Breathe

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

– John 20:19-23

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Today’s story reminds me of something I do a lot when I practice yoga: breathe.

So I want everyone to take a deep breath and then exhale as slowly as you can.

Let’s do that two more times.

Breathing is very important to our bodies. God made us so that we need to breathe the air around us in order to live. Not only that, but he made it so that the breath can be something that calms us. When ever you feel scared or worried, you might start to breath really fast, but if you slow down your breathing, you can be calm and feel better.

When you’re exercising, the breath is important. Your muscles need the oxygen that you breathe in order to work.

It’s so interesting to me that something that we do all day without really thinking about it can be so important. Babies are born knowing how to breathe. When someone can’t breathe, CPR can help restart the breath.

What we breathe in is important, too. If we lived somewhere with heavy pollution, it could be dangerous to spend too much time outside. Or if we work around paint fumes, dust, or chemicals, we need a special kind of mask to protect ourselves. This last year has shown us how important the air we breathe is because of COVID being passed through our breath. That’s why we have been wearing masks for so long.

In today’s gospel story, John tells us that when Jesus appeared to his disciples, he breathed on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit travelled into the disciples through the air they breathed in. The promised helper that Jesus had talked about was now here and it arrived on the breath of Jesus.

Take another deep breath in for me and then a slow exhale.

Every time you do that, remember you are filled with the Holy Spirit, too. He is here with you and gives you the power of God for whatever you need him for.

Now that’s some good news.

Pray with me.

Hey Jesus, thank you for this day and for this moment with your children. Help us to be more mindful of our breath and the air we take in. Help us to remember that we are capable of great things because of you, because you breathed the Holy Spirit into the world for us. Thank you. Amen.

It is Finished

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

-- John 20:1-2, 11-18

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On the Friday that Jesus was crucified, as he died, he cried out, “It is finished!”

His followers all thought that moment was the end. Many walked away from the cross with despair in their hearts. Joseph of Arimathea took the body, wrapped him white cloths and laid him in a tomb. The Roman soldiers rolled a giant stone over the entrance.

How could this be? How could Jesus die after only 3 years? Wasn’t he supposed to save them? Wasn’t he supposed to become king? Wasn’t he supposed to fix everything?

And now he was dead. He’d allowed himself to be arrested. He allowed himself to be hung on the cross. When he was mocked and told to get down, he could have done it. But he didn’t. He died.

So, of course, this must be the end. Right?

It was the end of his ministry.

It was the end of his rebellion.

It was the end of the Pharisee’s trouble.

When Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”, is this what he meant?

Then Sunday morning’s sun began to rise and Mary Magdalene and some other women went to take care of the body. But when they got there…

The stone was rolled away.

The tomb was empty.

At first, Mary thought the body had been stolen.

But behind her a voice called to her.

A voice she would know anywhere.

A voice that said her name in a way that only Jesus had.

Jesus’s job on earth was finished. He had died on the cross to save us – all of us, even though you and I weren’t even born yet. But that was not the end. It was only the beginning.

Pray with me.

Jesus, I have no words for you today. I have no way of expressing the way I feel this and every Easter Sunday. Just remembering how you died for me and then rose again leaves me speechless. All I can say is thank you. Thank you for the love you have shown me. Thank you for your sacrifice. Help me to not give up when the world tells me it’s over. With you, each ending is just a new beginning. Amen.  

Jesus Parade

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

“Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” -- Matthew 21:1-11

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When you think about a parade what kinds of things do you think about?

Candy?
Floats?
Firetrucks?
Marching bands?

What about that seen from Aladdin with he comes into Agrabah? He’s pretending to be Prince Ali and he’s riding an elephant! He’s surrounded by piles of gold, peacocks, camels, belly dancers, and all sorts of things that just scream “THIS GUY IS A RICH PRINCE!”

What about today’s scripture? Does that sound like a parade?

Let me read it again. Verses 8 and 9 say, “Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting,

“Praise God for the Son of David!

    Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

    Praise God in highest heaven!””

