Ordinary 23

6 September 2026

Bible readings for today

Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149:1-9
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

Liturgical Colour: GREEN

Collect

Creator God,
you have made us
not in one mould, but in many:
so deepen our unity in Christ
that we may rejoice in our diversity.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Redeemer.
Amen.

E te Atua, te Kaihanga, nāu mātou i hanga, e hara i te ira kotahi, engari i roto i te maha nō reira whakahōhonutia tō mātou kotahitanga i roto i a te Karaiti kia hari koa ai mātou i roto i ō mātou rerekētanga. E īnoi ana mātou i roto i a Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Kaihoko.
Āmine.

Building bridges (Matthew 18:15-20)

In our Gospel reading Jesus teaches about how to deal with conflict and disagreements

Joining the lectionary dots

Linking today's Matthew passage on conflict to the one on Romans on love, shows how beautifully the lectionary can work together.

Intergenerational Worship

Part of the Season of Creation series by Intergen Australia, written and compiled by Michelle Cook. See here

Gospel Conversations

This is a gem of a conversation from the Dunedin Diocese. The Gospel gives us Jesus being thoroughly practical, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Where amidst these instructions on how to deal with conflict in the church do we need to take care, or examine ourselves? Where do we find Good News even here? Rev. Michael is joined by John, Esther and Lisa for a thoughtful exploration of this week's passage.

Bible Story

A story about living in harmony which can be found on Sermons 4 Kids.

Children's talk - a talk from Storybox

Has a friend ever hurt you by something that they did? What was that like? (pause for discussion) It isn’t very nice when people hurt us by what they say or do, particularly if they are our friends. It can leave you feeling hurt or angry, and unsure of your friendship towards that person. It’s even worse if it doesn’t get sorted out. We can lose good friends that way.

In today’s story, Jesus gives us some good advice for how to sort out our conflicts with other people. Right at the start Jesus tells us to go and talk to the person about it. do you sort out your problems with friends? (pause)

We need to treasure our friendships and work at keeping them healthy by reminding people that we care about how much they mean to us so that when we do have problems we feel more able to sort them out.

We are connected prayer

Equipment: Pre-cut out strips of paper chain people (found in most $ stores) or handmade strips of 3-4 paper-chain people, Pens

Have children take a strip of paper-chain people and hold it in their hands.
Get them to choose one of the people to be themselves and to think about who are the 2-3 other people from our church that they are holding hands with.
Encourage them that it could be that they are thinking of holding hands with their best friends or maybe they choose someone they've seen at church but don't know very well.
They can draw faces and clothing on the paper-chain people to represent those they are thinking of.
Explain that in today's passage we are called "brother's and sisters" with the people in our church even if they're not our real brother or sister: together we are the "family" of God.
Ask: Do you find it easy to be friends with your brothers and sisters? Do you always get along? (Listen as the children share stories)
Somebody once said that it's impossible to have an argument with someone when you are holding hands. Ask: Do you think that's true? You could even call two children up to demonstrate being angry with each other but holding both hands with the other person...they will hopefully find it very hard and most probably end up giggling!
God understands that as brothers and sisters we will have days when we get along and days when we find it hard to be friends. This is why He gave us today's instructions about talking to each other when we are not feeling happy with each other.
Take time now to pray in your heads about your paper chain people.
Children can take these home to continue to pray about or you could draw a Church or heart outline on a large piece of paper and get children to stick their paper-chain people within the church/heart outline.

Game - rob the nest game

Topic: This game could help you introduce the topic of what it feels like to work with or against others.

Equipment: A hula-hoop per team and one for the center, 10-20 small objects/balls/bean-bags

Instructions:

Put one hula-hoop in the middle as the central nest, fill this with all the balls
Place the other hula-hoops/"nests" at equal distance away from the centre-hoop
Split group into teams of 3-5 people and have them stand around their "nest"
Explain to the children that their job is to be the team at the end with the most balls/"eggs" in their nest
On the count of 3 children are able (one at a time from their team) to raid the central nest and fill their team nest
Once the central-nest is emptied their job is to raid other groups and take their balls/"eggs" back to their home nest
Let the game "play" for a few minutes before blowing the whistle at which point all team members must return to their nests. Count up the balls and see which team has managed to rob the most.

