The story of the woman who gave everything

Based on Mark 12.41-44

Two people with smarties. One gives 5 smarties. One person gives 10 smarties. Who gives the most?

Now I'm going to give you a little more information. The person who gave 10 smarties had 10 packs of smarties. The person who gave 5 smarties only had 5 smarties. Who gave more?

Perhaps we would still say the person who gave 10 smarties, but they still had loads of smarties left over for themselves.
But I think that it was the person who gave 5 smarties - because they gave everything that they had.

Jesus was sitting at the entrance to the temple. He watched people put their money in the glass box. Many people put in large sums of money. £10. £100. £10000. WOW WOW WOW.  Look how much they are giving. They are such generous people.
A woman came in. She was very poor. She put in £1. Nobody said wow. In fact nobody noticed. Nobody except Jesus.

And Jesus called his friends together. They were still looking at the WOW person who had given £10000. Did you see that? He is amazing. Jesus said, 'Not really'. He is very very rich and it cost him nothing to give that amount of  money. He has got 100s of 1000s of pounds left. But that woman, who put in £1. That was all she had to live on for the rest of this week. She gave everything that she had.

It was only £1. Nobody noticed. But God noticed. And God said WOW

In a church in a town in Italy there are some of the earliest known illustrations of scenes from the life of Jesus. This picture shows this scene

Jesus is in the middle on the right. One of his friends is on the right. He is praying. And Jesus is blessing the woman who is giving. I have always thought of this widow as someone who was stooped and bowed. But here she stands upright with an immense dignity.

When we give, not to be noticed, and when we give - and I mean really give: you put all your weeks pocket money into a collection - nobody else will notice because it is not much. But you know. And although other people think that you are very little and insignificant, inside you can know that you are really big and tall.
And best of all, Jesus notices, and he says WOW 

Giving

An assembly for KS2

You will need £1 in pennies

Ask for 5 volunteers (choose one from the oldest class, one of the smallest in the school and several from other classes). Invite them to the front

Today I would like to talk about money and giving.

I have here £1 in pennies (pour them out).
Ask children what would happen if I said that whoever could get these could keep these.
Ask children who would get them

The thing is, in our world, that is exactly what happens. The big and the strong get the wealth and it is the poor and the weak who suffer.

If this £1 represents the worlds wealth, how much do the richest 10% of the world's population own? 85p. How much do the poorest 50% of the worlds population own? 1%

To be in the top 10% you need to have about £40,000 in assets. If your parents own their own house then you are certainly in the top 10% of the richest people in the world.

Money usually goes to people who already have money.
Why? Because it is the richest and the strongest who get it.
You could say that that is right. Survival of the fittest and all that.

But it is not the way that God made us. It destroys us:

1. If the big one pushes the little one out of the way - and they are so big they can do it without getting into trouble - it hurts the little one and leaves the little one with nothing. But it makes the big one think that little ones do not matter.  They think that what they have belongs to them by right, that they deserve it, that they are better or more clever or stronger than than everybody else. They become hard and cold.
Jesus said, 'What advantage is it to gain all the wealth in the world and to lose your soul?'
God made us to be people who care about others who have nothing.

So don't try to grab hold of the money for yourself. Could I ask you to share it out between the 5 of you.

2. Money that we grab gets a grip on us.
Imagine someone is trying to take away your 20p. Hold onto it. Grip it.
But look at their faces - all knotted up and stressed up

And people create bigger banks, build stronger front doors, install larger locks. we go around suspicious or fearful of other people. We say, 'They want my stuff'.

You think that you are gripping on to your money. But in fact your money is gripping on to you.

Jesus said there is a very simple way to solve the problem. Don't try to grip on to you money. GIVE the money.
On one occasion a very rich young man came to Jesus and said, "What must I do to gain eternal life". Jesus looked at him and saw that his money had got a grip on him. He said, 'Sell what you have, give to the poor, and then come and be one of my disciples following me on the road'.

He wasn't able to do that - and he missed out on being one of the first followers of Jesus.

We were made to give. When we are ready to give we are open and relaxed. Even if someone nicks it, well it is a shame, but it came from God in the first place and we were going to give it anyway.

To your volunteers: so could you share out the 20p that you have in your hand. Give it to these year 5's

Don't let money control you.

Can I suggest one very simple thing you can do - it is much easier to do when you are young. Many Christians tithe - that is they give 10% of what they get to the church or to some charity or to people in need. It is a good thing to do. So if you are given £1 pocket money, right at the beginning you put aside 10p and that will be money that you give to your church or to some appeal that your school is doing. Later, if you are given £10, you put aside £1. And when you start to work and earn money, you do the same thing. You give 10% of what you get away. It is something that many Christians - and people of other faiths - do.

It is the way to make sure that we do not end up hard and cold
It is the way to make sure that money does not control us.
And it is the way to begin to learn that we really were made not to grab, not to grip, but to give.

Parable of talents

KS1/2

Based on Luke 19:11-27

There is the story of a Master

(bring child to front as master, and have them stand on chair)

Who had three servants: Hobble, Dobble and Nobble

(bring three other children to front)

Hobble was called hobble, because he hobbled. Dobble was called Dobble because he dobbled (?), and Nobble was called nobble because he nobbled.

The Master was going away, so he called his/her three servants (Master calls)

And he gave them each £1 (actually the story says about £6000, but you can only have £1), and he told them to do business, so that when he came back they could give him the money with interest.

Hobble loved going to the theatre. So he thought, 'Great'. And he put on a production of a new play that he wrote. It was called, 'Willy Wonka and the tall giraffe'.

Dobble loved inventing things. So he thought, 'Great'. He invented a thing: an aeroplane that flew backwards

Nobble loved watching TV and playing on the Wii. So he thought, 'Oh No. If I've got to make money I've got to do something. And if I've got to do something, I can't watch TV or play on the Wii all day'. So he thought and he had a great idea. He got a spade, dug a hole in the garden, burid the money, returned to the lounge, turned on the TV and sat down.

Some time later the master returned. He/She called her servants

(Master calls servants)

'What have you done with my money?'

Hobble came forward. 'We put on a fantastic production. The crowds loved it, especially when Willy Wonka rescued the monkey from the alien space craft by climbing up the giraffes neck. You gave me £1. I can give you £10 back'.

The Master was delighted. He/She said, 'Well done. You can keep that money'

Dobble came forward. 'It was a great design. Slight problem. We forgot to put the cockpit in the back of the plane, so the pilot can only fly using mirrors all the time. But we had a buyer. UDA. It's an Australian company: Upside Down Airlines. We made £5'

The Master was delighted. He/She said, 'Well done. You can keep that money'

Nobble came forward. He knew what he was going to say. 'Master, Master, I was afraid. I know that you are hard. Alan Sugar has got nothing on you. Well I had lots of ideas. I thought I could set up an umbrella shop, but then I thought that it might not rain - and the money would be lost. I thought that I could dig for oil, but then I thought there might not be oil there - and the money would be lost. I thought I could use it to go on a course, but then I thought that I might not get a job afterwards.

So I had a brilliant idea. I dug a hole and kept your money safe. Here it is!'

The master was not happy. Not at all. He/She was very angry. 'I am hard. You know that. You know that I want you to use what I give you. You weren't afraid. You were lazy. Take the money from Nobble and give it to Hobble. He has shown that he can make the best use of it'.

The assembly concludes with you asking the children what the point of the story is. They will almost certainly talk about using your abilities. But the main point for Christians is that one day we will be accountable to God for what he has given us. Jesus is the master who has gone away, but one day he will come back again.