Contributed by Erik Ulstead, West Des Moines, IA

Warm-up Question

What is the biggest house you’ve ever seen?  Describe it.

The Widening Gap

The wealthiest 1% of Americans have 36% of the money.

This, and many other startling facts have come from a recent study conducted at the University of California, Berkeley.  The top 1% is defined as families with incomes above $394,000 in 2012.  The study also shows the income gap between the top 1% and the remaining 99% is as wide as it’s been in nearly 100 years.

Between 1993 and 2012, the incomes of the 1% grew 86.1%, while the 99% grew 6.6%.  More recently, as the country’s economy has begun to recover from The Great Recession, the divide has become more significant.  From 2009-2012 the incomes of the top 1% grew more than 31%, while the incomes of the 99% grew 0.4%.

The Berkeley study attributes the trend not just to technology and job outsourcing, but to the reduced power of progressive tax policies and unions, along with “changing social norms regarding pay inequality.”  Another study published by the University of California, Santa Cruz indicates that the bottom 80% earn 11% of the money.  As the American economy continues to improve some economists believe the wealthiest people will continue to benefit the most.

 Discussion Questions

•  There were a lot of numbers in the article.  Which of the facts and figures caught your attention?  Were there some that confused you?
• The United States is the 94^th ranked nation in the world when it comes to having an even distribution of wealth.  How does that make you feel?
• Why do you think the recent economic recovery has been better for the wealthy than for everyone else?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 29, 2013 (Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Luke 16:19-31

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Heaven and hell — what’s it like and who’s going there?  These are the questions that have gnawed away at humankind since the beginning of time.  It’s a tough topic for pastors and other religious leaders.  Most religions address the notion of an afterlife, yet people are endlessly curious about the specifics.  Some people claim to have first-hand knowledge of heaven, either through near-death experiences or clairvoyant conversations with people who have died.

The parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus” addresses the concept of the afterlife in terms of wealth and poverty.  The nameless rich man lives a life of luxury while poor Lazarus is lying destitute at the rich man’s gate begging for table scraps.  Only the dogs pitied Lazarus, which gives us the unpleasant image of open sores being licked by stray animals.  Both men die.  Lazarus is whisked away to the bosom of Abraham while the rich man is being consumed in the flames of Hades.

There is tough justice for the rich man.  There is no “get out of Hades free” card for him.  The rich man is being punished because he disregards Lazarus as being less than him.  Even in hellish agony the rich man wants Lazarus to be his errand boy.  He asks for Lazarus to give him water or warn his family about their impending doom.  However, Abraham (functioning as the God-figure) won’t permit it.  The story is about more than rich vs. poor, it’s about seeing all people as beloved children of God.

Beware of reading this story too literally, lest we see it as a simple condemnation of the super-wealthy.  We who are among the 99% might get a little cocky about ourselves while heaping coals on the rich.  Martin Luther reminds us that there’s more going on here:

“Therefore we conclude that the bosom of Abraham signifies nothing else than the Word of God,…. the hell here mentioned cannot be the true hell that will begin on the day of judgment. For the corpse of the rich man is without doubt not in hell, but buried in the earth; it must however be a place where the soul can be and has no peace, and it cannot be corporeal. Therefore it seems to me, this hell is the conscience, which is without faith and without the Word of God, in which the soul is buried and held until the day of judgment, when they are cast down body and soul into the true and real hell.”

The complexity of this parable is confounding to many, especially young people who may desire a clear interpretation.  It’s good to wrestle with this text and pray for clarity.  In the meantime, let us be encouraged to free others and ourselves from the bondage of wealth and seek to reach out in love to those in need.

Discussion Questions

• What is Jesus saying about wealth and poverty in this story?
• How does this story sound if you’re a rich person?
• 80% of the world lives on less than $10 per day.  A person making minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 an hour.  Most of us are wealthy among the world’s population.  Do you hear this story differently if you think of yourself as “the rich man”?
• What are ways you can work toward financial equality for all?

Activity Suggestions

• Have a Hunger Meal to simulate the disparity between rich and poor.  Consider having your group plan a larger Hunger Meal event for your whole congregation.
• Play Hunger Jeopardy using this PowerPoint file.
• Take a Hunger Quiz.  Download and print copies for each person.

Closing Prayer

God, we grieve the inequalities in our world.  Help us to be agents of change and ambassadors of love.  Thank you for loving us.  Amen.

Contributed by John B. Hougen, Elkins Park, PA

Warm-up Question

Do you have a “to do” list?  If you had the power to do whatever you want for the next week, what would you add to your list? What would you subtract?