Well, what do you think? Was that a parade? Is that how you would expect a king to come riding into town?

Well, it’s certainly nothing like Aladdin, is it? Jesus chose to come into Jerusalem riding a donkey. A stinky, low, pack animal, not an elephant or a camel or a horse.

People carried palm branches and threw down their coats in front of him as he rode into town, they cheered and sang for him, but it was not something he asked them to do. They believed Jesus was coming to save them, and he was, but not in the way they thought. They thought he was going to be their king and rule over them instead of the Roman government. But that’s not what he planned to do, was it?

Jesus came to save us. That’s the good news. He rode into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, knowing how the week would end. He knew that those same people shouting “Praise God in highest heaven!” would be shouting “Crucify him!” just a few days later. And yet he came anyway. He let them sing praises and cheer for him. And he allowed himself to be arrested later that week. He followed God’s will and was crucified – saving us the only he could, by paying the price of death for sin.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, I don’t know how you did it. I don’t know how you had the strength and the love for us to allow yourself to be hurt they way you were. I don’t know how you could love us so much to die for us. You saved us in the only way that could work. I am so grateful that you did what no other could do. Help me to love the way you love. In a way that gives up something of myself for others. In your name I pray, amen.

Jesus’s Riddle

23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
John 12:23-26

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Did you notice the riddle in today’ scripture? Let me read it for you again. It’s verse 25.

“Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.”

I wonder what Jesus meant when he said this. Do you have any ideas?

Jesus says that those who love their life will lose it. What does it mean to love your life? Can there be ways where loving your life is an ok thing to do?

I think when Jesus talks about loving your life, he means when we put ourselves first, when we love ourselves or our comfortable life more than we love others. What can happen when we are more concerned about ourselves that we are with other people?

We stop noticing people. We stop seeing their needs. We stop seeing them as children of God. We start being mean to them. We stop sharing with them. We become mean people with hardened hearts, unable to do God’s work. We lose our chance at life with Him.

But remember the other half of the riddle? Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. What does Jesus mean here?

I think Jesus means that when we stop worrying so much about ourselves and our comforts or cares. What can happen when we worry about ourselves less?

We start noticing other people. We notice their needs. We see people as children of God. We are kind to them. We share with them. We become loving people who are open and willing to do God’s work. We gain eternity with Him.

So here’s the good news in this nugget of Scripture: Believing in Jesus means we choose to follow Him and we choose God’s work over ourselves and our comforts and when we do that, we get to be with God forever. Choosing to follow Jesus could mean bringing a donation to church instead of buying a new toy. What else could it mean?

There are a lot of good ways we choose to follow Jesus. I pray that you will choose that today!

Let’s pray:

Hey God. Today we choose you. We choose to follow your Son and do your work here in Barbourville. Help us notice people who need You. Help us notice people’s needs, whether it be prayer or food or clothes or whatever we can do for them. Help us to do your work each day. Give us the strength and compassion to keep us going. Amen.

God’s Report Cards

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” John 3:14-21

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Zurbarán, Francisco, 1598-1664.
 Crucifixion, from Art in the Christian Tradition,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.
http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=47447
[retrieved February 12, 2015].
Original source: http://www.yorckproject.de

I have a picture today that I want to show you – what is this?

This is a crucifix. How is it different from the cross hanging behind me?

the cross in our sanctuary

The cross in our church is empty! Why would that be?

The crucifix shows Jesus on the cross – as John says in the scriptures I just read, God gave his only Son. That’s Jesus. God gave him up for us. He allowed him to die on the cross. But he didn’t stay there. After he died and was buried, he rose again. He lived on the earth for 40 more days and then went to Heaven to be with God. That is why our cross is empty.

As important as this message is, the scriptures don’t end there. The very next line is “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world,” and “there is no judgment against anyone who believes in him.” I think this is just as important. We live in a world that is full of judgement, don’t we? It’s report card season for many kids and we get graded or judged by our teachers. Our parents may judge us based on those report cards. If our grades are bad, that might mean we don’t get to play with friends or watch TV. We tend to think of getting good grades as being a good thing, but having that expectation of your parents and teachers can be hard, too. It can make you feel stuck – you have to keep making those same good grades.

