Psalm 107:19–22

25th Sunday

Stewardship Sunday

¹⁹Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses.

²⁰He asent His word and bhealed them, And cdelivered them from their 1destructions.

²¹aLet them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, And for His 1wonders to the sons of men!

²²Let them also offer asacrifices of thanksgiving, And btell of His works with joyful singing.

IN the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. God’s mighty works declare the glory of God. For God made all things and they were very good.

And God made man in his image, man and woman he made. And he blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And so man did. He gave names to all the animals. He tended the garden which God had made and he tilled the ground. God had put man in charge of his creation to care for it, to the praise and glory of God’s holy name.

For man, the responsibility of tending God’s creation was pure joy. It was his great pleasure to manage the things and the animals and the plants and flowers of God. As he tended the animals and tilled the ground his joy was perfect and his love complete. He never grew tired of his labors and he was perfectly fulfilled. He walked in friendship with God, side by side, man and God, drinking up the warm love which God had for him and performing his labor out of thanksgiving and gratefulness for all God’s blessings.

In other words, Adam and Eve enjoyed their work. There were no dreaded Monday mornings. Adam had the best job in the world. His job was to manage all the things that God had made. He was in charge of the entire creation, the animals, the birds, the trees, the rivers, the forests, the air, and the water. All were under his management. He was the steward of God’s creation.

What exactly is a steward? A steward is one who manages the affairs, the business, the money, or the possessions of someone else. A steward is an employee or trusted servant. A steward is not the owner. He is the servant. His job is to manage the owner’s affairs according to the owner’s wishes.

There are several examples of stewards in the Bible. Some were good stewards and others not so good. Joseph was the steward of Potiphar. He was in charge of his entire household. Later Joseph became Pharaoh’s steward and was put in charge of the entire country. Another man had three stewards. To one he gave five talents of silver, to another he gave two talents, and to the third he gave one. The first was a good steward, who used the money to start a business and earned another five. The second steward invested his two talents to make another two. These were good stewards. They were doing what the owner wanted with his money. However, the third steward was not so good a steward, he merely hid his talent and so when the owner returned, he still had just one talent to return. He was dismissed from the owner’s employ.

Adam and Eve were good stewards of all that God had made. It was pure joy and happiness for them every day, from sunrise to sunset, they thrilled at the stewardship they had been given.

Until one day it all came to an end. That was the day that Satan tempted them. The temptation went like this, “Your eyes shall be opened and you shall become like God.” They were tempted to become gods. They did not resist the temptation. They disobeyed God and brought sin and death into the world. They would no longer walk in the cool, refreshing garden alongside God. They now ran from God in fear, for God was not their enemy. They had tried to steal God’s throne. They tried to steal all the creation that God had placed them over. From that day on man has thought of the creation as his own possession. Man has wanted to be the owner of creation instead of the steward. Man has tried to use the creation for his own lusts and pleasure. He has been greedy and selfish and acted like he owned all things which belong to God. And because man was separated from God, man has come under the curse of death.

But it wasn’t just the man who was cursed. The entire creation came under the curse of death. “The creation was subjected to futility.” The whole creation has become a slave to corruption and it “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth up to the present.” Because man broke the relationship with God, the creation suffers. Man has ceased to be a good steward of God’s things. Rather than take care of it, man has corrupted God’s world, polluted it, raped the land and minerals, wasted its resources, and contaminated it almost to the point of death in some places. Man has squandered the gifts that God has given him. In our greed we try to grab all the money and possessions we can and store them for ourselves in our own granaries rather than give them to the poor or use them to proclaim and praise God’s name.

The result of man’s disobedience is the curse of death. When Adam sinned, all sinned. We all became sinners and we all are born separated from God and cursed by death. We are by nature sinners and have individually and collectively come to worship the creation instead of the creator. We want the creation to be ours.

