EPHESIANS 6:10-20

MARK 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

10:30a.m. Children’s sermon

August 31, 2003

Jesus tells us that what is really bad for us is not the kind of food we eat and put into our bodies, but what behaviors come out of us because of what’s in our hearts.

So let’s imagine that this shirt represents a person and that inside this shirt represents what’s in this person’s heart. (Pull out sheets of paper one by one from inside the shirt, marked “Stealing”, “Lying”, “Being all stuck-up”, “Telling untrue stories about people”, “Greed”, “Bullying”, “Hurting people”.) (Discussion.)

Are these bad things that Jesus want us not to do? (“Yes”.) O.K., let’s “trash” these behaviors. (The sheets of paper are put on the floor, stomped on and thrown in the wastebasket.) So now, we’ve “trashed” these behaviors for all of us, and only let good behaviors come out of us!

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church