Christ Church Sermon, Monopoly: What Are You Building?, July 26 2026

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Park, Pennsylvania. We're a United

[music] Methodist congregation with the

mission of building inclusive community,

sharing Christ's transforming [music]

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Thank you for listening.

Today's scripture is from the New

Testament uh the book of Matthew 6 19-

21.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures

on earth where moss and vermin destroy

and where thieves break in and steal.

But store up for yourselves treasures in

heaven where moss and vermin do not

destroy and where thieves do not break

in and steal. For where your treasure

is, there your heart will be also.

Thanks be to God.

>> Amen.

of all of the games that we are

highlighting throughout our game on

sermon series this summer. All the ones

that we have done, all the ones that we

will do. I think Monopoly is the most

polarizing one.

You either love Monopoly with every

fiber of your being or you hate Monopoly

with a white hot fire of a thousand

sons. Anybody love Monopoly?

There's like a dozen of you. All right,

we're going to start a club and we're

all going to play. More about that

later. Um, you probably have the

feelings that you do about Monopoly

because when you played it as a child,

you either won every game or you were

traumatized because you could never

quite get ahead and the game always took

four days to finish and the detritus

covered the dining room table so nobody

could eat together for those four days

while you engaged in an epic battle to

see who would come out on top. and it

was never you. Maybe that's just how my

family played Monopoly. As most of us

know, Monopoly is a game of property

acquisition and management and then the

accumulation of wealth. Every player is

given a set amount of money to start the

game. And when it's your turn, you roll

the dice and you land on different

properties around the board. And as you

move around the board, you purchase

these different properties when you land

on them. And then when other players

land on them, you get to charge them

rent. The goal is to finish with the

most amount of money, which means that

in order to win, you either have to

successfully bankrupt every other person

around the table, or you just have to

wait them out because you're willing to

play longer than they are.

Often the things that make or break us

in Monopoly and in the game when we play

it are those buildings right there, the

Monopoly houses and the hotels. Ideally,

you acquire all of one color set because

you can't build on a property until you

have that entire set. But once you have

it, you can start to build houses and

hotels. And that's where the real money

starts to flow. The more houses you have

on a property, the more rent you can

charge when someone visits you, i.e.

lands on your property. And for a lot of

us, I think this is where the real

nightmare with Monopoly begins. I think

some of us can probably almost feel the

sweat trickling down the back of our

necks as we physically um have this

memory of the overwhelming dread that

washed over us while we were playing

Monopoly. And we approached a string of

houses and hotels that were owned by

someone else. and we looked down and saw

we only had $17 to make it through the

gauntlet.

For those who have to do it with $17,

that is a stressful and hard situation.

But for those who owned the houses, the

players that owned the houses and

hotels, that is a moment of thrill and

of joy and of excitement because you get

to collect money from someone else.

Collect that rent and then you are

securing and protecting your future in

the game.

Many of us, whether we realize it or

not, are living our lives like we are

playing a game of Monopoly.

We work hard to get ahead so that we can

save money so that we can protect our

own future. That's what the world tells

us is important, right? Protect yourself

and those you love at all costs. Those

other people who are struggling, they

dug themselves their own hole and they

can dig themselves out of it. Why should

we give away our treasure that we

earned?

Jesus, as you heard in today's

scripture, had some strong opinions

about this particular topic. The verses

that Borton read for us this morning um

come right in the middle of the sermon

on the mount which takes up all of uh

verse or chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew

with the exception of the first two

verses in chapter 5 and the last two

verses in chapter 7. Jesus is speaking

that entire time and he primarily talks

about the character and the

responsibilities of the people who want

to follow him. And towards the end of

chapter 6, we find today's verses about

what Jesus's disciples should do with

their earthly treasures.

Sometimes I think it's just as important

to look at what scripture is not saying

as it is to examine what scripture is

saying. And so before we delve into what

Jesus is saying, let's hear what he is

not saying in these verses about what we

should do with our treasure.

Jesus does not say that you cannot have

a bank account or have any money in

savings. The words in today's scripture

are do not store up or stockpile or uh

keep an egregious amount for yourself.

So Jesus is not trying to preach here in

these verses that all of us should take

vows of personal poverty, but rather he

is conveying a new view on the role

earthly treasures should play in

people's lives and how those treasures

could ultimately impact the kingdom of

God.

The new view on our earthly treasures is

that treasure is a trust.

In the financial world, of course, a

trust is a way of managing wealth and

protecting assets. Creating a trust

involves three people. There's the

creator, the person who is in possession

of the wealth. There is the trustee, the

person who is charged with managing the

wealth and distributing it based

distributing it based on the creator's

wishes. And then there's the

beneficiary, the person or the entity

that receives the resources from the

trust.

God is the creator of a trust for each

one of us. Over and over again

throughout the Bible, we read that

everything belongs to God and everything

we have is a gift from God. Whether it's

a lot or a little, God is the one that

provides for every one of our needs.

Psalm 24:1 says, "The earth is the

Psalms 24:1

Lord's and everything in it."

