Needles and Camels

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Fellowship – Snacks or a Meal (10 minutes with snacks; longer, obviously, if there is a meal).

Gathering Time (5-10 minutes). In pairs or groups of three, have participants answer, “When you think of ‘treasure,’ what comes to mind?”

Group Dialogue (Approximately 30 minutes). Read Mark 10:17-31.

• Who is asking about the gift of eternal life? What is his background? [A man who has many possessions. (Mark 10:22)]
• Who does the “saving” to give eternal life? [Jesus saves. He says, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27.)]
• In verse 21, Jesus, “looking at him (the young man), loved him,” and then asked him to sell everything he owned, give the money to the poor, and then follow him.
  • Why do you think the text emphasizes Jesus loving the man? What does it mean to look at someone with love and then challenge that person?
• The Preaching Note for October 13 states: “Perhaps one of the underlying messages in this text is the pull money can have in our lives and the need to resist and release that pull to use money as one of many resources that can further God’s work in the world. Money is a tool, not an end in itself.”
  • What is Jesus saying in this passage about how we view treasure or money and following Jesus?
• “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age--houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions--and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).
  • How does Jesus invite us to look at our lives and our church as part of an inheritance? How does it help us to be good stewards and to think not of our needs today but for the needs of generations after us?

Prayer (10 minutes). Share prayer requests and respond appropriately.

Sending Forth (2 minutes). End with the following prayer, a similar prayer, or the Lord’s Prayer:

Generous God, You have given us so many good things: food on our table and the people in our community whom we love. Help us be good stewards of everything in our possession, for we know everything belongs to You. Give us hearts willing to follow you and respond to the call You place on our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Dr. Hunter Pugh, an elder in the Alabama-West Florida Conference, serves a charge in Brantley, Alabama. He has served the local church for ten years. Rev. Pugh is also an adjunct professor of religion at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. He loves the outdoors and traveling, as he sees God’s creation and the beauty of the diversity in people the Lord has made.