The Sacred Steps: First Sunday in Lent
March 9, 2025
- “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” What does this verse mean to you? You could craft a children’s sermon around your thoughts on that verse. What might it mean to the children?
- Does trusting God mean that bad things will not happen? What happens when your trust in God is broken? Children may have experienced “broken trust” in many different ways: through loss of a pet, moving from one community to another, or losing a parent to death or divorce. Be cautious when talking about “trusting” in God, friends, or family.
- You could bring out the images of God poster and add “bird” to the list: “The Lord will cover you with pinions, under the Lord’s wings you will find shelter.” God provides “shelter”. Can the children think of other images for that word?
- This is an opportunity to talk with the children about the offering ritual (practice) that your congregation observes. Is there an “offertory sentence” or an “invitation to give” followed by the receiving of “tithes and offerings”? Does the “doxology” and/or a prayer follow the receiving of the offering? You could talk with the children about the “why” behind what you do during worship. Take a risk and ask the children to help you understand what the “offering time” means for your congregation and piece together their observational knowledge with your own to teach them about the meaning of the offering during worship in your congregation.
- This is an opportunity to talk with the children about how your congregation’s offering supports the different ministries in which your congregation is involved. What exactly does your congregation do with the monies received or the time volunteers give?
- Does your church have a creed or statement of belief that you could teach to the children? If you are part of a non-creedal tradition, is there a “story/history”, which is important in the congregation’s history, that you could teach the children. The words in Deut 26:5-10a are a way that Israel could briefly recount the “story” of their ancestors. How can the children claim this story as their own?
- If you have not done so, this is an opportunity to talk with the children about who Paul is. Who is he, what do we know about him, and why is he a key character in the Christian story?
- If you have an older group, one way to put the children into the story is to engage them in the following exercise: “What is more important – to believe in Jesus or to live how Jesus lived? If you think it is to believe in Jesus, move to the left side of the steps. If you think it is to live the way Jesus lived, move to the right side of the steps.” Once they are divided, if they move, you could talk about the story from Romans and how the church that Paul was addressing was having this same conversation. How are we similar or different from those people in the story? What did Jesus teach?
- Consider talking with the children about balancing their beliefs with how they practice what Jesus taught. How would you build the phrase “actions speak louder than words” into a children’s sermon?
- This is an opportunity to talk with the children about the humanity of Jesus. Are there common elements of what tempted Jesus and what tempts us today? One could talk with the children about the motivation to do good things or bad things. How do we make choices in difficult situations?
- We see in this story an image of Jesus choosing the unpopular path, rather than the easy way, or answer. What do Jesus’ answers to the temptations tell us about God, and about Jesus’ belief in God, that can help us today?
- If you have an older group, you might choose to talk with the children about being tempted, or motivated, to do something charitable or about doing the right thing, even when it is a hard choice.