My children’s message for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost (August 23, 2026) on Romans 12:1-8.
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I’m so glad you are here today! And I brought something with me today. What do you think this is? A puzzle. That’s right! It’s a puzzle. How did you recognize this was a puzzle so quickly? It’s in pieces and looks like there is some kind of picture that is broken up. That’s exactly right. This kind of puzzle is when a picture is printed on a piece of thin cardboard and then cut up into pieces. These pieces can then interlock with each other to reform the picture. Puzzles are a lot of fun and we even have a puzzle outside the church offices that anyone can come by and work on. Puzzles work our brain, force us to think, strengthen our ability to recognize patterns, and can help reset ourselves in ways that looking at a screen don’t always help. Puzzles are fun – and they help keep our brain healthy by challenging us in a fun way.
So let’s take a look at all these puzzle pieces. Can you describe them for me? Accept answers. Do these puzzle pieces look the same? Similar but each one is a bit different. Either its shape or the picture is what makes each of these pieces unique. And that’s a good thing because if we had a lot of pieces that were very similar, we wouldn’t know how to put the picture together. We might have a lot of the edge or the corner or the white background or the blue background. And there would be no easy way to put the puzzle back together. We need different pieces to work together so we can get the full picture of what we’re trying to see.
And in our 2nd reading from the Bible today, a guy named Paul is going to remind us that the church needs all kinds of different people to let others know what the kingdom of God looks like. If we were all pastors or teachers or singers or musicians or readers or pew sitters – we could do church and listen to each other and care for each other – but we couldn’t do all we’re supposed to. We need those with a big heart to help take care of those in need. We need those who are good at praying to help all of us to pray together. We need teachers who can teach and show up how beautiful God’s creation really is. And we need you – exactly as you are – with your gifts and your talents and your kindness and your faith – to be the church in the world. We can’t be the church with your parents, grandparents, neighbors, and we can’t be the church without you too. So we have to work very hard at not only helping one another realize the gifts God has given us to love, serve, and make a difference in the world. We also have to work hard at not acting as if only one kind of person or one age group or one type of person makes up the church. It isn’t pastors or church council members or folks who have been here for ten or twenty or thirty years that make up the church. It’s all of us – exactly as we are – and folks who aren’t even here yet – that make us the church. Because you are a vital puzzle piece in the picture of love God has created for the world. And you become who you’re supposed to be by being interlocked to all the other parts of the church that make God’s love real in our world.