Jesus warned against with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God. Through our worship today let us pledge ourselves to seek our treasure only in God.
Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, sometimes we envy others because of all they possess.
Lord, have mercy.Jesus, sometimes we desire all that money can buy.
Christ, have mercy.Jesus, sometimes we fail to appreciate your gifts to us.
Lord, have mercy.
Reading:
Luke 12:13-21 (NRSV)
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." [14] But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" [15] And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." [16] Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. [17] And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' [18] Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. [19] And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' [20] But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' [21] So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."
Story:
We all have different interests and sometimes those interests can be so absorbing that we cut out anything else, including God. Sometimes that intense focus is on money or the things money can buy, like fame and a luxurious life-style. Sometimes the focus is on something quite different, like computer games or gambling. If the focus becomes too intense and inward looking, we lose our way in life.
Zog and Ergerol
Dixon was thrilled. He'd just cracked level one on his latest computer game and it was the hardest game he'd played so far.
It was set on the planet Zog which was inhabited by aliens. The space ship had to land on the planet, then the astronauts had to disembark and find deposits of the mineral Ergerol to ship home. Ergerol was extremely valuable, more valuable than gold, because it was a lightening fast fuel to power earth vehicles, and it had no harmful emissions. But it could only be found on the planet Zog and the aliens who lived there were hostile to enemy invaders.
Level one was quite difficult, because you had to manoeuvre the space ship between tall trees and avoid unexpected quarries and land the space ship on the only possible patch of Zog earth, which was purple in colour, soft and very small.
Dixon couldn't wait to go on to level two, where the first aliens would appear with their weapons at the ready.
There were twenty nine levels in all, and you didn't get to the Ergerol unless you reached level twenty nine. And naturally, the hazards and dangers became more demanding on each level.
When Dixon's Mum called up to him about his homework, he muttered a reply then ignored her. Some hours later when she came up to see that he was ready for bed, he slipped into his pyjamas in ten seconds, leapt into bed, turned out the light and snuggled down.
As soon as his Mum had disappeared, he was out of bed again and back to the game. When he heard his parents come up to bed hours later, he turned off the light again and pretended to be asleep, but as soon as he heard his father's first snores, Dixon was out of bed.
He got stuck on level ten. Try as he would, Dixon couldn't get past the aliens. In the end, he was so afraid of losing all his lives and being sent back to the beginning again that he reluctantly shut down the game and climbed into bed, promising himself that he'd reach level eleven tomorrow.
He groaned when it was time to get up, for he'd only been asleep for a couple of hours. He kept dropping off in class which amused all his classmates but not the teacher. He failed that morning's maths test and had a fight with his best friend. But he didn't care, because his mind wasn't in the classroom or the playground, but was on Zog.
As soon as he returned home, Dixon booted up his computer and started to play. Again he spent all evening and most of the night playing, but he only reached level fifteen. It was getting really hard.
Dixon couldn't tear himself away from Zog and the promise of finding Ergerol. It filled his mind during the day and in the few hours' sleep he managed at night, his dreams were full of the final triumph of mining Ergerol.
He became grumpy and morose at home and grumpy and morose at school. His family were very worried about him and there were frequent rows. His friends left him alone because he was so bad tempered, and he was constantly in trouble.
But Dixon didn't care. He knew everything would be alright once he achieved level twenty nine. He thought he might be the first person ever to mine Ergerol, because the game was so difficult. He struggled and fought and worked his way through the levels, until his fingers ached with the speed of the joystick.
At last he reached level twenty nine. He flashed his laser weapons and obliterated the aliens until they were lying in sad little heaps all over Zog. He fought his way through razor wire and thought his way through booby traps until at last he reached his goal. There was Ergerol glinting in the side of the mountain. Dixon set explosives and brought in mining equipment and gradually, trucks began to fill with Ergerol. By the end of the night he'd filled the trucks and they trundled off down the mountain.
Dixon experienced a feeling of immense satisfaction. 'I've done it!' he thought to himself, and went to sleep happy. But when he woke next morning, he was strangely at a loss. He went to look for his friends at school, but discovered that they weren't his friends any more. While he had been so absorbed by the game, they had moved on and made new friendships.
He looked at his school work, but discovered that he was way behind the rest of the class and had no idea how to catch up.
At home, there was something different about his family. They weren't so free and easy or as happy as they used to be.
Dixon thought about buying a new computer game to hide from all his troubles, but he suddenly realised that in the end, they gave him nothing. Suddenly he was bored with computer games, for Zog with its Ergerol was an empty experience. And Dixon longed for things to be the way they used to be in the days before Zog.
Activity:
You need:
Cardboard boxes to build barns.
Get the children to act out the story of the rich farmer. Start by building a barn with some of the cardboard boxes. The children could sow the seed on the fields, then watch in amazement as it grows. Next they should harvest the crop and fill the barn. But there is too much for the barn, so they need to pull down the barn and build a bigger, better barn. Let them fill the barn with the crop and when they're really tired with all this hard work, they drop down dead!
After a while invite them to sit up and ask them what would happen to the crop now that the farmer has died? It will probably rot or go to other people. Ask whether they think the farmer had a happy life or was so busy getting more and more money that he didn't have time to be happy. Ask how his life could have been more relaxed (so he might have lived longer) and happier. Probably by sharing what he had instead of hoarding it all to himself.
Point out that we always need other people to share what we are doing. Games are more fun when they are shared. Food is more enjoyable when it is shared. Money brings more happiness when it is shared.
Intercession:
God, giver of good gifts, help us to recognise and appreciate your gifts within our church. May we value each gift as you would value it and use each gift to the full within our church community.
God, giver of good gifts, our world is focussed on money and wealth. Increase our ability to see beyond the material to the riches of your spiritual kingdom and increase our desire for our society to change direction.
God, giver of good gifts, money is attractive and full of promise. Remind us that the promise is ultimately empty, for happiness depends not on possessions, but on you and on our relationship with you.
God, giver of good gifts, when we are sick we appreciate the tremendous gift of good health. We pray for those who are sick, especially for those we name before you now
Blessing:
May you be so filled with God's love
That your eyes are fixed upon Jesus.
And the blessing of God almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you now,
be in your homes and in your families
and with all those whom you love
and for whom you pray,
now and always.
Amen.
