When Following God Costs your Reputation

I post these Children’s Sermons to inspire other Children’s Ministers with ideas for their work.

Text: Matthew 1: 18-25

What’s your reputation? Everyone has a reputation. It’s what folks think about you. He’s a hard worker. She is a wonderful cook. He really cares for his grandmother. Things like that.

I bet a few of you cringed when you saw this picture. It’s true most of us don’t like snakes. Most of us give snakes a bad reputation. We think they are bad, so we do not want to consider that we are wrong. When you work in the garden, they can slither out from some bushes and frighten you. When that happened to me, I screamed, left all my garden tools on the ground, and ran inside. I don’t get up the nerve to return to the garden until the next day.

It’s too bad that snakes have this scary, dangerous, fearful reputation. They don’t all deserve it. Sadly, some people kill them because of their fear of snakes. Just because the snake is a snake. As scared as you are of them, they are more scared of you. They’ll be running the other way too.

The black snake is common in our state. And we need black snakes. Don’t ever kill one. Farmers need black snakes because they eat the rodents that devastate their crops. We need snakes to eat mice that carry disease. So while snakes have bad reputations, the truth is that most are quite good. It is you and I that need to rethink the false reputation that we have given them.

Then there are spiders. Most of us don’t like spiders. We’re scared they will bite us. They look creepy. We have given spiders a bad reputation. But actually many spiders are good and we need them. If you find a spider in your home it is actually eating mosquitoes, cockroaches, and moths that eat clothing. Instead of killing a spider in your house, leave it alone, or carefully capture it with a jar and set it free to work outdoors. So while spiders have bad reputations, the truth is they are quite good. It is you and I that need to rethink the false reputation that we have given spiders.

In today’s sermon we will learn about Mary and Joseph. They began their lives with good reputations. Today, I’ll tell you about Joseph. Joseph was engaged to marry Mary. He loved her so much. She loved him, too. I imagine they were so excited to be married. But then Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant. He was shocked. He was upset. He knew he was not the father of Mary’s baby growing inside her. If he wasn’t the father, that meant only one thing. Mary must have cheated on him. She must have been with another man. What was Joseph to do!

First, he knew he couldn’t marry her. The fact that this had happened meant he couldn’t trust her. She had a ruined reputation. How would he ever be able to know if she was telling the truth? If she had really loved him, this wouldn’t have happened. He was devastated. And while the custom in those days might be to have Mary publicly shamed and even killed, Joseph couldn’t do that. He still cared about her. So Joseph decided to end their plans to be married quietly.

But you know what God did.? He sent an angel to visit Joseph in a dream. The angel told him that Mary was pregnant with God’s Son, through the Holy Spirit. He told Joseph to go ahead and marry her.

Joseph had to decide if he would believe God and possibly risk what others thought of him, and his reputation. He would have to risk that people thought that he and Mary hadn’t waited until they were married to get pregnant. They would be put to shame because of that. Perhaps that would even cost Joseph some of his business. But Joseph obeyed God and married Mary.

Sometimes, when you follow God, it can cost your reputation. That’s a hard thing to think about, isn’t it? Sometimes, God calls you and me to give up what people think about us and do what He tells us to do. It can be costly. Let’s pray.

Dear God, Thank you that Mary and Joseph obeyed you when it was so very hard to be put to shame. Thank you for telling us this Bible story to remind us that following often means giving up our reputation. It can mean being teased because we believe in you or tell others about you. It can mean being laughed at because we won’t make fun of someone whom everyone else likes to tease. Help us to love you more than what people think about us. In Jesus name, Amen