Ordinary 33

19 November 2023

Bible readings for today

Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123:1-4
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30

Liturgical Colour: RED (Season: white)

Download new 2023-24 Lectionary

Collect

We pray you, Jesus,
take the old water, our busy conscientious lives,
and turn them into gospel wine,
that everyone may see your life and thirst;
for the glory of your holy name.
Amen.

E Īhu, ka īnoi mātou ki a koe, tangohia te wai tawhito, ā mātou ngākau pukumahi hoki, hurihia hei wāina rongopai kia kitea ai e te katoa tōu oranga ka mate hiainu; mō te korōria o tōu ingoa tapu.
Āmine.

The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

Today we learn about using our God-given gifts.

Who is our neighbour?

Intergenerational service projects

Family Service for family small groups
God has given us so much so we want to share His love and kindness with others. Participating in intergenerational service projects not only develops compassion and thankfulness but also build draw us closer together as God’s family.

Things to consider:

Pray and ask God where to start. What has He put on your hearts?
Look for projects that everyone can have a role in: elderly, young children, parents & singles.
What skills do you as a team have?

Here are some ideas to get you started thinking:

Who do you know in our community who is sick or lonely? Pray for them. Ask God to encourage them and show you creative ways that you can bless them.
Visit neighbours and collect plastic shopping bags. Take these to the supermarket for recycling.
Bake biscuits and make thank you cards then deliver to the local medical centre, school, fire brigade &/or police station.
Have a garage sale, make and sell crafts &/or baking and donate the money raised to a charity.
Prepare meals and deliver to a family with a new baby or someone unwell.
Knit or crochet piggy squares sew together into blankest for the pets at HUHA or the SPCA
Volunteer to run a stall at the local school gala.
Make rainbow ribbons for a preschool playgroup group http://www.littlegirldesigns.com/ribbon-wand/
Offer to help at a local soup kitchen or food rescue site.
Hold a clothing exchange where people bring clothing they no longer want and can take home other’s clothing treasures at no cost.
Have a mow-a-thon… Borrow a ride on mower and see how many lawns your team can mow in a day. All donations to charity.
Offer to demonstrate some of your skills at the local school or after school club: Wood turning, potting, crocheting, painting, carving, fishing etc.

Gospel Conversations

These last few weeks of the liturgical year are tough. Parables of judgement pour out of the Gospel of Matthew, many of which seem out of character with the Jesus we have met in the story so far. David Tombs, Bishop Steve, and Christine Nelson bravely join Rev Michael Godfrey this week to puzzle out what we do with the many, many challenges in the parable of the talents.

Don't bury your talent bible story

A story about using our God-given gifts, which can be found on Sermons 4 Kids.

Lesson plans

The Salvation Army have some fantastic Junior Soldiers resources for their discipleship groups, and this one covers the theme of today's reading

Ministry Ark also have a lesson plan for Matthew 2514-30

Activity sheets

Children's activity sheets based on the parable - wordfind, anagram, crossword, maze.
Download here

A craft activity can also be found on Childrens Bible Lessons Blog

Service projects for families

Simple ideas to encouage families to create a habit of serving together.

Family Service projects
God has given us so much so we want to share His love and kindness with others. Participating in service projects as a family helps develops compassion and thankfulness while drawing us closer as a family. Involving children in the decision-making and prayer about who & how we serve, helps children recognise what they do makes a difference.

Here are some simple ideas you might like to try: Ideas for families with young children …

Who do you know in our community who is sick, lonely or feeling sad? As a family, pray for them. Ask God to encourage them and show you creative ways that you can bless them.
Draw pictures or make cards for them.
Make a cake in a cup and delivery it to them.
Care for God’s creatures by put out birdseed out for the birds.
Take some flowers to a neighbour you don't know very well.
Make a card and send it to a “grand-friend”
Draw a picture for your librarian with a note saying "Thank you!"
Visit neighbours and collect plastic shopping bags, then take these to the supermarket to recycle.
Regularly visit a “grand-friend” at a retirement home, or in the neighbourhood. Play card games or do crafts together, ask them what life was like when they were growing up.

