Week 2 Upside Down Kingdom Small Group

Opening Prayer

Invite a volunteer to open the small group with a word of prayer

Check-In

How are you today?

Did you have any joys or setbacks in implementing the Action Step from last week?

Scripture for This Week

We will invite two different voices to read this from start to finish. Having two different voices will help us connect differently to the passage and reading it through twice allows us an opportunity to get a sense of some of the nuances of the passage.

Luke 12:13–21 (NRSV)

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

14 But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

15 And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.

17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’

18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’

20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Although this is a stewardship passage it seems to ring true for so much more than just our physical treasures. When we are thinking about just our small corner of the universe, Christ is inviting us to imagine what eternity looks like. We don’t just live for ourselves and for our time, our actions now will make investments not only in our relationship to God, but also in the long strain of people that will come after us. Our actions are not only connected to those that have gone before us, but also those that will go after us. We are invited in this passage to imagine ourselves in the midst of a timeline that is larger than the amount of time between our birth and our death date. Being rich towards God seems to mean avoiding stockpiling treasures here on earth.

Breaking down the scripture

At it’s core this passage is not about dividing up assets it is about how we manage and supplement our greed. One author says:

Not making a legal judgment, Jesus did make a moral one. Your request shows how greedy you are, he told the man. Lay aside your greed. Think about life.

-HNTC

One author suggests that this passage talks about much more than just money in saying:

38 tn Or “avarice,” “covetousness.” Note the warning covers more than money and gets at the root attitude—the strong desire to acquire more and more possessions and experiences.

NET Bible First Edition

The conventional knowledge surrounding most things (money, power, popularity) is that if one is good 10 will be great! This passage strikes straight to the core of understanding of greed and teaches us that more is not always better. The passage uses the image of barns that represent wealth of crops.

How do we build bigger barns today?

The other big theme that this passage highlights for us is just how temporary earthly wealth is. One author says,

Riches have one major weakness. They have no purchasing power after death. They cannot buy the currency needed to get to heaven.

-HNTC

When you think about the limited amount of time that we have as physical people here on earth, what are the things that are most meaningful to you now? What are the things that you spend more of your time or energy on? Is there a difference between those two answers?

The way that one author summarizes this passage is by saying:

The problem with the rich fool was not that he had bumper crops, or that he decided to build more storage space (vv. 16–18). The problem was that he invested his entire life in his possessions (cf. v. 15). He drew all his security from his material goods (v. 19), and failed to reckon with God

Considering how short our time on earth is, what is most meaningful in your life?

What do you spend your time on? On what do you spend your money?

In the parable the brother is told to avoid barns. A way to rephrase this might be to invest the bounty of his harvest in other ways not just benefiting him. The warning is not against producing a lot of crops it is instead in building up big barns and in the greed and covetousness that is involved in that.

The passage ends with the words “being rich toward God.” What does it look like to be rich towards God? What does it look like to hoard up God’s love just for ourselves or our church?

Action Step

This week, spend some time reflecting on the things you currently invest your time and money into. If it is helpful, write it down in two columns “things that are most meaningful to me” and “things that I spend most of my time and energy on.” Who gets harmed by those decisions (kids, partner, work) Think about the changes needed to make your spending align with what brings you meaning. Come to next week’s meeting prepared to share how that conversation went.