Faith Lens

Amy Martinell, Sioux Falls, SD

Warm-up Questions

What is something you feel like you need more of? More time? More sleep? More money, etc.? What would you be able to do if you had more of that desired item?

Finding Strength to Stand Firm

The proposed Dakota Access Pipeline is an underground pipeline which will transport 470,000 barrels of crude oil each day from North Dakota, across South Dakota and Iowa, to Illinois. According to the project developer the pipeline is the safest, most cost-effective and environmentally responsible way to move crude oil, removing dependency on rails and trucks. In addition, the developer claims the pipeline will bring significant economic benefits to the region it covers.

On the other side of the story, environmentalists and Native American tribes strongly oppose construction of the pipeline and have vehemently protested. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, located in North Dakota, filed a complaint in federal court, claiming that the pipeline both threatens the tribe’s drinking water and crosses burial grounds and other sacred sites. Furthermore, the tribe alleges the Army Corps did not properly consult with them before approving the project.

A federal appeals court has halted construction of the pipeline within 20 miles of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River to give the court more time to rule on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an emergency injunction until the court case is decided. This was a victory for Standing Rock, as their injunction was denied in a lower court.

Previously unlikely, it now appears that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will get its day in court before the pipeline is completed. By standing firm for what they believed, members of the tribe will get a chance to raise their voice and tell their story.

Discussion Questions

How do you think we should balance our need for fuel sources with environmental concerns?
How do you think the courts should rule? Should the pipeline be moved to avoid the tribe’s sacred sites?

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Luke 17:5-10

(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 B at Lectionary Readings

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

Gospel Reflection

The disciples ask Jesus for more faith. This is not a ridiculous request. Jesus has just laid out what it means to be a disciple: be careful not to cause others to stumble, forgive those who wrong you again and again. It seems like more than they are capable of doing. So they ask for a little more faith, but Jesus assures them if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can uproot trees. Don’t worry; you have all the faith you need.

Faith is a funny thing. The disciples were capable of great acts of faith: they left their homes and lives to follow Jesus. Yet, when their boat was rocked by a storm, they were seized with fear and panic. Jesus dozing nearby offered no comfort. When Jesus wakes up and calms the storm, he asks, “Where is your faith?” Even with Jesus by us, fear makes it hard to believe. But if more faith isn’t the solution, what is?

Jesus uses the example of a slave, which does not appeal to modern ears. Of course, we reject slavery, but we want to understand the concept behind this image. Luke uses the example of a slave to talk of one fully devoted to another. In the Bible a slave for Christ is fully devoted to God.

So the question is not do we have enough faith, but how is our faith, even if it is only the size of a mustard seed, shaping our lives? Are our thoughts and actions transformed by God? Living devoted to God means believing God walks with us even through storms of fear and doubt.

The easy way out is to ask for more; “We could do this, God, if you’d just make our faith a little stronger.” The challenge is to believe we have enough, that we are enough, that those tasks that seem impossible are indeed possible with God. Whether that impossibility is uprooting trees, getting our story heard, or standing strong through fear and doubt, when we walk with God we are enough to do the impossible.

Discussion Questions

Have there been times you have wanted more faith?
How does your faith in God shape the decisions you make?

Activity Suggestions

Have youth list areas where stories need to be told, places where they see injustices, and other things that concern them. Encourage them to do this on the local, national, and international level. Brainstorm ways they can be an advocate and raise their voices for these things that concern them.
Studies show teens and adults see over 300 ads a day between all of the media sources they are consuming. These ads are all trying to tell us we need more. Using a few media sources (internet, magazine, television) explore with your class some of the ads they are exposed to daily. What messages are they sending us? Discuss how these messages conflict with the message Jesus brings: that we are enough, that we are a beloved child of God just as we are. Talk about how we live devoted to God, when we hear hundreds of times a day we are not enough, that we need more?

Closing Prayer

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of faith. Help us to walk with you daily and to serve your world. Surround us with your love so we can be assured we are enough.

