Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 02 June 2016 - “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?”

Monday, June 6, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 02 June 2016 - “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?”

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Thursday, 02 June 2016 - “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?”
Daily Scripture: Matthew 25:37 Then the people who have done what God wants will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and make you our guest, or needing clothes and provide them? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ 40 The King will say to them, ‘Yes! I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did them for me!’

19:13 Then children were brought to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray for them, but the talmidim rebuked the people bringing them. 14 However, Yeshua said, “Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 Then, after laying his hands on them, he went on his way.

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Reflection Questions:
Jesus' parable in Matthew 25 held the delightful picture of those invited into the Kingdom asking the King, “When did we see you hungry and feed you?” But one dimension of Jesus' answer often escapes us. When the disciples asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (cf. Matthew 18:1), Jesus called a little child to sit among them as his answer to the question. Our world and culture tends to value children highly, so it is hard for us to sense how little regard most people in Jesus' day had for children.

Pastor John Ortberg wrote, “In the ancient, status-ordered world, children were at the bottom of the ladder….Jesus said the kind of thing that would literally never enter the mind of another human being to say: ‘And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’” When children were brought to Jesus, “the disciples rebuked the parents. Jesus rebuked the disciples.”1 When Jesus spoke of “the least of these,” we often realize that his words applied to the hungry, the sick and the prisoners. How often does it cross your mind that Jesus was probably also thinking of the youngest among us?
Plutarch, a Greek writer who lived shortly after Jesus' life, wrote that infants were “more like a plant than a human being.” By contrast, the early Christian bookThe Shepherd of Hermas said, “All babies are glorious before God.” How crucial was Jesus' regard for children in showing how highly God values children? How does our KidsCOR ministry seek to live out that value? What qualities of children do you believe make them a picture of the spirit God seeks in all of us?

Today’s Prayer:
Jesus, King Herod called himself “the Great,” and slaughtered children in Bethlehem. But you showed us how God values all people, including children. Remind me that it is those who offer innocent trust who are truly great in your sight. Amen.
1 John Ortberg, Who Is This Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012, pp. 24, 29.Insights from Janelle Gregory

Janelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as a Human Resources Specialist.
My brother-in-law likes to tinker. He’s really into buying things that need a little work, fixing them, and then giving them away. A few years ago he went through a laser printer phase, buying at least 50 printers at auctions and other sales. No joke. He gave printers to family members, friends, his church, and other organizations. Everyone he knew who could possibly use a laser printer got one.
This was very kind and generous of him, but then there came a point when he was giving printers when people didn’t need them. On one visit, he tried to give me 3 of them. He suggested that I take them, and use them to barter for gasoline on my way home. Imagine me going up to a stranger. “Hi. I know you don’t know me, but if you buy my gas, I’ll give you this laser printer.”
I didn’t need the printers, and I certainly didn’t want them. While I appreciated his generosity, what on earth was I supposed to do with 3 extra printers?!
My brother-in-law fell into a trap in which many of us find ourselves. His heart wanted to give, but he wasn’t meeting anyone’s needs. We saw this same trap after the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. Immediately following this, Newtown, Connecticut was flooded with over 65,000 teddy bears. This expression of grief and kindness is impressive, but what was a town of 28,000 people supposed to do with 65,000 teddy bears? Is that what the town needed?
When our hearts are stirred to be generous, our first thought should be to see and ask what is actually needed. This may look like mowing a lawn or bringing meals when someone is sick or offering a listening ear and a prayer to a friend going through a rough time. It could be providing educational scholarships for children in Malawi or donating furniture to My Father’s House for those in Kansas City attempting to put a home and their lives together.
We are called to serve and to give as a means of meeting needs and not just for the sake of giving. Giving is not a to-do item that you get to check off your list of Christian attributes. Giving might be one option we take as we aim for the purpose of understanding and meeting the needs of others.