Sermon for the Children

This week I had the opportunity to give my first children's sermon at our family church.  Ollie, you spent the night at G&G's so you didn't come.  When I read the sermon to your dad, he made me promise to read it to you.  

Darling readers, the verse upon which my sermon was based is my favorite verse of all time, and you've already been introduced to it here on this blog.  Obviously, God was playing his hand with mighty force, because this was the verse given to me that the congregation was learning this Sunday morning.  

Here's my sermon:

It's really hard to be a kid, isn't it?  Everyone's telling you what to do - your parents, your grandma and grandpa, older brothers and sisters, your teachers - and you never get to do what you want to do!  And then there are all the choices you have to make: what to eat for breakfast, what to make for the Science Fair, who you want to play with at recess...it's messy, this living, isn't it?

And then there are the hard choices.  Right?  You know which ones I'm talking about.  Like whether or not to laugh at that mean joke your best friend said.  Or whether to act like you don't see that person getting bullied so you don't have to get involved.  Or whether to tell Mom that yeah, it was you that accidentally left the water running in the bathroom.  Those are the hard decisions, aren't they?  They're the ones that if you make the wrong choice, even if no one notices, you kind of feel icky about it afterwards.  Right?

Let me tell you something: it's hard to be a grown-up sometimes, too.  We have those same hard decisions, and sometimes we don't make the right ones.

I'm going to tell you something that I've never told anyone.  I have a verse, from the Bible, that's my secret weapon when I have to make these hard decisions.  It's my favorite verse of all time and it's one that everyone is reading today.  It's Micah, chapter 6, verse 2 and it goes like this:

He has shown you, O mortal (that's us), what is good

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

And to walk humbly with your God. 

Now, let's break it down.  What does "act justly" mean?  It means to be fair, peaceful and respectful.  Do you know what the golden rule is?  It means to treat everyone the way you want to be treated.  That's what "act justly" means.

What does "love mercy" mean?  It means to forgive everyone - even the people you might not like, or the people who you don't think deserve your forgiveness.  It means to be compassionate and put yourselves in their shoes - or look at things from their perspective.  That's what "love mercy" means.

So, now, what does "walk humbly" mean?  This one's a little bit difficult.  It means that you aren't always the star of the show.  You're not the most important person in the room.  Who is?  That's right, God!  And when you let God work through you or speak through you, He's always the star of the show. And that's what "walk humbly" means.

The verse says that God's already shown us what the right thing is to do.  That's that icky feeling - it tells you that you knew what the right thing was to do all along.  It's God saying, "Eh, eh, eh!  You messed up.  Go back and do it again!"

We have to be fair and respectful of all of God's creatures - from the teeniest ant to the biggest sixth grader - and we have to forgive everyone.  We have to put ourselves in other people's shoes from time to time and listen to what they're really saying.  And lastly, we have to remember that we're not the star of the show - who is?  Yep, God.

And when we do this, oh my word, God will be so happy!  Even if people down here on earth think that you're a bit lame for always being the good kid and they make fun of you, God is up there SMILING!  Oh man, He'll be so happy!  I imagine God is sitting up there watching you, and he puts his hands over his mouth and shouts over to Peter - "Hey Peter! Didja see this?" "Matthew, Matthew!  Come over here and look at our boy!" "Mary!  I toldja he'd do the right thing!  Didn't I tell you?"  And everyone's up in Heaven cheering you on.

What's more, you won't have that icky feeling in your belly anymore.  Because you did the right thing.

Wanna try and do the right thing with me?  Just for today - let's just see what happens.  And if it works, and you feel good, try it tomorrow - because school is always a little harder.  I promise, the more you make these good decisions and smart choices, the easier it will get.  Try this every day and next week come and tell me about the good choices that you made!  Let's celebrate your good choices together!

Okay, let's pray.  Eyes closed, head bowed, hands together.  Repeat after me:

Dear Lord,

Please give me eyes that see the best in people.

Please give me a heart that forgives the worst.

Please give me a mind that forgets the bad,

And a mouth that says the good.

Please give me a soul that never loses faith in You.

Thank you, Lord, for these hard choices.

Amen.

(And what does Amen mean?  That's right - SEND!)

After the sermon was Sunday School, and the kids read the story about The Good Samaritan and learned how to be a good neighbor.  Together, we definitely pushed the kindness factor to the brink for these kids.

It's a good thing, too.  While I'm working very hard to have compassion for our new President, it's going to be one of my mountainous struggles.  With the orders he is signing, the blatant lies he's normalizing, the total disregard for public officials and laws (and humanity in general), and the chaos surrounding his cabinet, confirmation hearings, cut programs, refugee-Muslim-immigrant-visitor bans, building walls and leaking dossiers, ET CETERA right now - more kindness being taught in this world will never be a bad thing - and that's where I'm going to focus my time. 

Let's all be Good Samaritans.  Let's remember to be good neighbors, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078

My brilliant family at the Women's March in St. Paul

January 21, 2017