Angie Larson, Clive, IA

Warm-up Question

Have you thought about your carbon footprint?

It’s Getting Hot in Here

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a study looking at global warming and its effects on people in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the year 2020 over 200 million people will fall further into water scarcity and poverty. In some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. This means that people living in already impoverished countries with poor incomes will fall even further into poverty. By United States standards that means people living on less than $1.00 a day will end up living on less than $0.50 a day at the same time the cost of living is increasing.

People in sub-Saharan African countries like Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Kenya tend to live off the land and not use a lot of resources that contribute to global warming. The people rarely drive cars, have factories, or eat beef (all of which significantly contribute to global warming). Yet, they are affected deeply by the changing trends in our global weather. Those in Sub-Saharan African countries experience longer dry seasons, more malaria, increased poverty, and starvation due to global warming. Doesn’t this seem unfair? They don’t contribute to the global problem of atmospheric changes yet will suffer the effects the greatest.

Discussion Questions

Have you thought about global warming very much?
Do you think Americans should make changes to help Africans who will be effected by these changes?
What changes could you make to reduce your carbon footprint to help people you don’t know?

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Luke 16:19-31

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

Gospel Reflection

This portion of Luke’s gospel contains a series of parables and lessons Jesus taught to his followers. Jesus continues to lift up the least, the lost, the last, and the lowest in these parables. He baffles the religious leaders who are seeking comfort and righteousness in the law. The story of the rich man and Lazarus comes within this narrative.

In this week’s reading, a rich man ignores Lazarus, a poor man covered in sores lying at his gate. Hoping for food, Lazarus is ignored, an outcast. While Lazarus suffers the rich man is enjoying his life, feasting and being merry. He does not notice Lazarus and is indifferent to the sick man at his door.

Lazarus dies and is carried away to be with Abraham. At the same time, this indifferent rich man dies and ends up in Hades. Lazarus is living in glory and the rich man is living in torment. The rich man pleads to Abraham to allow him some water. Abraham denies this request. So the rich man pleads to be able to warn his family as they might end up in this same fate. This request is also denied.

Look at the text. The rich man isn’t cruel to Lazarus. He doesn’t intentionally try to harm him. He is merely indifferent and it leads him to Hades. In this parable Jesus calls us to notice the hurting people around us. We seldom wish people harm. We just fail to notice those who are hurting. Jesus encourages his hearers to pay attention to suffering near at hand and do what they can.

Discussion Questions

How do you sometimes not notice those people around you?
What could you do to catch yourself when you move into indifference? How could you make a change in your habits?
When you think about it, in what area of your life can push through indifference and do something?

Activity Suggestions

Have each student dip their foot into paint for a reflection on how they are walking through life. Ask them to write in an art piece that includes their footprint ways in which they could be intentional in their walk through life. Examples could be recycling, giving of extra money, not purchasing more than they need, prayer, volunteerism, and picking up trash on their walk home each day.

Closing Prayer

Blessed Savior, We often think only of our little corner in the world, as opposed to thinking in global terms. You are so good and care for us in so many ways. Lord, help us to notice our neighbors, both near and far, and preserve us from indifference to their suffering. Encourage us in caring for your creation and make us intentional in responding to the pain of your children throughout the world. In your name we pray, Amen.

Sylvia Alloway, Granada Hills, CA

Warm-up Question

Have you ever had to take care of someone else’s property (mowing a lawn, caring for a pet, etc.)? What, if anything, did you learn about looking after other people’s things?

Making a Shrewd Investment

Morgan Stanley bank is big, one the of the world’s largest providers of financial services. It is well known world-wide. So it would make sense that, when investing its employees’ retirement funds, it would know how to use the money for the best return.

A recent class action suit challenges that idea. Employees are suing the bank, claiming that Morgan Stanley invested their 401(k) funds in the bank’s own business interests. The investments performed poorly, as much as 99% below similar funds invested by other banks.

The legal question to be decided: Whose benefit comes first? As a bank, Morgan Stanley is allowed to put its own interests above the customers’. But as an employer, the law says it must put the employees’ financial welfare first.