Deuteronomy 8:18 says, "But remember the

Deuteronomy 8:18

Lord your God, for it is he who gives

you the ability to produce wealth and so

confirms his covenant."

And Romans 11:36 says, "For from God and

Romans 11:36

through God and for God are all things,

to God be the glory forever." Amen.

So God is the creator of a trust for

each of us and for which he has made us

the trustee. God gives us gifts inside

that trust and then we are supposed to

use them as God intended to provide both

for our own needs and then to help

further God's kingdom on earth. However,

there is one big difference between a

financial trust that we set up here in

this world and a trust from God. In a

financial trust, there are strict rules

that are set up so that the trustee must

follow the creator's exact wishes. The

trustee must make sure that the

beneficiaries receive their gifts

exactly as the creator intended. There's

no wiggle room.

But with the trust we have in God, we

are trustees and we have free will.

We make choices as to what we do with

the gifts that God has given to us. And

we all have to answer the same

fundamental question, which is, are we

going to use God's trust to honor God's

desires, or are we going to trust God's

direction,

tune out, sorry, are we going to tune

out God's direction and squander God's

gifts by deciding for ourselves what to

do with what God has put into our trust?

As we sit here in worship, that decision

is easy and it seems really obvious and

we know what the answer is. But when we

go back out into the world, I think that

that decision becomes much more

difficult.

And that is because treasure can be a

trap.

When I am sitting in my house reading a

book or relaxing with my family or

engaging in a spirited game of Monopoly,

I know that there's really nothing I

need. We have a roof over our heads. We

have clothes to wear. We have food to

eat. We have each other. We have

everything we need in life.

But then I go outside

and I see houses that are bigger and

newer. I see clothes that are better. I

see trips that people take that are to

more exotic places than I go. And

suddenly everything is different.

our house that seemed fine.

Now I look around and it suddenly seems

shabier

because I know that my neighbor has

newer furniture and newer carpet and

newer things in their home. I look at my

clothes and the items that were

perfectly fine before now look kind of

old and drab compared to others. And I

look at Facebook and I see the exotic

trips some of my friends are taking. And

before I continue, I want to say I'm not

speaking about any of you. you have

every right to go wherever you want in

the world and celebrate it on social

media. I've had several people come up

to me and say, "Were you talking about

me?" And I say, "No, it's anyone. It's

okay." Um, but I see these exotic trips

that people are taking. And it makes me

reflect differently on the trips that we

just took this summer to Tennessee and

our station. That was how we spent our

vacation this year. And those were both

wonderful and a great way to spend our

time. But not when you compare it to

Greenland and to Barcelona and to all

these other exciting places people are

going. Comparison is still one of the

thieves of joy.

And suddenly as I'm in this comparison

game, I remember that God has given me

resources. And although I know what the

purposes purpose of those resources is,

I know how important our tithe is to

this church. I know how much of a

difference our uh above and beyond

giving to special offerings and and

participating in the service ministries

and giving to charities outside of the

church. I know how important all of that

is,

but I can fool myself.

I tell myself that surely God wants me

to take care of myself, too. And as part

of that self-care, I know God wants me

to have nice things and wear nice

clothes and go fun places. And so surely

God doesn't mind if I use more of God's

trust on myself.

And then I tell myself, after I have

built up my own house

and taken care of my own interests,

then I will give to God. I will go back

to following the trust. No problem.

But actually, yes, that is a problem

because at the root of that decision is

me putting my wants, not my needs, my

wants over God's plan. And that's the

trap.

Ecclesiastes

5 10 says, "Those who love money will

never have enough." How meaningless to

think that wealth brings true happiness.

Once we start down that path of thinking

that we are entitled to things, that we

can reorder how God wants us to use

God's trust to us, it's hard to change.

It's hard to go back because living by a

different standard, by God's standard,

requires us to shut out what the world

says that we should do and instead

listen intently to what God is calling

us to do.

And it requires us to remember that our

treasure is a testimony.

Noah Bensha is a prophet and a I'm

sorry, he's a poet, not a prophet. He's

a poet and he's a philosopher. And he

once said this, either the key to a

man's wallet is in his heart or the key

to a man's heart is in his wallet. So

unless you express your charity, you are

locked inside your greed.

The senior pastor of the first church

that my husband and I served when we

went to Florida was known for being

frank. Rebecca loves God's people with

all of her heart, but she also has a

gift for seeing God's truth and then

saying it plainly to those who need to

hear it. She is one of my favorite

people. When she first started serving

this particular church, some members of

the congregation took her on a tour of

the building. And as they got to the

back hallway where the adult Sunday

school classes were, there was a stove

sitting there pushed up against the

wall. And so Rebecca asked the natural

question, why is there a stove in the

hallway? And one of the people who was

giving the tour said, well, that was

given by a gentleman from the church and

it was his mother's and she passed away.

And so he wanted the church to have her

stove.

So she asked the next logical question

which was, "Well, what's it doing in the

hallway? Why is it not in the kitchen?"