Is God on Your List?

Everybody’s busy. Children are “driven” from one scheduled activity to another. Parents try to balance their responsibilities at work and home. Students are notoriously short of sleep because of all they pack into their lives.  Churches and non-profits struggle to find people with time to volunteer. Retired people say, “I’m busier now than when I was working.”

Many of us feel that we’ve lost control over our lives. We are frustrated that we don’t have enough time for what would make our lives vibrant and marvelous. What we want to do and what is important to do get lost as we try to keep up with what we have to do.

Where is God in our busyness?

It is possible to raise our awareness of God’s presence when we are not being “religious,” even within the routine and mundane. (Monks learn to transform gardening, wine-making and other everyday work into prayer.)  But, a healthy relationship with God also requires us to give God our full attention for some of our moments, some of our hours.

Today’s gospel reading (Luke 16: 1-13) challenges us to reassess our priorities.  It challenges us to make our relationship with God our top priority, echoing the first of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God; … you shall have no other gods before me.”

Discussion Questions

• Are you able to devote moments or hours to “giving full attention to God” in the midst of your busy schedule? If so, how?
• How would your days and weeks be different if you put as much energy, time, and thought into your relationship with God as you put into your favorite “discretionary time” activity or your relationship with your best friend?
• In the process of challenging us to reassess our priorities, today’s Bible readings suggest that for many the pursuit of “mammon” (financial security, wealth, money, property, or profit) can distract us from the pursuit of “spiritual riches.”  Discuss the pressures present in our society pushing us to prioritize getting rich. Consider advertizing, America’s obsession with competition (with its prizes of fame and fortune), society’s definition of success, and others. Does the lure of getting rich seduce Christians away from faithfulness to God?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 22, 2013 (Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Amos 8:4-7

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

After reading Luke 16: 1 – 13 and before reading my reflection, discuss how this text is different from other teachings of Jesus and how it is similar….

I’m guessing you will agree with many scholars who claim that among all Jesus’ parables, this one is the most difficult to understand. It seems out of character for Jesus to praise a dishonest rascal who will do anything to “look out for number one.”

But, consider this: Jesus is talking to people of faith (in 16:1 his disciples) who would try to find a deeper meaning in Jesus’ praise of the dishonest manager. Through the Bible, Jesus speaks to all his followers including you and me. To get to the deeper meaning of the parable for us, it is helpful to identify with the characters in the story, to see where their lives connect with ours.

We can identify with the dishonest manager because we, too, are managers. God has entrusted us with the “management” of our time, our personal gifts and talents, our relationships, and – indeed – the created world. As fallible humans, we “squander” some, perhaps even most, of what God has given us. Like the manager called to give an accounting to the rich man, we stand guilty before God, charged with incompetence and carelessness in the stewardship of God’s gifts. Like the manager [and like the Prodigal Son in Luke’s previous chapter (15:21)], we can offer no excuses, and must throw ourselves on the mercy of our Judge.

It might not be obvious that, in the parable, the dishonest manager throws himself on the mercy of the landowner; but he does.  If the landowner found out, as he surely would, about the manager’s criminal actions (after the landowner fired him – see verse 2), the landowner could send his disgraced employee to jail.  The dishonest manager trusted that his boss would be merciful and not send him to jail, so he went ahead with his scheme to make friends and ensure he would be taken care of after his dismissal. He proceeded to cheat his employer by lowering the amounts owed to him. Those who owed money to the landowner then were indebted to the manager, and could “pay up” by giving him food and shelter when he became unemployed. (See Kenneth Bailey, Poet and Peasant, Eerdmans, 1976, 99 – 102.)

As people of faith, we know that we must rely on God’s mercy. We know that neither honest striving nor cheating the system will keep us from falling short of God’s hopes for us. We’ll never qualify on our own for intimacy with God. To enter God’s presence, we must receive God’s love poured out for us. We must first receive God’s mercy and inspiration if we are to give up self-destructive, harmful thoughts and behavior in order to “see Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly” (from “Day by Day” in Godspell). Also, we depend on God’s mercy to open the doors of an “eternal  home” for us after God’s final judgment (see Luke 16:9).

So, Jesus told the parable to provoke his followers into being as concerned about their future with God as the dishonest manager was about his future after getting fired. Jesus wanted his followers to be as “creative” finding ways to be faithful to God as the manager was in ensuring he would have food and shelter.

