Seed

Children’s Sermon

23 February 2025

I know it’s been a while, but as I recall, it wasn’t all that easy being a kid.

Sometimes adults think that, because kids don’t have adult problems, kids don’t have any problems. Well, we know that’s not true. But what I think is great about being a kid is that you’re always growing, and not just your body. Your minds are growing. Your hearts are growing. The bigger we get, the bigger our world becomes. It’s kind of fun that way.

Now, you might imagine that once you’re an adult, you’re done learning. Oh no, tisn’t so. People never stop learning, not really. There’s always something new, something more to explore. The most important thing we learn in school is how to teach ourselves. Once you figure that out, the sky’s the limit. You can learn, and read, and do, just about anything.

And even when we get old, we are still learning. We’re leaning about wisdom, about patience, about healthy ways to let things go. “Education never ends … It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.” Remember that, and you’ll always be young inside, no matter how long we might live.

Today we read a letter from a guy named Paul. He lived a very long time ago. And Paul’s whole life changed once he met Jesus. Mind you, this was after Jesus had been killed, and rose again from the dead. So as you can imagine, Paul got very excited. He knew now that life doesn’t end, not really; that God never forgets us, never abandons us. Even death is now a sort of lesson. It brings us to Jesus, to a fuller, greater life.

And people said, Paul, how’s that supposed to work? Will I still look the way that I look now? Will I get my old body back? Maybe I’ll be younger, or thinner, or better looking? Tell me, Paul, what’s it going to be like when we die and rise again?

And Paul wrote back: Don’t be silly. The life we know now is like a seed. When we bury a seed, it doesn’t really die. It becomes something so much more, so much greater, than anything that it had been before. “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” Just like it’s hard for an adult to tell a kid what it’s like to grow up, we can’t really know now what all we will become. We’re going to have to live it for ourselves.

But it will be wondrous—that’s a promise—because we will grow, and learn, and live, forever. Remember that, when life gets hard. Things change, bad things pass away, but people still go on, because God loves us. Our future will always be bright, and we can live in hope; for Jesus Christ is risen, and we too shall arise.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s pray.