Category: Children’s Sermon

My children’s message for Reformation Sunday (October 26, 2025)

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Bring a ladder. 

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I brought with me something fun. It’s a ladder. What do we use a ladder for? To reach high things! Right. If we need to change a light bulb, paint the top of a door, hang some shelves, form a candy pipe for halloween that you can slide down candy or potatoes on Halloween – and it’s high up or you’re fun sized like me – you need a ladder. I wonder how we use a ladder. Have kids explain. Demonstrate – carefully – how we go up one step at a time. 

One step at a time. And when you use a ladder, it’s good to have someone to watch and help steady the ladder for you. Each step brings us up higher and higher. You shouldn’t stand on the very stop step – that’s dangerous. And if we’re scared of heights, being on a ladder can be scary. But if we are careful, if we take our time, and if we do what we can – one step at a time can help reach us to our goal. 

And that’s the general idea we do for a lot of things, right? When we’re learning to read or do math or practice sports – we talk about doing one thing at a time to get better. We’ll never be perfect – but we can practice – and we imagine we’ll get to our goal eventually. It’ll take hard work and patience to get to the top – such as being the best reader in our grade or the best player on our team. But as a way to encourage one another and to support each other, we act as if all areas of life are like climbing a ladder. And if you try – if you take those steps – you can reach your goal. 

This idea has also sometimes been applied to God too. We imagine that if we’re good enough, if we say the right things, if we’re kind in the right ways, if we believe and are faithful and try our best – we can get closer to God. The closer to God, this thinking goes, will lead to more peace and comfort in our life. The more we do to be faithful, the better Christians we will become and the more God’s love will be made real in our life. Faith, then, is a ladder we climb to get to where God’s love is fully formed and available to us. 

But my experience is that faith isn’t like that. We might, for example, get better at saying our prayers and hope that saying more prayers will make us, our loved ones, or our world better. And sometimes it does – but other times things get hard – or we feel as if our prayers go unanswered. We might decide to read our Bible since God wants us to read these Holy Words. But we’ll notice that we still get upset, still get angry, and still aren’t super nice to the strangers who come our way. We try our best to be more patient, more supportative, more like Jesus. Yet everytime we take a step up the ladder to get more of God’s love, we end up taking lots of steps down since being human is hard and none of us are as perfect as we know we should be. If faith is all about climbing a ladder to God, then we’ll always be climbing but not get very far. And that feels very sad, disheartening, and makes us feel if we should even be faithful in the purpose. 

So, if it’s really hard for us to go up to God – what, if we were God, would be a more helpful thing to do? For God to come down the ladder. And that’s what God chooses to do. God chose to be born – living as Jesus and knowing how imperfect we can sometimes God. God comes down to us in worship, serving us at the Lord’s table, and granting us words that bring us a sense of holiness and peace. God comes down to us in God’s word through the Bible, preaching, and other words. And God shows up in the self-sacrificing acts of love that people show us and that we offer to others. God keeps coming down to us, inspiring and helping us realize that we can live differently in the world. The joy of God – the joy of being a Christian – and the joy of following Jesus comes from God coming down the ladder and into our lives. 
Does that mean we shouldn’t try to be kinder or nicer or better listeners? No. Does that mean we shouldn’t try to help people grow? No. Does that mean we should be selfish and a bully? No. We should still try to be better but not because we’re trying to get God to love us more. Rather, God comes down to transform us into who God knows we can be. And it’s this insight – and making this emphasis at the heart of who we understand God to be – that forms what our flavor of Christianity is all about. It’s a hallmark of Lutheran Christianity which is what this day – this Sunday – is something we’re celebrating. What Lutheran Christians trust and hold onto is a God willing to come down to meet us as we are but who promises to not leave us where we are. And instead of going up the ladder to God, we lean into the Jesus who is already here with us – and we learn to love, serve, and forgive just like he does.

