The
story of The Feeding of the Five Thousand is one that is very useful
to us when thinking about stewardship, that terrible topic that shows
up on occasion during the Fall of the year. I would define
stewardship not as what we do with the time, talent, and money that
our Lord has entrusted to us each and to this congregation. This
definition of stewardship leaves us asking “can I give a little of
my time, a little of my talent, and a little of my money?” I like
to think of stewardship in terms of somebody who has died and been
brought back or faced death and walked away from. A brush with the
finality of death changes people. You have to evaluate what worth
there was in your life and how will you live now for life is
precious, the people in our lives are precious. How are you going to
live this new life, this second chance?
Paul
writes at Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.” Talk of Stewardship must begin with the
basic premise that we each have died. We were crucified with Christ.
The life we live now is lived in the reality of it being Jesus living
through us. So then how do we live the this new life of Christ
Jesus living in and through us? Do we measure out the amount of time,
talent and money we can spare for him meaning the church? This new
life in Christ Jesus is lived in the power of the Holy Spirit to the
glory of the Father, a new life that by nature is oriented towards
fellowship with Jesus and indeed a type of fellowship that wears off
on us making us to be more and more like him in his way of life that
is defined by the cross. Stewardship therefore is Cruciformity or
conformity to the cross. We stewards of the new life Jesus Christ
has given us aren't simply good people. We are a cruciform people.
Well,
we learn to become good stewards by spending time with Jesus as he
goes about administering his kingdom through us. Therefore, this
story of a miraculous feeding is crucial in that it quite beautifully
portrays how things work in the kingdom of God. It starts out with a
great need that Jesus and his disciples are aware of but differ on
what to do about. To the disciples, the need is preposterously more
enormous than they could ever imagine doing anything about. There
was at least 15,000 hungry people there when you include at least one
woman and one child with each of the 5,000 men that were counted.
That's like a small city. How was the twelve of them going to feed
that? There solution was to send them away where they could fend for
themselves. To Jesus on the other hand, the solution is to actually
do something about the hungry people. So he instructs the disciples
to bring to him what little they had among themselves to eat and then
to make the crowd sit for a meal. Then Jesus takes these five loaves
and two fish, looks into heaven, blesses them, breaks them and gives
them to the disciples to distribute. Everybody eats. Everybody is
satisfied. There's enough leftovers to fill 12 baskets, baskets that
were nearly as tall as me.
And
so we have it. This is the way the Kingdom works here on earth. A
need arises for which we have compassion. We prayerfully await and
discern Jesus' will int the matter. And usually what he would have
us do is different than the way we'd do it. Remember that story of
the disciples up fishing all night for nought and then when Jesus saw
them coming to shore in the morning he told them to go back out and
try casting from the right side of the boat instead of the left.
They do and the nets almost break from the enormity of the catch.
Back to the way of the Kingdom. We take our little bits to Jesus, a
very humble if not humiliating gesture and we prepare for Jesus to
meet the need. He takes our little bit to himself, gives thanks for
it, and blesses. Then he breaks it and in its brokenness he gives it
back to us to be used for his ministry.
Well
that's being a bit generalistic I know so let me go back and be a bit
redundant. Jesus is the Great Steward of the Kingdom of God.
Therefore, stewardship is our participation in his ministration of
his Kingdom, his ministry. Myself being “minister”, I could go
about the business of what I think ministry is but if its not of him,
I'll likely only get in his way. Churches can go about doing what
they think churches ought to do, but if its not of him then we're
just wasting his resources and burning ourselves out.
So
with that thought in mind let's return to thinking about how Jesus
does his stewardship through us. Again, here’s how his ministry
works in and through us. First, Jesus brings us to the point of
realizing the overwhelming needs of others. The Holy Spirit works in
us to open our eyes to needs and to introduce us to Jesus Christ as
the only possible solution to those needs. The world needs Jesus
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom, and it is helpful if
we his church abdicate our kingdom and yield to his that he through
us may come to bear on those needs.
Therefore,
we bring of our little bits to Jesus, recognizing that only through
him and his ministry can we begin to be a part of his ministry to the
needs of the world. This is repentance. Repentance involves a
humble admission that our lives are truly out of our control and the
solution can only be found in what Jesus is doing in our lives and
following his leadings. Repentance also involves committing what we
had reserved for the satisfaction of our own hungers to Jesus for him
to use in his ministry. Jesus, his ministry, and the community of
faith are not simply components which we must find the time to
prioritize into our lives. He is our life. We are dead without him.
So when we bring our little bits to Jesus we are not to come with
simply a tithe or a part. Sacrificial giving of self is the New
Testament teaching on giving ourselves and indeed our money.
Having
brought our bits to Jesus he takes takes us to himself as he is in
heaven. Luke tells us that when Jesus took the loaves and fish he
looked into heaven and blessed them. Then he looked into heaven, now
he is there. We like to think of heaven as somewhere far and away or
above. It might help us to think of heaven as being like another
dimension of our present reality that surrounds us, only we just
can’t see it apart from it being unveiled. The big story of the
Bible is as we pray, God's will be done here on earth as it is in
heaven. Heaven is coming to earth. At the end of the Book of
Revelation the New Jerusalem comes from heaven to Earth. When we are
raised from the dead it will be to live bodily on a new earth where
things are on earth as they are in heaven because heaven is finally
unveiled and the earth is full of the knowing of the LORD as the
waters cover the seas (Is. 11:9) Therefore, now here on earth where
Jesus Christ and his ministry in the Spirit is, there heaven is
shinning through. His blessing (table grace) is the pouring of the
Holy Spirit from heaven upon us here on earth gifting us with gifts
for ministry for us to use to build one another up in love so that we
resemble him and the unity of fellowship of the loving communion of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
After
he blesses us with his presence he breaks us. What this means is
that if we are serious about Jesus Christ and being his disciples, we
will suffer for him. The Christian faith is not a world escaping
faith. It is world-engaging. It is self-engaging. As followers of
Jesus the crucified one we won’t have fulfillment or success by the
world’s standards. Engaging this world in his name, in the power
of his love will cause us to suffer for him, the crucified one. Yet,
he is also the resurrected one so there are moments when we are hit
with the awe of God’s presence in our lives that truly makes us
praise him in all humility. Our fulfillment will come with the day
he brings his kingdom in its entirety. Until then, we suffer by
honestly engaging ourselves and this world and our sin. Without a
sense of our brokenness, our need, and the needs of our world we will
not truly be engaged in Jesus’ ministry.
Finally,
through his blessing and our brokenness Christ ministers through us
to his body and to the world manifesting his glorious reality in
truly wonder-filled ways. He moves us from brokenness to building.
In fact, the Greek word we translate as “steward” is rooted in
the word for a “building” and to “build.” We are builders
through whom Jesus is fashioning the basic infra-structure of his
coming kingdom. That infra-structure is a relational network of
people who love one another as he has loved us giving his life for
us. Authentic loving community in the image of the Trinity is what
we are stewards over in his name. May he through us build it. Amen.
