Are you ready?
What might you need to be ready to do now?
Ready to listen. Ready to think.
What other times do you have to get ready for something?
What do you need to do to get ready for school?
Jesus told a story about two people.
They were both servants of rich masters
Both masters had to go away on business, and they didn’t
know when he would be coming back.
Both masters told them to look after all his things. Make
sure no one stole anything. Make sure everything was ready for him when he came
back.
The first said to himself: What a privilege! I must make
sure I take care of everything. And he did.
Every day he checked the stores that he was responsible for.
He dusted and tidied and straightened. He watered the plants and looked after
the animals.
He weeded the garden and sowed seeds – they would be ready
to eat when his master came back. He looked after the money, paid the bills.
He made sure everyone else who worked for his master was
doing what they should too and he looked after them all.
The other one, in the other household, thought to himself
“What a lot of power I’ve got”. I’m just like my master now
– I can do what I want. Of course I’ll have to be ready when he comes back, but
that won’t be for ages, and when I hear him coming I’m sure I will be able to
rush around and tidy things up…
In the meantime, I intend to have a really great time.
So he ate his master’s food – never mind, I’ll replace it
when I hear he’s coming back!
He drank his master’s drink – never mind – he’ll never
notice!
He didn’t do a stroke of
work around the place. The dust and dirt built up – never mind I can run
around with a duster and mop quickly when I hear he’s coming.
He was cruel and unjust to his masters other workers – the
master will never find out.
He had the time of his life. For the first few days he kept
an eye out, just in case his master came back. But as days stretched into weeks
and weeks stretched into months he almost forgot his master was coming back at
all.
Then, one night, late, very late, when he was sprawled on
his master’s couch, a bit drunk, with all the dirty plates and cups around him,
he heard a noise. The noise of the front door opening, the noise of someone
coming into the hallway, the noise of a very familiar voice shouting out….I’m
home…where is everyone.
Hurriedly he tried to stuff all the dirty plates under a
cushion…but it was too late. His master looked at him, and he looked at his
master…
If you were the master of those two servants what do you
think you would have done?
What would you have done with the one who looked after
everything?
What would you have done with the one who didn’t?
Why?
Jesus told that story to remind people that they never
really knew what was going to happen next. It might be something good. It might
be something challenging. But they could help themselves to be ready for
whatever happened. Being a good friend. Loving and caring for others. Looking
after the world around us. Being fair.
If we fill up the oceans with rubbish, there won’t be fish
in them when we need them to feed people.
If we throw litter around, we won’t have nice places to play
when we want them.
If we are mean to our friends then when we need them, we
won’t have any.
