of sequences in life and in the world. Some we might know and others we might not know.
In the scripture story for today, Jesus is praying for his disciples. And in that prayer, we hear a sequence. And maybe it’s a sequence you don’t know yet.
Here’s how the sequence in Jesus’ prayer goes:

First step: God gives words to Jesus.
Second step: Jesus gives those words to the disciples.
Third step: The disciples then give those same words to other people.

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

And you know what? The disciples did step 3 pretty well!
They told stories about Jesus and they shared what Jesus said so well that 2000 years later we still know a lot of these words that Jesus shared with the disciples.
How this happened is that the disciples told their disciples, who told their disciples, who told their disciples and so on and so on until your parents heard these words and wanted you to hear these words too.
Now, it takes some time to learn these ideas and words, but we have each other, here at [name of your church] to help us think about and talk about and know these stories and words of Jesus.
What this means, of course, is that we – and YOU – are part of this sequence that Jesus is praying about in today’s scripture story.
So let’s end where we started, with you telling me what comes next in this sequence: God gives words to Jesus, Jesus gives those words to his disciples, the disciples give those words to their disciples, and so on until much later disciples give those words to ___ (me / us!)
That’s right, you, me, and all of us! Because all of us are invited to be in the sequence of sharing the good news and God’s words with others.

And that is the good news for today. Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

...who received your words…

...and shared them with the disciples…

…who shared them with other disciples…

…until we received them.

Help us to share your words, too.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted May 10, 2015

Updated on April 12, 2024

Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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