My children’s message from the 17th Sunday after Pentecost (October 5, 2025)

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So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I’d like you to help me come up with a list. How do we – or what does it look like – to care for someone? Accept answers. 

Let’s imagine we have a cold and we have to stay home from school. How do our parents or guardians care for us? Medicine. Taking us to the doctor. Making us sleep and rest. 

Let’s say a friend of ours fell down on the play ground and scrapped their knee. How do we take care of them? Tell a teacher. Get a bandaid. Help them wash. Let them cry but also comfort them by telling them jokes. It’s going to be okay. 

Let’s say we’re at school and we notice that a friend forgot their lunch and they’re too nervous/anxious to go get a lunch (if it’s an option) from the lunch staff? We can share what we have. We might not have everything we want – and we might be a little hungry later. But we can share as a way of showing we care. 

And what if we’re playing with siblings or a friend and they want to play a board game with us. We just want to keep playing on our iPad or tablet. But our sibling/friend has been feeling a little lonely and like they’re invisible. How do we care for them? We play the game. 

So much of how we care for people is noticing them, seeing them, and taking the time to help them.  And we do this not just because it feels good or so that people will care for us when we’re in need or because we assume that’s just what good people do. We care because Jesus calls us to do exactly that. Care. Help. Show up. Because God’s love won’t do anything less. 

Today is a day when we recognize a committee in this church who care. The Care Committee does a lot of things. They help manage our prayer team – so the folks who pray for us and for our loved ones and friends. They also support those who have been in prison – and while no one connected to CLC is currently in prison, there was someone who was in there for a long time who just recently got out. And the Care committee cared for them even though it wasn’t always easy to do so. The Care Committee brings meals to folks who maybe had a surgery or are going through a hard time and could use a little help. The Care Committee also cares for people in our community – providing Christmas gifts for adults living in a group home nearby, food drives during Advent and Lent, sending cards to thoughts who need to know they’re not alone, and more. The members of the Care Committee are not the only ones who care – and, in fact, there’s a lot of people here who either help the care committee or who care for those in need. They Care because God invites us to Care. And caring is something all of us could do. 

Sometimes that Care also shows up in surprising way. So one of the groups within the Care Committee is the Knit 1, Crochet Too group. They meet every Tuesday at 10 am and spend time all day crafting, talking, knitting, and working on a variety of projects. A lot of the projects are personal but also they do a lot of different things to help others. Not that long ago, someone came up to them with a bit of an emergency. Their nephew had put together a project to provide crochet hats for kids receiving cancer treatment but needed more. The team, very quickly, looked at what they had made and then made a bunch more for kids they didn’t know. 44 were made and delivered. And I want to show you pictures I received just a few days ago – ones they hadn’t seen yet – with these hats (and more) being delivered. The Knit 1 Crochet Too didn’t know personally the kids who could use these hats. They didn’t even know the kid who made this project. But they were asked to use the gifts God gave them – their time and their ability to knit – and they did exactly that. 

God invites us to care. And God knows you can care too. I invite you – even if you don’t join the Care Committee – to partner with them or come up to them with different ways we can care. And if you ever need help, let them and me know. Because caring is something we can give and receive.

My children’s message from the 16th Sunday after Pentecost (September 28, 2025)

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So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I brought with me a book. As you might know, I’m a bit of a nerd. I like comic books, playing card games, reading fantasy and science fiction, and more. The stories I read about these far off and fantastical places have a way of inviting me to think deeper about the world we’re living in today. And so, a while ago, I got this book – Marvel’s Fantastic First – to read the very first appearances of superheroes such as Spider-man, Iron Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. These superheroes have been around for decades and we now have the opportunity to see them acted out in movies and tv shows. But before that, they were merely pictures and panels on a comic book page. 

