Costly Discipleship. Focus on Mark 12:38 44 PREPARING FOR THE SESSION. WHAT is important to know? WHERE is God in these words?

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1 November 8, 2015 Proper 27 Semicontinuous Ruth 3:1 5; 4:13 17 Ps. 127 Complementary 1 Kgs. 17:8 16 Ps. 146 Heb. 9:24 28 Mark 12:38 44 Costly Discipleship Goal for the Session Adults will explore Jesus condemnation of scribes and praise of the widow s offering and commit to practice costly discipleship. PREPARING FOR THE SESSION Focus on Mark 12:38 44 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, Robert A. Bryant Many onlookers disregard her offering, but Jesus notices and calls his disciples to him. He wants them to see the true faith behind their offerings: the widow s offering demonstrates her total trust in God she out of her poverty has put in everything she had (v. 44). Hers is a costly discipleship, and Jesus praises her for exemplary faith, a faith that surpasses that of many religious leaders whose faith is a sham. Her trust in God is aligned with Jesus trust. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Emilie M. Townes As you think through this passage, what ideas, images, stories, concepts come to mind when you think of offering as being personal? One place to begin is Christ. For Augustine, our duty is to present ourselves all of who we are to God in the Communion meal. But how can we take the grace and hope we find in the wine and bread and make it live in our lives in ways that not only sustain us, but model for others the enormous power of offering all of who we are to the rest of creation? If we become those two small copper coins, we must live our lives in such a way that our offering is truly shared with others. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Rodger Y. Nishioka Feeding the hungry and providing clothing are important spiritual practices, but the church must come to view these practices as more than programs. The church must come to understand these practices as the very life flowing out of its worship. Further, the church must call all of society to care for the orphan, the widow, the resident alien, and the poor as its primary purpose, with all other governing and political functions as secondary. In this way, the church not only exhibits God s righteousness but shapes a politic that is in itself righteous. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Pete Peery One governing document from a mainline church in this country declares, The Church is called to be a sign in and for the world of the new reality which God has made available to people in Jesus Christ. How will it be such a sign? By healing and reconciling and binding up wounds,... ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless,... engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and injustice,... giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer,... sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world. The Church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life. The poor widow gives her whole life for that which is worthy only to be condemned. Is this the calling Jesus lifts up for the entire church? 2015 Westminster John Knox Press Fall 2015 Adult 1

2 Costly Discipleship FOCUS SCRIPTURE Mark 12:38 44 Focus on Your Teaching Incessant advertising convinces many adults they are lacking things when they are not at all deprived. They are warned of impending scarcity and the need to make more money and hoard it. Stories of excessive wealth and greed are praised while the poor are blamed for their plight. What is a proper Christian attitude toward money and giving? Today s text explores Jesus thoughts on the place of wealth and what constitutes meaningful giving. In many congregations, November is stewardship season, when people consider making offerings to God and to the work of the church. YOU WILL NEED board or newsprint marker Bibles copies of Resource Sheet 2 copies of Resource Sheet 1 copies of Resource Sheet 1 for November 15, 2015 For Responding option 1: copies of Resource Sheet 1, paper, pens option 2: Resource Sheet 1, paper coins, envelopes, pens, basket or offering plate Scribes wrote and recorded important events and legal decisions. In the New Testament, the scribes were a professional group that interpreted God s law, taught it to others, and were experts in cases where people were accused of breaking the law. Guide me, O God, as I seek to discern your message through the text and the lesson before me. Guide my preparations and my teaching. Amen. LEADING THE SESSION GATHERING Before the session, write the discussion questions from Gathering on the board or newsprint. For option 2 in Responding, prepare paper coins and envelopes for each participant. For option 3, invite and prepare your pastor or a church leader responsible for stewardship or finance to speak with your class. Greet participants and have them form small groups. Call attention to the following questions posted on the board or newsprint and discuss them within groups: P How much should Christians give to their church? P How much do Christians give to their church? P How should church leaders encourage people to give their time, talents, and money? Gather participants and invite brief comments from their discussions. Say that today s focus scripture includes a teaching by Jesus about faithful giving. Offer this prayer or one of your choosing: Holy God, unite us as a community of faith as we feast on your Word. Amen. EXPLORING Before reading the text, tell participants about scribes using information from the sidebars. Have them listen for three criticisms Jesus makes regarding scribes. Read Mark 12: Invite participants to name the three criticisms of scribes from the first three verses of the focus scripture. Write them on the board or newsprint if desired. They are: P Craving for prestige (v. 38), P Competition for power in religious arena (v. 39), P Merciless materialism (v. 40) Westminster John Knox Press Fall 2015 Adult 2

