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Children’s Sermon

Mark 12:28-34

The Greatest Commandment

November 3, 2024

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Year B

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

Good morning!
Sometimes it’s a good thing to re-introduce ourselves.
So let’s do that today. I’m going to tell you my name and then, to save time, I want all of you to tell me your name – all at the same time.
I’ll count to three and then go ahead and say your name nice and loud. And dear members of the congregation – you’re welcome to join in as well!
Ready? 1….2….3!
[ point at the kids and congregation – garbled cacophony ensues ]
OK – let’s see if I heard you correctly
[ point at a general area of kids and be sure to use names that none of the kids have for the following line ] I think someone over here said their name was Wonder Woman and over here was a Luke Skywalker and I think someone over here said Pastor [name of pastor preaching that day]
How did I do? (terrible!)
What? I did? Well, that’s surprising! Why do you think I got so many names wrong? (because we were all talking at the same time)
You know – it WAS pretty loud, there, for a moment when you all said your names at the same time. What do you think would’ve worked better? (to let each person take a turn at saying their name).

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

In today’s scripture story, Jesus and another teacher spoke with each other about the most important thing we can do to help us pay attention to God.
They agreed that the most important thing is to listen to God and love God with with “all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”
Because of their agreement with this answer, I was thinking about how we can best listen to God and love God with all our heart, mind, and strength when life is so noisy.

I mean, just a few minutes ago, it was so noisy I couldn’t even hear your names. If life is that noisy, how am I or anyone else going to be able to listen to God?

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

Thankfully, there are a number of stories of Jesus listening to God that show us how we, too, can listen to God in a noisy and busy life.
What we see Jesus do over and over again is find a quiet place and make time and space for prayer.
In other words, Jesus keeps making time and space to talk with God – which includes giving God a turn to speak, just like I should’ve given each of you a turn to share your name, earlier on.
For us, this might look like making time in the morning with your mom or dad to pray before the day starts or maybe make a time to pray before bedtime.
When we make this time and space for prayer, then we’re giving God a turn to speak to us, just like God spoke to Jesus.
And 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 shows us…

…how to listen for you…

…in our noisy lives.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted October 18, 2015

Updated on October 3, 2024

Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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