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Words and the Word

Children's Activity
Teachers or Parents: Words are powerful. In a dictionary they are neutral, but when pieced together into sentences, they have the power to wow (v. 22) or to kill (vv. 28-29).

Jesus returned home. Your children can relate to returning home. It should be a pleasant experience -- an experience of love and reception. For Jesus it began that way, but ended on a very negative note. Many trips home can be similar. They begin with everyone glad to see one another and then end with angry words and actions.

Jesus confronted the people of Nazareth with their own unfaithfulness to God. Explore the concept of sin and estrangement from God with the children. This can be visually outlined for them by showing that sin (our condition) is like a deep valley. On the other side of this very deep valley is God. We are separated by an impossibly deep valley, a canyon, a chasm. The only way to bridge the gap is by Jesus. Jesus is the one who overcomes our sin and brings us to God. We cannot do it ourselves. This is called "grace."

Jesus mentions in his speaking to the congregation at Nazareth the story of Elijah and the widow at Zarephath in Sidon. You can take a look at that story and read it from a Children's Bible (1 Kings 17). Jesus also talks about Elisha and Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5). These are stories of outsiders becoming insiders to God. We all want to be on the inside scoop. Jesus challenges presumptions of favoritism.

Sunday school assembly opening:
• Sing some of the epiphany hymns listed in your hymnal.
• Tell in your own words the story of today's Gospel where Jesus is accepted and then rejected by his own people. (You might want to relate this to a similar phenomenon on Palm Sunday.)
UPCOMING WEEKS
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Proper 7 | OT 12 | Pentecost 2
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Proper 9 | OT 14 | Pentecost 4
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Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Thomas Willadsen
Nazish Naseem
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
Katy Stenta
George Reed
For July 6, 2025:

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John Jamison
Object: This is a role play activity for the children.

Note: You will need an older volunteer to help with this activity. One option would be to find a teenager with some physical ability. If a teen is not available, an adult could be used instead. For simplicity here, I will refer to my older volunteer as “TOM”. You will also need to select three of your younger children to serve as volunteers in the story.

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Emphasis Preaching Journal

Mark Ellingsen
2 Kings 5:1-14
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Mark Ellingsen
Bonnie Bates
2 Kings 5:1-14, Psalm 30
Naaman seeks healing. He travels hoping healing will come to him when he visits the king of Israel. Yet, healing does not come in that way. Rather healing comes through Elishah. Healing comes from believing and being cleansed in the River Jordan. Healing comes through Naaman’s faithfulness and through God’s grace. Psalm 30 also reminds us to seek healing; to seek God and God will heal and restore us. Do we believe that? Do we believe that God can bring healing?

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ (vv. 10-11)

When I visit your church for the first time, consider the possibility that I might be looking for a church home. I am a good-looking old guy, but I have gray hair and I dress down in the summer, so don’t be put off by my cargo shorts and tank top. Talk to me!

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Damien and Ora grinned at each other in excitement. The time had come - at last! They'd been with the Leader for months and months, waiting for this moment. Not that it had felt much like training. They'd simply lived with the Leader, listening to his stories, hearing about the Kingdom, learning to get along really well with all the other people at Mission Headquarters. Now all seventy of them were ready, the spaceship had docked, and the Mission was about to begin. Ora was glad she'd been paired up with Damien again.

SermonStudio

James Evans
Stan Purdum
Carlos Wilton
(See Epiphany 6/Ordinary Time 6, Cycle B, and Easter 3, Cycle C, for alternative approaches.)

Anyone who has ever had the experience of losing a friend because of some conflict or dispute, and then has had the friendship restored because of love and forgiveness, has a unique insight into the meaning of this psalm. Although the poem begins and ends with praise, there is in the middle of the poem a brief moment of confession and contrition that puts the praise portions of the psalm in an entirely different light.

April Yamasaki
A word of encouragement came from an unlikely source the other day in a television interview with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The former football player, wrestler, and now actor was asked about a low time in his life when he was very discouraged about his career and future.

"How did you make your way back from that?" he was asked.

The Rock replied, "You have to put yourself out there. You have to get out there and fail, and learn from your failures."

Larry D. Powell
In the summer of 1983, I participated in a ministerial exchange program sponsored by my denomination. My assignment was to a circuit of churches on the Isle of Man, a tiny island located in the Irish Sea. The months preceding the exchange included considerable correspondence with the minister on the island with whom I would exchange pastoral duties for six weeks.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
A wealthy businessman decided to take a walk and eat his lunch at the same time. He strolled by a park. There he purchased a hot dog and a soft drink. As he walked through the park two different "street people" approached him one by one. Each asked, "Can you help me? I am hungry." Each time the businessman looked straight ahead and kept walking. After finishing his lunch, he stopped and bought a chocolate eclair for dessert. As he was about to take the first bite, he was forced to jump out of the way as a young boy raced by on his skateboard. The eclair went flying and landed on the ground.

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