But what if God gave us report cards? Does that worry you? It shouldn’t! Remember, God sent Jesus not to judge us or grade us, but to save us and love us!  If you believe in God and if you believe that Jesus died on the cross to save you, then you are not judged! Now what about those times that we do bad things? We mess up and say mean words to people or we disobey our parents. Does God judge us then? I don’t think so. I think he continues to love us and help us be better next time. Now that’s some good news.

One last thing – who is all this love and saving for?  That’s right! It’s for Everyone!  So, you may have noticed in our bulletins for today, we have a cross on the back. I want everyone – including you grown ups – to take some time and write the names or draw pictures of those who Jesus died to save. You can take it home when you’re done and use it to pray for those people.

Let’s take some time to pray for them right now.

God, thank you for sending your Son for us. He died on the cross so that we could be with you forever, no matter the mistakes we make, when we’re sorry, you love us enough to forgive us. You didn’t send Jesus to judge us and make us feel bad. You sent Him to show us what love really is. Thank you. You didn’t do that just for us, you did it for everyone. We ask for help in telling other people this good news so they can know you and your love, too. Amen.

God’s Good Laws

And God spoke all these words:

 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

 “You shall have no other gods before me.

 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,  but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

 “You shall not murder.

 “You shall not commit adultery.

 “You shall not steal.

 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

– Exodus 20:1-17

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This morning’s scripture was about the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses to give to his people as they wandered in the dessert. So, I want to start off with a question.

What is a commandment?

A commandment is a law or a rule that we must obey. What do you guys think about rules? Do you like them?

Most people probably instinctively say they don’t like rules, because they want to do what they want when they want and how they want, but rules can be really useful. Just like rules in a board game, laws tell us how to play the game of life. Through laws, we learn how to behave, what is allowed, and what isn’t. In short, rules or laws help us figure out the world around us. Most children actually are best behaved when they know the rules and know what to expect!

There’s another bit of scripture I want to share with you. This one uses words like “law”, “rules”, and “commands” to name God’s laws. I want you to pay attention to how this psalm describes God’s laws.

The law of the Lord is perfect.
    It gives us new strength.
The laws of the Lord can be trusted.
    They make childish people wise.
The rules of the Lord are right.
    They give joy to our hearts.
The commands of the Lord shine brightly.
    They give light to our minds.
The law that brings respect for the Lord is pure.
    It lasts forever.
The commands the Lord gives are true.
    All of them are completely right.
They are more priceless than gold.
    They have greater value than huge amounts of pure gold.
They are sweeter than honey
    that is taken from the honeycomb.
Your servant is warned by them.
    When people obey them, they are greatly rewarded.
                                                                                        -Psalm 19:7-11

According to this psalm, are rules a good thing? Why?

The laws of God give us strength, make us wise, give us joy, shine light, are pure, last forever, are true, and are completely right. Even more than that, they are more priceless than gold and sweeter than honey! Do you believe that?

The last verse I read says that those who obey God’s laws are greatly rewarded. Do you know what the reward is? Is it big houses and lots of money and fancy cars? NO WAY!

The reward for obeying God’s laws is life in heaven with him forever. Now that is some good news.

Pray with me.

Hey God, thank you so much for your laws. They help guide us and tell us what to expect. Teach us to be more willing to follow your laws. Help us to see that they are good, so good that they are sweeter than honey! And thank you for the reward you offer us – life with you in heaven which is made possible by your son Jesus. Amen.

God Keeps His Promises

So, maybe you have noticed, but when I come here to chat with you guys about scripture, I try to share some good news with you. I do that because Jesus tells us to go out and share the good news, but sometimes it can be hard to know exactly what that means. The stories I share with you are good news that you can share with the people you love to help them know about God.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent so I want to take a moment to explain to you what that means.

