LEADER'S GUIDE - Lutheran Bible Ministries



Light on the Lessons

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18; Amos 5:18-24; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 33, Proper 28); Cycle A; November 15, 2020

Leader Guidance

Materials Needed

+ Bibles for everyone (variety of translations often useful)

+ Lectionary sheets (very convenient if you use them in worship)

+ Chalkboard, newsprint, overhead, or another means for displaying information and recording thoughts

+ Basic reference books for use as needed: Bible dictionary, Bible atlas, concordance, a one-volume Bible commentary

I Getting Started

In advance, read Bible dictionary articles about Manasseh, Josiah, and the Deuteronomic reforms. Zephaniah took part in that reform movement.

Discuss experiences with “Through the Week.” Read the lessons now, or later, as you study each one. Pray for insight guided by the Holy Spirit. Briefly discuss the warm-up questions in “Getting Started.”

1. The prophets denounced the wealthy not for their money as such but for how they got it. In both Judah and Israel, the small independent landowner had been taken over by creditors. City people owned estates worked by tenants and serfs, a far cry from the society Israel dreamed of. The exploiting classes also brought in foreign customs and gods. They did not earn money by work but by speculation and usury.

2. Responses will vary. “Light” means God’s way of truth and justice and honesty, s path revealed to us in Christ. Few of us are really thorough-going children of darkness, but to what extent are we children of twilight?

3. The statement is a good one. However, we don’t really “have” anything to call our own; all we “have” belongs to God and given for our use. So we manage what God gives us to provide for ourselves and our family, as God wishes, and to provide for God’s work as well.

II Check the Texts

1. Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18

Recall last week’s discussion of Amos 5:8-14. Zephaniah makes the same point about the “day of the LORD” that Amos wanted to drive home.

A. He will prepare a sacrifice to consecrate his “guests.” TEV adds the words “invited enemies to plunder Israel.” An enemy stands poised to attack Jerusalem, and that attack will be God’s judgment, the immediate “day of the LORD.” Government officials and traders (wealthy merchants) would be among the first to feel the wrath. If an enemy attacked Jerusalem, these would be the classes the foreign troop would seek to eliminate first.

B. These people believed that God didn’t care what they did and would neither punish nor bless them on account of their behavior. Abraham pleading for Sodom certainly had another view. Discuss: How do people today share that same view that God has no concern with how we live? Do we sometimes think that God will do good for us, but never, ever do harm?

C. This image is hard to identify. Let participants have fun speculating. It comes from wine making. When wine makers were lazy or neglectful, they failed to stir the fermenting grapes and the dregs thickened to destroy the wine.

D. The people will build and plant, but not enjoy the results of their labor. This describes a life that may be rich in material success, but empty, neither fulfilling, nor satisfying.

E. Verses 14-17 contain many words describing war: warriors, trumpet blasts, battle cry, and battlement. Verse 18 includes universal images: whole earth and all the inhabitants of the earth. Refer to Zephaniah 1:2-4, where the judgment is almost Noah-like, embracing the whole earth, while verses 4-6 make it clear that it is the idolatry of Judah and Jerusalem that offends God. How the two visions can be held at the same time can be explained in different ways. Did the prophet identify Judah with all humanity, on the thought that Jerusalem was God’s center of the world? Or does believe that when the same sins done in Jerusalem are done elsewhere, God is equally angry? Just as prophets shift the “I” from themselves to God and back again, so they move back and forth from the particular to the universal. God may have special dealings with one people, but he is God of all peoples.

2. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

A. Paul means the day when Christ returns. For Zephaniah, LORD meant Yahweh; for Paul, Lord meant Jesus Christ. For Zephaniah, the day of the Lord brought judgment and destruction on God’s people; for Paul, the day brings fulfillment at least for believers. For both, the day is a time when God acts decisively to exert his power and authority. The Greek Bible, used by early Christians, translated God’s name as “Lord.” Since that was the title they used of Jesus, they easily read “Jesus” into every reference to God.

B. The two Gospel citations contain the image of a thief in the night. The Gospels point to the Son of man, while Paul points to Jesus. The church has always identified the Son of man with Jesus. The main point of the image is surprise; one doesn’t know when a thief will come, nor does one know when Jesus will come.

C. For Zephaniah, the illusion is that God doesn’t care what we do (1:12). For Paul, it is the cry that all is well (5:3). Both illusions deceive because neither recognizes God’s active presence in the world which can always bring surprises.

D. In verse 5, “light” means God’s realm and “darkness” means the realm of the Prince of Darkness; the references are cosmic and not chronological. Then Paul shifts the image so that day means awake and night, sleep; these are images of chronological time. In verse 10, the image shifts again so that awake means alive and asleep, dead; Paul uses the words this way in 4:17-18. This is a good example of Paul skilled rhetorical style.

E. The armor images in Ephesians 6 remind us of verse 8. But in Ephesians, the breastplate is righteousness and the helmet, salvation rather than the hope of salvation. The Christian’s armor against the world as well as the Christian’s gifts to the world are the great triad of faith hope, and love. Talk about how these three gifts can shield us from the forces of darkness in the world.

F. The comfort is that, however difficult the final days, God will deliver Christians. What verse 11 means today depends on personal insights. However, in times of stress, where the future holds so many frightening possibilities, knowing we and the world are in the hands of God, whose focus is on salvation rather than destruction, brings great comfort. The verse suggests that some Thessalonians thought that those who died before Jesus’ return would not be saved.

3. Matthew 25:14-30

A. The two meanings of “talent” are often interchanged. Both refer to something given us by another (clearly God in the parable) which we can put to God’s use or not.

B. The common theme is a day of reckoning. The judgment on stewardship in the Gospel seems closest to Zephaniah’s judgment on our behavior. Jesus’ return brings judgment, of course, but that aspect is not covered in our lesson from 1 Thessalonians.

C. The Lucan story likely comes from the same source because it makes the same point, but the details differ. The group can have some fun listing all the differences they can find. Matthew simplifies (three slaves instead of ten) and exaggerates (talents instead of pounds). Ask the group to read Matthew 25:1-13 to see why Matthew may have gone from ten to three slaves. (He already had ten bridesmaids.)

D. He gave according to their ability. But the slave getting one talent had the ability to use it well, though he did not do so. The point is this: Whatever our level of ability or the extent of our gifts, we can use what we have to serve God.

E. The item buried in 13:44 is the treasure of the Kingdom, hidden to be retrieved at any cost. In the parable, the slave hides the money in fear.

F. Consider this meaning: If we don’t use our gifts, we lose them; when we use them, they grow.

III What Does It All Mean?

1. Responses will vary.

2. Responses will vary. Encourage folks to identify the core values of their faith.

3. We think we own our “talents” to do with as we please, but “gifts” clearly come from Another, to whom we are responsible for their use.

4. Recall your conversation on II, 3, F, above.

5. It implies that all we have belongs to God. We have use of it, but we don’t own it.

6. Though some find it difficult, it is good to list our strengths. Encourage participants to share their strengths with another.

7. Responses will vary. Sometimes our communities focus more on criticism and conflict than on encouragement and support.

IV Into the Week

As time permits, some may wish to share initial thoughts about #3.

Copyright © 2020, Lutheran Bible Ministries. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to make photocopies for use in church-related study groups.

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