Login / Signup

Free Access

Our Job Description

Children's sermon
Object: A printed copy of the job description that is included with this week’s message. (Download here.)

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

One day, Jesus was traveling between two places called Samaria and Galilee. They were right next to each other, but the people in those places did not get along. Some of the people in Samaria thought they were more special than everyone else, and that God thought they were more important than people from Galilee. So when Jesus walked down the road, some Samaritans came out and started shouting at them and calling them names, saying that God loved them more and was going to give them more rewards than people from Galilee because they are special.

Jesus stopped and looked at them, and told them a story…

He said that a man wanted to hire some servants to work for him, so he made a job description for them. Do you know what a job description is? (Let them respond.) A job description is an agreement that explains what we are supposed to do if we have a job, and what we will get if we do those things. It is like a contract that says, if we do these things, you will give us this. I have one here to show you. (Show the job description.) Let’s see what we can find out about this job.

This is the job description from a man called Jacob who has a farm. It says the title of the job is to be the man’s servant. It says the duties are to plow the fields and prepare the man’s meals. And it says that if the servant does those things he will pay them 15 silver pieces, 5 baskets of wheat, and will give them a house to live in. So, let’s think about this. If we agreed to take that job, what would we have to do for the man? (Let them respond and go through the list.) And if we did those things for him, what would he give us for doing our job? (Let them respond and go through the list.) It is pretty clear, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

Well, let’s pretend we took the job, and we plowed the fields and prepared the man’s meals, just like our job description said. But when the man gave us our 15 pieces of silver, our 5 baskets of wheat, our house, and he didn’t make us work on Sundays and holidays, we said, “Hey, wait a minute! This isn’t fair. Why don’t you ever invite us to come in and sit at your table and eat dinner with you or invite us in to watch TV with you at night? We did our work for you just like you asked, and we think you ought to treat us like we are more special.”

Would that be a fair thing for us to do? (Let them respond.) Why not? (Let them respond.) Because we knew the job description when we started the job, didn’t we? And even though we think we are doing a really good job we are just doing the job we agreed to do, aren’t we?

Jesus looked at the people who thought they were so special and said, “Our job description is to follow God and try to love and take care of each other the way God wants us to. And if we do our job, we will be able to be with God forever. It doesn’t matter if you are from Samaria or Galilee, we have the same job and get the same reward. That was the job description, wasn’t it?” (Let them respond.)

No one is more special than anyone else and no one is going to get more rewards or be treated as better than anyone else, because we all have the same job; to love each other the way God loves us. And if we do that, we have done the job God asks us to do.

So, if we want to follow Jesus, let’s see if we remember our job description. What does God ask us to do in our job? (Let them respond.) Right! To love each other. And if we do our job, what do we get? (Let them respond.) We get to be with God forever.

Excellent! You are HIRED!

Let’s all pray together and ask God to help us remember how much God loves every one of us no matter who we are and ask God to help us remember to never treat other people like we think we are better than they are.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us understand what you are trying to teach us in your stories. And help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.
UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Easter 2
20 – Sermons
170+ – Illustrations / Stories
26 – Children's Sermons / Resources
24 – Worship Resources
20 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Easter 3
34 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
32 – Children's Sermons / Resources
26 – Worship Resources
31 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Easter 4
30 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
33 – Children's Sermons / Resources
24 – Worship Resources
33 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

New & Featured This Week

CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: A sheep or lamb stuffed animal.

Note: For the best experience, when you ask the questions, take the time to draw the children out a bit and help them come up with answers. Make it more of a conversation if you can.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Let’s get started! (Hold the sheep in your lap as you continue.)

The Immediate Word

Dean Feldmeyer
Katy Stenta
Thomas Willadsen
Christopher Keating
George Reed
Mary Austin
For May 4, 2025:

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice… (vv. 11-12a)

Phillip Hasheider is a retired Wisconsin beef farmer and an award-winning author who was dead for six minutes and came back to tell about it. If you have ever thought about dying and wondered what it would be like, then Hasheider’s Six Minutes in Eternity is a book you will want to read.

Emphasis Preaching Journal

David Coffin
A medical worker is working long, hard, stress filled hours in an urban hospital setting. One day he or she is called into the administrator’s office to be terminated due to angering professionals in the upper echelon. The worker protests that it is, “My word against their word, why am I to be the scapegoat?” The administrator pulls rank! The worker is asked to turn in their badge and do not come into the premises again unless as a patient. The now unemployed medical worker still feels the calling to be a healer. So, they get a job at an alternative/natural health medicine store.
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Bonnie Bates
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Martin Luther believed that the story of Paul’s conversion demonstrates that there is no need for special revelation. The reformer commented:

Our Lord God does not purpose some special thing for each individual person, but gives to the whole world — one person like the next — his baptism and gospel. (Complete Sermons, Vol.7, p.271)

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
I've recently spent several hours by the lakeside, for I've been in retreat this past week in the little village of Hemingford Grey, in Huntingdonshire. A great delight for me was to walk to the flooded gravel pits, sit on a bench in glorious sunshine, and watch the water birds. For me, that's a wonderful way to become very aware of the presence of God through the beauty of his created world. And sitting like that for several hours, doing nothing but watching and waiting, I can't help but absorb the peace which passes all understanding.

SermonStudio

Constance Berg
When Beth was a teenager, she lived on the streets. She smoked cigarettes and drank beer and her parents had said that she had to choose: her friends or her family. Beth chose her friends and lived from house to house and eventually in homeless shelters. She barely avoided being raped at one point. About six months of shelter-hopping was all she could take, and she found a shelter that sponsored her until she took the GED. They told her she was brilliant: she was just bored and dissatisfied with the status quo. The shelter supervisors suggested she look into community college.
James Evans
(For alternative approaches, see Epiphany 6/Ordinary Time 6, Cycle B; and Proper 9/Pentecost 7/Ordinary Time 14, Cycle C.)

The main theme of this psalm is captured profoundly in the movement within a single verse: "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with morning" (v. 5). Casting life experiences between light and dark is not unique or novel, of course, but the poet's treatment of these themes offers some fertile ground for reflection.

Elizabeth Achtemeier
We have three different accounts of the conversion of Saul in the Gospel according to Luke (9:1-20; 22:6-16; 26:12-18). They differ in a few minor details, but essentially they are the same. In addition, Paul writes of his conversion in Galatians 1:11-16, and in 1 Corinthians 9:1 and 15:8-9, stating that at the time of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord. For Paul, that made him an apostle, equal to the twelve. An apostle, in Paul's thought, was one who had seen the risen Christ and had been sent to announce that good news.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
Once in a far-off land, there was a great king whose dominion extended far and wide. His power and authority were absolute. One day, as events would happen, a young man, a commoner, committed a grave offense against the king. In response, the king and his counselors gathered together to determine what should be done. They decided that since the offense was so grave and had been committed by a commoner against someone so august as the king, the only punishment that would satisfy justice was death.

Special Occasion

Wildcard SSL