It’s stewardship time of the year again. It’s the time we talk about how we use those
things that God has entrusted to us; our time, our talents, and…wait for it…our
money. The pulpiteers get up and remind
us that everything we are and have comes from and belongs to God and so we
can’t talk about how it’s our time, our talent, and…wait for it…our money. It’s God’s time, God’s talent, and…wait for
it…God’s money and therefore, we are only stewards of God’s resources. Then, in the midst of that stewardship sermon
the preacher usually asks the congregation how they are doing with giving to
the church of that God entrusted time, talent, and…wait for it…money. Then, it ends with a challenge to do better.
Well, that’s
not the stewardship sermon you’re going to get from me today. I’m not going to prod us on how good of a
steward we each have been of God’s time, God’s talent, and…wait for it…God’s
money. No, rather I am going to inquire
into what we each have done with the new life God has given us in Jesus Christ
by the power of the Holy Spirit. You
see, before we can talk about what we do with the “stuff” God has entrusted to
us, we must first reflect on what we do with the life of Jesus Christ that he
has entrusted to us.
One of the most basic teachings of the New Testament on this subject has to do with Baptism: when
we were baptised we actually participated in Jesus' death and resurrection. This means that as followers of Jesus Christ
we are DOA for any understanding at all that the life we live is in any kind of
way life on “my terms”. We have to throw
Sinatra’s mantra of “I did it my way” into the grave where it belongs and live
in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ filled with and led by the Holy
Spirit. Jesus said as much when he said,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross
daily and follow me.” That means we must
daily die to self to live in Christ.
Paul also wrote in his letter to the Galatian
churches: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. The life I now live in the
body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The lives
we now live as Jesus’ disciples are not our own. We belong to Jesus who faithfully loves us
and out of that love gave his life for us that we may live a new life in him in
which we are becoming ever freer from the oppressions of sin as we follow him
living life on his terms. It is a great
comfort that God is for us and that nothing can separate us from the love of
God in Christ and that God will work all things to the good for us who love
him. Jesus is our loving Saviour, but he
is also our Lord and so we must ask ourselves “How am I doing with the Lordship
of Jesus Christ over my life?”
God has given us each who live under the Lordship of
Jesus Christ one small talent. A talent was
almost 59 kgs. or 130 lbs. of gold. Metaphorically,
this talent is the personal power of Jesus and his resurrection life. It is his very self, the Holy Spirit. And, in accordance with The Parable of the
Talents, are we going to invest this talent of Jesus’ living in us and let it
grow? Are we going to abide in Jesus
(live in him) and be fruitful (for he will transform us to be more and more as
he is and use us to draw others to himself)?
Or, are we simply going to bury it in the ground where we just keep him as
a matter of private religious belief as we continue to live our lives on our
own terms.
This way of looking at stewardship in terms of what
we do with Jesus’ life in us is to think of it in terms of discipleship. A good way to start doing this is to look at
what happened when he called his first disciples. I like how he called Peter, James, and John to
be his disciples in Luke’s Gospel.
It was the morning of a new day. They had been fishing all night and caught
nothing. They sat on the beach cleaning
their nets. Jesus comes up and a crowd
gathers. Jesus gets Peter to row him out
a little from shore and he teaches for a while. Then Jesus told Peter, James, and John to go fishing
again, but this time fish the deep water. Peter agreed but only because it was
Jesus asking. Peter had had Jesus as a
house guest a few nights prior. Jesus
healed his mother-in-law and many others as well as cast out demons from people
who screamed out that Jesus was the Son of God as they left.
They go fishing and they have the greatest catch, the
greatest business success they had ever had.
The nets were so full that they were near bursting. Peter fell at Jesus’
knees in worship and said “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Peter realized that Jesus was somehow God
with them there in the boat. He was
amazed and afraid. Jesus had done things
for others. Now he had done something
for Peter that would forever change the circumstances of a poor fisherman. Jesus looked at Peter, James, and John and
said, “Do not be afraid. From now on you
will fish for people.” When they got to
shore they left behind the enormous wealth of their catch. They left behind their boats and nets, the
means of their livelihood. They left
everything and went and followed Jesus.
Reflecting on this experience, it was on the basis of
their personal encounter of the living Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living
God, that they left everything they had to rely on in this life to follow
him. The impact Jesus has is powerful. Then, they spent the next three years
wandering about with Jesus getting to know him and working out what it meant for
him to be the Messiah and them to be his disciples. They experienced his arrest, death by
crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
Then, they spent the rest of their lives proclaiming Jesus and his
Kingdom and discipling others while awaiting his return.
The personal encounter with the living Lord Jesus
Christ leads to the devotion of one’s life to proclaiming Jesus and his Kingdom
and discipling others. To speak of
stewardship in terms of Jesus Lordship and discipleship then is to talk about
how we each have been brought under Jesus Lordship by personal encounter with
him and how our lives are being totally changed and redirected by him in the
power of the Holy Spirit with the result that we are reaching out and
discipling others.
So, how are we doing in terms of proclaiming Christ
and discipling others? There have been
quite a few studies done in the last twenty years on the giving patterns of
church members. One of the things these
studies brought to light is that most Christians do give to the church. In North America, though the percentage has
dropped dramatically, the church is still the biggest receiver of charitable
donations. But, they also found that
most Christians don’t give to the church as much as they do to things like
universities, disaster relief, disease research, and hospitals because they see
these causes as being able to make a bigger difference in the lives of people
than the church. They give to the church
because they see it as a requirement of faith rather than as the primary means
of bringing about real change and the healing of people in our society. The end result is that churches struggle
financially, have difficulty finding help, and dwindle off in membership. This
pattern of giving is evidence that we have buried the one small talent of
personal encounter with Jesus Christ our living Lord into the tomb of “my
private faith” and me living “my life on my own terms”.
So, how are we each doing with the one small talent
of Jesus' life that he has entrusted to us.
Are we living it under his Lordship? Are we devoting ourselves to letting him
change us? How are we doing with his
charge to us to devote ourselves to discipling others? Pray on these things? Amen.