For older children…
As a family choose to go without dessert (or some other treat for the week) and donate the money you save, to a charity.

Bake biscuits and deliver to a neighbour, the local fire brigade or police station staff.
Sort through your cupboards and donate toys and clothes to the op-shop.
Help prepare and deliver a meal for a family with a new baby
Volunteer to walk dogs at HUHA or the SPCA.
Grow vegetables and offer the extra produce to people who don’t have space to garden, or to new parents who don’t have time to garden.
Bake some biscuits or cook a meal for someone who is unwell.
Knit or crochet blankest for the pets at the SPCA
Work together on a stall at the school gala or church fair.
Make rainbow ribbons for the local preschool music group
Offer to weed an elderly neighbour’s garden.
Have a garage sale, make and sell crafts or bake and donate the money to a charity.
Offer to help at a local soup kitchen or food rescue site.
Pick up rubbish at the park or along the grass verges.
Collect clothing from the neighbourhood and donate to the op-shop or mission

Craft - superpower masks

What is your super power (talent) from God? (Kids might need prompting; include qualities, like kindness, helpfulness, generosity). Using the superhero mask template, colour it, decorate it, and write on it what your super power is to inspire you to go out and be a superhero this week.

Superhero mask template found on the CBC Kids website here

Discussion questions

About the Bible Passage

Why did the master give different amounts of talents to each servant? (Matthew 25:15.)
Why do you think God gives them different amounts? Was this fair?
What do you think you would have done in the story? Hidden the money, used it or spent it?
When the master returned, why do yo think he reacted in the way he did?
What do you think Jesus was trying to teach us by telling this story?

Spiritual Gifts

How do your talents differ from your friends’ talents? Or your family members’ talents?
Every child of God is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, specially gifted to play a unique and valued role in the body of Christ. No one is without gift or purpose. God has special gifts for his children, which he calls Spiritual gifts. They are not or talent, or ability — they are a gift from God, by his Spirit living in us. Some of these gifts include:
- Administration — the ability to organise people and resources
- Apostleship — to reach out to new and unfamiliar groups to invite them into relationship with God and community
- Compassion — empathy for others, acting on behalf of those in need
- Discernment — deep intuition and insight
- Evangelism — sharing the gospel of Jesus
- Healing — channel God's grace and healing love to those in pain
- Tongues — speaking and/or understanding
- Faith — Confidence in God's promises
- Shepherding — mentoring and providing spiritual guidance to others to help them develop as a disciple
- Wisdom — able to understand deeper meaning and apply knowledge, beliefs and experience to every day situations

I wonder which gift God might have given you?
How can we thank God for the gifts that he gives us?

Talent show activity

The following activity is adapted from a lesson on the Ministry to Children website, found here:
https://ministry-to-children.com/story-time-with-jesus-lesson-seven/

