Excuse-O-Matic!

A fun resource for exploring the Parable of the Great Banquet and the excuses we all make to God’s call on our lives.

This simple craft generates over 500 different excuses for not tidying your room / handing in that report to your boss / getting up at 4am for the baby / eating your sprouts / … responding to the gospel …

What’s your excuse?

This activity is based on Matt 22:1-14 / Luke 14:15-24

As always, lectionary-based resources for this week and next can be found by searching for your preferred passage in the search box on the right.

We all have excuses for not doing certain things, be that French homework, filing taxes or attending to God’s call on our lives. Sure, there can be valid reasons why we can’t get to church one day (God is interested in more than just ‘bums on pews’ anyway) and yes, we can worship God at home with a sick child, or on a walk in the Great Outdoors. I’m not here to add a layer of guilt on you for why you don’t spend three hours everyday reading your Bible (sawdust & planks, y’know). What you do is between you and God, and it’s none of my business. Faith was never about doing, doing, doing.

It can be helpful to have a chat with God about priorities, and try to get God’s perspective. You may find that something you’ve been beating yourself up about is actually the world’s priority (or even the church’s, dare I say?), not God’s, and you can chuck off that burden. On the other hand, you may find that God prods you about something that you thought was OK.

Give it a go. Make the craft, have some fun with it, then take a few mins to sit quietly with God and listen.

You can use this for:

Messy Church,
All-Age Worship (and remember that ‘All-Age’ does not mean ‘just for kiddies’ – everyone can make this and think about the excuses we make to God),
Bible study with a difference – a great way for adults to reflect on priorities
Sunday school
Collective Worship – give away the printable as a take-home craft

There’s a make-along video below which you are welcome to broadcast, and a set of printable templates.

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You will need:

Printable templates (see below) printed on paper or card
scissors, coloured pens
split pin fastener, or drawing pin and cork board, or paperclip, or yarn, or pencil

What to do:

Cut out the four circles and cat away the part marked ‘cut this part away’.
Decorate the shapes (I recommend using highlighters).
Make a hole in the centre of each piece using a pencil.
Add your own beginnings (small wheel), middles (medium wheel), and endings (large wheel), for example:
Superman / rescued me from / a bowl of porridge
My granny / knitted me / a snotty tissue
A naughty penguin / hit me over the head with / a large kipper
Stack the wheels with the largest on the bottom, then the medium, then the small, and place the front on top.
To join the wheels either use a split pin, or push a drawing pin through the centre into a cork board, or thread a piece of yarn through the holes and knot by the edge, or slide a paper clip through the holes, or poke a pencil through the centre (see video).
Now spin, spin, spin and find your next brilliant excuse for whatever it is you don’t want to do.

[Click here to download the printable templates]