Children’s Sermon

Matthew 21:33-46

Babysitters

Have you ever had a babysitter? Maybe you’ve never thought about it – but being a babysitter is a very important job. Why do you think I might say so? What’s so important about being a babysitter? (Solicit children’s responses. If necessary, you may wish to prompt further by asking what babysitters take care of.)

That’s right! When your parents pick a babysitter they are trusting that person to take care of their most important things in the world: YOU. And that’s a big responsibility.

Do you think they expect your babysitters to take good care of you? (Of course!) When you put your trust in someone to protect something that special, you expect an awful lot.

The same thing might be true if you lent your favorite toy to a friend, right? You wouldn’t expect it to come back broken – or that your friend would just decide to keep it, would you? No – you’d expect that friend to take extra special care of it.

In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus tells a story about a man who owns a vineyard (which is a kind of farm where grapes are grown). Instead of working there himself, he lets some people live there and help take care of it for him. But when it comes time for the harvest they treat the man very poorly – and try to keep the food without giving any back! Isn’t that awful?

Jesus tells us this story to help us to understand that – like the man in the story – God has trusted us with something special…his kingdom here on Earth. Of course God doesn’t expect us to give him grapes (like the people in the story). Instead he is looking for us to “give back” to him the important things we do with our lives…our loving, our sharing and helping.

Did you know that you were one of God’s babysitters?! It’s an important job – so let’s make sure we do it right.

Will you join me in prayer?

Dear God,

Thank you for the gift of your love. Help us to be good stewards – or “babysitters” – of your kingdom and to live lives that might be pleasing to you.