In any case, if the suit is successful, Morgan Stanley will have to think about other people’s future, not just its own, and real economic growth, not just big profits. It will be interesting to see if it learns this lesson in stewardship.

Discussion Questions

A steward takes care of someone else’s property. How do you tell if a steward is doing a good job?
If you worked for Morgan Stanley and the bank president asked you to explain why the bank should change the way they handle the employees’ retirement savings, what would you say?
How would you answer the legal question? Which should come first, the bank’s profits or their employees’ financial needs? Why do you think that way?

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Amos 8:4-7

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

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

Gospel Reflection

The parable of the unjust steward is difficult to interpret. Is Jesus telling his disciples to imitate a crook who steals his employer’s money? To “buy” friendship with the world? Looking at the context can help.

Verse 13 makes it clear that he doesn’t want his disciples to admire the cheater. The man in the parable obviously has his mind on money the whole way through – stealing it and using it to buy a cushy life instead of having to work. The master admires the servant’s cleverness in using money to manipulate people. Both these men serve money (“mammon”). So why did Jesus tell a story about two guys who love money?

If we look at verse 14, we see the group that Jesus is talking to – the Pharisees, who loved their money. Even as they sneer, he condemns them, this time in plain language. Their hearts are detestable to God.

So what’s with verse 9? How can worldly wealth lead to friends in “eternal dwellings”? Like many truths about God’s Kingdom, this one is exactly the opposite of what the world thinks. God’s stewards seek opportunities to give money away. Jesus’ parables about money (the rich fool, Lazarus and the rich man) all make the same point. The money and goods you hoard will do you no good in heaven.

So, we are to be as shrewd in handling money (and all the gifts and abilities God has given us), but we are to “invest” in eternal goods. We make friends for eternity by giving lovingly to the poor, so that “that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” We give to missions so that the Gospel may be spread around the world and more people can share “eternal dwellings” with us. As children of light, we use all we have to spread that light to others.

In the end we need to ask ourselves the same question as Morgan Stanley does. Whose interests come first, ours or the Lord’s?

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to be a good steward? How does Jesus use this parable to teach us about good stewardship?
The parable says we must be smart in using our gifts. What are some specific examples of using gifts wisely? Of misusing them?

Activity Suggestions

In groups or as a class make a list of gifts (money, talents, strength, etc.) that young people can use to advance God’s Kingdom.

Talk about ways each individual can use a specific gift in a practical situation – at school, at work, with friends or strangers.

Each student may write down a way they found to use a gift during the week and share it in the next class session.

Closing Prayer

Father in Heaven, we thank you for the great privilege of stewardship in your kingdom and for the gifts you have given us to use. We ask for wisdom and courage to use them for eternal benefits to ourselves and others. May we always put you and your interests first in our lives. In Jesus name, Amen.

Jocelyn Breeland, Sunnyvale, CA

Warm-up Question

Have you ever been truly lost? How did that feel?

One Who Was Lost Is Found

Pavlina Pizova is fortunate to be alive. Pizova and her partner, Ondrej Petr, both Czechs, were hiking the Fiordland National Park in New Zealand in July when they became lost and disoriented in fog and heavy snow. The couple spent a night outside before Petr fell down a slope and died.

After two more days outside in the snow and sub-freezing temperatures, Pizova made her way to a warden’s hut. The hut was uninhabited, but stocked with food and firewood. Pizova stayed there for a month, unable to walk to safety because of physical weakness and fearful of leaving because she’d witnessed several avalanches.

Pizova and Petr had not told anyone of their travel plans. Someone at the Czech consulate happened to see frantic messages by their families on social media and raised the alarm.

Pizova has expressed her gratitude for the assistance of the Czech and New Zealand authorities in her rescue. She also noted several mistakes the couple had made, including not informing friends and family of their plans, not carrying an emergency locator beacon, and underestimating New Zealand’s winter weather.

As miraculous as it was, this type of rescue is far from rare. In the U.S. alone, the National Park Service reports thousands of search and rescue (SAR) operations every year. Hiking and boating are the activities requiring the most SAR assistance.

