This Children’s sermon was given May 31, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. I’m sharing it here in case it’s useful to someone.
Good morning, girls and boys! Happy Pentecost to you! Since it’s Pentecost, I brought you a cake. I wish I could hand it through the computer or tv or radio to give it to you! It has a candle on it. Do you know why?
That’s right. It’s the birthday of someone special- or someONEs special I should say. It’s not Jesus’s birthday, is it? It’s the birthday of the church!
Today we celebrate the day that the disciples started doing what Jesus said! Today we celebrate that they became the church! They started going out and telling Jesus’s story, even though he wasn’t there. The church was born!
And since it’s a birthday, Today the gift arrives! And it makes an amazing entrance!
Do you remember what it is and how it came? Vivian read us the story.
Jerusalem was jam packed with Jewish people from all over going to temple to celebrate Pentecost (Shavuot) – the 50 days between the exodus and when God gave Moses the 10 commandments. Some say the disciples were back in the upper room. Suddenly they heard the sound of a big wind! Bits of fire seemed to dance around each person. Even their tongues felt on fire, they felt so much JOY!
They had to tell people so that rushed outside and started talking in all these languages- People must have thought they were crazy!
So what did we get for our birthday? And how would it help us be a better church for God?
It was the holy spirit! Some people use the symbol of the dove- remember when Jesus was baptized and God’s spirit came down it reminded people of dove. Some people call the Holy Spirit The Comforter, which I like sometimes, to imagine God’s spirit wrapped around me, comforting me. But in today’s story God’s spirit is all about Power and Mightiness and extreme JOY. It looks like fire!
Whatever you imagine it to look like, the holy spirit still will help you and me today:
- See what we’ve done wrong and points us to God
- Helps us do what is right
- Helps us understand the Bible,
- Prays for us when our hearts are so heavy that we don’t know what to pray for.
- Helps us find our special gifts so we can use them for God.
It’s the perfect gift for serving God! It’s just what we needed then. And what we need now!
Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you giving us the Holy Spirit. We need it, God. Open our eyes to see what the spirit can show us: what we’ve done wrong, and how to do right, and understand you better. We love you God. Amen.
