Ordinary 24

13 September 2026

Bible readings for today

Exodus 14:19-31
Psalm 114:1-8
Exodus 15:1-11,20-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35

Liturgical Colour: GREEN

Collect

God of infinite mercy
grant that we who know your pity
may rejoice in your forgiveness
and gladly forgive others
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.

E te Atua ātawhai mutunga kore
hōmai ki a mātou tāu hanga aroha
kia koa i roto i tōu murunga hara
me te harikoa ki te muru i ngā hara o ētahi atu
mō te take ko Īhu Karaiti tō tātou Kaiwhakaora.
Āmine.

The Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35)

Jesus talks about forgiveness, and what it means to forgive someone.

Leaders Input

Gospel Conversations: At first glance you might think this was a nice little passage about how good it is to forgive each other. Our conversationalists this week, however, dig a lot deeper than that to find that it is much more challenging than we might first think. Even so, they are able to come up with good news for us to take away! Ben Truman joins us for the first time, together with Grace Morris and Judy Ringland.

Intergenerational Worship

Part of the Season of Creation series by Intergen Australia, written and compiled by Michelle Cook. This week looks at the wilderness - See here

Bible story

A story about God's forgiveness and forgiving others which can be found on the Sermons 4 Kids website.

What does it mean to forgive someone?

When someone says sorry to us, God calls us to forgive them. If we are able to do this when the apology occurs, we can use words like ‘I forgive you’, ‘that’s ok’ etc

Sometimes we are not ready to do this. Time is needed, both for the offender to be ready to apologise and for the victim to recieve the apology well. Sometimes the victm needs to be able to express the depth of their hurt - perhaps this needs to occur before an apology from the offender is given, so that both understand the extent of what has happened.

Deep hurts are not always easily forgotten and when they come to mind, we have a choice about how we choose to think & act. When we choose to forgive, we give the hurt to God & determine not to let it make us bitter/think badly of the offender. Sometimes, though we have chosen to forgive, our memories of the event come back to us. This does not mean we have not had an attitude of forgiveness, but rather that we need to choose to forgive again, as we see the situation through older eyes.

Primary age
Have you ever hurt someone else - with your words or what you did? Sometimes we upset someone by accident, eg when we break something that doesn’t belong to us. What’s it like to say sorry? Have you ever said sorry when you didn’t mean it? Who needs some time to calm down before they can apologise? (I do) How can you show you are sorry? How can you show you forgive someone who hurt you? When is it hard to forgive?

Teens
Who do you know that shows/has shown forgiveness?

Adults
Are you holding on to something you need to give to God? Something you are sorry about, or someone you need to forgive? Can you bring it to God this morning?

Quick questions

Have you ever been really angry with someone? What happened?
Has anyone ever apologised to you? Have you ever apologised to someone else?
If you were the King in today’s story, would you have forgiven the first official at the beginning? Why/why not?
Do you find it easy to apologise? Why/why not?
Why do you think God wants us to forgive people? What would happen if we didn’t?
If you have forgiven someone, should you forget what they did?

Forgiveness prayers

Prayer Spaces have two great forgiveness prayers for you to try -- Fizzy Forgiveness and Forgiveness Stones. You can find more information about them here

Forgiveness memory verse

Although from a slightly earlier passage in Matthew, a good 'forgiveness' memory verse for this week could be:

"For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" --Matthew 6:14

Unforgiveness can feel like carrying around a backpack of rocks, and when we give our worries and grudges to God, he can lighten our load. This memory verse could be written out on rocks or pebbles, and rearranged as a puzzle. Once the kids are more confident with the memory verse, you can always remove different rocks and have the kids fill in the gaps.

Forgiveness Jenga

A teaching aid for forgiveness from Mina Munns, at Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Game - I'm sorry!

What you need: circle of chairs facing inwards

What to do: Have the children sit on the chairs and have one person in the middle. The person in the middle chooses someone in the circle. They start by going up to the person and saying ‘I need to talk to you about something.’ The person sitting down replies ‘What about?’

The person in the middle then makes up a situation involving that person that needs an apology, eg. ‘The other day when you didn’t tell me about the banana skin on the floor and then I slipped on it and everyone laughed, well I was embarrassed.’

The person sitting must then reply with as much sincerity as they can, “I’m sorry”

Now the trick is for the person in the middle to make the person sitting laugh or seem insincere by making the situation as silly and funny as they can. If the sitting person laughs or seems insincere, they swap places with the person in the middle. If they manage to say ‘I’m sorry’ sincerely, then the person in the middle must choose someone else and start with a different story.

Game - would you say "I'm sorry?"

What you need: a list of situations where you may or may not want to say ‘I’m sorry’ (see the list below for ideas)

What to do: Get all the children to stand in the middle of the room. Choose one end of the room to be ‘I’m sorry’; and the opposite end of the room to be ‘I’m not sorry’
Explain to the children that you will read out an “I” statement. The children then have ten seconds to decide whether they would be sorry or not if it had been them. Keep going as long as you wish.

Eg ‘I gave my mother a bunch of flowers’
“I kicked my best friend”
‘I helped my dad with the gardening’
‘I didn’t eat my vegetables’
‘I drew on the wallpaper with felt pen’

Craft - forgiveness crown

A Forgiveness crown craft from Sunday School Zone, free to download and print.
Source: Sunday School Zone (All rights reserved)

Craft - the forgiving king / queen

What you need: balloons, 2 large feet drawn onto an A4 sheet (joined together), bits and pieces of paper that may be useful for decorating your King/Queen, scissors, glue, tape etc

What to do:

Cut out the feet.
Blow up the balloon and tie it off. (You may need to help the younger ones with this)
Slot the feet on around the tied off end.
Attach the features and the crown. Decorate and go wild!!!!

Note: you may want to talk to the children about how the King in the story represents God. And that they can use their ‘Forgiving King/Queen’ to talk to about when they have done something wrong that they want to say sorry for. You might like to even finish off the lesson with time of prayer.

Season of Creation resources

Resources from EcoCongregation Scotland.
A sermon from EcoChaplain Rev. David Coleman, filmed on the St Abb’s Head seabird colony, with supporting location reading from Exodus 14
Watch the video here