One of these superhero groups – the Fantastic Four – first came out in 1961. Some of your grandparents might have been able to go down to the local drug store and, for 10 cents, buy their own copy of the story. The Fantastic Four is a story about a family who, after flying into space, end up developing all kinds of strange powers. One ends up being able to turn their entire body into flame, flying through the air like a torch. Another gets incredible strength but their body is changed so that it looks like they’re made out of large orange rock. Another can stretch their body, arms, and legs. But the very first superhero we are introduced to is a woman named Susan Storm. 

As you can see – she can make her body invisible. She leaves a room without anyone noticing and zooms down the street, pushing people out of the way, so they think they’re being harassed by a ghost. She even goes into a taxi cab that drives her around for a bit without the driver even realizing it. Imagine – for a moment – what it would like to be invisible. What if, suddenly, you could make it so no one could see you? What would you do right now? Where would you go? Accept answers. 

It’s pretty wild to think about what we might do if no one could see us. We might imagine we could do all kinds of things that we usually can’t – like sneak into the kitchen and take extra candy from the cupboard even though our parents say no. And while we might think that’s the kind of stuff we – or those around us might do – I’m pretty sure if we could turn ourselves invisible, like really do it, we’d probably think long and hard about what we should do. Being able to go into spaces where no one can see us – and where we decide no one can see is – would be a powerful thing. But I also imagine we all know what it’s like to go into a place and feel as if we really are invisible. Maybe we’re playing kickball at school – and we get picked last or are not picked at all. Maybe we’re sitting at the lunch table and watch all our friends sit somewhere else. Maybe we’re raising our hands in class to answer a question – but the teacher calls the person sitting next to us. There are times when our parents and guardians are super busy and they act like they don’t see us or that we don’t matter. Everyone feels this way at some point or the other. And while it would be really powerful to make ourselves invisible when we want to – it’s so hard, sad, and scary when we feel invisible while standing in a room full of people. 

Which is why the story Jesus tells today is, I think, important. He talks about a rich man who spent his entire life acting as if a man named Lazarus didn’t exist. The rich man was wealthy, could buy whatever he wanted, and had all the best stuff. Lazarus, though, didn’t – and instead of seeing, noticing, and helping the one who didn’t have enough – he acted as if Lazarus didn’t exist. In fact, he assumed Lazarus was supposed to pay attention to him, to honor him, to serve him since he acted as if those without money are supposed to always honor and serve the rich. Yet Jesus reminds us that we have a responsibility to make sure no one is invisible. We have to do the work of learning their stories, learning their names, and discovering what they think about themselves. We have to notice all the ways we act as if people are invisible and change what we do. We have to invite those on their own to sit with us at the lunch table, hang out at the buddy bench, and even pick the player who can’t play kickball to be part of our team. Jesus wants us to see those around us because Jesus – even now – sees you. He loves you. He is with you. He has, through baptism and faith, promised you will always belong. And so if Jesus doesn’t let us feel invisible, than we can respond by showing others how they’re not invisible too. 

My children’s message from the 15th Sunday after Pentecost (September 21, 2025)

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So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And – as you can see – I brought a bunch of stuff from our playroom here at church. There’s a room, right through that hallway, that is full of toys, books, and games that have been donated over the years. If we need a little break from sitting still and listening to me – and we don’t want to keep running around the sanctuary even though I’m okay with that – then the room is available. I took the stuff out because I’d like to try something with you. 

So let’s stand up. And come over here closer to the rail. I’d like you to take a step down. Great! That was pretty simple. Now come back up here. Hold out your arms and I’m going to start putting stuff onto it. I want you to hold as much as you can – and we’re going to keep piling and piling and piling until you can’t even see what’s in front of you. Here’s another stuff animal. And another. And another. And another! You’re doing a great job. 

