Previous Posts – Click to View

April 2024
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

The Wages of Sin

Baabara the Sheep wants a job, but first she has to learn about wages. Grudge the Rat wants an easy job for lots of money. It’s best to find out the wages of the work before you agree to do the job. A hard but healthy job with a good wage is better than an easy, destructive job with a deadly wage. Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ

Continue reading The Wages of Sin

What Are the Wages?

Year A – Proper 8 – June 28, 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 6:20 – 23 “In those days when you were slaves of sin you didn’t bother much with goodness. And what was the result? Evidently not good, since you are ashamed now even to think about those things you used to do, for all of them end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and are slaves of God, and his benefits to you include

Continue reading What Are the Wages?

A Higher Love

Year A – Proper 7 – Matthew 10:24-39

“Father and Son” by Shai Yossef – Click link to purchase art

You might think that today’s Gospel lesson is a bit strange to be the reading for the Sunday that happens to be Father’s Day. Today we honor fathers and we remember that the Bible often refers to God as our Father. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say “Our Father, who art in heaven,” or “Dear Father in heaven, may your name be holy.” And

Continue reading A Higher Love

Facing the Wolves

Year A – Revised Common Lectionary – Proper 6 – June 14, 2020

Scriptures: Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)

If a sheep went up against a wolf in a battle out in the wilderness, who would probably win? One of the animals is a predator with sharp teeth and the other has no natural defenses besides the ability to see a predator sneaking up from behind and the ability to run away.

But what if a sheep under the protection of a shepherd with a long

Continue reading Facing the Wolves

Trinity Sunday and Family

Baabara has questions about the Holy Trinity. Do God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit treat each other well? What does it mean to be three-in-one? If God is the Father of us all, how should we treat each other? And when is a good time to read Winnie-the-Pooh?

Three in One – Trinity

A Children’s Sermon for the first Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday – RCL Year A

Scriptures: Matthew 28:16-20 and 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Today is the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is also called “Trinity Sunday.” This is a Sunday when we remember that God is three persons in one God. Throughout history, humans have struggled with this idea, and some have even started new religions because they could not understand how God could be One being and Three persons at the same time.

Continue reading Three in One – Trinity

Baabara and the Language of Love

It’s Pentecost, and she’s wearing her red scarf in honor of the day, but Baabara the Sheep is gloomy. She cannot talk about God’s love in many languages. She wishes that she could speak fluent Japanese to the kids in the orphanages in Japan where she teaches English. She wants them to know how much she loves them. But isn’t she already fluent in the “Language of Love?”

(Permission granted to include this video children’s message in online Sunday services.)

See JOEE.jp for more information

Continue reading Baabara and the Language of Love

Staring or Preparing?

 A 5-minute children’s sermon for Ascension Sunday is embedded below. You have permission to use this video to augment an online Sunday service broadcast.

What should we be doing while waiting for Jesus to return? Simply staring up at the sky? After Jesus ascended to heaven on Mount Olivet, the disciples were left standing there, staring and reluctant to move until a couple of angels appeared. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been

Continue reading Staring or Preparing?

Without a Doubt

The disciples knew that Jesus was the Light of the world; he had told them so. They had seen in his life, words, and miracles, a glimpse of the glory of God. It was as if they were looking at a lamp with its light shaded from view, sort of like this lamp. (Show lamp with shade.) When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, it’s as if the shade was taken away and the disciples could see the true brightness of God’s glory.

Continue reading Without a Doubt

Shepherd and Door

Did you know that in Bible times, a couple thousand years ago, being a door was part of a shepherd’s job? The sheep pen was usually a stone wall built in a circle with only one opening. So after the shepherd had gathered all the sheep into the pen for the night, he would have to lie down across the opening to guard the sheep. The only way a wolf could get in was through that door, so the wolf would have to deal with the shepherd first. Do you think a good shepherd would let a wolf through that door? No sir! The shepherd would drive the wolf away!

Continue reading Shepherd and Door