Still, God’s Son became a man. Yes, God entered into his creation and became one of his own creatures. In spite of the fact that the creation had been corrupted, God became a part of that creation. And thus, he sanctified the creation. He placed his blessing on his creation once again. He affirmed the worth and value of the creation by himself becoming a physical human being with a physical body.

When Jesus took on our physical humanity, he took all of our corruption and sin and brokenness. He took our suffering, our grief, our sickness and our pain and made it his. He took our death and made it his. He hung on a cross, and in agonizing torture his life was snatched from him and his body released his soul into the hands of his Father.

He had paid the price for our sin. He had paid the price of our rebellion against God. Because of our selfishness… he unselfishly poured out his blood for all of us. On account of our greed he generously gave himself for us. By his blood we are washed clean of all sin and corruption. The pollution of our souls is cleansed. He has taken away the sin of the world. YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN.

By taking away our sins, he empowers us in baptism to become the sons of God. Once again, man and God can walk through the garden in the cool of the morning side by side as friends. The enmity is gone; peace has been restored. The curse of death has been canceled. The wrath of God has been turned away. We can rejoice and give thanks according to his righteousness and bring praise to his name.

God has executed vengeance for us and he has delivered us from our enemies of sin and death. It is just as the psalmist says in our text: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; he saved them out of their distress. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his lovingkindness and for his wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his works with joyful singing.” The sacrifices of thanksgiving! That is our offering to God. That is our joyful response for saving us. That is what we return to God in thanks for having rescued us from our enemies and having released us from the curse of sin and death.

The Lord has saved us and we respond with the sacrifices of thanksgiving. “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; the Lord supports the afflicted. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.” (Psalm 147).

Therefore we give thanks to him among the nations and sing praises to his name. We have washed our hands in the innocent blood of Jesus and come to his altar to proclaim all his wonders with the voice of thanksgiving. He has turned our mourning into dancing.

That is our worship. By the power of the resurrected Christ which lives in us, we come to worship because he sends his word and heals us and delivers us. Then we respond to his salvation with songs and offerings of thanksgiving, telling of his works with joyful singing and offerings.

Christ has restored us to our former relationship with God and empowers us to be stewards of the things that He created and gives to us to manage. In our baptism we are joined to Christ and it is now Christ who lives in us. Christ is the perfect steward of God’s riches and the treasures. It is not we who act, but Christ who acts in us. It is Christ in us who is the steward of all the things of God’s creation; from the natural world, the animals, the air, the oceans, the forests, to our money and possessions, to our time and our talents. All these are God’s creation. All these things God has entrusted to us as his stewards to use for his glory and to proclaim his Word throughout all the world. For “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

God has given us skills and abilities. These are creations of God which we are to manage for his glory. God has given them to us in order to serve one another; in order to love our neighbor as ourselves. “Do honest work with your own hands,” says God, “that you may have something to share with anyone in need.”

All that we have, our time, our talents, our home, our possessions, our money belong to God who is the giver of all good things. Our sacrifice of thanksgiving is to use them to his glory. Our sacrifice of thanksgiving is to give back in thanksgiving what he has given us to manage as his stewards.

We are to use the gifts he gives us to love our neighbor. We love our neighbor by helping our neighbor in need, providing his daily bread through our time, labor, and giving. We use the time, the talents and the riches he gives us to support our congregation to make sure the gospel of Jesus Christ continues to be proclaimed. As stewards of God’s things we contribute our time to serve the church. We contribute our talents to serve, and we contribute financially to support the work of the church. We manage these things to make sure they are not to wasted or squandered, but that the mighty works of God’s salvation be praised by all.

But it is not we who do it. It is Christ who lives and acts in us. It is by the power of his resurrection that we are empowered to live in obedience to God and glorify his name. It is by his power that we are set free from the corruption of sin and the curse of death in order to be stewards of the world which God created. Being stewards of what God has given us and using it for his kingdom is the sacrifice of thanksgiving!

Amen.