Nathan Bistis called me on Friday and asked if I could fill in and do the children's homily for him this week. I thought it might be nice to teach one last time in front of the entire congregation. It would be a nice conclusion to the end of a 6 year tenure at Christ Church. I checked The Book of Common Prayer and saw that one of the verses in the gospel reading was John 14:6. What a great verse to be my last teaching moment with the children.
Today I am gonna tell you two true stories.
There once was a man named Frederic Bartholdi. Fredrick decided to give a gift to America. Who knows what Fredrick gave to America?
Kids: "The Statue of Liberty!"
For a long time, when you became a citizen of America you would have to ride a boat past Ellis Island and past the Statue of Liberty.
The second story is about God.
I am oversimplifying here but...God wanted to give the people of Earth a gift, and he gave the gift of his son, Jesus. There is only one way to become a citizen of Heaven and spend eternity with God, and that is to go by the cross of Jesus.
You may hear of a bunch of different ways you can get to heaven...
- Be a good person
- Do more good than bad
- Get baptized
- Go to church
Just like in order to become a citizen of America (so many years ago) you must go by the Statue of Liberty, in order to become a citizen of Heaven you must go by the way of the cross of Christ.
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