Sunday, October 4, 2009

St. David’s Episcopal Church, DeWitt NY

The Rev. James C. Bresnahan, Interim Rector

“On Stewardship”

Job 1:1; 2:1-10:

There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason." Then Satan answered the LORD, "Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face." The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, he is in your power; only spare his life."

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat among the ashes.

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

A month ago I committed myself to preaching a sermon today on stewardship, which I will.  But I cannot pass over our rich readings for today without some comment and an invitation to you to ponder them sometime.  If you have never read the Book of Job in one sitting, it may be time you did. It’s a philosophic work in story form. An old and simple legend is expanded on to explore the reasons for human suffering.  After you’ve read the Book of Job, you should go to reading or re-reading Harold Kushner’s classic book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”

 

Our Gospel reading on the surface seems to be about divorce.  But it goes well beyond that. It’s a story about control and domination in relationships and the call of Jesus to be vulnerable like children and not coercive. It does not affirm privilege for males, but an equality of the sexes.  But that will have talk about another time.

 

For today I want to speak about stewardship.

 

The opening chapters of our Scriptures tell of the first man and the first women and the task given them to rule over all other created things – over flying things and things that creep and crawl; things that sprout up from the earth and things buried beneath the ground; over anything and everything.

 

Interesting is how the story presents humans as late-comers.  We come in at the end. The heavens and the earth and all in it existed before we even came on the scene.  It was none of our doing.  We created none of it.  And one day, for each of us, it will continue to exist without us.  It does not need us to be.

 

That’s the humbling part of the story and of our existence.

 

We come into this world bringing nothing with us.  And we leave this world taking nothing out with us.

 

All we have while here, then, is gift and marvel, not our creation, not our possession, not ours as a right.  But given into our hands for a time

 

The Biblical understanding of stewardship begins with that humbling recognition – that we are not God and we don’t own anything.  What we call ours is simply on loan to us as a sacred trust.

 

The Biblical understanding of stewardship has to it a second component as well: That what is placed in our hands as gift is a sacred trust, for which we are accountable.

 

We are accountable to the one who is the ground and source of all giving, who has made everything not for exploitation or solitary purpose but for the good of all creatures now and in times to come.

 

A steward is a manager, not an owner, but one who cares for what belongs to another and gives an accounting to another. As stewards of the gifts of God, we live our whole life before God and manage the resources and the people committed to us with care and a deep sense of responsibility.

 

To many of us had been given the gift of children and grandchildren.  Such a great gift and such sacred responsibility!  For it’s not that others can be that for us.  It is we alone who are our children’s parents, and later their children’s grandparents. 

 

And we can do that well when we first that we are nor owners of our children but their steards on od’s behalf.  Has any one ever penned more powerful words to express this than Kahlil Gibran, who wrote:

 

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

“You may give them your love but not your thoughts, 
for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.” (from “The Prophet”)

 

Stewardship of our family, then, is not about wanting or striving to make others in our image, after our likeness.  For others are made in God’s likeness, in God’s image.

 

We are also, as Christians, stewards of this community of faith and the resources we have and could have. 

 

That means, first of all, managing what we have faithfully and well. Which is why we put a new roof over our head so that for years to come this congregations might gather still for the praise of God. 

 

It means as well examining the resources we individually have and not making what we donate to the life and work of Christian community the last thing we do but the first.  Generosity is not about what we do with left over, but what we do at he beginning, for our life to be grounded in generosity.

 

Stewardship also means never being wasteful.  For me, it is scandalous and contrary to every Christian value to misuse money and other resources.  And it is especially wrong if leaders understand leadership as privilege and not service.

 

We have all been shocked by corporate excess and executive greed, as we should be. 

 

So we take care to manage resources wisely, the church’s and our own.

 

When I think about spending church resources, I always keep in my mind the memory of an older woman in a former parish of mine, poor as poor can be, who scrimped and saved to put one dollar in the offering plate each week.  After becoming aware of that devotion, I realized I could never waste one donated dollar, misuse her gift and trespass on her devotion.

 

Stewards don’t waste what others give from their heart with devotion.

 

I’ve decided not to talk today about what we need to continue our ministry among ourselves and to our community and the larger world.  That will come later.

 

What I wanted to do today was to provide a framework for understanding ourselves, not as owners, nor as consumers or amassers, but as stewards of the gifts of God, entrusted to us for God’s good and loving work to be done.

 

I’d like you to take a minute now, in the silence that follows, to thank God for those who have been your good stewards in life, and dedicated themselves to your growth and well-being.  Thank God for those whose stewardship of resources and generosity of time money and labor has brought blessings to your life. Thank God now!