Tell the kids you are having a talent show today…Give the class a few minutes to prepare a talent to share. Singing, drawing, touching their tongue to their nose…ANYTHING. Then put on a mini talent show so everyone can share (including you!). After the mini talent show is complete, award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. These three will play a role in the following lesson. (*you will need chocolate coins for this bit!)
Well, it seems this class is quite talented. And I bet there are MANY more talents in here that we couldn’t see. Maybe you’re good at fishing, or playing piano, or reading, or even giving hugs.
Jesus talked about talents once when He teaching the disciples; but in this case, the word talent had more than one meaning. Back when Jesus was on earth, a talent was also what they called a very large amount of money. I mean VERY large!
Jesus told a story about a master and three of his servants. The master had to go away on a long journey, so he brought in his servants and gave each of them some money to be in charge of. This way they could continue to run the business and make money while he was gone.
So the master asked one of his most talented servants (3rd place winner) to come forward, and he gave that servant 1 talent (1 coin). Now this might not seem like a lot, but just wait. That 1 talent was worth 20 whole years of work for him!
Then he called up a servant with even more talent (2nd place winner) and gave him 2 talents (2 coins). That was 40 whole years’ worth of pay!
Now it’s time for the MOST talented servant (1st place winner). The most talented servant was given 5 talents (5 coins).This was something new for these servants, to be trusted to take care of something so huge! They didn’t go to school, they didn’t have fancy homes or a huge farm. These were just basic servants, but the master knew they could be more and he trusted them with his talents.
So what do we think they did with these talents?
Let’s start with our 1st place winner. You were given 5 talents; it looks like this servant used those talents in a great way! By the time the master got back the servant had doubled the money (give 5 extra coins). DOUBLED! He now had 10 talents. The master was so impressed; he gave the servant even more talents. He said “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21 NIV)
This servant just got invited to celebrate with his master. A servant would normally be serving his master, not celebrating with him. That was huge!
Let’s look at the next servant (2nd place winner). You were given 2 talents, and the master wanted you to use them to grow his business.
It looks like you were able to use those talents and you also doubled them. You now have 4 talents! (Give 2 extra coins). And what do you the master said? The same thing! He was just as happy with this servant as he was with the first. The first servant had more talents in the end, but what really mattered to the master was that the talents he gave them were used wisely. So now there were 2 servants celebrating with the master.
Now let’s see how our 3rd place winner does. How many talents do you have? Just 1. I bet you can come up with a way to make some money with that talent, but the servant in the story couldn’t. He was so scared he might do something wrong that he decided to do nothing at all. He took his talent and buried it so no one could find it.
When the master came back he asked the last servant what he had done with the talents. But when the servant told him he chose to hide his talent out of fear the master became very upset. The master gave him that talent for a reason, but the servant chose not to use it. So instead of celebrating with the master and the other servant, he was sent away.
It’s pretty neat how Jesus used talents in this parable. Because the master gave the servants talents in the form of money, but God gives us talents in the form of abilities; just like our talents in the talent show.
God gave all of us talents, but they aren’t all the same. Each one of us has different talents and different ways to use them. And even though they are different, they aren’t better or worse than each other. God just wants to see us use them instead of hiding them. That’s why He gave them to us!
I want you to try to find a way to use one of your talents this week to grow God’s kingdom. It can be as simple as reading someone else a story or helping them pick up something they dropped. It doesn’t have to be big; it just has to be for God.

Parable of the talents - piggy bank

The parable of the talents explains the concept that God has given us talents that He wants us to use and develop. Ideas for having a discussion around using the talents God has given us, using a piggy bank as an analogy.

You will need:

A piggy bank - see video below for one made from a recycled bottle. Depending on the resources and time available, perhaps just one for the group may be easier than making one each!

Take home sheets - If you would like an activity or take-home for the whole group to do, there is a colouring sheet attached on which the children can write some of their talents, or those talents that they would like to develop.

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Download File

Discussion
In the same way that we put money into a piggy bank to be used later when something needs to be done or bought, when God created you, God also put talents inside you, to be used later for the things prepared for you to do (reference: Ephesians 2:10 “God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live”).

When we use these talents, we grow as people, we help other people and show them how awesome God is. We can tell our family and friends the talents that we see in them too, so that they are encouraged to use their talents too.

If we don’t use and grow the talents that God has given us, it’s like filling up a piggy bank with money and then never using it – the money is wasted and the piggy bank has no purpose. If we don’t use and grow what God has put inside us, it is wasted and we don’t find our purpose (reference: 1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well”).

These talents can be things that we do, e.g. organising, encouraging, leading, or they can be more like personal characteristics, e.g. wisdom, compassion, generosity.

Brainstorm on the whiteboard (or verbally if one isn’t available) a list of talents that God has put inside you, people you know. Have the children write on a piece of paper a talent that they would like to have/develop/grow in, fold up the paper and put it inside the piggy bank.

Take the talents out one at a time (as many as time allows) and discuss with the group, e.g. what does it look like when a person is a good encourager; how can we encourage other people; how can we be better encouragers? Put all of the talents back in the piggy bank and pray (teacher and/or children) over them and the children they belong to.