1 Chronicles 29:14

Stewardship Sunday

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.

The animal world teaches us that the sense of belonging is a very strong instinct. We have all heard stories about pets who have gotten lost when they were traveling with the family on a family vacation and who have found their way home after traveling thousands of miles. These are heartwarming stories that tell of us the powerful need to belong, to have a place called home, to have a family to belong to.

We all need a sense of belonging. We need to belong to someone, a family, a group, a community, a church or whatever. It gives us a sense of identity. It tells us who we are and what is our purpose and our position in that community. It also gives us a sense of security. We know that we are not alone in the world, just drifting about aimlessly, having to fend for ourselves. We know where we can find love and acceptance, help and security, identity and purpose when we know to whom we belong.

It seems like in our society today it's all about relationships. People are looking for relationships, someone to whom they belong, somewhere they are loved. Well, you can say that the Christian life is all about relationship. It is about our relationship with God. All people have a relationship with God. Those whose relationship with God is in and through Christ have salvation and eternal life. Those whose relationship with God is apart from Christ, are lost and condemned in their sin.

In the beginning God created man and woman. He created us to be in relationship with him. He created us to be his children, a holy people belonging to Him. We belong to God. We are his. He fashioned us as his children, his elect and chosen people, holy and set apart from evil and death.

And he created the heavens and earth and all things to be a home for us and to provide for our needs. He made the earth to be our home for us to live in and he arranged the furniture of sun and moon and stars, trees and forests, hills and mountains, rivers and oceans, air and water, plants and animals to provide for our needs, to be food for us, and for us to enjoy his love and goodness.

But mankind chose to snub God's love and rejected Him. Fallen mankind has separated himself from God and tries to not have a relationship with him. We are by nature lost and dead to God.

But in our baptism, we who were once far away, dead in trespasses and sins, are brought near. We live in relationship with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are therefore forgiven of our sin and have eternal salvation. We are bought and purchased by his own blood. Not with gold or silver, but with the precious, holy, innocent blood of God. He replaces the death and corruption that once dwelt in us with life and truth.

Therefore, we belong to God. We are his. And all the things he made for us are his own doing; they and we are God's possession. We belong to God. Our family, our husband or wife, our children, our home and possessions are all God's. Our time, our abilities, our job all belongs to God and he calls us to manage it for him.

That is the point of Stewardship Sunday. The word "steward" is perhaps a rather old word and not completely understood today. More modern words would be "administrator" or "manager." By definition, a steward manages and administrates that which belongs to someone else. All that we have, including ourselves and our own lives belong to God. We are but managers of the things of God. This includes ourselves and our lives. As God's children, we are called to manage our lives in a way that is pleasing to God. He tells us specifically how we are to manage our lives and all He has given us when he says, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you should love one another as I have loved you." Love is our stewardship. Stewardship is nothing more than loving God with all our heart, mind and soul, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. All that we have; our home, our possessions, our finances, our time, our skills and abilities, our jobs, our household, even our very lives are managed and administered according to the principle of love: love and glorify God; love your neighbor as yourself.

We are given our husbands or wives to take care of. We are given our children to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are given our mouths to praise and thank God and to speak his word to others. We are given our skills and hands to serve our neighbor, we are given our finances so we can help those in need. All because God has given us His only begotten Son to die for us and adopt us as His children, we belong to Him and He replaces the death and corruption into which we were born with everlasting life and love.

Now we live in this world that he created to be our home and we are the administrators of God's creation. But soon the Lord will come again. Our gospel reading today warns us: "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." What will you be doing when he comes? Will you be found watching for him, diligently administering the creation which he gave us charge over for His kingdom and for our neighbor? Or will we be found lazy, using God's things for our own pleasure and enjoyment? Will we be selfish with the things of God using them as if we were the owners, or will we be using them for his kingdom and the wellbeing of our neighbor? We will be held accountable for what we do with the things of God.

We have not always in the past been faithful stewards of God's creation. We have often used it for our own selfish interests and pleasure. We have thought of it as belonging to us rather than to God. We have misused it. And for that we deserve wrath and eternal punishment. We have wanted the things of this creation for ourselves. We have treated the things of God as if we alone were the owners. We have usurped the throne of God.

But in his love, God sacrificed his Son for us to purchase us for himself. For us sinners, our being right with God consists in what Christ has done for us. We have not done right, but Christ is our righteousness. He is all that is right before God and about us. He gives us the faith that his sacrifice on the cross makes us right with God.

And this faith which God creates in us does not remain in heaven. It comes down to earth and creates a new man in us who actively does what is right before God. This new man replaces the old sinful man of corruption and death. This new man in us actively serves the well-being of creation by looking out for our neighbor. This new man is active and busy being a steward of God's creation, using it to live for one another and in relation to the environment. Our relationship with God shapes our relationship to creation, as Scripture says, "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

As Luther says, "Faith is a living, busy, active thing." Faith is always doing. Faith is always doing stewardship: using the things of God for our neighbor. And what is the most important and greatest act of love? It is sharing with our neighbor the gospel of forgiveness and eternal life. Our neighbor has no greater need than the need for forgiveness from his sin. He has no greater peril than death which corrupts his entire being. The greatest treasure that God has given us to administer is his forgiveness and eternal life which we distribute through the message of the Gospel. That message, the good news of eternal life, the Gospel is spread through our own words which we speak to others in evangelism. It is spread through the church as the word is preached and the sacraments administered. It is spread through missions and evangelism around the world. All this we do. We do with our time and service. We do through our skills and talents. We do through our offerings and finances as we support this effort so the Gospel message can continue to be proclaimed.

Stewardship is nothing other than the new man, born again in faith, the renewed child of God using the gifts of God to love our neighbor by helping him in need and reaching out to him with the message of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.