Preached on July 2, 2017.

What kind of games do you like to play … games of skill or games of chance?

For example, if you went into a casino, you’d find games such as Poker & Blackjack. These games require a level of skill to play.

A person who studies these games and has a good memory has a pretty good chance of beating the house and being a winner.               These are games of skill.

On the other hand, a casino also has games like Craps, Roulette and Slot Machines. No skill is required to play. You see, no matter how carefully you roll the dice or spin the Roulette wheel or pull the Slot Machine lever, the numbers that come up that determine whether you win or lose come up in a purely random way.

Your role on the outcome is minimal.            These are games of chance.

I myself have always preferred playing games that involved more skill than chance. Years ago, I spent countless quarters playing arcade games such as Pac-man, Asteroids and Space Invaders. I was drawn to these games because my score was based on the skill that I developed for playing them.

Winning wasn’t based on luck ... I played an important part in my success.

Moreover, those arcade games promised a nice reward if you played well.

In Pac-man, each time you cleared a screen successfully and you were given the chance to play through another screen of slightly higher difficulty, on and on, until you made it through all 12 different screens. If you were good at Pac-Man, your reward was getting to play this game for something like 20 minutes on one quarter!

In the same way, once you became proficient at playing Asteroids of Space Invaders, you were rewarded with additional playing time, and you could go on and on playing these games for quite a while for the cost of a quarter.

Now the last time I took my little nephew out to play the arcade games at Chuck-E cheeses, I was disappointed to find that none of my favorite games from years ago were there. They had all been replaced by new games that cost 3 quarters to play ...  

they carried a high level of chance ... and they offered no reward for success!

I quickly lost interest in playing those games.

The conditions for playing and the rewards offered just weren’t attractive to me.

You know, virtually everything that we do or don’t’ do  ...

is based on our perception of ...

the conditions and the rewards involved.

When you try to decide:

• should I study hard in school or not? Your decision will be based on:
• the conditions you see for success and the rewards that are promised.
• should I play sports or not? (practices, travel ... letter, scholarship)
• what kind of summer job should I get? (full time, part time ... pay, benefits)
• what kind of college degree should I go after? (difficulty, hours ... job, pay)
• should I go ahead and get married or not?

In each of these decisions, it all comes down to our understanding of the conditions that must be met and the rewards that are available for those endeavors. 

Given this, we need to recognize what’s involved in playing ...

the game that everyone plays … the Game of Life.

It’s here that we want to be real clear on the conditions and the rewards involved.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus lays out the conditions and the rewards

of making it through this life successfully.

The first condition He states is that nothing can ever rise above our love for God.

Jesus says,

“Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

Think of that!

We know how strong our feelings of love can be for our family members ...

well, Jesus says that our love for God must be even greater than that!

Can you honestly admit to that?        Is your love for God greater than ...

your love for your spouse, your children or your parents?

Well, that’s the first condition for being successful in the game of life ...

that we love God ... above all else.

The second condition involves carrying our crosses and following the Lord.

Jesus says,

“Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of Me.”

Each of us has our own crosses to bear in this life. They might be physical, mental, or spiritual crosses. And there’s a natural tendency to want to run from our crosses … we want so badly to be happy and healthy and have things go our way.

Can you honestly say that you’re following after Jesus in the choices that you make? 

Well, that’s the second condition for being successful in the game of life...

         that you take up your cross and follow Jesus.

The third condition involves receiving others with kindness and care.

Jesus says,

“Whoever receives you ... or a prophet ... or a righteous man ... or a child ...

will surely not lose his reward.”

Can you honestly say that you treat others ...

people you know ... and people you don’t know ... with kindness and care?

Well, that’s the third condition for being successful in the game of life ...

         that you receive others with kindness and care.

So you can see ... from these three conditions ... that success in the Game of Life ...

comes not by chance ... but by playing with skill and determination.

Life is not a slot machine where you just pull the lever and hope for the best.

Life is this great adventure where we get to grow in love for God and others ...

with the assurance of receiving the best!

This is truly the kind of game that I like to play ...

one that is based not on chance ... but on my participation ... and

one that offers an attractive reward.

For those who follow the conditions for Christian Discipleship,

Jesus promises,

“Amen, I say to you, (you) will surely not lose (your) reward.”

We heard an example of this in our First Reading from the 2^nd Book of Kings  ...

where a Shunemite woman demonstrated repeated hospitality to Elisha.

So, the Lord bestowed a great favor upon her … promising this barren woman

that she would soon bear a son. What a wonderful reward for her loving actions.

Do you like to be rewarded for the things you do?                  I certainly do.

Even when it comes to playing games ... I prefer to play ones ...

where my skill can make a difference   and where the rewards are worthwhile.

What’s the reward for playing the game of life well?            Heaven!

God’s reward for loving Him and following His Son is Eternal Life in Heaven.

There’s no other game in the world that offers that kind of reward.

There’s no other reward that even comes close.

So, the question is:

are you going to use all our skill to achieve the reward of Heaven,  or

are you going to leave you arrival in Heaven up to chance?

Just as you increase the odds of success in playing arcade games ...

by study and practice

You similarly increase your odds of success in playing the game of life

with study and practice.

Which is why we faithfully gather together each Sunday ...

to study the word of God ... and then

go out into the world and put it into practice in our daily lives.

We now know the conditions for success:

• we must keep God number one in our lives
• we must take up our cross and follow Jesus every day ... and
• we must receive others with kindness and care.

Heaven is not attained by the roll of the dice ... or the luck of the draw!

We attain Heaven by skill ... not by chance.

You and I play an important part in winning the Game of Life.

Knowing the conditions for success ...

let’s pray for the strength and courage to fulfill them.

The reward is way beyond our wildest imaginings …

way beyond making it to the 12^th screen of Pac-man ...

and getting to play for another 5 minutes.

The reward of Heaven means experiencing supreme happiness  ...

where the playing time never ends!