Now that your hands are full, I’m going to ask you a question. When you had nothing in your hands, was it difficult for you to step down? No. It might be difficult for some – and that’s okay. But, for you, you could do it. Great. But what if you wanted to take a step right now with your arms full? It’s way more scary. You’re holding a bunch of stuff. You can’t see where you’re going. And while you might feel confident you could take a step, it’s much harder than it was before. What do you think would make this easier? If there was someone to help. Maybe someone could guide you and hold your arm. Or maybe someone could take the step first and let you know what to expect. Maybe someone could take the stuff from you – sharing the load so it’s not so hard. We might feel like we should be able to do this on our own. We might feel like we have to take this step, assuming a person as smart, as old, as special, and as amazing as you can do this. We might not want to ask for help because we’ll feel ashamed or embarrassed or we know someone might make fun of us. But you want to know a little secret? Asking for help is a holy thing – and it’s something God wants us to do. Because when we ask for help, we’re able to do more, to experience more, to learn and grow and embrace the freedom God has given us. Asking for help – and offering helping – is a hard but very faithful thing to do. 

So I want to invite you when you need help, to ask for help. And if someone asks for help, you help if you can. We don’t make fun. We don’t argue. We don’t joke. We help. And when we ask for help, know that there is no shame in it. You’re a person who deserves help and should receive help since the help we’re given actually helps us do more than we could before. Asking for help is very hard – probably the hardest word to utter in our English language. Yet when we ask – and when we give – we do more than just help those around us. We also make real the love God has for us everyday.

⁵¹ When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for his arrival, ⁵³ but they did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. ⁵⁴ When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” ⁵⁵ But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶ Then they went on to another village.

⁵⁷ As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ⁵⁹ To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” ⁶² And Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:51-62

My children’s message from the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost (June 29, 2025) on Luke 9:51-62.

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Dr. Kathleen Ruen, executive director of Camp Koinonia, preached today. We do not have a copy of her manuscript so below is Pastor Marc’s message to the kids. 

Behind the altar is the display used for the Saturday night concert. It’s a large archway decorated in fake flowers as well as strings of light hanging down.  

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to talk a little bit about Jesus’ words today. But before we do that, let’s turn around and look at the altar. What do you see?

A lot of lights streaming down on an archway covered in flowers. 

This decoration was used last night at a musical concert hosted here at the church. We had folks sing all kinds of musical numbers from shows and movies. It was a lot of fun – and it was exciting to celebrate different voices who are part of CLC and also welcome new people into our community. The lights streaming down in the darkened sanctuary reminded me a little bit of stars we might see in the night sky. And while it’s hard to see stars where we live here in Northern New Jersey, it isn’t hard to see stars out in the wilderness – like at Camp Koinonia. When we look up and see stars – we discover just how vast and beautiful and amazing God’s creation truly is. 

I’ll admit, though, that it’s hard to see the stars. We live in an area full of artificial lights so the lights from our buildings and homes drown out the distant light from stars. Our environment can make it hard to focus on the night sky but I’m sure other things can make it hard for us to go outside and look at the stars too. What makes it hard to see stars? 

The weather. Clouds. Our schedule. Maybe it’s bedtime. Or maybe we’re inside watching a movie. Or maybe we’re visiting friends or family. Being outside in the dark can be scary. If we do go outside, maybe the crunch of leaves caused by an animal scurrying in the bushes might cause us to look around. It’s possible we might be talking to a friend or taking care of ourselves and our family – so we’re too busy to go outside. Or maybe we’re looking at a screen – having fun playing games or watching youtube – and miss going outside.  

Even if we go outside, we might be distracted and lose focus because our phone keeps sending us notifications. The notifications might be important – like a friend is in need. It could also be something silly like letting us know our favorite youtuber has posted a new video. It is very easy to lose focus and to have our attention split in a variety of ways. And while that might be because we have a medical condition, our inability to focus can also be caused because companies, apps, and everything around us is fighting for it. It’s easy to lose focus and learn how to keep focused, to pay attention, and to recognize what we should change our focus to and when we shouldn’t – that’s something we all need to work on. I’ll admit that us older folks haven’t always modeled that very well and while we might act as if only kids these days lose focus, we’re the ones who are distracted all the time. Keeping focused on what we should do is something we all need to figure out.