And they said, "Oh, it's broken. it's

never worked.

And and she said, "Well, why is it

here?" And they said, "Well, he he gave

it to the church." And so she said,

"Throw the stove out." So they threw the

stove out. Two weeks later, a very angry

man shows up in her office and says, "I

heard you threw away my mother's stove.

Why would you do that?"

And she said, "It was broken." And there

was no sense in keeping something that

was broken. the church needs a

functioning stove. And the man said,

"But it was my mother's stove, and I

wanted the church to have it."

Rebecca looked right at him, looked him

right in the eye, and with her

incredible blend of spiritual bluntness

mixed with a soft southern accent, said,

"We are called to give our first fruits

and our best to God."

Is the best that you have to offer God a

broken stove?

A couple of days later, a brand new

stove was delivered to the church

kitchen.

Our intentions may be good, but we need

to be concentrating on giving our best

to God, giving those first fruits to

God. Because as it says in Matthew 6:24,

Matthew 6:24

no one can serve two masters. Either you

will love one and hate the other, or you

will be devoted to one and despise the

other. No one can serve God and money.

Ultimately, what we do with the trust

that God has given us will be our

testimony. It will tell the world who it

is that we serve.

Is your testimony a broken stove or is

it something that will make a real

difference for Jesus?

As your pastors, we get up here every

week when it's time to collect the

offering and we talk about what a

difference this congregation's gifts

make in the kingdom of God and we tell

you about children who get to come to

vacation Bible school because of how you

give. We tell you about those who had

their medical debt erased.

We tell you about youth ministries and

feeding programs and mission trips and

community events and journey to

Bethlehem in Advent and so many other

things that this body of believers does

to share Christ's transforming love with

people both inside this church and

outside in our surrounding community and

even around the world.

Last week, Pastor Chris gave us all an

update on the Wade in the Water campaign

that was created to pay off existing

debt and free up resources so that as a

church, we can do more for the

transformation of the world.

But what we don't always directly

articulate, sometimes we do, but what we

don't always articulate is that when we

all as a congregation make those gifts

to the church, we are making a choice.

We are choosing to use God's trust for

God's purposes over our own desires, our

own wants.

And that not only makes a difference in

the kingdom, but it should really be

making a difference in our hearts as

well. Because every time each one of us

makes the choice to please God with our

gifts, we are giving our testimony to

the world. When you all gave to the uh

undue medical debt, you gave a testimony

to 10,000 people.

10,000 people about how your money is

better off serving them than it is

serving you. And what an incredible

ministry and what an incredible gift

that was.

When we allow our treasure to be our

testimony, we are telling the world that

we love God. We are devoted to God and

we serve God over the powerful lure of

money.

Did you know that there are thousands of

official versions of the game Monopoly?

Thousands. Everything from the good old

original version to Pittsburgh Opoly and

Star Wars Opaly and to the card game

version uh called Monopoly Go and to

Monopoly Jr. There is even a Bible where

you can uh go to properties like

Philippi and Rome and you don't go to

jail. I found this interesting. You go

to meditation, which

doesn't have the same effect. You know,

go to jail, go directly to jail, do not

pass, go, do not collect 200. Go to

meditation. Go directly to meditation.

Yeah, I think that's actually a gift.

That's not so much a punishment, but

that's how Bibleopoly is played. But the

list goes on and on and on. Our family,

I counted this week, owns five versions

of the game. But that is nothing

compared to a man named Neil Scallan of

the United Kingdom who currently holds

the Guinness Book of World Records for

owning the most Monopoly games at, wait

for it, 4,379

different versions of Monopoly.

The thing about Neil, though, is that

the vast majority of those 4,379

sets are still wrapped in plastic.

They are stored in his house or in a

warehouse. Some of them are on loan to a

museum. Neil doesn't play with them. He

doesn't even really look at them cuz

he's got so many of them. He just wants

what? He wants the joy of owning them.

The treasure with which God has

entrusted us was not meant for us to

squirrel away, to put on a shelf like

extra sets of Monopoly.

It was not meant to build up our own

house so that ultimately we get more

treasure.

Our treasure,

our trust was meant to be used to bring

about the kingdom of God on earth. It

was meant to change lives for the

better, to be given away to make a

difference for Jesus in the world. in a

world where that decision is rare and

where it often stands in direct

opposition to what the world says we

should do.

But remember that God has given each of

us a choice about what we do with the

trust that God has given us. We get to

decide with our free will.

Will we choose to build our own

treasure?

Or will we listen intently for the voice

of God as God prompts us to use the

gifts he has given us to build his

kingdom here on earth?

Let us pray.

God, we live in a world that is

constantly telling us

that what we want is really what we need

and encouraging us to use the treasure

that you have entrusted to us in

different ways than you are calling us

to use it. And so we pray for our

ability to tune out the world, to listen

more closely for your voice, to hear

what it is you are calling us to do with

the things that you have given to us.

and then to courageously act on what it

is you are asking us to do so that we

can make a difference for you and for

your kingdom in this world. In Jesus

name we pray. Amen.