Prepare:  Bring a toy of some kind.  Anything will work.  Have the toy out as the children gather.  Ask them about their favorite toys, and what toys they would like to have.

  The story we hear from the Gospel today is about some people who really, really like things.  Kind of like us and the toys that we like, or toys we wish that we had.  Jesus says some things that are hard for us to understand, and maybe even harder to do!

It all gets started by a man who is mad at his brother for not sharing.  He asks Jesus to make his brother share with him, and Jesus says, sorry, that isn’t really my problem, it is your problem.  I’m not here to make your brother share with you.  In fact, Jesus says, it isn’t really something you should worry about either.  He wanted his brother to give him half of his money (Ok, it’s more complicated than this, but we are talking to children.  Feel free to tell more of the story if you want) and the brother wouldn’t do it.  Jesus told him that he was worrying about stuff, and he was ruining his friendship with his brother because he wanted more stuff.

I think that most of us do that sometimes.  We see things that we want that belong to other people and we want those things so much that we don’t think about how upset or angry we are making other people.  Jesus says that the amount of stuff that we collect doesn’t really matter, that there is more to being alive than collecting stuff!  Instead of filling our lives with stuff we should fill our lives with the love of God and share that love with everyone that we can.

  Loving God, fill us with your love!  Fill us so full of love that it spills out of our hearts and into the hearts of the people around us.  Amen

  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit you are loved by God. (have children repeat this)

~GB

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