Discussion Questions

Do you go hiking, skiing, boating? Are you concerned about the risk?
Why do you think so many people in national parks need to be rescued?
What can be done to reduced the numbers of people in dangerous situations like this?

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 32:7-14

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-10

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

Gospel Reflection

The parable of the lost sheep is one of the most well known Bible stories and it offers a compelling vision of our relationship with Christ. Jesus loves each of us so much that, should one of us stray, he will search tirelessly until he finds us. And he will rejoice in bringing us back into the fold.

What a blessing! What more could we want when we’re lost than to know that the search party is out there looking? As Christians, we are assured that we cannot go so far astray that God will abandon us, and we know that we will not just be allowed back in the flock, but that our eternally forgiving and merciful God will welcome us back with rejoicing.

Like so much of scripture, today’s Gospel shares the good news of what God has done and continues to do for us. It also offers a model for how we should share God’s love with one another. Following Jesus’ example, we must seek out the lost and welcome others into our community with rejoicing.

Discussion Questions

List some of the ways we as Christians get lost.
The Pharisees criticized Jesus for eating with sinners because, in their understanding, that kind of association could make a person unclean. What are some ideas that today keep us separate from others?
Are there some sins, some ways that people stray, that are so serious that we should hold them apart – for their good or for ours? What does the Gospel suggest?

Activity Suggestions

As Pavlina Pizova realized, people who go hiking in the wilderness or boating or other adventures could use a kit of tools and instructions to keep from getting lost, and to find their way back home if they stray. What tools and instructions could help Christians avoid getting lost or to return the lost to the fold? Do your answers include individual and community supports?

It may be helpful to break into small groups to consider these questions and then report your results to the larger group.

Then go around the room and share one thing you will do this week to keep (or restore) yourself or someone else as part of the flock.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for always caring for us, the sheep of your flock, and seeing all our needs. We each stray at times and rejoice to be returned to your loving embrace. Help us to share the same joyful embrace with all of your people. In the name of the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Paul Baglyos, St. Paul, MN

Warm-up Question

Is Jesus dangerous and scary?

All In

Victor Barnard was extradited from Brazil by U. S. authorities earlier this summer and returned to Minnesota where he will stand trial for alleged abuses against members of Shepherd’s Camp, a cult-like commune he founded in Minnesota’s Pine County. For the story of the commune and the alleged abuses perpetrated by Barnard, including the attribution for this photograph, see: http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/06/pine-county-minnesota-sex-offender-victor-barnard.html

Barnard’s story is similar to that of countless other predators who manage to gather a group of committed followers by using familiar methods of brainwashing. Such predators appeal to the ideals, values, and good intentions of people who are motivated to seek and to build a better world, convincing them that they – the predators – have special insight and knowledge about how to achieve that goal.

Once a group of followers begins to form around the persuasive teaching of a predatory leader, the leader then isolates the group by physical relocation to a remote place. Social isolation accompanies physical isolation as followers are persuaded to break all former ties and relationships, especially with family members outside the group. Everyone and everything outside the group is identified as corrupt and evil; followers are taught to renounce and abandon all aspects of their former lives in favor of the new life they are building together under the direction of the leader.

Physical deprivations affecting diet and sleep are commonly used to erode any resistance on the part of the group, and punishments are commonly used to ensure compliance and conformity with the will of the leader. The true predatory intentions of the leader are shielded by claims of divinity: the leader promotes himself or herself as God or Messiah to the group, demanding unquestioned and unhesitating obedience to his or her will.

