Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 1 April 2014 "We are responsible for serving wisely and well"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 1 April 2014 "We are responsible for serving wisely and well"
Daily Scripture: Luke 20:1 On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the [a]priests and scribes came to him with the elders. 2 They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?”
3 He answered them, “I also will ask you one question. Tell me: 4 the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?”
5 They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” 7 They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.
8 Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
9 He began to tell the people this parable. “A[b] man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. 10 At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty. 11 He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12 He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out. 13 The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’
14 “But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 They threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.”
When they heard it, they said, “May it never be!”
17 But he looked at them, and said, “Then what is this that is written,
‘The stone which the builders rejected,
    the same was made the chief cornerstone?’[c]
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces,
    but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”
19 The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. 20 They watched him, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. 21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test me? 24 Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
They answered, “Caesar’s.”
25 He said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26 They weren’t able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and were silent. 27 Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 28 They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 29 There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 30 The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. 36 For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’[d] 38 Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
39 Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you speak well.” 40 They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.
41 He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 David himself says in the book of Psalms,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
    “Sit at my right hand,
43     until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’ [e]
44 “David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
45 In the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts; 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation.”
Footnotes:
a. Luke 20:1 TR adds “chief”
b. Luke 20:9 NU (in brackets) and TR add “certain”
c. Luke 20:17 Psalm 118:22
d. Luke 20:37 Exodus 3:6
e. Luke 20:43 Psalm 110:1
Reflection Questions:
At the start of this passage, Jesus compared his followers to servants. Good ones are ready to respond to their master's commands and wishes at all times; bad ones get fired (or, in Roman times, even worse). Jesus was not endorsing those cruel practices, but making the point that choosing to serve God is a matter of eternal life or death. The section ended with a haunting parable—Jesus didn't seem to give it an ending.
Jesus' words about bringing division rather than peace (12:51-53) may strike us as odd. Isn't Jesus "the prince of peace"? Yes—but his kingdom's principles (including peace) were so unlike the world's that he knew at times division would follow. Have family members, friends or co-workers ever misunderstood or criticized choices you've made based on your loyalty to God?
Jesus told what we could call "The Unfinished Parable" (13:6-9). The gardener pleaded for one more year to help the tree bear good fruit—but Jesus never said whether the tree did or didn't bear fruit. 13:5 showed what kind of "fruit-bearing" was really on his mind. So what about you--how will you finish Jesus' unfinished parable in your life?
Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you dig up the soil around me, water and fertilize, and watch eagerly for the fruit to appear in me. Help me to work with you, so that my life may indeed bear fruit to your glory. Amen.
Insight from Glen Shoup
Rev. Glen Shoup is the Executive Pastor of Worship and a Congregational Care pastor.
Well it’s just another docile Sunday sermon with Jesus.  What do you suppose the conversations were on the camel ride home from church that week…..the ones who know what they’re supposed to do but don’t will be beaten severely, and the ones who don’t know and don’t do it will still be beaten…but just not as much—-or I haven’t come to bring peace, but division…to divide father and son or mother from daughter……I’ll bet you there was an emergency meeting of the staff/parish committee that quickly turned into a yelling match that afternoon—DID YOU HEAR HIM SAY HE HASN’T COME TO BRING PEACE BUT DIVISION—PITTING FATHER AGAINST SON AND SON AGAINST FATHER…
Look, I’d like to be able to domesticate Jesus and get him housebroke for us so that he never said anything that really made us uncomfortable, but I can’t—Jesus won’t be tamed.
Oh, when you really look at it and study what Jesus said here (and other places) there’s a whole lot more of this that makes perfect sense than what doesn’t; and what Jesus said here can’t be taken in isolation but rather has to be taken in light of what he said everywhere else; and I’ve got an 808 page book on my shelf called Hard Sayings of the Bible that helps give historical context and make sense out of some of the most perplexing things Jesus said and I’d like to take 5 pages and begin to break down this entire section with you—but you’d quit reading and I’d get tired of writing—so in lieu of all that, I’d like to suggest that here’s what it comes down to:  Jesus is far clearer and makes way more sense than today’s reading might suggest, but Jesus is every bit as demanding and serious as today’s reading suggests…and to try and illustrate that, I’m simply going to share a quick story.
Recently, I got to spend some time with a good friend who’s been very successful in the investment business.  He’s smart, has worked hard and has built a business that provides good service for his customers and has earned him more money then he’ll ever need or spend. My friend is also a Christian and a father to a son who is about to finish college (my friend is also 9 years older than I am, and that’s only important because while I’m old enough to have a kid in college, I don’t, and I don’t want you to think I’m old enough to have a kid in college…so I want you to know my friend is 9 years older than me).  So after a long and arduous day of playing 36 holes of golf, we were sitting together on his Arizona patio around the fire and I was asking him about how his son was doing.
You see, while he never pushed his son to come into the family business, his son for the last several years had been expressing an interest in doing so, so the plan for a while has been that his son, upon graduation, would go out and work somewhere else for a number of years, learning some of the important lessons you can’t learn if something is just handed to you, and then once he gained some experience, he would come in and take over the business—a plan which I know my friend was very satisfied by—satisfied both because it was what his son wanted to do, and satisfied because he’d be handing over his life’s work to his son.
So as we were sitting around the fire and I asked my friend how his son was doing and if everything with the plan was still on track, I was a bit surprised by the answer.  My friend said his son had decided to pick up a religion minor and then my friend said that, while his son hadn’t yet told him this, he suspected that his son was sensing a call into the ministry…and before I could say anything else my friend said… “so I don’t know what’s going to happen with the plan, but if the kid is feeling a call into the ministry, there’s no way I’m going to stand in the way of that”.
Now just because my friend already knows and believes this doesn’t change the fact that what’s going on here is that Jesus is showing up saying “Look dad, I know you’ve got a plan, and junior’s on board with that plan…but I’ve got different plan—because while junior would do a good job helping people figure out how and where to invest their money, I’m already seeing the future and I know junior’s going to do an even better job helping people figure out how and where to invest their lives”.
And if my friend weren’t already attuned to Christ and seeking to follow Christ himself, can you imagine the kind of turmoil and disruption—can you imagine the kind of family war it would cause when his son comes home and says “guess what dad, you know that business we’ve been talking about me taking over… ya, well I’m not going to do that now cause I think I’m gonna be a preacher instead. 
You want to talk about division?  You want to talk turning a father against his son or a daughter against her mother?  But that’s just the kind of thing the gospel of Jesus does and that’s the kind of thing Jesus was getting at in our reading today……he’s saying look, don’t kid yourselves, my priorities and my purposes supersede yours—and the family business being passed down to the next generation is a really nice idea—it just may not happen to be what I have in mind for junior…and if you’re not ok with that but junior is…then you’re going to see first-hand that I didn’t come to bring peace…but division…you’re going to see—father square off against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother (Lk 12:53)…well, you get the idea.
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