October 18, 2020
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
When was the last time you baby sat someone’s kids, or offered to care for a friend’s cat, or even watched someone’s house while they are away? We do that often enough, caring for a friend’s dearest possessions. I remember babysitting four kids down the street when I was in my early teens. I got paid a dollar an hour to watch those four kids. At the time I thought it was a good way to make some money and I always loved raiding their fridge. But now that I have my own kids, I realize that I was being entrusted with their most valuable possession- their offspring, their pride and joy. I was tasked with keeping them happy, fed, and safe. When I cat sit now, I take it very seriously because I know how much Nala means to my friend, and I would hate for anything to happen to her on my watch. Caring for a pet, a child or a home that belongs to someone else is a modern-day equivalent to stewardship. Stewardship is about caring for something that does not belong to you, but you have been entrusted with its care.
God created the world and said it was good and after a day of rest, God then gives the sky, moon, trees, air, animals, and creatures to our care. God makes us stewards of all that God created. We are stewards to this day of this planet and we need to responsibly care for our world, by not polluting it, by adapting to the changes needed to slow down global warming, and by honoring our environment in such a way that we see our survival along with the planet’s survival. The Psalmist declares, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps. 24:1). Everything belongs to God. Everything belongs to the Creator who made it. That includes you and me, our entire community, our homes, our cars, our retirement. Sometimes I think we can agree that everything belongs to God, as long as you let me keep all that is mine. Our ego pushes back on the idea that EVERYTHING belongs to God, because we know how hard we worked for what we have. We are much more comfortable with the passage we read today saying, “For all things are yours, and all belong to you.” Society drums that line in our heads, work hard and you will have it all. Our faith gets hijacked with consumerism and the desire for more. But let’s be clear, Paul is speaking about deceiving yourself when you think that all is yours (1 Cor. 3:18). Instead, Paul is calling us into a partnership with God.
Stewardship is really a relationship about trust. God trusted us from the beginning to care for God’s creation. We are asked in return, to trust God for provision in our lives. Paul declares, “it is required of stewards that they be found to be trustworthy.” This means you and I trust God to provide for what we need. Even when we cannot see a way forward, we trust that God has a plan, that God is Good, that God will provide. 10 years ago, we were deficit spending, I knew we needed to turn that around, but I had no idea how to do it. But God did. Our benevolent God provided a benevolent gift we now call an Endowment fund. Our worthy God brought us a worshiping community. Our loving parental God found a marvelous preschool. God provides, and we are stewards of God’s abundance. God is providing and we are asked to be trustworthy and faithful. For us to show our commitment to God and our church family. Stewardship is about trust; it is also about the partnership we have with God. God showers us with mercy and God’s gifts and we return thanks with gifts of time through prayer, talent in our participation and treasure through our generosity. Everything we have and everything we do is a result of some gift that God has placed into our hands. If you are a teacher, a firefighter, a salesperson or CPA, God gave you your gifts to do those jobs. Or how about the gifts we share with our church, the gift of music or gardening or bell ringing, or caring for the larger community. We share our gifts of time, talents and treasure in grateful response to our loving and providing God.
Paul also talked about being “servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries” (4:1) We are servants of Christ with everything we offer to this church in the way of time, talent and treasure: calling people to check in, sending cards, working on our missions, sharing your finances. You are a servant of Christ. As for stewards of God’s mysteries we are doing that today as we partake in the sacrament of communion – tasting the mysteries of God and joining together as the body of Christ.
Thursday we had our first in-person gathering. We wore masks and stayed distanced, yet the love of Christ was present. So happy to see Bob and Kloann, and Dee, three people we have been missing from Zoom worship. Judy Zscheille also joined us. The eight of us truly became the body of Christ in that moment of time, much like we have done when we worshipped in person. We will have another time to gather in person as Christ’s body on Sunday November 1, at 2:00. It will be a way of celebrating and culminating our Stewardship season. Please call the office to register to join us on Sunday Nov. 1 at 2:00. We hope everyone will have shared their pledge for 2021 to the church by Nov. 1st.
We have talked about being stewards of God’s creation, of trusting God with our lives and livelihood, of being servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Woven throughout this passage is our belonging to God. Paul writes, “all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” If we turned that into logical statement, A belongs to B. B belongs to C, and C belongs to D. Logically that means A belongs to D or everything belongs to God. Hmmm didn’t we start there? We belong to each other, we belong to Christ, we belong to God and everything belongs to God. We share an interdependence, we share God’s love, care and provision because we belong to Christ and we are fully embraced by God. It is the same sense of belonging that keeps us together as a church family and gets us to open our hearts and minds to be servants and stewards of God’s gift. That is why it is comforting to give right now. We need a sense of belonging more than ever, to be part of a community that embraces us, a family of faith that is of service to others. Stewardship is a form belonging. Giving to God is part of our belonging to God. It is woven into our relationship with God through Christ.
When you give of your time, talent and treasure you are standing together in community, compassion and gratitude of St. Andrew Church. You are being a good steward to God and servants of Christ.
In closing I want to consider the Prodigal son story. He had squandered all that he had, he had no material value to speak of. However, what the Son still had was a relationship with his Father, he belonged to his dad. That made all the difference. His father showered him with the best robe and ring so thankful to have his son with him. You too belong to God, you too are valued because of your relationship through Christ. Belonging to God is our grounding and our foundation and it is from this deep sense of belonging that we gratefully give to our God.
May God add his blessing to this message and our gifts. Amen.
