Fellow Believers,
October marks a change of many seasons. College football moves to more serious
matchups. We’ll soon be noticing the
change in leaves. The temperatures begin
sliding into more comfortable measures.
The daylight begins growing more noticeably shorter. And creation seems to heave a last,
exhaustive sigh, with harvest being on the horizon. There’s not a new church season, but if there
were one, it might be stewardship.
It's true …this month our congregation will
honor time-honored traditions. You’ll
soon be hearing from the Budget and Finance Committee, about the annual
stewardship dinner, and the publishing of the challenge budget, and invitations
with pledge cards. But stewardship isn’t
about money, or meeting the budget, or about fundraising. “Stewardship,” as my friend Robert Hay says, “is
the church’s theological antidote to the chief idols of our age; consumerism,
materialism, and acquisition.”
We’re used to hearing about flu shots and
vaccines this time of year, but not “theological antidotes”! We’re used to feeling as if there’s little we
can do to fight back against a virus, or a pandemic, or an epidemic of the
stomach bug. So, what can a “theological
antidote” do?
We may not be able to do much to fight
inflation or the price of gas, but Jesus offers us lots of ways to think about
sustaining another way of living aside from consumerism, materialism, and
acquiring—the old rule that says, “the one who dies with the most …wins.” Stewardship is about the joyous
discipline of thanking God with the way we live our lives and spend and share
our money. God invites us into a
different rhythm of life, a graciousness that can redefine our worldly heartache
and lead us toward the fulfillment of God’s desires.
If you feel caught on the constant
merry-go-round of life’s necessities …God offers us a different way. It doesn’t require moving to another place or
starting our lives over …it means tuning them toward the rhythm of creation,
calling us out of chaos and darkness, and living in the light of Christ’s
love. God invites us to invest our whole
selves—as God has invested God’s self—in different patterns of living. Part of this is found in the ways we live,
and the ways we spend and share our money and other resources.
The long-established pattern for this is in the
rhythm of creation and sabbath rest. God
rested. Creation rests. We rest.
Creation is renewed; we are renewed; God is all renewing. God calls creation OUT of the chaos—and I
believe God does this for us, calling us out of a chaotic life to take up a
meaning-filled life, like Christ Jesus.
A life defined by giving and receiving and giving. A life defined by helping others and
receiving help; of supporting and being supported. An abundant life, with enough and for
all.
We are not alone, but we belong to the one who
gives creation life and breath. And even
when life seems oppressive and overwhelming, with things to fear and be fearful
of, with worry and stress to run us over—we are invited, no …CALLED OUT by God
to live in new ways. We live out that
call as stewards, managing a menagerie of gifts to point ourselves and our
lives toward the one who gives us life and breath. …The joyous discipline of thanking God with
the way we live our lives.
