Gospel for Stewardship Sunday 10 November 2019

Luke 12.13-21        Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ ¹⁴But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ ¹⁵And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” ¹⁸Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ²⁰But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

Reflection      

The land of the rich man “produced abundantly.” If he was an honorable man, he would realize his abundance was pure gift and  he would harvest and liberally distribute this abundance to his community.  The notion of “pulling down his barns and building a larger one” to stockpile his grains for the future was anathema to the community spirit, the social consciousness of the time. No doubt this is why  “God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?””

Now let me be perfectly clear. Jesus is telling this story to folks who are considered rich. He is not preaching to peasants whose sincere concern is acquiring adequate food or shelter. Jesus is chastising the people who have prospered for failing to give generously from their abundance.  He chides them for being rich in their relationship with possessions at the expense of being rich in relationship with God. 

Which brings us face to face with the question, What does it mean to be “rich toward God”? I believe in our time it means counting our riches as being the depth and breath of our relationship with God rather than the size of our of our salaries, pensions or portfolios. I believe being rich toward God means affirming, “All that I am and all that I have is pure gift of God. If I have a reasonable intellect, it is of God. If I have am able-bodied and unimpaired, it is of God. If I am successful in my social, personal or  business endeavors, it is of God. Being rich does not consist of a bulging house, a storage unit, and a many figured bank account. Being rich is knowing God in and of, with and for all that I am and all that I have.

In the Second Letter to the Corinthians Paul is trying to inspire the people of the church in Corinth to be generous and so he writes, “…the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” (2 Cor 7.6-8)

When we apprehend that God is our riches, our true wealth and treasure, then we realize life is not a zero sum game. The more freely we give, the more bountifully we reap. 

Recall Jesus’ instructions to the disciples and us, “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9.23-24) We are meant to give ourselves away in gratitude to God for the good of one another. In so doing we encounter the enigma, in our emptiness we are full, but in our fullness we are empty. 

If you found this post to be meaningful please share by clicking on icons below. Thank you. 

Gospel text for Sunday 16 November 2014

Matthew 25:14-30        Jesus said, "For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, `Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.' His master said to him, `Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, `Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.' His master said to him, `Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, `Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master replied, `You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' “

Reflection       The slave who received five talents, went off, invested all of them and received five more. What an enormous leap of faith. What if he lost the five talents?  What would his master do to him? Still, he risked everything, acted in faith and put all that he was given to work for his Master. And the Master was pleased. By contrast, the slave who received one talent was afraid, by clinging to the little he had he ended up with nothing. There it is, the bottom line. fear is the opposite of faith. Fear contracts, cuts us off from joy, from God’s kingdom on earth. Fear clearly is not the response desired by the master. (God)

Living as we do in God’s economy, like the slaves we are stewards of all that is given to us and we are expected to respond to God’s generosity with faith, not fear. As God’s stewards we are invited to take the risk and deepen our faith by  giving more than is comfortable in faithful response to God’s generosity. Whether it is a little or a lot, every penny that we have is gift. And so we turn to God and pray, “Lord, how are you inviting me to respond to your generosity in my life?” 

The slave in Matthew’s parable who invested everything he was given ended up with more than twice as much as he started. This is the economy of gift. This is the economy of the Church. This is God’s economy. It’s bottom line is not balance sheets and budgets. The mechanism of exchange is not quid pro quo, it is faith. Our faith is that God who has given us the capacity to live and breathe and experience our being will continue to gift us with all that we have, all that we are, and all that we need. So let's leap - in faith. 

If you found this post to be meaningful please share with friends by clicking on the icons below. Thank you. 

Gospel text for Sunday 19 October 2014

Matthew 22:15-22       The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Reflection       We live in a world with two economies, the world’s economy of exchange and God’s economy of gift.  In the economy of exchange we work for money that we trade for things we prefer not to work for; we exchange money for roads we do not build or maintain, money for food someone else grew, caught or butchered. The exchange economy is  real,  it is important, and it is not God’s economy. It is not the economy of the Church.

God’s economy, the Church’s economy, is a gift economy. In the gift economy we understand that all that we have is gift, which includes the skills, talents, intellect and physical capacity to trade our work for money in the exchange economy. All that we have and all that we are is gift, unearned, undeserved gift. As we wrap our minds and hearts around the biggness of our gifts we begin to see that in every area of our lives, including our money, we are stewards, stewards of the gifts given to us by God. 

This makes me think of Matthew’s parable of the vineyard owner who paid everyone a full day’s wage, even those workers who did not show up until 5pm. You may recall what happened. Those who had labored a full day grumbled when those who had labored not at all received the same full days wage. The grumblers were living according to the world’s economy of exchange and the vineyard owner was living in accord with God’s ecomomy of gift; he replied, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matt 20.15)

How are we to respond to such unspeakable generosity? By being envious that some receive more? Or, by being grateful for the life and the breathe and the being we are given in God’s economy? Do we live as if it is all about the economy of exchange and cling to everything we have? Or do we live by faith in God’s economy, freely giving back to God all that we are given? I believe the question Matthew’s gospel invites each of us to ask is this; “Lord, how are you inviting me to respond to your generosity in my life?” 

If you found this post to be meaningful, please share with friends by clicking on icons below. Thank you!