Biblical scholars agree that Jesus’ parable ends with verse 8 in Luke 16. Verses 9 – 13 were added to clarify for later readers (including us) that Jesus did not tell the story to praise the manager’s dishonesty.

• Verse 9 is a hint that, instead, the parable has been about “eternal homes:” “life with God that begins now and is brought to perfection in the life to come.”  (This phrase is from the marriage service in Evangelical Lutheran Worship; Leaders Desk Edition, p. 676.)
• Verses 10 – 13 are proverbs teaching that honesty in worldly matters is good practice for doing the right thing in our relationship with God.

Discussion Questions

• Do you agree that all of Jesus followers (including you and I) are guilty of poor stewardship of the gifts God has placed in our care?
• Share examples of when you felt drawn closer to God (forgiven, loved, and welcomed into God’s presence) in spite of your unworthiness to be there.
• What are some “shrewd and clever” ways you could manipulate your schedule in order to give more time toward the goal of “loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself?” (See Mark 12: 28 – 31)

Activity Suggestions

Getting into the parable:

To help this passage come alive, act it out. First use a narrator and actors for each speaking part: Jesus, the rich man, the manager, two debtors, and a “wise one” to read the proverbs in verses 10 – 13. Act it out a second time using one person to read the text. Require the actors to use mime (gestures and movement) to communicate what is happening. This is a fun way to make the parable stick in your memory!

Is it a sin to be rich?

Luke 16: 1 – 13 ends with the statement that we cannot serve both God and wealth. Make a list of the temptations to stray from God’s way that confront someone striving to become rich. Make a second list of the ways a rich person can use wealth to serve God. Then compare what is on your lists with what the Bible says in 1^st Timothy 6: 7 – 17. It warns Christians about the temptations of wealth, but also provides a “code of ethics” for the wealthy.

Mark your calendar:

Create a symbol that you can put on your daily calendar to remind you to give time to God.

Closing Prayer

Merciful God, help us to be good managers of our time, talents, and possessions. Forgive us when we fail. Inspire us to put You at the top of our lists. Open our eyes to your presence with us in all we do, and guide us to make time in our busy schedules for worship and service. Amen.

Contributed by Scott Mims, Virginia Beach, VA

Warm-up Questions

• Describe one of the best parties you have ever experienced.  Who or what was being celebrated?  What made it such a great time?
• Tell about a time when you were “lost,” perhaps as a young child or maybe while you were driving.  What was it like?  How did it feel to be “found?”

When Children Go Missing

On July 26, Ariel Castro pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and rape over the long-term abductions and captivity of three women from Cleveland, Ohio.  Michelle Knight was 21 years old when she disappeared in 2002.  Amanda Berry was just 16 years old when she was abducted in 2003, and Georgina DeJesus only 14 years old when she disappeared in 2004. It wasn’t until May 6 of this year that these women were rescued and reunited with their families.

Around the same time that Ariel Castro’s trial was concluding, national media attention was focused on the case of Hannah Anderson, a 16-year old who was kidnapped by James DiMaggio, a long-time family friend who also allegedly killed Hannah’s mother and little brother.  After a six-day, frantic multi-state search, Hannah was finally found and rescued, though DiMaggio was killed in the encounter. (See the link below for a collection of articles published by the Los Angeles Times on this story).  http://www.latimes.com/topic/crime-law-justice/crimes/hannah-anderson-PEOCVC000313.topic?page=1&target=article

Of course, not all who are lost are abducted.  Some “wander” away as in the case of two Michigan teens, Braxton Wood and Jayden Thomas.  On August the 26 the pair took off in a Ford Explorer and, as of the writing of this Faith Lens, have yet to be located.  “It’s tough. It’s kind of crazy. You just can’t imagine not having your child in your house,” Ed Wood,  Braxton’s father, is quoted in a news article. “Or imagining life without your child,” said Sarah Kiley, his mother. (http://www.wnem.com/story/23295890/isabella-co-missing-teens-parents-speak?hpt=us_bn9)

It is a parent’s worst nightmare to have a child go missing, and often times it is only a hope against hope that sustains a family until the lost one is finally found.  When that happens, there is great rejoicing which is exactly the point that Jesus makes in our gospel lesson.