Stories like that of Victor Barnard and Shepherd’s Camp are frighteningly common, involving not only such infamous figures as Charles Manson, Jim Jones and David Koresh but many other predators far less known to the general public. Accounts of predatory leaders who form a group of followers to satisfy their own perverse ambitions are widespread in print and online media. Here are links to two examples that seek to explain this phenomenon:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kerr/how-cults-gain-power-over_b_3998553.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/9061694/How-Igot-sucked-into-a-cult.html

Discussion Questions

Do any of you recognize the names of Charles Manson, Jim Jones or David Koresh? What do you know about them and their followers? How is Victor Barnard’s story similar to theirs?
Read one or both of the two stories linked at the end of the previous section. Why do you think good people become followers of bad leaders?
In what ways do such stories sound similar to Bible stories that you know or to Christian teachings you have learned? Why do you think predatory leaders commonly appeal to scripture and religious tradition?

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Philemon 1-21

Luke 14:25-33

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

Gospel Reflection

The words of Jesus in this passage – especially in verse 26 – are hard to swallow. When Jesus says that discipleship means hating one’s parents, spouse, children and siblings, he sounds like the “creepy cult leader” in the news story above, or like any of the other creepy cult leaders who prey upon their followers to gratify their own perverse desires. At the end of the passage, Jesus talks about having to “give up all your possessions,” which is another of the demands that predators such as Victor Barnard commonly make upon their followers.

If we isolate this passage from the larger context of the Bible, then it becomes not only hard to swallow but downright poisonous and deadly. The last thing the world needs is more hate, and if the message of Jesus is somehow a message of hate then it doesn’t deserve even a moment of our time or an ounce of our attention.

But this passage – like all other passages in the Bible – cannot be isolated from the larger context of scripture. In order to understand these verses from the fourteenth chapter of Luke, it is important to let the entire Bible guide our interpretation.

The contemporary English word “hate” expresses extreme emotion, associated with intense anger or revulsion that can prompt a person to violence or other forms of destruction. The Greek word for “hate” in the New Testament does not have quite the same meaning, because it has more to do with the values, choices and commitments expressed in one’s actions and behaviors and less to do with intense emotion. Nevertheless, the Greek word translated into English as “hate” is a strong word, and Jesus’ use of that word should not be diluted or domesticated just to make it easier to swallow.

Neither can that troubling word “hate” in the fourteenth chapter of Luke be rightly understood apart from the one who speaks it. This is, after all, Jesus who speaks in this passage, and the meaning of the words he uses must be understood in the light of his entire life, death and resurrection. The Good News that Jesus proclaims – the Good News that Jesus is – is not about hate, but about life, hope, and the love of God for all people, without exception. Anyone who embraces that Good News and endeavors to live that Good News will find himself or herself at odds with people who would rather restrict God’s love to those they consider worthy of it.

In a world that considers only some people worthy of love, worthy of life, and worthy of hope, the radical Good News of Jesus Christ is a very odd sort of message, scarcely comprehensible. Disciples of Jesus who embrace that Good News and seek to live it fully and passionately will find themselves also regarded as odd and incomprehensible, sometimes including the people they love most dearly! In these verses from the fourteenth chapter of Luke, Jesus is telling his followers to be prepared for that, to expect it, and to be ready to persist in faith even when it makes them odd and incomprehensible to others.

Discussion Questions

Have you ever experienced a situation in which your Christian faith made you seem odd to other people? How did you feel? What did you think? What did you do?
Do you know anyone whose faith in Jesus Christ has led them to take a stand that alienated or estranged them from other people, maybe even other people who were very close to them?
Can you think of something that Jesus is calling you to do as an act of discipleship that you have been reluctant to do because it might make you seem odd to other people? How might you overcome your reluctance?

Activity Suggestions

Using a concordance or electronic search (http://bible.oremus.org/ is one tool) look up other passages in the New Testament gospel narratives where the word “hate” is used. How similar or dissimilar to Luke 14:26 do those passages seem to you? As a group, list all the ways that any of you practice the kind of “hate” that Jesus associates with faith and discipleship.

Closing Prayer

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray, as you will, but always to your glory and the welfare of your people, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship, page 86

October 2, 2016–Finding Strength to Stand Firm

September 25, 2016–It’s Getting Hot in Here

September 18, 2016–Making a Shrewd Investment

September 11, 2016–One Who Was Lost Is Found

September, 4, 2016–All In