Rob the Nest Reverse: As an alternative, start the game as normal with teams raiding the central nest but then have the children give the eggs to the other teams...still the team with the most eggs in their nest will be the winners at the end...the aim is to out-give others.

Possible debrief questions: How did it feel to have items taken from your team nest? How did you feel doing the robbing? Which version of the game did you enjoy the most? To the winning team...how did it feel to win even though you didn't you didn't fill your nest for yourself?

Game - getting in order

Preparation: nothing
What you need: a circle of chairs

What to do: get the children to stand on the chairs. Explain that you will give the children a topic eg birth date. You will then nominate which seat is the starting chair and the children have to then get in order without talking and without touching the ground. When they think they have done it, check. If they talk or stand on the ground, they have to start again!
Topics you could use: birth date, street number, height, last name, pet’s name.

Craft - friendship certificate

The activity today is a friendship certificate that you can give or post to one of your friends to remind them how much their friendship means to you. You may even like to send it to someone that you haven’t been getting on with

What you need:
A copy of the template, cardboard, glue, felts and crayons to decorate. Envelopes and stamps are an optional extra.

What to do:
Glue the template to the cardboard. Fill in the three qualities that you most appreciate about that person. Decorate!
If you are posting them, seal in an envelope with a stamp and address it.

How to use:
This activity is a good way of helping children gain good skills for maintaining healthy relationships. With older children, you may like to do some role playing of conflict resolution stuff.

friendship_certificate.pdf
File Size:	163 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Love one another (Romans 13:8-14)

What does it mean to 'love on the another'?

Memory verse

EASY
Love your neighbour as you love yourself.
Romans 13:9b
Kia aroha ki tōu hoa tāta, āno ko koe.
Roma 13:9b

SLIGHTLY HARDER
If you love someone, you will never do them wrong; to love then, is to obey the whole law.
Romans 13:10
E kore te aroha e kino ki tōna hoa; nō reira ko te aroha, te whakaritenga o te ture.
Roma 13:10

METHOD
One way of presenting this verse is to build a wall. In both the above 'love' is mentioned twice -- these are the foundation blocks, the clues. Ask groups or individuals to place remaining blocks and explain why the additional words make sense as they do so. For the slightly harder option, break the sentence up into four sections.

Picture book

Somebody Loves You Mr Hatch by Eileen Spinell
A lonely man receives an unexpected gift which in turn causes him to give to others. When he discovers the gift was not meant for him, he returns to being his reclusive self. Then his neighbours rally round and show love back to him.

The Passover (Exodus 12:1-14)

In this week's Old Testament reading, we hear about the story of the Passover. It might also be a week where you talk about why God wanted to rescue the Israelites from Egypt or how these stories show how far God will go to care for his people. For younger kids, you may like to recap the story of Moses as a whole, which can be seen in this video from Saddleback Kids

The story of the passover is from 24:03 - 27:30

Moses song

Here is a song about Moses from Saddleback Kids

Lyrics:
Let’s meet Moses who lived in the palace of Pharaoh,
Moses did something bad and it was a big uh-oh!

So Moses ran far, far away
The people of Israel were stuck working all day

Moses was tending his sheep when he heard his name
God spoke to him through a bush that was burning up in flames!

God had a great plan
But Moses said, “No way, you’ve got the wrong man!”

God let Moses’ brother speak on his behalf
And the two went to the Pharaoh, each carrying a staff

Aaron told Pharaoh to “Let God’s people go!”
But the Pharaoh told them, “No! No! No!”

God sent plagues to the land and to the skies.
Frogs and bugs and hail and even some pesky flies.

After many days of this the Egyptians were sad
Pharaoh said, “Get out of here!” and the Israelites were glad.

Moses and the Israelites left Egypt behind
But then the Pharaoh just up and changed his mind

The Pharaoh chased the Israelites and they were as scared as could be
But Moses raised his staff and God parted the Red Sea!

All of God’s people walked on dry land,
And the Israelites went free just as God had planned.
Source: Saddleback Kids

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time