And that, I believe, is what Jesus is hinting at today. He reminds the disciples that they shouldn’t use their anger or fear of people who aren’t like them to distract them from the message of grace, welcome, love, and support Jesus brings. He reminds those who have legitimate reasons to change their focus to remember how keeping our focus on God and on hope should be at the center of who we are. And while this is always hard and we won’t always get it right, when we struggle reminding ourselves what to be focused on, all we need to do is remember Jesus’ story and how he stayed focused on showing how the marginalized, the poor, the sick, the hurting, and even you are worth love and care. Your attention is important. Your focus matters. And there’s going to be a lot of stuff and apps and screens and noises trying to draw your attention away from what’s important. But if you keep your focus on the One who has already claimed you as part of God’s holy family; if you pay attention to the One who says you matter and have value even when the people around you or other kids or those in power say you don’t; and if you hold to your responsibility to welcome, include, support, and care even when its hard; when you keep your focus on Jesus rather than on everything that pulls you away from who God already says you are – then we truly embrace and live out the grace, mercy, and love God gives us every day. 

Lighting the baptismal font

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And let’s all gather around the baptismal font. So what do you see? We have this sort of pillar like thing that is white and has a metal bowl inside. The metal bowl is typically empty but on special days it might be filled with a liquid like water. We call it a font – which is like fountain – because water can be found here. But even though the water just sits here, we imagine that it’s flowing like water in a fountain – special because it’s connected to the God who is all around us. What we do at the font is take a little water, offer some prayers, and use it to announce that you are a beloved child of God. The creator of everything declares that you are necessary for what God wants done in this world and that you – right now – can love, care, and make a difference in the world. 

Now some of us were baptized as babies while some of us were older. But it’s the water and the prayers and gathering together in Jesus’ name that makes this promise public and real. God does love you and values you – but when we baptize here – we let the entire world know that you matter even if others say you don’t. I think that’s pretty neat. It makes me feel a little warm, a little inspired, a little in awe that the God of everything cared about you – and cares about me – that much. Yet – once we’re baptized – what happens next? How do we remember or trust or feel connected to that grace from God? Well – that’s where the Hoky Spirit comes in. 

The Holy Spirit is hard to describe since I don’t really see it as a physical thing. It’s more an energy, a force, a presence in the world that moves. The Holy Spirit is how God’s love comes into being in the world and it’s what comes into us so we can be kind and patient and even trust that God really is with us. Since the Holy Spirit is sort of mystical and hard to describe, we can wonder where it is. When do we feel it? When does it show up? And where has it been in our life? 

That isn’t always easy to answer. But I promise you that the Holy Spirit was here when you were baptized. It was present when God said you matter in the world. And the promises made to you by God, the community, and your parents are how the Holy Spirit shows up in our lives. The holy spirit is the power, the energy, the fuel that makes love known. And since the Holy Spirit can be like a burning thing that give us energy, that’s one of the reasons why – as we’ll hear in our reading from the books of Acts today – the Spirit could be defined like a fire burning bright. So as a reminder that the Holy Spirit is here – the Holy Spirit has been in your life – and that the Spirit is the fuel, energy, and light that makes love – real love – the love that chooses kindness rather than anger, the love that stands up to bullies rather than becomes one, the love that welcomes rather than excludes, the love that heals rather than divides – we’re going to remember that this Spirit is with us by lighting the baptism font on fire. 

And may the light we see, the heat we feel, and the energy we experience remind us that we have the Spirit and the responsibility to always love. 

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to talk a little bit about what Jesus says today (7th Sunday of Easter, Year C, John 17:20-26). We’re going to hear Jesus do something the Bible tells us he does a lot – but doesn’t always gives us the words Jesus used. Jesus is going to pray. He is going to do what we do in church – use words to express his hopes, needs, dreams, and awe to God, the father. This is an opportunity, I think, for us to not only listen to Jesus pray but to also ask ourselves – what do we pray for? 

