13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13 – 21)
Today we turn our attention to the Discipline of Stewardship as we consider the theme A World in Need.
We started our consideration of The Discipline of Service by looking at a parable. We are going to do the same with the Discipline of Stewardship. The parable of the Rich Fool is another masterpiece by Jesus. If you haven’t been following the stock market lately, I can summarize what has been happening for you in one word – brutal. There have been a few good days but overall, stock prices are down considerably since the start of the year. And, that’s only a part of the story because there are many workers worrying about loss of income due to business closures and a slowdown in commerce. Whether you are directly impacted by the volatility of the economy or not, the shifting sand of financial resources brings the Discipline of Stewardship into very sharp focus.
Please prayerfully read the passage above and consider the question below.
Question
How can we demonstrate an attitude towards material things that provides a Christ-like example to a world in need?