Lectionary Links (NL): January 19, 2020

2^nd Sunday After Epiphany

Year 2: January 19, 2020

(Written for ages 2-5)

Comment: Big Bird is intent on planting some sunflower seeds, convinced that “it’s easy!” While many of his friends offer him help, he turns them down again and again, explaining that he doesn’t need their assistance preparing the soil, planting the seeds, and watering them because “it’s easy!” Needless to say, he slowly begins to learn that tending a garden is NOT easy at all. In fact, he can’t do it alone. Jesus’ parables of the sower and the growing seed highlight the difficulty of growth. A life of faith doesn’t just happen; there are so many things that can get in the way, and people need to work diligently to overcome these obstacles. It’s important to help children understand that following Jesus requires us to work hard and work together. This is an opportunity to brainstorm with children about what kinds of things we need to do in order to maintain our faith (prayer, reading bible stories) and how we can put our faith into action (service projects, worship). Older children may be able to brainstorm about the kind of things that would get in the way of our life of faith. The parable of the growing seed highlights the fact that there is an element of growth that is beyond our control – we need to rely on God. None of this is easy, which is a message children should hear from a young age. If they understand this, then when the do encounter obstacles, they will recognize them as a part of the faith journey and not the end of the journey.

Thanks to Joshua Andrzejewski, Union Presbyterian Seminary alumnus and chaplain for the pediatric and women’s health units in the VCU Medical Center, for writing the Year 2 Narrative Lectionary Links.

Lectionary Links (NL): January 19, 2020 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.