Our START Sunday (Sunday School kick-off) theme for 2010 was "Community Under Construction." The Scripture reading was the parable of the lost sheep. The following Children's Sermon was my attempt to tie it all together. (By the way, this was my first ever Children's Sermon).
Well hello there. Welcome. I have a question for you: How many of you like doing puzzles?
Now here’s another question: How many of you have ever done
a puzzle and you were almost finished when you realized that a piece was
missing? Have you ever had that
happen? What did you do? [Wait for responses.] If my puzzle was missing a piece I'd start looking for it right away---check the box again, then maybe see if it fell off the table or got kicked under the couch. And guess
what? If and when I find that missing puzzle
piece I am so excited! Do you know
why? I am so excited when I find the
missing piece because with puzzles every piece matters!
And you know what?
Here at Samuel Church we are like a puzzle---a giant
puzzle that God is constantly adding new pieces to---and each one of us is like
a puzzle piece---a very important puzzle
piece because each one of us matters to God. Every piece is important to God---so
important that if any one of us gets lost, God goes searching for us. And you know what happens when we are
found? God is so overjoyed---it’s a big
celebration!
We’re celebrating here at church today too---we’re
celebrating the START of Sunday school and welcoming new and old friends back
for the start of a new school year. And
to help us remember what we’ve been talking about today, I have here something
for each of you----and all of you [gesturing
to congregation]---a puzzle piece for you to write your name on and decorate to represent you! And here’s the really fun part: after
everyone has made their puzzle pieces, we’re going to put them all together and
make a giant puzzle on the wall in the Ziercher room to remind ourselves
that we are a community under construction and that every piece matters! How does that sound?
Let us pray: God we thank you that you’ve made each of us
unique and that every one of us matters to you.
As we begin the START of a new school year we pray that you would
continue to build us up into a community that seeks out those who are lost and rejoices
with you when the lost are found.
Amen.