3 Costly Discipleship Ironically, the scribes, who knew what the law said about protecting the widows and the poor, often preyed upon them. How they preyed is not known, though it was probably through transactions involving retention or seizure of their homes, personal property, and land. Have participants imagine they are the disciples sitting with Jesus, witnessing the crowds putting money into the temple treasury. Ask: P What qualities does Jesus affirm as he talks with you? P What do you learn from Jesus about giving to the temple treasury? Remind participants that in the last session they discussed Ruth, Naomi, and Orpah, three vulnerable widows. Both Hebrew Scripture and Jesus constantly speak of protecting the vulnerable, including widows, orphans, the poor, and the sick. Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 2 (Giving and Taking), and have participants read it. Ask: P How is the widow a model for giving? P How is the religious institution to which she belongs taking advantage of her? P Is it wrong to invite the poor to give to the church? Why or why not? Distribute Resource Sheet 1 (Focus on Mark 12:38 44) and read the What? excerpt. Focus on verse 44 and ask: P How is this offering an indication of the widow s faith? P What is the price of her costly offering? Read the So What? excerpt from Resource Sheet 1. Discuss: P How might a church prioritize between an emphasis on proper worship and governance and a focus on service to others? In preparation for Responding, read the Now What? excerpt from Resource Sheet 1. Ask: P In what way is your faith community a sign of the new reality Jesus proclaims? EASY PREP RESPONDING Choose one or more of these activities depending on the length of your session: 1. Develop a Mission Statement Participants will imagine a church that best exhibits Jesus vision of ministry and write a mission statement for their imagined church. Review the Now What? excerpt from Resource Sheet 1, paying particular attention to the example of one mainline church s mission statement. Invite individuals to imagine a congregation that lives into this calling. Encourage them to consider the elements the congregation emphasizes and how it concretely displays God s new reality in the world. Distribute paper and pens. Form small groups of two or three people to discuss the congregations they imagined. Have them work together to develop a single mission statement for an imagined congregation patterned after the Now What? excerpt. Gather participants to read aloud the mission statements their small groups developed. Ask: P How does our congregation currently live into Jesus vision of ministry expressed in your mission statement? P What can our congregation do to move closer to Jesus vision of ministry? 2015 Westminster John Knox Press Fall 2015 Adult 3

4 Costly Discipleship 2. Personal Offerings In this activity, participants will identify offerings from their lives that can be shared with God and with others, and they will pray over their offerings. Read the Where? excerpt from Resource Sheet 1. Discuss: P In what ways do people present themselves to God as Augustine suggests? P How do people share their offerings with others? Distribute pens and an envelope with a half sheet of paper circles representing coins to each person. Have participants work individually to identify offerings of their lives that can be shared with God and with others. Have them write each offering on a separate paper coin and write their name on their envelope. When completed, have people place their coins back into their envelope. Collect the envelopes in a basket or offering plate. Lead the group in prayer, using these words or something similar: God of abundance and mercy, you gift your creation with what we need to live. Motivate us to offer what we have to make a difference in your world. Receive us and receive our offerings. Amen. Return the envelopes to participants to take as a reminder of the gifts they can share. 3. Stewardship Participants will have a conversation with a congregational leader about the church s understanding of stewardship and ways people can give. Explain that in many congregations, November is stewardship season. People consider the offerings they can give to God through the life of the church. Introduce your guest and explain that he or she has been invited to speak with the group about giving offerings to God through the life of the church. After the guest s talk, encourage participants to ask questions about stewardship and consider how they will respond in giving. CLOSING Gather as a large group, and have each participant name something new that was learned about costly discipleship in this session. Using Resource Sheet 1, have participants read the quoted section from the Now What? excerpt in unison. Offer this closing prayer or one like it: Gracious Creator, you have invited us to lives of costly discipleship. Help us to be like the widow, offering what we have to others. Nudge us. Guide us. Form us to be your faithful servants. Amen. Distribute copies of Resource Sheet 1 for November 15, 2015, or it to the participants during the week. Encourage participants to read the focus scripture and Resource Sheet 1 before the next session Westminster John Knox Press Fall 2015 Adult 4

