Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost | 8/23/2026 | St. Barnabas Episcopal Parish, Denver, CO

The backpack blessing begins with the ordinary stuff that fills a school bag: pencils, folders, books, lunchboxes, even Tic Tacs and bedrolls. The backpack becomes a picture of all the things children and adults carry into a new year, including excitement, new teachers, friendship changes, worry, anxiety, and the hard passage of time. The load can get heavy really fast.

The image of a backpack with two straps raises a deeper question. The backpack is made for one person to carry, but life is not meant to work that way. Moses’ story makes that clear. Moses cannot save himself as a baby floating in danger; his mother, Shiphrah and Puah, his sister, and Pharaoh’s daughter watch over him, protect him, and help him live. God’s care comes through people who carry what Moses cannot carry on his own.

Paul’s image of one body with many members gives that care a shape in the church. The body teaches, encourages, gives, serves, and leads, because every person brings different gifts. The body also refuses the lie that any one member has to be the whole body by themselves. Belonging means more than gathering on Sunday. Belonging means holding each other through every day between Sundays.

The congregation’s care reaches into the ordinary details of a school year. The church celebrates good grades and grieves hard days, while remembering that grades are not a child’s worth. The church gives thanks when others are kind and stands near when someone is cruel, unfair, mean spirited, or bullying. The church prays, cheers, helps, and keeps loving children, youth, and adults when their loads feel too heavy.

The passing of backpacks through the congregation makes that promise visible. Every hand that holds a backpack represents a community that wants children to see that somebody is holding what they hold. The blessing names tests, homework, frustration, darkness, injustice, the temptation to fit in, new friendships, old friendships, goals, fears, hopes, and dreams. God’s blessing rests on the backpacks so that every trip from home to school and back again can remind each student of the love and care surrounding them.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Life was never meant for solo carrying. [25:17] The backpack image exposes how quickly ordinary responsibilities become a crushing load. Moses’ survival shows that God often carries vulnerable people through the care of other people. The call to receive help is not weakness; it is an honest acceptance of how God has made human life. [25:17]
• 2. The church belongs between Sundays too. [26:48] The body of Christ cannot be reduced to a Sunday gathering or a list of separate ministries. Paul’s image means that each member’s life matters to the whole body throughout the week. Belonging becomes real when joy is celebrated and pain is held together. [26:48]
• 3. Grades are not a child’s worth. [28:07] Achievement can be worth celebrating, but it cannot carry the weight of identity. A bad grade may hurt, frustrate, or disappoint, yet it cannot name a person’s value before God. The church offers a steadier love than success or failure can provide. [28:07]
• 4. Every hand can carry holy care. [30:29] The passing of backpacks turns prayer into a visible act of shared responsibility. A familiar hand or an unfamiliar hand can still communicate that a child is known, prayed for, and loved. God’s care often becomes tangible through simple acts of holding what someone else carries.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [18:04] - Gathering With Backpacks
• [19:10] - What Students Carry to School
• [22:23] - The Hidden Things in a Backpack
• [24:56] - When the Load Gets Heavy
• [25:17] - Moses Was Carried by Others
• [26:12] - One Body With Many Gifts
• [27:17] - Holding Joy and Hard Things Together
• [28:54] - Passing Backpacks Through the Congregation
• [35:05] - Blessing for a New School Year
• [37:50] - Prayer Over the Backpacks

Bible Reading

Romans 12:4–5
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” [26:21]

Exodus 2:1–10
“Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children.’ Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Go.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’” [25:26] [25:31]

Observation questions

1. What people in Exodus 2 take action to protect, watch over, or care for Moses while he is unable to protect himself?
2. In Romans 12:4–5, what does Paul say about the relationship between the many members of Christ’s body?
3. What physical items and unseen burdens can fill a backpack at the beginning of a school year? [22:27]
4. What examples show how a community can share both joyful moments and difficult moments in a student’s life? [28:12]

Interpretation questions

1. Moses’ life is preserved through the courageous care of several people. What does this story show about the ways God may provide help when a person is vulnerable or overwhelmed? [26:07]
2. Paul says that believers are “members one of another.” What might that look like beyond simply attending worship together once a week? [26:48]
3. A backpack is designed for one person to wear, but its weight can become too much. What kinds of burdens are easy for children, youth, and adults to believe they must carry alone?
4. Good grades can be celebrated, but they cannot define a person’s worth. Why is that distinction especially important in a school culture shaped by achievement, comparison, and pressure? [28:12]

Application questions

1. What is one burden you are carrying right now that may not be visible to others—such as anxiety, a transition, grief, pressure, loneliness, or uncertainty? What would it look like to let another member of Christ’s body help carry it?
2. Think of a student, teacher, parent, or school employee you know. What might they be carrying as this school year begins, and what is one concrete way you could encourage or support them this week? [28:45]
3. When someone receives a disappointing grade, loses a friendship, or has a hard day at school, what words or actions can communicate that their worth is not determined by success, failure, or other people’s opinions? [28:16]
4. Every person brings different gifts to the body of Christ: teaching, encouraging, giving, serving, or leading. Which gift do you most often offer others, and where might that gift be needed in this group or congregation? [26:34]
5. When you notice cruelty, unfairness, bullying, or pressure to fit in, what makes it difficult to respond with courage? What is one faithful response you could prepare to make rather than joining in or staying silent? [36:51]
6. The hands that held the backpacks represented prayerful care from the whole community. Who has been a “hand” of God’s care in your life, and how could you thank them or become that kind of presence for someone else? [30:38]
7. What simple practice could help you remember during the week that you do not carry life alone—perhaps asking for prayer, checking in with someone, sending encouragement, or naming a burden honestly? [27:45]