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Fifth Sunday in Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 13:31-35 

Soon Jesus will not be appearing so concretely to the disciples. So, does he give them a complex strategic plan? No. He gives them a new commandment, and this will cover all they need to do. The world will recognize them as followers of Jesus because of the way they love each other.

Dowload the Lesson Plans for the Fifth Sunday in Easter, Year C

LPTW Easter 5, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Easter 5, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 5, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 5, Year C, All Lesson Plans

Fourth Sunday in Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 10:22-30

The voice of Jesus can be hard to hear in the halls of institutions and in the noise of our hectic lives. When we listen attentively we may hear his voice. Then we discover to our awe and delight that he knows each of us by name. He has chosen us and will not give us up. Jesus waits to see if we will choose to follow him.

Download the Lesson Plans for the Fourth Sunday in Easter

LPTW Easter 4, Year C, Young Children
LPTW Easter 4, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 4, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 4, Year C, Download All Lesson Plans

Third Sunday in Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 21:1-19

Thinking their ministry days were over, the fishermen went back to what they knew: fishing. But they caught nothing all night. In the depth of their discouragement they hear a call from the shore, “Try the other side.” Abundance. And who is that on the shore, standing by the charcoal fire he made in anticipation of the fish?

Dowload the Lesson Plans for the Third Sunday in Easter

LPTW Easter 3, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Easter 3, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 3, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 3, Year C, All Lesson Plans

Second Sunday in Easter, Intergenerational Lesson Plan, Year C

Scripture: John 20: 19-31

(Note: there are also lesson plans for each age group for this Sunday which contain more ideas and suggestions.)

Easter is another huge gift from God, building on not only the Christmas gift of the birth of Jesus, but also on the gifts that keep coming right here and now.

The Gospel reading today follows the discovery of the resurrected Jesus by the women at the tomb. Although several disciples raced to the tomb to see for themselves, they returned to the upper room reasonably sure that they would be the next to be killed. In that room Jesus appears to them, bringing peace and, after all he has been through, continuing to teach the message of peace and forgiveness.

Download the Intergenerational Lesson Plan for the Second Sunday in Easter

LPTW Easter 2, Year C, Intergenerational

Second Sunday in Easter, Year C

Scripture: John 20:19-31

(Note: there is also an intergenerational lesson plan for this Sunday that you may wish to refer to or get more ideas from for your session.)

The women brought an account the men could not grasp. That evening, the exhausted band of men and women who followed Jesus, huddled in the locked room. They were terrified that they would be killed next. To their amazement, Jesus was right there in their midst proclaiming the Peace he had been teaching them to trust. Breath sweeping over the earth brought life in the beginning; now Jesus was breathing new life in the Holy Spirit.

Download the Lesson Plans for the Second Sunday in Easter

LPTW Easter 2, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Easter 2, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter 2, Year C, Adult
LPTW Easter 2, Year C, All Lesson Plans

Easter Sunday, Year C
Scripture: Luke 24:1-12

“Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” An astounding discovery! The Easter news was spread to all who would listen. The disciples told people, who in turn, told people, and to this day, we hear the message — a message of weeping and then of joy that comes with the morning of a new day. We too like the disciples weep and then delight in the joy bursting forth in us. We too are called to bring this message with our lives, and, if necessary, with words, to those who have not yet heard it.

With the Passover completed, the women now come to the tomb to humbly do their work: the broken body of Jesus for burial. They bring the appropriate ointments and spices and their aching hearts. The stone they had worried about trying to move has been rolled away. But where is the body? Jesus, no longer confined to his body, is now fully free.

Download the Lesson Plans for Easter Sunday

LPTW Easter Sunday, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Easter Sunday, Year C, Younger Children

Palm Sunday, Year C
Scripture: Luke 23:1-49

Gathered in our comfortable churches, we struggle to let the difficult words of the Crucifixion land anywhere in our psyches. Would any of us have been there, or would we have waited for the news to reach us? Had we shown up, would we have demanded that Barabbas be released instead of Jesus? Would we have stood with the few at the foot of the cross? What time will we scrounge in the week ahead to pause and squint at the grace of this awesome love?

Download the Lesson Plans for Palm Sunday

LPTW Palm Sunday, Year C, Adults
LPTW Palm Sunday, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Palm Sunday, Year C, Younger Children

Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C
Scripture: John 12:1-8

The imported perfume was worth a year’s wages, and it was poured out on the feet of Jesus. Was it an obscene waste of valuable resources that could have been used to feed the poor?  Or an orthodox preparation of a body for burial? How do we become responsible stewards knowing when to store up and when to pour out?

Download the Lesson Plans for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

LPTW Lent 5, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Lent 5, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Lent 5, Year C, Adults

Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year C
Scripture: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Tax collectors, who are sinners, invited to the table? Shocking! So Jesus tells them a story: A son who blows an inheritance and a father who forgives before the son even has a chance to ask. What might we discover about the gospel of grace?

Download the Lesson Plans for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

LPTW Lent 4, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Lent 4, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Lent 4, Year C, Adults

Third Sunday in Lent, Year C
Scripture: Luke 13:1-9

To repent means to turn or return after seeing what you have done or not done is wrong. It is a change of mind – turning away from the evil ways, toward the good ways.  The first part of today’s Gospel may seem like another version of the age-old question: why are some people killed in bizarre accidents — and others amazingly spared?

However, today’s lesson is not about good guys or bad guys, but rather about turning your life around so you are ready to meet God.  It is about feeding our souls with the good, nurturing ourselves so we will produce good things, and turning over the soil of our lives so we can begin again and again.

Download the Lesson Plans for the Third Sunday in Lent

LPTW Lent 3, Year C, Younger Children
LPTW Lent 3, Year C, Older Children
LPTW Lent 3, Year C, Adults