5 November 8, 2015 Costly Discipleship Adult Resource Sheet 1 Focus on Mark 12:38 44 WHAT is important to know? From Exegetical Perspective, Robert A. Bryant Many onlookers disregard her offering, but Jesus notices and calls his disciples to him. He wants them to see the true faith behind their offerings: the widow s offering demonstrates her total trust in God she out of her poverty has put in everything she had (v. 44). Hers is a costly discipleship, and Jesus praises her for exemplary faith, a faith that surpasses that of many religious leaders whose faith is a sham. Her trust in God is aligned with Jesus trust. WHERE is God in these words? From Theological Perspective, Emilie M. Townes As you think through this passage, what ideas, images, stories, concepts come to mind when you think of offering as being personal? One place to begin is Christ. For Augustine, our duty is to present ourselves all of who we are to God in the Communion meal. But how can we take the grace and hope we find in the wine and bread and make it live in our lives in ways that not only sustain us, but model for others the enormous power of offering all of who we are to the rest of creation? If we become those two small copper coins, we must live our lives in such a way that our offering is truly shared with others. SO WHAT does this mean for our lives? From Pastoral Perspective, Rodger Y. Nishioka Feeding the hungry and providing clothing are important spiritual practices, but the church must come to view these practices as more than programs. The church must come to understand these practices as the very life flowing out of its worship. Further, the church must call all of society to care for the orphan, the widow, the resident alien, and the poor as its primary purpose, with all other governing and political functions as secondary. In this way, the church not only exhibits God s righteousness but shapes a politic that is in itself righteous. NOW WHAT is God s word calling us to do? From Homiletical Perspective, Pete Peery One governing document from a mainline church in this country declares, The Church is called to be a sign in and for the world of the new reality which God has made available to people in Jesus Christ. How will it be such a sign? By healing and reconciling and binding up wounds,... ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless,... engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger, and injustice,... giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer,... sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable, and loving rule in the world. The Church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life. The poor widow gives her whole life for that which is worthy only to be condemned. Is this the calling Jesus lifts up for the entire church? 2015 Westminster John Knox Press

6 November 8, 2015 Costly Discipleship Adult Resource Sheet 2 Giving and Taking Together, these two sections [Mark 12:38 40 and 41 44] read as a lament for and an indictment upon any religious system that results in a poor widow giving all she has so that the system s leaders may continue to live lives of wealth and comfort. The attack is not on Jewish religious practice. The attack is on any religious practice that masks egotism and greed. The scribes are like leeches on the faithful, benefiting from a religious system that allows poor widows to sacrifice what little they have. We should be outraged by a system that appropriates the property of the poor and near-destitute in order to perpetuate wealth for the elite. If we are brutally honest with ourselves, this is a particular dilemma for many congregations today. From Rodger Y. Nishioka, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 286. But there is a deeper problem to consider. Does Jesus point to the poor widow who gives her last two coins to the temple as a model for giving? Or does Jesus point to her because she is a tragic example of how religious institutions suck the life out of people? From Pete Peery, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 4 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), Westminster John Knox Press