Sorry I haven't posted a children's sermon for the last two weeks - I wasn't preaching! So, for this Sunday, here's my plan.
I'm focusing on the 'yeast' part of the parable, and I am going to bring in two cakes - one made without any baking soda/rising agents, and one made with. I will show them the flatter cake, and ask the children what is wrong with it. I'll talk about how even though it is such a small amount of the recipe, a bad-tasting, unexciting ingredient, it is totally essential to the cake. I'll tie that in to the kingdom of God, and to our own essential and important role in that kingdom.
Not a perfect comparison. But it will do :)
3 comments:
i did something similar to that once, in talking about the kingdom of god. i used cupcakes- everyone got one. then i had a small table with all the ingredients laid out in small containers. i asked kids to try an ingredient. it didn't taste very good- but when they're all mixed together- YUMMY!!!
I find it interesting that you use "kingdom" language rather than "reign" language. For me, "kingdom" is one more symptom in the phallocentric language that has held the church in bondage for centuries; not because of the language itself, but because the church limits its understanding of God to literal, exclusive, and patriarchal interpretations of the Biblical language.
hey lgs - thanks for your comments.
i agree that the word has ties to language i'd rather ditch. i'm not really happy with 'reign' either though, and while i am super careful to use language that is inclusive about people and about God, and trust that they still know what i mean, i'm less sure that talking about God's reign means the same thing to them as God's kingdom. Imperfect, sure. But i think less harmful than gendered language for people or for God. i hope, through my preaching and teaching, to convey certainly more than a literal interpretation of what 'kingdom' means...
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