11^th Sunday After Pentecost

Year 2: August 16, 2020

Luke 11:2-4 (The Father)

Just In Case You Ever Wonder by Max Lucado

(Written for ages 3-7)

Comment: We begin this series on the Lord’s Prayer by recognizing and honoring the one to whom we pray. The gendered language of Jesus’ time needs some attention, especially when working with children who do not have a father, or who have a father who is absent from their lives – physically or emotionally. At the start of this prayer, we honor God as a parent with the capacity to love perfectly, in a way that no earthly parent truly can. We hear more of this love later in the chapter (v.11-13). This is the love to which we aspire. Be aware that Lucado’s book uses masculine pronouns for God, but even still it shares a message of unconditional love from parent to child. It reassures children that God is present at all moments of our lives and that we can depend on God for all that we need in life. The relationship with God that Jesus describes in this prayer is intensely personal and familiar. The word “Father” may not capture that nuance for every child, so try to find the words that fit in your context.

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): August 16,2020 by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.