Learning to Participate in God’s Economy
“Like
good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift
each of you has received.”
I. Required readings
Mosaic of
loaves and fishes
Tabgha
Christian Biography for the Day: Dag Hammarskjold
Eugene N. Nelson, “A Different Concept of Abundance”
Walter Brueggemann, “Enough is Enough.”
Chittister, Chapter 9 (Giftedness: Making Music Together), 108-20
II. Quotation for the
day
“As we
look at how to be good stewards of God's abundance, we need to think about how
all the stuff that we are carrying around relates to who we are as children of
God. How many of the things that we own, rent, purchase, store, maintain,
service, clean, upgrade, replace, and insure bring us closer to the ultimate
love of God? How many of these things actually weigh down our every step? How
many burden us, distract us, and keep us from a relationship with the abundant,
life-giving Creator? What's in your backpack?”
--Will Rice
III. Journal prompts
1. We often hear the word “stewardship” thrown around a lot in Christian circles. What exactly is stewardship about? On what basis are we supposed to decide whether or not we are being faithful stewards of what God his entrusted to us?
2. Chittister suggests that, contrary to our culture's insistence that our gifts and abilities are ours to do with as we please, God has given us gifts that belong as much to the community as they do to us. What gifts do you believe that God has given you and what would it mean for you to use those gifts to edify and build up others?
IV. Links of possible
interest
Calvin B. DeWitt, “Living on a Footstool: God’s Economy and Ours”