EXODUS 32:1,7-14

PSALM 51:1-11

1TIMOTHY 1:12-17

LUKE 15:1-10

September 12, 2004

Children’s Sermon: The Lost Sheep

Has anyone here ever played “Hide and Seek”? (Hands.) Let’s play it now! Who would like to be “it”? (I pick a volunteer.) O.K., in this game we’re going to pretend that the person all of us are looking for is a sheep, so (to the person) – you get to wear this awesome, authentic lambs wool hat from the bazaar in Jerusalem. (The person hides, I lead the group in looking for the “sheep”, then we all come back to the front of the church.)

That was fun! Now, has anyone ever really been lost? (Hands.) Did you worry about whether or not someone would find you? Did it feel good when someone did find you?

Jesus told a story about a “lost sheep”. The kind of person he was really talking about was a person who had gone down the wrong path in life (like we talked about last week) and made some bad choices and done bad things. Sometimes people who have done bad things want to come back to God, but wonder whether God wants them, whether God would forgive them. Jesus said that God is like a shepherd who will keep looking and looking and looking for that person who wants to come back to God, and that God will have a big celebration when the person asks forgiveness and God brings the person home!

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church