___________________________________________________

Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Packing Our Suitcase, Mark 6:1-13
  by Rev. Randy Quinn            (see below)
   

• Little Jobs, Mark 6:1-13, by Janet in MD (see below)
   

• Believe It Or Not
  a children's sermon based on Mark 6:1-13
  by Rev Frank Schaefer  (scroll down)

___________________________________________________
 

Packing Our Suitcase
Mark 6:1-13
by Rev. Randy Quinn

I have a suitcase with me today.  I am planning a trip.  I think I want to go on a canoe in a river.  Can you help me decide if I have the right things with me?

Let’s see what I have here.

Ø  I have my winter jacket.  (The water might be cold.)

Ø  I have a book to read (and a dictionary in case there’s a word I don’t know).

Ø  I have a picture of my mom and dad.

Ø  I have a puzzle to work on.

What do you think?  None of these things are right for a canoe trip, are they?  What kinds of things should I really take with me?  (Sunscreen, a cooler that floats, a life jacket, etc.)

Do you want to know the truth?  Last Monday, our family went on a canoe trip.  We got into a bus and rode up river where we got into a canoe and headed down the river to where we began the trip.  It only took us about 20 minutes to drive up river.  It took us over four hours to get back.

Before we left, I told everyone to bring whatever they wanted to bring – but to remember that it might get wet and it might fall to the bottom of the river and never come back.

And guess what happened?  Along the way, we tipped the boat over and everything we had with us got wet.  But no one got hurt and the only thing we didn’t catch was a pair of sunglasses.

In the scripture for today, Jesus tells the Disciples to go and tell people about him.  What do you think they need for that trip?  (A Bible, maybe; not much else.)

I want you to listen to the scripture because I think you’re right.  They didn’t need extra things because extra things would just slow them down.  All they needed to do was to trust God to be with them and to take care of them.

Let’s pray:

God, help us be prepared to tell people about you wherever we go.  Help us remember that we don’t always need as much as we want.  Teach us to trust you to take care of us no matter where we are or what we do.  Amen.

 

---

 

Little Jobs
a children's sermon based on Mark 6:1-13
by Janet in MD
  

Working with the first half of the Mark 6 text, where the home-town folks refuse to validate Jesus' ministry:

Bring a worm to church. Do you know what worms do? Worms break up the soil so plant roots can reach into it. Worms eat up dead plants and turn them into rich dirt with lots of vitamins for new plants. If worms didn't do their job, plants couldn't grow.

Do you think this worm ever had anyone tell it that it's doing a good job? No? Do you think its family ever said "you're a great little worm, keep up the good work?" Probably not. Do you think it ever had a worm parade, a worm school assembly, or worm recognition in worm church? Nah. Worms just go about their worm business, getting the soil soft and nice, and nobody ever thanks them, even though they are doing God's work, really.

Being a Christian is like that, sometimes. God has lots of little jobs for us to do -- being kind, forgiving people, helping the poor, sharing -- and sometimes nobody notices when we do them. Some of you are old enough that you get report cards from school. There is nothing on your report card that says what a good Christian you are! When you are kind to your brother or sister, your family probably isn't going to stop and hold a parade for you.

But just like the worm, every little thing we do for God is important, even when it seems like nobody notices. All those little acts add up to help make the world the place God wants it to be. Even if nobody says thank-you. God always notices.

 

---

Believe It Or Not
a children's sermon based on Mark 6:1-13
by Rev Frank Schaefer
Props: rings from a magic set (the kind that have the tiny gap in them), a Rubik's cube, or a slide puzzle

Good morning, my little friends.  Today I brought these two rings with me.  As you can see they are interlocked and connected. Do you think that they could be separated?  Who wants to give it a try?  (Pick a young volunteer--The idea is that the child won't be able to separate the rings because they don't think it can be done).  After having the child try for a while, show them and explain how it can be done (by lining up the gaps and pulling the rings apart).   Then have the same child do it.

Good job!!  You see, all you needed was a little faith in yourself and in the fact that it can be done.  This is a perfect example of many things in life that we cannot do because we don't have enough faith.  Hold up the Rubik's cube.  For example: when I first saw this Rubik's cube and tried to do it, I became convinced that nobody could get all the colors on one side.  But then I saw how someone did it.  And this boy did it really fast, too.  And that's all it took for me to be able to do it myself.  I just needed a little faith that it could be done.

Our bible lesson this morning is about the time when Jesus went back to his hometown.  He had traveled for quite some time and everywhere he went, Jesus had healed a lot of people and performed many miracles.  But, do you think Jesus could heal anybody in his own town?  No, he could not because people did not have faith.   They didn't think Jesus could heal anyone.  They were thinking: "isn't this little Jesus, the carpenter's son?  Why would he be able to do any miracles?"

And so, because people didn't have faith, because they didn't believe it was possible, Jesus could actually not do any miracles in his hometown.  How sad, isn't it?

The lesson we can learn from all this is that we should always have faith in God.  If we only believe that God answers our prayers, he can do it.  If we only believe that God can save us, he can do it.  If we only believe that God will open doors for us, he can do it.  Amen.