B, Easter
Children’s
Sermon—Easter Outside Service The Rev.
Everybody likes to get awards—right? What awards have you been given? (perfect attendance, soccer, playing baseball, science fair.)
If God gave you an award—what kind of award might you get? Would God give you an award for being a good daughter or a good son? What would you do to get one of these awards?--Do you help mom and dad out—raise your hand? Do you listen to them—touch nose. Do they do what they ask you to do—if so rub your belly. If you do these things God might give you an award for being a good son/daughter.
How many of you have a brother or sister—raise your hand. If you think God would give you an award for being a good brother/sister?—Raise your hand. What would you do to get one of these awards?—have you been nice to them lately? (Do share and let them play with your toys?)
Now, what about your mom and dad? Would they get an award for being a good parent?...I bet they would. (They bring you to St. Philip’s—so that must be worth something!) Parents if you think you would get an award for being a good parent—rub your belly.
Let’s see…what other kind of awards might God give to us?
The Chalice Players just did a skit for us and an award was given. What happened—what did the group receive? (The Eternal Life Award)
Wouldn’t it be great to be get one of those awards? Wouldn’t you like an Eternal Life Award? I would—I definitely want one of those.
How do you get one? What would you do to get one of those?
The Good News is that God wants to give us one of these awards. God loves us more than we can imagine. God has already seen to it that if we want one of these…each of us can have one.
Jesus went to the Cross and was killed. Jesus died. But God
raised Jesus from the dead—we call it the Resurrection. You
might say that God gave Jesus an Eternal Life Award.
What do we do to get one? We don’t have to go to the Cross like Jesus, but God asks us to do certain things. God asks us to believe and have faith in him. God asks us to trust. God asks us to live a certain way. God asks us to make promises about they way we’ll live and the way we’ll treat people.
When do we first make these promises to God? At Baptism: Our Baptism is when we make these promises to God. That’s why Baptism is such a big deal. You might say that, our Baptism is when God promises to give each one of us an Eternal Life Award.
Who’s been baptized? Raise your hand. God has promised to give you the same award that God gave to Jesus. God promises to give each of us eternal life.
If you were a baby when you were Baptized, your parents made promises. In a little while we’ll Baptize some children and you’ll hear their parents making promises for them—just like your parents made promises for you. They promised to raise you in a Christian home. If you think about it, they promised to bring you here today and they promised to keep bringing you here. That’s your parent’s way of keeping their promises to God and to you. Whenever they bring you to St. Philip’s they are fulfilling the promises they made.
They also spoke for you and promised that you would believe in God and trust God and that you would live a certain way. In a few years many of you will go through the Rite 13 Ceremony and later through Confirmation. You’ll have the opportunity to speak for yourself and again make these promises. At that point it becomes your responsibility to keep these promises.
Remember, on Easter, God did something important. In fact God did something very special. God gave Jesus an Eternal Life Award. On Easter we celebrate the fact that like Jesus, God has also promised to give each of us an Eternal Life Award.
To help you remember that God loves you and that God has given this to you, we have these awards for you. My friends at the back will help me pass them out. Make sure you get one.
Remember, on Easter, God gave Jesus an Eternal Life Award. On Easter we celebrate the fact that like Jesus, God has also promised to give each of us an Eternal Life Award.
Amen.