“The Gospel in Boardgames: The Game of Life” Luke 9:24 Luke 12: 15

I grew up playing games with my family and friends. I learned my colors and numbers playing UNO. When I traveled to Russia in college, I re-learned the same things in Russia playing that same game (but don’t ask me what they are now!) I learned how to count money with Monopoly. And we not too long ago sat down with my niece to play the game of Memory to work on matching skills. Games were a huge part of my childhood. 

With that in mind, as our children and teens are preparing to go back to school in the not too distant future, I thought we would have a sermon series based off of boardgames. For the past few years in the summer we have been having sermon series about seeing the Gospel message in the world around us. We’ve looked at the cartoon strip Peanuts. At Disney movies. At children’s books. And just with all of those sermon series, I want to kick us off with the same statement - I am not saying that Board Games are the Gospel. Instead, I am saying that we can use things around us to teach everyone, but most especially with this sermon series, the young people in our lives about the message of Jesus in Scripture. We have tools all around us, even board games, that can help us point to eternal truths about Jesus’s will and way. 

The Game of Life has an interesting past. It was first released in 1860 by Milton Bradly under the title ‘The Checkered Game of Life’ and was the first popular Parlor Game, or indoor game played by a group. In 1960 the game got a face lift and became similar to what we know it as now. It has been re-released every few years with updates and changes, with the most recent revision coming in 2018. It is also earned a place in the National Toy Hall of Fame.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it goes something like this. You are given a person who rides around the game board in a plastic car and you slowly travel through life, making decisions about jobs, education, children, houses, retirement, etc. You go to the bank, you pay fees, all of the components of modern “adulting” found in a safe game for two to six players. 

Your ultimate goal is to collect life tiles and have the largest amount of money at your disposal at the end of the game.

And oh friends, how many people live their very lives like this? Making decisions based off of how much money it will make them or how they can retire with the most assets, or some folks even how they can die with the most possessions. What the Game of Life misses is that old important adage, “You can’t take it with you.”

Enter Jesus in today’s scripture lesson. In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, we find Jesus on the move. He prepares his disciples for the mission before them, he fed the five thousand, and now he is trying to teach his disciples in private moment about his upcoming death and resurrection.

He is both telling them what is to come for him - “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” And he is telling them what lies ahead for those who take-up the mantle of his leadership. Verse 24 is found inside the larger context of Jesus telling them what it really means to be his disciples. It isn’t about the perks, or what you get out of it - its about what you give - denying ourselves and picking up the cross of Jesus daily. Why? For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

On one hand it seems like a type of math equation, right? If I want to get life-eternal, that means I have to give up something here in this life. But it isn’t about an equation of how we get what we ultimately want out of Jesus! Instead, it is Jesus trying to teach his disciples, and us, about what really matters. 

See, its not about the game of Life, for Jesus. It’s not about who can walk away with the most stuff or money. Its about being willing to lose it all for the sake of the Gospel.

A few months ago I was listening to a program called “Get Your Spirit in Shape” that is put out by the United Methodist Church. The guest on the program was Rudy Rasmus, who is a well known pastor from the Huston area. Rudy was sharing his call story and experience with God and essentially said this - when God got ahold of his heart and he became saved, everything had to change. He couldn’t keep the job he had. He couldn’t keep chasing after money. Jesus became the center of all he was and that meant all of his decisions and living had to point back to Jesus. 

That’s what it looks like friends, to be willing to lose your life. To disregard that which your life prior to Jesus focused on, in order to point people towards the truth and light of Jesus Christ. 

Fast forward to chapter twelve of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus is teaching again, but this time its in a much more public venue, and all of a sudden someone in the crowd wants Jesus to break into a dispute that is happening in their family, as they cry out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But Jesus wasn’t having it. Instead, he tells this parable, or story, of the Rich Fool. There was a rich man who had a really good year with crops, and as a result he had more than his barns could hold. So he had this idea to rip down his barns in order to build bigger ones. Only God shows up, calls him a fool, and tells him that he was going to die that very night, and then all of this wasn’t going to matter. 

Jesus said, be on your guard. Because this life is about so much more than what we try to make it about. 

Friends, there are so many of us that are living our lives like they are a board game instead of looking to God’s Word. We try to get as much as we can, while moving as fast as we can, so we can get to this place where we can simply rest in all that we have done and all that we have accumulated. But God’s Word tells us that isn’t the point. 

It’s not about how much you can store up. It’s not about moving on to the biggest and the best thing. It’s not about how you compare yourself when you look around at your neighbors. Instead, its about how you are sharing the love of Jesus. It’s about setting aside all that the world tries to use to distract us, in order to put Jesus front and center. 

Rudy Rasmus went on in the program I was listening to, to say this: “Money is a god to a lot of people. And to de-prioritize money as god and to begin to prioritize good as God, that became my work”.

Church, what is truly our priority and can people tell that by the way we live our lives? What is the purpose of how we live our life? Because our singular life, right here, right now, is not a game. Amen.