Caring for What Has Been Entrusted to Us


For the next several weeks, my sermons will be focusing upon issues of stewardship. Stewardship is a sort of an old-fashioned word that in many ways is as relevant and necessary as at any point in history.

Stewardship basically relates to what it is we do with what has been given to us or more to the point, what has been entrusted to us and to our care. Biblically speaking, that means everything: earth, life, culture, talents, abilities, intelligence, etc. there is very little in our sphere of existence that is not dependent upon something or someone else outside of ourselves.  Theologically, we talk about the contingency of our existence. Another way to look at it has to do with the interdependence and interconnectedness of everything. Because of this vast and total interconnectedness, what we do to one another and with what we have direct influence over matters. It makes a difference. And because we speak of all things belonging to God (“the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1,  1Corinthians 10:26).  Because of this basic claim, the classic Christian understanding is that all that we have and all that we are on loan to us by God. This theological understanding provides the foundation for all conversations about stewardship.

Bishop Kenneth L. Carder has created a list of what he calls Components of a Wesleyan Stewardship, found on the website of the General Board of Discipleship website for the United Methodist Church:
  • Christian stewardship begins with a gifting God who owns everything and who is present in the world as grace.
  • Christian stewardship is our vocation to share in God's mission of compassion, generosity, and justice.
  • Christian stewardship is an expression of love for God and neighbor, a necessary component of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, and integral to the church's preaching and teaching.
  • Community with, compassion for, and commitment to the vulnerable and those who live in economic poverty are constitutive of discipleship and stewardship in the Wesleyan tradition; and economic justice is measured by what happens to the under-resourced and the most vulnerable.
  • Stewardship includes generous personal sharing and the development and support of institutions, structures, public policies, and strategies that provide for the holistic needs of one's family, the under-resourced, and the global community.
  • Stewardship includes vocational choices that contribute to life and the health and wellbeing of the human family and God's creation.
  • Christian stewardship requires simplified living by choosing necessities for everyone over excesses for the few.
  •  Leaders who model stewardship in the Wesleyan tradition in personal practices and institutional involvement are critical to the Wesleyan movement.
  • Economy is a spiritual issue and all economic systems, policies, and practices must be critiqued in the light of the Bible's understanding of creation as a gift to be nurtured and shared rather than a commodity to be exploited.
  • Christian stewardship is empowered by God's grace in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit who binds us in covenant with one another in anticipation of God's coming reign of compassion, justice, generosity, and joy.


(Copyright General Board of Discipleship. www.GBOD.org Used by permission.)

Yesterday (Sunday, October 3, 2010) I began this stewardship sermon series by talking about Jesus being our lens for looking at the world. To understand what I mean by this, you have to understand that I wear glasses. The lenses of my glasses help me to see things clearly. My eyes also have lenses. Without the lenses in my eyes everything would be a blur of light, color and dark. Using this as a metaphor, I can talk about Jesus being my lens upon the world – every aspect of it. Jesus focuses and clarifies  how I look at life, at politics, at economics, at science, at my neighbor, even at the Bible itself.

I view the Bible through the lens of Jesus – not the other way around. That is why I am a follower of Jesus – this is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I learn from Jesus, and what Jesus teaches me is how to live my life in relation to God and to everything else in creation. Jesus teaches me that what I do with who I am, with what I am capable of doing and with what I have makes a difference. It matters. This is the core of Christian Stewardship, and it begins with Jesus.

This Sunday, I will return to that notion of the earth being the Lord’s and everything in it.  Watch this space for more on this.

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