Penny Penelope and the Empty Pockets
Children’s Sermon
Consecration Sunday
University United Methodist Church
East Lansing, Michigan
October 21, 2007
Narrator [with Penny, Great Spirit and others acting out the motions]:
Penny Penelope had lots of pennies and she got them from the strangest places. The pennies fell from the trees like leaves that fall in autumn. And pennies came to Penelope on the rays of sunshine. Penny Penelope even found pennies floating in the pond behind her house. Penny Penelope loved those pennies. And she put them in her pockets, until her pockets were quite full.
One day Penny Penelope even found that she could make pennies by twirling her arms around and around like this.
When she twirled her arms, pennies seemed to drop to the ground around Penny Penelope’s feet. Then Penny Penelope would pick them up. And since her pockets were quite full, Penny Penelope would put those pennies in her cup.
One night while Penny Penelope was asleep she had a dream. In her dream a voice came from all around her. And the voice said,
Voice: “Penny, your pennies are a gift.”
And Penny Penelope said, “What’s gift?” [Penny lifts up sign. Congregation says this with her.]
The voice said, “Gift is something that says, ‘I love you.’ Gift is something that says, ‘I care.’ All of the pennies which you have found are my gift to you. Even the pennies that you have made with your arms are my gift. For I gave you arms, and I taught you how to twirl them.
Just then Penny saw a Great Spirit twirling in the heavens and sending pennies down on rays of sunshine and making pennies fall like drops of rain. Then Penny Penelope saw something else. She saw her mother twirling her arms and making pennies. And her father was twirling his arms and making pennies. And so were her neighbors and all of the people they knew. They were twirling and twirling and they were making pennies and they had piles of pennies all around them.
“Are all those pennies for me,” asked Penny Penelope?
“Some are,” said Great Spirit. “But they are also for others so that they can have food and clothing all of the things that they need. See Penny, I have given the whole world what it needs, for I care about all that I have made. I have just one request.”
“What’s that,” asked Penny Penelope.
“Give!” [Great Spirit holds up sign. Congregation says this].
Penny Penelope looked worried. She furrowed her brow and wrinkled her nose. “What’s give,” she said slowly.
“Give is loving. Give is caring,” said Great Spirit. “Give is treating others like I have treated you.”
Then Penny furrowed her brow even more. And she wrinkled her nose until it looked like a raisin. “You want me to give away my pennies don’t you!” pouted Penny Penelope.
“Just some,” said Great Spirit.
“But if I give away my pennies,” said Penny Penelope, “I won’t have enough to fill my pockets. And my cup will be only half full.”
Penny Penelope didn’t like the idea of giving away her pennies. So she went and hid underneath the table, because Penny Penelope was afraid of empty pockets.
And for a moment the Great Spirit was quiet. Then the Great Spirit came down from the heavens and took Penny Penelope’s hand. And, the Great Spirit waited. And after awhile Penny Penelope began to feel warm inside. And she began to feel safe. And Penny Penelope came out from under the table because she wasn’t afraid anymore.
And the Great Spirit said to Penny. “It doesn’t matter if your pockets are not as full as they used to be, for I will fill your heart with my love. It doesn’t matter if your cup is not as full as it used to be, for I will fill you up with my Spirit."
And Penny Penelope said, “Really?” [Holds up sign and congregation says this].
The Great Spirit said “Really!” [Holds up sign and congregation says this].
Then Penny Penelope began to twirl her arms in delight. And the Great Spirit twirled with her. And pennies began to fall at Penny Penelope’s feet and make little shiny copper piles. But Penny Penelope didn’t pick up those pennies and put them in her pockets. And she didn’t put those pennies in her cup
What do you think Penny Penelope did with those pennies?
—The End—
This was an original children’s sermon preached and acted out on Consecration Sunday. I played the narrator. Children and youth played the parts of Penny and of the mother and father. An adult member of the congregation played the Great Spirit (God). We used real pennies which Penny put in her cup, her pockets and which were scattered on the floor of the chancel. At the end, the children gathered the pennies and put them in the offering plate.
banner image courtesy KnockOut_Photographs / CC