 Discussion Questions

• Have you ever lost something that was very important or precious to you?  How did it feel?  What did you do?  Did you ever find it, and if so did you celebrate?
• Read or sing the first verse of Amazing Grace.  What kind of “lost” do you think the author is talking about?  Can you think of other ways in which people can either “wander” or be “lost”?
• Jesus used the word “Abba” when he prayed to God (Mark 14:36), and Paul indicates in his letters that the earliest Christians also addressed God as “Abba” in their prayers (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).  Abba is a term of intimacy something along the lines of “Dearest Father” or “Daddy,” without any sense of childishness associated with it.  What does this suggest to you about the sort of relationship God longs to have with us? Is it easy for you to think of God is such a way?  Why or why not?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 15, 2013 (Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Exodus 32:7-14

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-10

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

This week’s gospel contains one of the best known stories of Jesus, the Parable of the Lost Sheep.  Along with its companion story about a lost coin and the equally famous following story, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we get, not only a picture of God’s great love, but also a window into how Jesus understood what he was doing.  In all three stories the “lost” and the “wandering” get found, but that is not the only similarity.  Each ends in a party, a joyous celebration in which even the angels take part.  Could this truly be how all of heaven responds when sinners repent?  Jesus says it is, but his opponents are not so sure.

The setting for these stories is important.  Jesus’ actions of welcoming sinners and tax collectors to the point of demonstrating his total acceptance of them by sharing table fellowship scandalized the Pharisees and scribes.  As experts in the religious laws and traditions, and self-appointed guardians of the faith, they do not connect such actions with Jesus being either a righteous teacher or a prophet.  Tax collectors were not just hated for being…well, tax collectors; they were agents of the very people who were oppressing the Jews.  Besides this, they often gouged the people, stealing from them by collecting as much as they possible could.  “Sinners” in this passage is a more general category for all sorts of people whom the Pharisees and scribes considered to be living outside of the demands that God had made on Israel through the law.  Together, these groups symbolize all of the lost ones to which Jesus’ stories point, people who have wandered or who have perhaps been “abducted” by their choices or life situations and now live outside of a relationship with God.

So what’s a sinner or tax collector to do?  Come to Jesus!  Come to Jesus, and in his person and way of living receive a second chance at living a new life.  Jesus does not say that those who are lost and wandering are simply to be accepted as they are and to leave it at that.  God takes us just as we are, this is true, but God also loves us too much to let us stay there.  The shepherd scours the rocky terrain looking for the lost sheep, the woman sweeps every nook and cranny of the house, even though its nigh on midnight, searching for the lost coin, and God’s relentless love and amazing grace will not stop until everything possible has been done to bring his lost and wandering child home. “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Repentance is not finding God but rather turning back to the God who is on a rescue mission to find us.  In personal terms these are stories of the change in a person’s heart, mind, and life that comes as a result of an encounter with God’s grace through Jesus Christ.  Whereas the scribes and Pharisees might well have considered repentance to mean adopting completely their standards of purity and their stringent observance of the religious laws and traditions, for Jesus true repentance happens when people believe in him and follow is way of life.  That is, aligning oneself with Jesus is aligning one’s life to God; living in a relationship with Jesus is living in a relationship with God.

This brings us finally to the party that heaven throws when sinners repent.  If calling everyone together to celebrate with you over finding a lost sheep, or waking the neighbors to party over finding a lost coin seems over the top, then put things into the perspective of a parent finally holding that lost child in their arms.  Relief overflowing with joy, tears of love and gratitude, a new day and a new beginning, is there any greater joy?  Perhaps only in knowing that no matter who you are or what you’ve done, God loves you this much…and indeed, so very much more.

Discussion Questions

•  Who are the outsiders – the “sinners and tax collectors” – in your world?  What sorts of things put people in positions of being judged as unwanted or “unworthy?”

• What do you think of when you hear the word “repent”?  Is it a positive or a negative word for you? Why?  How does your answer change if repentance  looks more like a change of heart and life that focuses on following Jesus and less like keeping all of the rules?
• Are you one of the 99 who “need no repentance” or one of the ones who is lost? How does this gospel lesson help you understand the basic Lutheran theological point that we are at the same time both “saints and sinners”?
• In the Lord’s Prayer we ask that God’s kingdom and come and will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”  What is the picture that Jesus gives us of heaven in these stories?  That is, who are what is God and “heaven” concerned with? As followers of Jesus, what sorts of things should we be saying and doing so that God’s will gets done here on earth accordingly?

