Sharing what is God's

It was not my intention to preach a stewarship sermon per se as we begin our pledge campaign, but then the Lectionary cycle gave us this parable of the talents along with the dire sounding words of Zephaniah. I figured I was supposed to dive in.

Stewardship begins in the Book of Genesis. God appoints the humans, endowed with the divine image, as the caretakers of everything else that God has made. One way to think of that is that we are house sitting for God – simply trying to maintain what God created. But today’s parable gives a more complicated view of stewardship. Here we have God putting creation in our hands and then saying “Now let me see what you’re going to do with it.” Without people on the earth, the planet would have been able to exist – all natural processes from geological shifts to the operation of the food chain can operate well without us. All of the changes that we have set in motion, from the development of agriculture, to communities that becames cities, to industry, to science and culture have all been expressions of how we have used what God gave us. The question always remains, is God pleased with how we are doing our job?

We are all given a particular set of gifts that can be easily categorized into time, talent and treasure. The parable today nicely confuses the kinds of gifts we are given – we think of talent as an innate skill that can be developed through training and practice. God would not have been served if Michael Jordan had never played basketball or if Tiger Woods had never swung a club. To see those perfect examples of physical talent do what they do so well is to watch poetry. Surpressing the talents we are given cannot please God. Andre Agassi is a good model of true stewardship of his physical talents. Not only has he had an enduring and highly entertaining tennis career but he has taken his considerable wealth and done great good with it. He created and supports a school in Las Vegas that in turn develops the talents of children from families and neighborhoods without means. He is often present to complete his stewardship through the gift of time. Andre answers well God’s question, what are you going to do with what I gave you?

But today’s parable has money expressed as a talent. It’s a good way to think of it because it brings money back into the umbrella of things given by God. Yes, I know, you go to work every day to earn it but it’s not that simple. Every time money comes into your hands, God is saying “Now let me see what you’re going to do with it.”

The Bible has a lot to say about money and how God would have it used. Money is simply a medium of exchange – a truly human invention. The only time I have ever witnessed an animal pay for something was my German Shepherd Alana. I had unwrapped piece of candy and the cellophane wrapper was really crinkly. The dog was attracted by the noise and probably the sweet scent that clung to it. She kept nosing at my hand to get and when she wasn’t getting anywhere she went and got her rawhide bone and put it in my lap. I was amazed and finally let her have the wrapper. In that moment she also created the idea of customer service because when she discovered that there wasn’t really anything interesting in the wrapper, she took her bone back. My dogs are always deep thinkers!

More usually, dogs have little concept of or attachment to wealth, unlike us. The stories beginning in Genesis show wealth as a sign of God’s favor. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all very wealthy men. David and Solomon amass great wealth but God’s hand is recognized in the good favor. The Book of Leviticus is clear that those with wealth, particularly leaders, are responsible for fair and proper distribution of it. God is saying, I’ve given it to you, what are you going to do with it?

The counterpoint to wealth as a mark of God’s favor is the story of Job. Job, the good and righteous man is stripped of his wealth, health and family – every kind of blessing one can have. Ultimately, it was Job’s very favor with God that caused his trouble. As usual, just when you want scripture to be clear, it is more nuanced and we cannot automatically take wealth as an indicator of God’s favor.

Jesus never criticizes wealth, money is morally neutral to him. But he is clear that he is about the business of bringing good news to the poor – it’s one of the first thing he says. Jesus’ negative critique of prosperity is saved for the unjust use of it. Wealth is to be used to be a blessing to the poor and to honor God. The early church, that model of socialism in the Book of Acts, was all about giving and sharing.

Good stewardship is about balance. The balance of time, talent and treasure as a whole theology. Sometime we act as if we would like to yank treasure out of that and give it a separate category with a “hands off!” label on it. When I went to the conference on Church planting a couple of weeks ago, I learned a lot from a pastor who had created a church reaching out to people who don’t go to church. He spent lots of time listening to why people hadn’t or don’t go to church. One frequent complaint that people made was that churches seem to always be about money – people are constantly asked to dip into their pockets. One of the things that this thriving church never does it pass the plate during worship. Instead they spend some time each Sunday talking about they give away. You should have seen the dropped Episcopalian jaws around the room. At this church, people’s giving to the work and budget never makes a visitor feel as if it’s all about how much can be squeezed out of people. Of course, there is a place for freely given offerings at the back of the church into which pledge envelopes and anything else someone wished to share is put. I think that’s a very good idea – let’s begin to talk about more about what we give away.

Max is my stewardship model – he is the most social animal I’ve ever met. There are tons of dogs around we live but Max seems to be the only one that all the kids know. They will break away from what they are doing when they see him. They are excited to come and play with him because he is always excited to see them. I think of him as a greeting and love dispenser. We cannot walk to the beach without Max flinging himself at everyone we encounter. Someone asked me if it hurt my feeling that Max gives so much attention to others. I responded, “Good heavens, No!” People’s reaction to Max is so rewarding. Anytime something is that excited to see you, it is a day brightener. My being Max’s mom means that I get to give people the chance to be Maxed – it’s fun. Max gets up every morning, ready to share exuberantly all that he has – which is himself.

God is interested in what you do with all that you are given. It boggles the mind to imagine a world in which we were all like Max, waking up each morning and knowing that the more we have, the more we get to share and give away.