Study guide


rising global population means more and more people must live on our earth and share its finite resources. It also means Christians have more and


more neighbors whom we are commanded to love as our- selves. Socially responsible living presents principles that enable us to achieve both ends.


By Robert C. Blezard


That thing: Social responsibility A


Exercise 1: My neighbor Have you ever wondered exactly who is the neighbor that


Jesus commands us to love as ourselves? In the parable of the good Samaritan a religious scholar (a lawyer) wonders the same thing. Read Luke 10:25-37 and discuss: • Why do we ponder who our neighbor is? Why does the lawyer (verse 29)? How did Jesus answer his question?


• What is the “correct” answer for the lawyer? • What is the correct answer for us? Are our neighbors only to be found in our community, county or country? Are we neighbors to people who belong to other faiths? Are we neighbors to the generations yet unborn who will inherit the world from us?


• What would Jesus say?


Exercise 2: Responsibility Twin teachings can help guide a discussion of social


responsibility: Jesus taught that to whom much is given much is required (Luke 12:48) and “In everything do to oth- ers as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). • What does the first teaching mean for North Americans, who are among the wealthiest people who ever lived?


• If our income enables us to make informed choices about what we buy and where we invest, doesn’t “doing to others” invite us to put our money where it does the most good?


• Taking this seriously, how would you evaluate what to buy, where and how your savings are invested?


Exercise 3: Tithing Many biblical stewards lift up tithing—offering back a


10th of what God first gives to us—as a faithful response to God’s generosity. But isn’t God concerned with how we spend the other 90 percent as well? Divide your group and ask half to draft a list of uses for money that God would bless, and the other to come up with


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uses of which God would disapprove. When done, compare the lists and discuss the reasons for each choice. What would you add or take away from each list? Discern an underlying philosophy or “rule” for the 90 percent left over from the tithe. (Oh, and you all tithe, right?)


Exercise 4: Prayer An offering prayer on page 107 of Evangelical Lutheran


Worship provides a starting point for a discussion of wealth and its use: “Through your goodness you have blessed us with these gifts: our selves, our time and our possessions. Use us, and what we have gathered, in feeding the world with your love ....” • Is everything you own and everything you are really a gift from God? Why or why not?


• Do you treat them as a gift from God? • For what purpose did God give you your self? Your time? Your possessions?


• How do we go about feeding the world with God’s love? • Why is this a distinctly Christian imperative? • How does this inform our efforts to practice social responsibility?


Exercise 5: Money log As a study group, agree to keep a “money log” and see


what it reveals about your spending. For a week or month, record every purchase—where and what—in a notebook or on a personal electronic device. When done, discuss: • How many purchases were “needs” and how many were “wants”?


• Which could you have cut out without affecting your quality of life?


• Do the establishments you patronize most frequently pay their employees fairly and have fair benefits and policies? If you don’t know, how could you find out?


• What does your spending pattern say about you?


• What does your sp ending sa y about your faith and values?


• For the future, what might you change? 


Author bio: Blezard is an assistant to the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did subsequent study at the


Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.


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