Activity Suggestions

• As school has just recently begun in many communities, engage your group in a discussion concerning actions that they can take in order to embody the grace and love of God who seeks out the outsider and who celebrates with great joy whenever a wandering and lost child returns.  In his Working Preacher post for Sunday, September 1, David Lose lists some great ideas for how students might do this (http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2719).  What other ideas can your group come up with?  How would such actions make a difference in the lives of other people?  How might they make a difference in your own?  Can you covenant together to try a few of them out and see?
• Hide a small object or perhaps enlist the help of a volunteer to be a “lost sheep.”  Split your group up into teams and have them search until what was lost is found.  Throw a party complete with refreshments/treats to “celebrate.” Does it seem odd to make such a big deal of finding your object/ “sheep?”  What types of things, do you think, would be worthy of such a celebration? Read through the gospel lesson together.

Closing Prayer

Gracious and loving God, in the waters of baptism you name us and claim us and make us your very own.  Thank you for your relentless love and for the gift of new life that is ours through Jesus.  When we wander or get ourselves lost, help us to turn around.  Place into our lives people and events that will remind us of who and whose we truly are, and lead us, in turn, to be living signs of your grace in the lives of those around us.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Contributed by Aaron Matson, Watertown, SD

Warm-up Question

Share a time when you bought something and it did not measure up to your expectations.

Always Read the Fine Print

Before iTunes and Amazon, there were mail-order “music clubs.” To entice you to join their “club,” companies such as Columbia House used to send out mailings offering 13 cassettes (and later CDs) for a dollar a piece. When I was pretty young I remember going through those catalogs – I could pick out 13 CDs I wanted easily, but my parents would never let me send in the order form and join. Finally I asked why, and they showed me the fine print in the offer – you had to buy so many CD’s for about $20 a piece in the next year, and if you ever forgot to send in the mailing saying you didn’t want the CD of the month, they’d send it to you and you were on the hook for $20 for a CD you didn’t want in the first place.

In life, we all have those kinds of experiences.  We have gotten ourselves into situations where we weren’t really sure what we were getting ourselves in to, and then find ourselves in over our head. In our gospel reading today, we see that Jesus doesn’t want that happen to his followers; he wants all who follow him to know what they were getting themselves into, and to be aware of the costs of discipleship.

Discussion Questions

• Have you ever been tripped up by “fine print;” i.e., has anyone ever tried to get you to do something without letting you know all the details of what you were getting into?

• What kind of clubs or organizations are you a member of besides the Church? What kind of expectations or requirements do they have for members? What kinds of costs are involved in belonging to these groups (i.e., time, membership fees, expenses for supplies, etc.)?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 8, 2013 (Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost)

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Philemon 1-21

Luke 14:25-33

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

In a nutshell, Jesus wants us to know that following him can be really, really hard and painful. These words are hard to hear, and are a lot different from what we hear sometimes in popular Christianity. Too often, there is an attitude among Christians that following Jesus means nothing bad will happen to you, and that, if you just have enough faith, you will be blessed with prosperity, riches, good health, and good fortune.

How different that attitude is from the words of Jesus in Luke. Being a disciple of Christ means taking up your cross and following Jesus; it means the kind of commitment that can cost you friends, family, possessions, and even your life.  Following Jesus takes us places that we would sometimes rather not go, and find ourselves in the company of some people we might not choose to be around—stooped over women, the sick, the dying, the outcasts living on the margins of society. But that is where the call to discipleship calls us to go, and that is where the gospel of Jesus leads us.

This is quite a commitment! I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure if I can quite live up to this commitment or totally fulfill my role as a disciple. Fortunately for me, and fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t ask us for an advance guarantee of our ability to fulfill all that he asks of us. If he did, none of us would be able to a disciple. While the life of a disciple is a costly one, our salvation in Christ is a free gift. Because we have this great gift, we have comfort and hope in those times when we fall short, and empowered by the Spirit, we can continue our walk of discipleship. And we do not walk alone! We walk together, as the Church, the body of Christ – and Christ himself walks with us.

Discussion Questions

• What has discipleship cost you? How are your priorities in life different because you are a Christian?

• How might the costs of discipleship in America be different than they were in Jesus’ time and place? How might they be the same?

Activity Suggestions

•  If your congregation is participating in the “God’s Work, Our Hands” day of service commemorating the ELCA’s 25^th Anniversary, take some time to discuss how this is living out the call to discipleship.
• In the early days of the Church, many Christians gave their lives for the sake of the gospel. Look up some of stories of these martyrs, from the book of Acts and texts on church history. Look to see if you can find the stories of some more recent martyrs, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Closing Prayer

Holy Lord, we thank you for calling us to be your disciples. Give us strength and encouragement to live out this call, even when it is costly to us. Give us encouragement when we fall short. And help us to always remember, even when we aren’t the disciples you call us to be, that we are still yours and you will always love us. All this we pray in the name of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.