Week 3 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 16:1–9 (NRSV)

1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.

2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’

3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’

5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’

7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’

8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

There is a lot going on in the scripture this week. As you read it, what stands out to you the most?

This is in fact on of the most upside down passages. A rich person is happy with having less, a person who should be punished is commended

Breaking down the scripture

There are three people in the story and each one of them have their own interests at heart.

Owner - wants to be happy, he thinks that he can do that by making money for himself

Manager - wants to manage the Owner’s money in such a way that he too makes money.He wants to do a good job, because who doesn't, but he is also paid on commission.

Debtors - want to be debt free, or at the very least they want to be financially on top of their debt

The manager's job should be to make the owner money, but the manager is putting money into the pockets of those most in debt. Why do you think he is doing this?

The problem ultimately is that these three people have competing and seemingly exclusive needs. It would at least appear on the surface that there would not be an effective way to please everyone involved.

To really begin to understand a very strange word that is used in this passage: shrewdness

One of the more interesting “upside-down” components of this story is that the manager is getting praised for what he is doing. Why do you think the manager is being praised?

Shrewd

We don’t know a ton about the word “Shrewd” in this passage it comes from the greek word φρονίμως, and this is the only passage in the biblical text that contains that specific word.

Depending which dictionary you use it could mean prudent, wise, sensible, practical, pragmatic, sensibly

When we are shrewd clever, practical, we are not being dishonest. The story begins with a manager that was dishonest and the story shifts to a manager that is shrewd.

The manager was initially dishonest with his relationships with the debtors and with his relationship with the owner. Through the parable the manager learns to be honest in his relationships even if that results in a decision that on the surface seems to hurt his pocket book. In the process the manager teaches us something rather valuable about our priorities and what it means to be wise stewards.

As one author puts it:

“Old hierarchies are overturned and new friendships are established.” (AJ Levine)

Steward

The word for manager is also sometimes translated as “stweard”. Knowing this:

What does the word stewardship mean to you?

Instead of just accepting things the way that they were, the steward decides that he is in a desperate situation with limited resources to take a risk.

Has there ever been a moment that changed how you understand your stewardship?

He find a way to accomplish every goal without disappointing any of them. The owner is happy and celebrates the managers work. And the owner has restored the relationship with the debtors. The Manager who wants to please both the owner and the debtors finds a way to do that. The debtors the people that are most on the margins in this story the outsiders the one’s that don’t talk about enough, are freed from their debt Think about how cool that is. I wonder if they went on from their to forgive others of their debts. I wonder if that changed them in some way. All the people “won” from this generosity

When you read this story how does the manager’s understanding of money change throughout the story?

This manager has a bit of an ends justify the means attitude about his business practices. A “do whatever you need to in order to get to the top” frame of reference. Jesus tells this story as a hypothetical parable to illustrate that what the man was doing was wrong and that the kingdom of heaven functions in a quite different way. The kingdom of God is marked by caring for have having responsibility for our actions. The manager didn’t own the money and therefore did not have the ability to cancel the debt. Perhaps it was intentional that the manager was not the owner, in an attempt to remind us that the kingdom of God is not marked by “do whatever you need to in order to get to the top” it is marked by a sense of responsibility and stewardship of all of things that are gifted to us by God (our time, talent, treasure, relationship, authority, etc.)

What are some ways that our stewardship can proclaim good news to those around us?

Action Step

Stewardship is about maintaining our resources in such a way that they can be a blessing to others. This week pause and reflect on how you are managing God’s resources. Try to find one way to bless someone with your generosity this upcoming week. Be prepared to share your success story next week in small group!