Category Archives: 1 and 2 Corinthians

Epiphany 3C

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Day: Epiphany 3C

Lectionary Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 12:12

Object: None

In our Bible story today, Paul tells us about the Body of Christ. He says that the church is like a Body. It has lots of different parts, but all of them are important.

Let’s think about that: We’ve all got eyes so we can see. We’ve got mouths so we can talk. Ears to hear with. Legs to walk around on. Those are all different parts of the body and each one has a special purpose! Can you imagine if you didn’t have eyes? You wouldn’t be able to see. And if you replaced your ears with extra legs you wouldn’t be able to ear… and you would look really weird with legs growing out of your head! Or what if we were all ears! We could hear really good, but we wouldn’t be able to do anything else. Each part of our body is important and without a part we just wouldn’t work right.

The same thing is true in the church. We have different people who do different things. We’ve got teachers, preachers, singers, helpers, cooks… all kinds of people! And that’s a good thing because it takes all different kinds of people working together to make the church work right.

Let’s pray: God, thank you for giving us so many different people in the church. Help us to always work together. Amen.

Pentecost Sunday A

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Day: Pentecost

Lectionary Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 12:4-6

Object: Stickers, one per child

Note: You can use any object for this children’s that is one thing with a variety of kinds, like multiple kinds of fruit or multiple kinds of lollipops. Whatever you choose, be sure to have plenty to give one to each child to reinforce the gift theme.

This morning I’ve got some stickers with me! I’ve got Superman, and Dora the Explorer, and…, and Spiderman (tell the three or four different kind of stickers that you have to share), but even though they’re different kinds, they’re still all stickers! That doesn’t change just because one is Dora and another is Superman. They’re still all stickers.

And that reminds me of our Bible story. It’s talking about gifts from the Holy Spirit. It says there are all kinds of gifts. Kind of like I have all these different kinds of stickers. But, they are still all from the same Spirit! So even though some people get one gift and another person gets another gift, they all receive their gifts from the same Spirit.

To help you remember that we’re all given gifts from the same Spirit, I want to give you a sticker to take home. It will remind you that the Holy Spirit gives each of us different gifts but they all come from the same Spirit.

Before we get our stickers, let’s pray: God, thanks for giving us amazing gifts through the same Holy Spirit. Help us to use our gifts to serve you. Amen.

Epiphany 7A

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Day: Epiphany 7

Lectionary Passage: 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 3:10-11

Object: Several Hymnals

Good morning! I’ve got an important question for you. Let’s say I wanted to build a tower out of these hymnals (point to the hymnals), do you think it would be better to start on the floor (put a hymnal on the floor) or on top of my head (try to balance a hymnal on your head)? …. the floor?! Really?! You don’t think this one (indicate the very wobbly hymnal on your head) is very sturdy? Oh, I guess you’re right. The floor is a much better place to build a hymnal tower because it’s a better foundation. I guess my head wouldn’t really be a very strong and sturdy place for the tower. It would probably fall down pretty fast. But, if I built it on the floor, then it would have a good strong foundation that could support the tower no matter how high I was able to build it. Good thing I checked with you guys before I started building! Because a good foundation is important.

And that’s exactly what our Bible story is about. It’s about laying a good foundation. Not for a tower, but for your life and the life of the church. And that foundation is none other than Jesus. And let me tell you what, that is good news because Jesus is the strongest foundation ever! When things get tough, like at school or on the playground or at home, we can always count on Jesus to hold us up even when we are really feeling down. He’ll never let us fall because he is stronger than anything that tries to knock us down.

So remember, if you build your foundation on Jesus Christ, then you don’t have to worry when things get hard because he’s always there to hold you up!

Let’s pray: Dear Jesus, thank you for always being there for us but especially when life gets hard. It’s good to know you are always on our side. Amen.

Epiphany 3A

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Day: Epiphany 3

Lectionary Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 1:10-12

Object: A colored rainbow

Preparation: You will need a colored rainbow for this sermon. You may print out a rainbow or color your own. The colors of the rainbow, from top to bottom, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Good morning everyone! I want to ask a few of you a question (point to individual children as you ask…) what is your favorite color? (get enough responses to prove that different people have different favorite colors) Wow, we all have different favorite colors! Mine is blue, but yours is red, and yours is yellow, and yours is pink. Do you think we should go out back and fight because we have different favorite colors? No?! Well, of course not!! That would be super silly. You don’t get mad at other people just because they have a different favorite color than you. Because it takes all the colors coming together to make beautiful pictures like this (reveal the rainbow). See, here is my favorite color (point to blue) and yours… (point to all the colors mentioned by the children).

Well, that reminds me of churches. We have a lot of different churches in town, but we all love God. So, maybe your friend goes to the church across the street and you go here. That’s great because we all love God! We don’t have to fight over which church is right or act like our church is the only good church. That’s exactly what Paul was upset about in our story for today. The early Christians were meeting in different groups, which is okay. Except when they started to fight with each other just because they were in different groups. That’s just silly. Especially when they all believed in the same God and all loved Jesus! That’s what is really important.

So, I want you to remember that our church is just one of many churches,  just like my favorite color blue is just one color in this rainbow, and we shouldn’t be mean to others if they belong to another church and we should always try to work together.

Let’s pray: God, help all Christians work together no matter what church we attend on Sunday morning so that we can do even greater things in your name. Amen.