This children’s sermon was given to our livestream audience on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020, during our coronavirus pandemic.
Good morning, girls and boys! How are you doing? I hope you’re hanging in there.
Did you wave your palms today? You can still grab a branch for our next hymn if you want to. It’s a fun way to honor Jesus, even if we can’t be here together.
I wonder what it was like for Jesus, seeing people celebrating him, but knowing things would change later that week. I bet he enjoyed hearing people shouting their love for God, & putting their palms and cloaks on the ground- a parade.
Have you ever been to a parade honoring someone famous ? Maybe a famous football team you love?
We like to make a big deal about the good people do.
But Jesus was different, wasn’t he? He was God’s son. Was Jesus’s goal to be famous?
Jesus lived his life for other people. To teach them- and us- how to love each other and what God is like. To teach us how to live with each other, and serve each other. How to stop thinking all the time about getting things – but to think instead about giving things away. How to stop thinking about being the most important and to start thinking about people we consider the least important.
This day is for Jesus, but I wonder if Jesus would like us to think of others who right now are helping others like Jesus did, that you might want to give a parade for? People like Jesus, who serve other people? People like Jesus, who do what’s really important, even when it’s hard?
Maybe during quarantine it’s people like this:
People who work taking care of sick
People who work to make sure we have what we need, like truck drivers
People like teachers and people who aren’t really teachers, but are trying to help you learn.
People like you, who are trying to be helpful in your family right now?
We don’t have to be famous for doing good to be like Jesus, do we? We just try to do what we can- like the person who we’ll never know the name, who loaned the donkey for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem. But we know he/she was willing to help in his little way. We can do that too, and that’s a good way to honor Jesus as we get close to Easter.
Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for Jesus and all that he’s still teaching us. Help us as we try to love and serve others like he did. We love you, God. Amen.