Dear Friends,
At the elder’s meetings this
year, we have been studying a different topic each month. This past month, our topic was stewardship,
and I thought I would share with you some of our discussion.
When we hear the word
“stewardship,” we often get uncomfortable quickly. The word makes us reach for our wallets, and
make sure they are safely secured in our pockets. Yet, in reality, stewardship is about much
more than just money and finances. It is also about time and talents.
Stewardship basically asks the
question, “What do we do with the many gifts that God gives us to provide for
us in this world?” As we confess in the
Small Catechism, “God has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my
members, my reason and all my senses… clothing and shoes, food and drink, house
and home, land, animals and all I have.
He richly and daily provides me with everything I need to support this
body and life.”
So the money in our bank account
comes from God, as does the roof over our head and the food that we eat. Taking it even a step farther, if we have a talent
or ability to do something such as singing or accounting – even changing
diapers – that gift comes from God also.
In fact, everything we have, even the number of days in our lives, comes
from God as a glorious and wonderful free gift without any worthiness or merit
in us at all.
The question of stewardship then
comes into focus. It is not what we are
paying God. It is not what we “owe” Him. Stewardship isn’t what God requires you to pay Him. Instead, stewardship describes how we use
what He has already freely given us.
Most of what He gives us, we use
for ourselves. We use our time to paint
the house or plant a garden (or in a few short weeks, to shovel snow). We use our gifts to manage our own affairs,
and most of our money takes care of our bills and plans for our
retirements.
But we are also to serve others
besides ourselves. After all, that’s
what Christ has done for us! This
service is not to gain anything for ourselves, or to “buy” heaven from
God. We cannot by our own reason or
strength do anything at all to please God.
Rather we serve others because we have been so well served first by Christ. Christ gave up all He had, His clothing (John
19:4), His home (Matthew 8:20), His family (Matthew 12:46-49) and even His own
life (John 19:30) to purchase and win heaven for us.
We, following in Christ’s
footsteps, give up a portion of what we have to serve our neighbors in the same
way that Christ gave up all He had to serve us.
That is stewardship.
So we take some of our time and
teach in Sunday school each week and take time to teach our family the faith
each day. We take some of our time to
fix or clean items at the church. We
take some of our financial blessings and share them with those around us in
need – including in the church.
When we are giving of any of
these things to the church, we are using the gifts God has given us to promote
the preaching of Christ crucified in our community, nation, and even around the
world. That is the best way we can help
anyone – to share the faith with them so that they too will inherit heaven as
we have.
A helpful practice in stewardship
is to sit down at the beginning of each year and budget what things you would
like to give to, and how much. If you
would like to donate time serving, figure out when you can do so, and call up
soup kitchens or places like the Dakota Boys Ranch. If you’d like to volunteer to lead a parish
choir (something we’d like to have happen this next year), contact one of our
organists to volunteer. If you’d be
interested in helping with VBS next summer, contact Kari. If you’d like to give financially to a
project or to our churches, examine how much you’d like to give and set that
amount aside each month. All of these
things are stewardship.
Don’t think I am only trying to
ask for money at our own congregations.
If you’d like, I have a list of other projects outside our church that
also need financial help. Attached to end
of this article is a link to the State of the District report which also lists
some places you could be a good steward for a variety of things.
I want to emphasize again that
giving of time, talents, or finances will not do anything to earn from
God. It is something done in joyful
response to the gifts already given to us by God. Jesus has already paid everything we need to
make God happy. Stewardship is giving in
response to that payment.
Finally, stewardship is between
you and God. It is how God uses us to
serve our neighbor, even in uncertain ways. He may use your gift to help that person you
don’t like, or work a miracle through your gift. He may also use your gift to do something
boring like pay a gas bill.
Don’t feel locked into giving
only to us at church; give wherever you’d like as long as it serves your
neighbor in a godly fashion. If you feel
guilted into giving, I’d prefer that you didn’t give at all until you talked to
me about what’s going on. God’s paid the
price, and we get to respond with the gifts he’s given to us in our life in
love toward our neighbors.
In Christ,
Pastor