So we have a tradition in my family to, every night, say our prayers together. I first invite my kids by saying “how do we start our prayers?” and then they all say “Dear God.” We then go around sharing two things we’re thankful for – such as having fun in school, doing well on a test, or maybe we’re grateful for coming back from vacation safely. There’s actually a lot of things we can be thankful for – even those things we don’t really imagine we need to say we’re thankful. We can be thankful for our family, for the food we eat, for the roof over our head, for even the opportunity to go to school – even when school gives us a bunch of tests. We get to be grateful for the ways we get to be ourselves – and all the ways God helps us grow, and reveal to others, who we get to be too. It takes time learning what we can be grateful for so if it’s difficult at first, that’s fine. But over time, you’ll start to notice all the small blessings that are really big blessings that God surrounds you with. I wonder what things Jesus could say in his own prayers that he’d be thankful for.  

The next thing we do is then name 2 things we want to pray for. We pray to do well on a test tomorrow or maybe do well at a game. We pray that we’ll be safe while we travel or even that we’ll have a good night’s sleep if that’s something we’ve been struggling with. We’ll also pray for specific people who need our prayers and also in generalities – praying for those who are scared, those who might not have a home, and those who are bullied. God invites us to be honest, to admit the truth about who we are, and to hold close to God even when everything feels hard. I wonder what things Jesus prayed for too. 

What makes Jesus’ words today a little different though is that Jesus prays for you. Even though this story takes place nearly 2000 years ago while Jesus was having his last meal with his friends before he was arrested and headed to the Cross – Jesus knows that his story isn’t only for those immediately around him. God’s love, God’s grace, God’s hope, and God’s mercy is meant for them and for all who come after them – which includes you. Jesus wants you to know that you are loved; that you have value; and that you are part of something so much bigger than yourselves. And that when things are hard, Jesus will be right there alongside you in ways you don’t even realize. You are a beloved child of God and Jesus prays that you will always remember that no matter what life throws your way. 

Bring a $1 US Dollar.

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to bring a message to all of God’s children. And I want to talk a little bit about what we’re going to hear Jesus say. To do that, though, I brought with me a $1 bill. I’ll admit that I don’t use paper money very much anymore. I often use my credit card or electronic forms of money to take what’s in my bank account and exchange with others for goods or services. But every once in a while, paper money works for me and it’s kind of amazing how detailed our paper bills are. You’ll notice the front has a picture of George Washington and a lot of words. It includes which country this kind of money is from, what its called, what it can be used for, a serial number making it unique, and roughly when it was made. It also has a lot of designs and webbing on it. The front tells us what this piece of special paper is – it’s a dollar bill – that we give value too. 

But on the back, we get a lot more images and pictures. And a lot of these images are various symbols and metaphors that people imagine for the Unite States. We have a pyramid with an eye, a lot of words in latin, and a bunch of the numbers “1” showing how much it’s worth. But over here, we have a picture of the American Eagle holding a shield – with a bunch of arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other. I wonder – what do you think those might represent? Arrows – war. Olive branch – peace. The arrows represent war and what that takes. It involves armies and technology and soldiers and violence and bravery and all the things that happen during war. Wars can feel – and are – very big since they involve a lot of work, effort, resources, words, and power to move an entire nation to fight. Wars can be fought to make people safer and able to embrace the future God wants for us all. Or wars can be used to cause pain and suffering only for the sake of power and greed. It can be easy to glorify war – especially if the only experiences we have with it aren’t real – mostly just from books, movies, or whatever we see on our screen. Yet wars involve real people whose lives are abruptly changed. It’s why, I think, we as a nation will take a moment tomorrow – Memorial Day – to remember the real people who died while in service of the American Union. And as much as we hope the wars we fight will bring about peace so all can live, love, and grow in amazing ways – we also live in a world where wars continue to happen since we’re not always very good at living in the way God wants us to. 