Lent – L-E-N-T, not the stuff you find on your shirt, is a time period of 40 days, not including Sundays, before Easter. It’s a time where we prepare our hearts for remembering the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Can you think of other time the number 40 appears in the bible?

– 40 days of rain in the Noah story

– 40 years wandering in the wilderness

– Jesus’s 40 days in the wilderness

Forty days is a long time to prepare for something, don’t you think? We don’t even spend 40 days preparing for Christmas, usually, do we?

But we spend 40 days in Lent, getting ready for Easter and Noah spent 40 days in the ark while the rains came down. Even after the rain stopped, Noah had to stay in the ark with his family and all those animals until the water went down and it was safe for them to leave.

Finally, after they were able to leave the ark and set foot on dry land, God made Noah a promise. That’s what that word “covenant” in scripture means. Let me read this passage to you and I want you to count every time you hear the word covenant:

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:  “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Genesis 9:8-17

How many times did God say the word covenant in the Scripture I just read? EIGHT! Eight times! That must means is really super important.

Did you know that God makes lots of promises to his people? People often respond with making a promise back to God. We aren’t very good at keeping our promises sometimes, though, but here’s the thing that is really important – God ALWAYS keeps his promise, even when his people don’t keep their promises to him. Even when you and I don’t keep our promises to God, he keeps his promises to us. Now that’s some good news we can share with others.  

Let’s pray,

Father, thank you for Noah and the ark, but most importantly thank you for the rainbow in the sky that shows us that you keep your promises. You promise so much to us throughout your word and we now know that you keep those promises. Help us to be more like you, keeping our promises, too. Amen.

Transfiguration Sunday: A Children’s Sermon

2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.

5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.

7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.

9 As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

— Mark 9:2-9 NLT

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Today is Transfiguration Sunday. It’s a day when we remember the time that Jesus went up on a mountain with his friends and they saw him for who he really was. They saw him as the Son of God.

Today, I want to focus on God’s words to Jesus’s friends in this passage. Did you notice what he said?

He said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.”

Those words were not just for Peter, James, and John. No, they were written down by Mark in his gospel to make sure that future Christians knew He said that. He wanted us – you and I – to know that Jesus is God’s Son. He loves him. And we need to listen.

So what are some ways we can listen?

• We can listen to stories about Jesus.

That means you can ask your parents or grandparents to tell you stories or read to you stories from a storybook Bible or from an actual Bible. If you know how to read, you can read them yourself. I highly encourage you to read the book of Mark. It is nice and short and very easy to read. It will help you get to know who Jesus is. You can also ask people to share with you their own personal stories of Jesus – the ways they have seen Him in their lives. I think those stories can be so special.

• We can listen to Jesus when we pray.

We often think that prayer is us talking to God, and it totally is, but oftentimes, if we’re are quiet and still, He will talk to us. I want to challenge you all to pray the Lord’s Prayer together with your family every day during the season of Lent. You can pray it in the morning when you wake up, at the dinner table before you eat, or at bedtime!

• Listen to the people around you.

Jesus listened to and responded to the people around him and He calls us to do the same. Find those people who are scared or hurting or in need and do what you can to help them. Maybe a neighbor needs food or clothing. Or maybe someone needs help with chores around their house. Find ways that you can respond and help others.

These are all wonderful ways we can do as God asked Peter, James, and John up on that mountaintop. Let’s pray about it, now.

Father, help us to remember to listen to your son. We want to hear stories about Him and we want to hear Him speak to us. Help us listen to respond to others, just like he did. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.

Jesus: Full of Compassion

¹¹ Soon afterward Jesus went with his disciples to the village of Nain, and a large crowd followed him. ¹² A funeral procession was coming out as he approached the village gate. The young man who had died was a widow’s only son, and a large crowd from the village was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” he said. ¹⁴ Then he walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, get up.” ¹⁵ Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
– Luke 7:11-15

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Today’s scripture is all about compassion. This is one of many times that Jesus brings a dead child back to life and this time, he does it because his heart overflows with compassion.

But what is compassion?

