Peace, Peacemakers, and the Kingdom of Heaven – a children’s sermon

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

I came up with a children’s sermon to go along with my message on Jesus’ beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount. I use a play on words that the youngest children won’t get, but some of the big children (adults) in the pews might recognize.

First you need a poster board of any width on which you can write “KINGDOM OF HEAVEN,” preferably in a bold/bright color. I’m using red. Give yourself 2-3 inches of white space above and below the height of the letters. You’ll also need some scotch tape.

Cut sections of letters, or words, so that they become uniquely matching pieces of a puzzle. (Gauge this by the approximate number of children you expect to speak to.) If you split up the words, the cuts between the letters can be straight – but make the uniquely matching angles above and below the letter height.

On the back of each piece to the puzzle, write the word “PEACE.” Now you’re ready.

The Peace of Heaven: a children’s sermon.

Good morning.  Today, I have a puzzle and it’s made up of lots of pieces. I’m going to give each of you a piece/peace of the puzzle. (GIVE OUT) The puzzle, when it’s all put together, you’ll see the “kingdom of heaven.”

Would you like to see what the kingdom of heaven looks like? Then you have to add your peace to it. And if you don’t add your peace to the puzzle, then you can’t see what the kingdom of heaven looks like.

So adding your piece/peace is very, very important for you to ever see the kingdom of heaven.

Another part of this game is that only YOU can add your peace to the puzzle. It doesn’t work if you let someone else take your peace and add it to their own puzzle. But it will work if you share your peace with them so they put it with our puzzle. It’s kind of strange how that works. But it does.

Can you understand how important it is for you to keep your peace, and sometimes to share it, so you can see the kingdom of heaven?

So,  does everyone here have their peace? Let’s put all our peaces together —– (tape together the matching peaces) and then hold it up – first with all the “peaces” showing. Now, what does the kingdom of heaven look like? Turn it around to display:

 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

When all of our peaces are aligned, we can see the kingdom of heaven. The important part to remember:  You don’t have to let anyone take your peace, but you can share it. And when we all put our peaces together, then we can solve the puzzle and together we can see the kingdom of heaven.

And that’s how we can be blessed - when you add your peace to the puzzle, you have become a peacemaker.

Let’s say a prayer and ask Jesus for help:

Dear Jesus, Help us always to look to you as the one who shows us the way to the kingdom of heaven. You are the Prince of Peace. Help us to learn to share our peace of mind with others, without giving it away. In your holy name we pray. Amen.