So in our words we’ll hear today from Jesus, he’ll talk about the kind of peace God wants in the world. But it’s not a peace that was practiced by the Roman Empire during his time – when they used violence to force others to do what they wanted. It’s a different kind of peace – a peace that God invites us into that is modeled in what Jesus does. It’s a peace of welcome, of support, of care, of making sacrifices so our neighbors can thrive. It’s a peace that Jesus invites us to live into even when it’s hard. And while that doesn’t mean wars will end since we are human, we can glorify peace rather than pretending that strength and might is manifested by who can inflict their wills on over. And one way we do that is by remembering which way the eagle on the $1 is facing. It’s not looking towards the arrows but to the olive branch which symbolizes peace. 

So it’s my tradition after the prayer of the day to talk to all of God’s children. And I brought with me a few books I read with my kids. It’s a popular series that you might know too and it’s all about a pigeon who can be a little much. The series is by Mo Williams and started with a pigeon begging us to drive the bus. The series has grown to include books like “the pigeon has to go to school,” “don’t let the pigeon drive the sleigh,” “the pigeon needs a bath,” and “the duckling gets a cookie.” Open a book As we can see, this pigeon can be a lot. The pigeon complains. The pigeon whines. The pigeon has big dreams, big emotions, and shouts all the time. And as we see when the pigeon finally agrees to do what it should do – like take a bath – it delays delays delays, arguing that the water is too cold, too hot, too cold, too hot, too wet, too reflective, not enough toys, and too many toys. This pigeon is up and down and all around. And while this pigeon can be pretty funny, this pigeon is also pretty exhausting. And when we get to the end of each book, the pigeon usually discovers that what it was afraid of, what it was worried about, and all the energy it spent avoiding the good thing it could do wasn’t necessary in the first place. 

Now one of the reasons why I think these books are so great is because we can imagine pigeons – and ourselves – being exactly like this. We don’t always want to try new things or we have big emotions that we always like to share or we don’t always know how to be flexible when things happen that we don’t expect. This pigeon is something we especially see in kids your age – but also in adults who pretend they’re not like this but they are. We are inflexible; we want what we want; and we will drag our feet when we things don’t go our way. And if we’ve ever seen a pigeon in a city – especially New York City – we notice that they act this way too. They are everywhere; they eat everything; they run into the road; they take over sidewalks; they don’t seem very clean; and they’re everything we try to avoid. We’d rather celebrate a hawk or a cardinal or a blue jay. But a pigeon is just too much – and something we want to avoid. 

Yet in today’s reading about Jesus – we’re going to hear about how, nearly 2000 years ago, the holy spirit – God’s energy – God’s force – the feeling of God’s presence in the world – showed up as a pigeon. It won’t use the word “pigeon” in our Bible – it’ll call it a DOVE. But a DOVE is just a pigeon! We just pretend that it’s not. We think of a dove as all white and graceful and peaceful and wonderful and holy and innocent. But a DOVE is a pigeon – and can act like every other pigeon too. And I wonder if that is a good reminder of what the Holy Spirit is like. The Holy Spirit is sometimes wild, unpredictable, and full of big emotion. The Holy Spirit pushes us – like it does this pigeon – into new experiences where we get to make God’s love real in the live of others. The Holy Spirit comes to transform us from being this kind of pigeon that tells God no or pretends that God doesn’t want us to be as kind or as caring or as sacrificial as God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit is a pigeon that transforms us when we are like this pigeon who doesn’t realize just how big God’s story can be. But like the pigeon in the books, what the Holy Spirit does by pushing us to be kind, to love, to serve, to form new relationships, and to not our own wants, ego, or needs get in the way of our ability to recognize everyone around us as beloved children of God – the Holy Spirit is what helps us grow fuller into the person God knows we can be.