A Key Ingredient in Spiritual Life:

Stewardship: Who’s Minding the Shop?  (A little story of my own)
      Suppose, for just a moment, you have a friend who is an anthropologist. This friend travels for long periods of time to distant lands to study the indigenous peoples there. Your friend is planning a new trip and she has invited you to stay at her house for a year. You are given a key and arrive one day soon after she has left. Upon entry you see a beautiful home filled with personal treasures. Artifacts from trips far away, pictures of friends, family, and famous people encountered in the making of a successful career. There is a lovely garden where you can gaze at the beauty of God’s creation. You are filled with awe that you have been trusted with so marvelous a home, not just because it is large and will easily meet your every whim and creature comfort, but more so because this gift came so unexpectedly and graciously. On the top of the kitchen table is a small note your friend left for you. It says simply, "Enjoy!"


     Stewardship is, in fact, but one mile marker on the life-long journey toward spiritual growth and maturity. Many people do not realize this. Consider what this means in terms of what we can comprehend and incorporate into our life habits and attitudes. My four-year-old, for instance, does not understand that if he leaves his bicycle out on the front lawn overnight, there is a good chance it will not be there in the morning. In this way, he is naive and immature. He is not streetwise, if you will. I need to be aware of his limitations. I would be foolish to trust him at this stage in his life with something I treasure which might be precious and fragile. This recognition shapes what I ask of him and what I can expect of him.
    Most of us have learned from a very early age how to take care of what we truly treasure, people and relationships as well as special things. Friends often recount how our parents taught us to leave things the way we found them - especially if we wanted to be trusted in the future or invited back. My parents augmented this sentiment and advised, "if you really want to be welcome again, leave things better than the way you found them." I embrace this bit of wisdom and the attitude it engenders as the key to real stewardship.
    A Steward is someone who takes care of, or manages, something for someone else. Consequently, Stewardship includes the response of someone who has received great and precious gifts through no merit of his or her own. Stewardship, finally, becomes an attitude about what we have been given. This final perspective requires a spiritual maturity which, unfortunately, prevents many from experiencing or comprehending it.
    Recall the story (Luke 19:12-27) of the servant who took the mina (money) and hid it away in a piece of cloth. His fellow servants invested theirs and earned additional funds because of their shrewdness. The master was pleased with those who earned more but angry with the unproductive servant who didn’t even put the money "on deposit" to earn interest. Jesus summarizes: "I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away". This story about stewardship raises the fundamental question, "What have we accomplished with what we have been given?"
    As church going Christians we are often misled when clergy or administrators misuse the word "Stewardship" as in, "We are going to do a stewardship campaign next month." This, of course, means we are going to come and request a pledge from you. A real ‘Stewardship Campaign’ should send trained people to talk to you about your soul’s health, your prayer life, and your spiritual journey. To be sure, tithing to charities is one individual sign of a healthy and mature soul, but the two should never be confused.　
    We need to dispatch two frequently held misconceptions. First, stewardship can never be a program or a project; it is a concept and an attitude central to Christian life. Second, giving money - tithing - is not the goal of stewardship; it is merely one solitary expression of a healthy soul. Tithing is a sign that we are learning to be a good steward of God’s abundant gifts.

    For Christians, stewardship is the attitude of a believer directly resulting from the experience of grace and the promise of salvation. This experience leads to a cascade of continuing and irreversible moments of praise and thanksgiving as we become aware we are coauthors of the future of creation and curators of God’s temporal and spiritual mysteries, responsible for their continuing care and use. Sharing all we have is a direct result of a life of thanksgiving for what we have been given.
    
    For the Christian who has had a conversion experience and been ‘born again’, whether dramatic like St. Paul’s or quiet and subtle like that of many of us, stewardship is a way of understanding who we are and what our responsibilities and priorities are. We have earned none of God’s gifts. We own nothing, yet we have received and continue to receive in great abundance. Giving some of what we have to others and the conscientious use of God’s gifts is no challenge, but becomes as natural as breathing and, in many ways, just as necessary!
    Seen in this light, tithing is not the goal of stewardship. Tithing is a symptom of spiritual growth. As we read in Deuteronomy (26:1-15), we are obligated to harvest the first fruits and to make these our thanksgiving to God. Such giving is difficult, or impossible, if we have the attitude that we have earned everything by the sweat of our brow. But for the pilgrim soul filled with praise and thanksgiving, sharing is a spontaneous inclination, a beginning step on a long journey, striving for the benefits of spiritual maturity: self-sacrifice, reconciliation, and peace.
    It is important to reiterate that stewardship can never be made into a "drive". In a church full of growing Christians, giving for the community would never be a question of "should I?" or "can I." It would be prayed this way: "God, tell me where I can share your abundance for it to do the most good and to further the coming of your kingdom"?
    The effort to pay church bills must be called what it is: fund raising, a worthy effort in it’s own right. It is essential to be clear and intentional about why people ought to give their first fruits, both money and talent, to the church. Once again, for the pilgrim soul, the logic is conclusive, we work to preach the Gospel. If there be no gospel, then no repentance; no repentance, no conversion; no conversion, no thanksgiving; no thanksgiving, no servants; no servants, no Church.


     You just got a letter. Your anthropologist friend will be returning next week. You have enjoyed the abundance of her generosity, the beauty of her creation, the joy of being a beneficiary. What kind of guest have you been? What has your attitude been and how has it effected your daily habits and informed your sense of belonging? What will your friend encounter when she returns? Have we not all received this very same gift already? If you are one among us who believes God has given us a beautiful and fragile mansion yet will one day call on us to account for how we have taken care of it - you are not alone.
One question remains: "Have you done your share to leave it better than you found it?"