Compassion can be broken down in half – the first half is “com” which is Latin for “with”. The second half is passion which basically means “caring a lot”. When you put it all together, compassion means “caring a lot WITH someone.” Compassion is how we feel when people we love are hurting and we hurt for them. Jesus saw this poor woman who’s only son had died and Jesus felt her sadness and helped her.

So, how can you and I help show compassion? There are so many ways we can do this!

I want to share a book with you that is all about some ways we can show compassion to others.

Wow. Did you see that? Amos was compassionate towards his animal friends at the zoo by spending time with them and doing the things they liked to do. Then, when he was sick, they showed him compassion by taking care of him! We can all learn from the examples in this sweet book.

Let’s pray about this.

God thank you so much for this and many other stories in the Bible. This story shows your compassion and the compassion of your son, Jesus. We are so blessed to be shown your compassion every single day. Help us to be more compassion towards the people in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.

What on earth is baptism? … a children’s sermon

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
-- Mark 1:9-11

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Today’s scripture comes from the gospel of Mark. It is the second book of the New Testament but it was the first gospel that was written down. It is also the shortest gospel! Mark’s gospel starts with John the Baptist baptizing Jews and paving the way for Jesus. Then one day, who do you suppose shows up at the Jordan River??

Right! Jesus does!

Mark’s gospel does not start with the story of Jesus’s birth like the gospels of Luke and Matthew. He instead starts with this moment of Baptism. This is Mark’s way of telling us who Jesus is. For example, the gospel of John starts by John telling us that Jesus is the Word and He was with God before coming down to us. Mark is telling us that Jesus is God coming down from the heavens to be with us.

Now, you may be thinking, “Ok, Mrs. Crystal, that’s cool, but what on earth is baptism?” Maybe you were baptized as a baby and don’t remember it or maybe you haven’t been baptized yet and you don’t know what I am talking about. So let me take a minute to try to explain.

In our time, when people are baptized, they make a promise to avoid evil and to accept Jesus as their Savior and then the pastor sprinkles water on them. In some churches, people are dunked in a tub of water. Pastor James baptized someone in a river once! John the Baptist baptized people in the Jordan River.

Pastor James says baptism is an outward sin of inward grace. That’s kind of hard for us to understand though, so think about it like this… Have you ever had a temporary tattoo? My little boy likes to have temporary tattoos of cartoon characters he likes. He proudly shows them off so people knows that he likes that character. Some grown ups get tattoos of things or people they like or admire, too. I know a woman who has a tattoo of Dolly Parton on her shoulder!

Baptism is like an invisible, permanent tattoo. It shows that we are God’s children and that we belong to God.

Another way to think about it is like this: in the Harry Potter series, Harry has a scar on his forehead. That scar came from the night when an evil man attacked him and his mother died to save him. Her love protected him. When we are baptized, we accept that Jesus died to protect us. He loved us so much that he saved us.

In both of those examples, there’s not much for the person to do. Harry didn’t do anything to deserve his mother’s love and protection. We don’t have to do much to get a tattoo – temporary or otherwise. In today’s scripture, when Jesus gets baptized, he hasn’t done much yet. His ministry hasn’t started. He hasn’t healed anyone or taught anyone yet. He just goes to get baptized. And did you notice what happened when Jesus came up out of the water?

A voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

God loved Jesus so much, even though he hadn’t done anything yet.

You, too, are loved. You are special just because you are you. You don’t have to be the smartest, the funniest, the bravest, the best. Just be you. God loved you from the moment he created you and that is some good news.

Before we pray today, I want to invite you to talk to your parents about baptism. If you haven’t been baptized yet, you may want to be now. Talk to them and together you can talk to Pastor James. If you have been baptized, ask your parents what that was like. Ask them what church you were at, who was there, and what happened. I would love to hear those stories, too, so please share them with me!

Now let’s pray together.

Hey God, thank you for loving us just as we are. We don’t have to be the best at anything and we don’t have to be perfect to be loved by you. Thank you for today’s reminder that we belong to You because you created us, you saved us, and you protect us. Thank you for Jesus who shows us the way to live. Amen.