God of Everyone
a non-terribłe childrenʼs sermon
As a Pastoral Assistant in the United Church of Christ, I did the childrenʼs sermon almost every Sunday morning for a couple years. I hope you enjoy this one.
Look what I have here!
For those who can’t see what I’m holding, it’s little figurines of people. They are a variety of colors and sizes and represent different ages and genders too. And I have grouped them in ziplock baggies the same ways that we as humans tend to separate ourselves from those who are different from us.
Look at these two baggies; can you tell me what group I have put in one bag and which one in the other? That’s right, men and boys in this one, and women and girls in this one! For as long as they have been people, men and women have been thought of separately like this, often with men being mean to women. And guess what? Some people don’t fit neatly into either of these groups—boys or girls—and the grownups who made these little figurines didn’t even make non-binary people for me to put in a bag at all! (They really should have). Women and girls, men and boys, and everyone who doesn’t fit into those groups are people that God loves.
Look at these bags; what do you see? Blue people and yellow people, yeah! You know how else people tend to think of themselves separately from others? Based on the color of their skin, often with white people being mean to Black and brown people. But every color of people, every race, are people that God loves. What about these bags? One with grownups, and one with kids and babies, yeah! Often, in all the time there have been people, grownups have been mean to children. But no matter how young or old a person is, God loves them.
These two bags show two things. Do you see the money I put in there? Do both bags have the same amount of money? Nope, they don’t — this one shows a family with a lot more money than this family. Human group themselves based on money too, often with rich people being mean to poor people. And take a look at the parents I put in these two families. One of them has a mommy and a daddy, and the other one has two mommies. Often, families with a mommy and a daddy have been mean to families with two mommies or two daddies. But, no matter what our family looks like, we are part of God’s family.
You know that Jesus guy we talk about a lot at church? Well something that I love about Jesus is that he thought it was really wrong that we put people in all these different groups so just we can think we’re better than people who are different than us and be mean to them. So you know what Jesus did? He said, “We’re not doing this anymore! We’re going to love each other!” And then he did this: (pour all bags into one bowl). And look: our differences don’t go away when we come together as one. We keep our ages and our genders and our colors and everything that makes us who we are. I don’t think God wants us to pretend we’re all the same, because just look, we’re not. And our differences make God’s family so beautiful. Let’s pray.
God of everyone, help to live the way Jesus did. Help us to love our neighbors instead of being mean to them just because they are different from us. Help us to celebrate our differences instead of being afraid of them. Help us be your family. Amen.