Year
A, First Sunday of Advent
Children’s
Sermon: “Where You Got Your Shoes”
Psalm
122
Object:
shoes, a shoe box, a bag from a shoe store, or even point out the shoes the
children are wearing.
I have a friend (it was me) who went
on a mission trip to New Orleans when he was in college. He and his fellow missionaries met a man on a
street in the French Quarter. They had
been warned to watch out for people who would play tricks on them. The man presented them with a challenge, “I
bet you a dollar that I can tell you where you got your shoes. I can tell you the city, state and address
where you got your shoes.” This seemed
impossible, so the students told him to go ahead, feeling strongly that there
was no way this stranger would have any clue about where they were from or the
shoe stores where they shopped. The man
replied, “You got your shoes on your feet,
in New Orleans, Louisiana, on St. Peter Street near Jackson Square!” They gave him a dollar. They could not argue with him, because he was
exactly right. Their shoes were right
there on their feet.
Take a look at where we’ve got our
shoes today. We are inside a church
building. We are inside a
sanctuary. We are inside a place of worship. Take a look around. It’s the first Sunday of Advent. The sanctuary is decorated with greenery, candles,
purple cloth and symbols because we are celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ
and living in hope that he is coming again.
Our shoes have brought us into a very special place today.
The psalm (Psalm 122) for today
begins by saying, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of
the Lord!’ Our feet are standing within
your gates, O Jerusalem.” This person
had been invited to go to the temple in Jerusalem for an important time of
worship. When he set his feet—when he
“got his shoes”—inside the temple, he was ready to spend time celebrating what
God had done for him and for everyone.
Advent is a very special time of
year. We might say it is an important
time for worship. We are counting the
days leading up to Christmas, and at the same time we make our days count
because Jesus is coming again. Perhaps
these Sundays during Advent are times when we really need to be here in
worship. Maybe we can say to each other
and to God, “Our feet are standing inside the Lord’s house, and we are glad to
be here.”
Have you ever heard of the church
building and the sanctuary being called “the Lord’s house”? That is one way that we can honor God. We can worship God and show respect to God by
remembering that this place of worship is the Lord’s house.
But you know what? Haven’t you also heard people say that God is
everywhere? Of course, you have! Earlier in the Psalms we can read this verse,
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it (Psalm 24:1).” That tells us the whole world is God’s
house. Wherever we go, God is
there. Wherever we are, we are in God’s
presence.
Advent is about Jesus coming into the
world. He came to be God with us. Because of Jesus, we always get to be in the
presence of the God who sees us, knows us and loves us. That is true, and that is something to
celebrate no matter “where you got your shoes”!
Dear
Lord,
It
is good to be in your house as we worship together, but, God, it is good to be
in your house wherever we are. Please
guide our feet as we walk through this season of Advent. Bless each step we take that we would
remember that you are there wherever we go.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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