The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 09 June 2016 - “Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?”

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 09 June 2016 - “Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?”
Daily Scripture: Luke 12:13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Rabbi, tell my brother to share with me the property we inherited.” 14 But Yeshua answered him, “My friend, who appointed me judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 Then to the people he said, “Be careful to guard against all forms of greed, because even if someone is rich, his life does not consist in what he owns.” 16 And he gave them this illustration: “There was a man whose land was very productive. 17 He debated with himself, ‘What should I do? I haven’t enough room for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I’ll store all my wheat and other goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You’re a lucky man! You have a big supply of goods laid up that will last many years. Start taking it easy! Eat! Drink! Enjoy yourself!”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will die! And the things you prepared — whose will they be?’ 21 That’s how it is with anyone who stores up wealth for himself without being rich toward God.”
Reflection Questions:
In his story, Jesus did not say God killed the wealthy man as a punishment for having large crops, even though he hoarded them for his own benefit. He said God rebuked the man for living in a foolish, shortsighted way. He assumed he could enjoy his hoarded wealth forever. God’s pointed question showed him that he had overlooked a fundamental fact of life—death.

• Pastor John Ortberg wrote about this story, “Jesus was very frank in his diagnosis. He doesn’t say the man was evil or wicked. He just calls him a fool. Why does Jesus use this harsh word? The man did not deliberately set out…to defy God…. He just devoted his life to the wrong things.”1 What different choices do you believe the rich man in Jesus' parable could have made to be “rich toward God”? Are you making those kinds of choices?
• Jesus warned us to “be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” What different kinds of greed have you experienced? How can you assess whether you are getting your sense of meaning and value from material things? How easy or hard do you find it to accept Jesus' teaching that “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions”?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, please make me rich. But make me rich, not necessarily with the things the world around me considers wealth, but with the qualities that make me rich toward God. Amen.
1 John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It all Goes Back in the Box. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007, pp. 25-26. [Note: This book is very worthwhile, especially if you shrink from thinking seriously about the question God asked the rich farmer in Jesus' story.]
-------Insights from Dr. Amy Oden

Dr. Amy Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at OCU. Teaching is her calling, and she looks forward to every day with students. For 25 years, Amy has taught theology and history, pursuing scholarship in service of the church.
Questions are the answer. Jesus asks great questions as invitations into abundant life. Each question invites us to live more deeply with him, not because we know the answer, but because He is our Teacher.
Jesus’ question is like a magnifying glass that he holds up to our lives and invites us to look through. When we examine our lives through the magnifying lens of his question, we discover things we didn’t know about our own lives. Like when a science teacher in a lab invites students to look more closely through a microscope or a telescope, to take the time to really see. Looking through such magnifiers, students can discover something true about the world that their everyday eyes can’t see.
When Jesus gives you this magnifying glass in the form of a question — “All these things you’ve stored up, what’s that all about?” — to look through, what do you see? Anything you didn’t see before? Or maybe some things you sort of knew were there but now can see in greater detail or clarity?
Jesus asks us questions every day. Questions are the answer. What do you discover through Jesus’ question-magnifying glass?

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Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States

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