St. Matthias Anglican Church

Case For Stewardship

Details

Written by Deirdre Piper

Simply put, the case for Christian stewardship may be grounded in the words of the opening of the Gospel according to John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life ... (verses 1-4a)

Thus, everything that we are and everything that we have is of God and belongs to God. We neither own ourselves nor the things that we have. The only legitimate way of being is one of joy and gratitude for the fact that we live; furthermore, for the fact that we are able to fulfill that life through all those things entrusted to us that suffice for our physical, our emotional, our intellectual and our spiritual support and sustenance: in short, for all that makes us uniquely human. All this is given to us in trust.

So Christian stewardship is a biblical idea. To be a steward is to take responsibility for what we have been given, and to order and arrange what we have for the benefit of others according to the wishes of God. The parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-29) is the classic teaching in this matter. A man, about to embark on a journey, entrusts his property to his three slaves in different amounts of talent: 5, 2 and 1 to each respectively. Upon the man’s return he summons the slaves to give an accounting. The two who increased their share through wise use and investment were rewarded, but the slave having but one talent and who simply hid his share for safe keeping was accused of wickedness and laziness, and was punished. Two important points arise here:

1. There is nothing to suggest that there exists any hierarchy among the slaves; nevertheless, not all are entrusted with the same amount of talents, but each is given the same responsibility to use and improve their share of their master’s wealth.
2. Slaves own nothing themselves, and indeed, are themselves owned by the master. All that the slaves do to increase their share is done for the benefit of their master who retains sole ownership. The slave who did nothing but hoard his share for safe keeping (was he afraid to fail, rather than just being lazy?) was rejected.

The message that comes out of this passage of scripture is that as a creature of God our lives are entirely in God’s hands. I - all of me - belong to God. Nothing that I have or do is actually mine. I cannot negotiate over this. But what I do have is entrusted to me for God’s benefit and purposes. It doesn’t matter if I have more or less than others; what is preventing me from using what has been entrusted to me?

The parable, therefore, encourages a new attitude. It leads to an understanding that everything belongs to God. Christian stewardship starts at this point. The concept of Christian stewardship derives theologically from this understanding: the care and nurturing of gifts and resources that are to be returned to God for God’s work.

It follows that stewardship is not something to be done on an occasional basis in response to a special appeal; this is not about fund-raising. Stewardship is intended to be an ongoing, regular daily process that grows as we grow in faith. It is an ongoing act that follows from the realization that all that we have - time, talent and treasure - is really God’s to begin with, and it expresses the faith that we are ourselves involved in the miracle of God’s continuing creative activity.

Each of us, and we as a parish community, therefore have to answer the following questions:

• what has God entrusted to me?
• what has God entrusted to this parish?
• how are these gifts being used to enable God’s work in the parish, in the local community, and in the wider world?

A Community of Stewardship

While stewardship starts with an individual’s response to the Gospel message, the ongoing nurturing of individual stewardship requires a community culture of stewardship. The parish, as our community of faith, is called to take on this responsibility. The processes whereby the developing of a community of stewardship may take place are, therefore, important; and many, if not most, of these processes will need to be permanent and ongoing in the life of this community. To do so, the following processes need to be activated:

• The developing of a theological understanding of stewardship. We as individuals, as well as the community as a whole, need to develop the biblical rationale for stewardship as a primary focus of Christian education so that it becomes the public face of our identity. Indeed, dare it be suggested that regular group bible study be introduced as a regular component of parish life?
• Visioning. An intended regular re-appraisal of our Vision Statement* must not be merely a repeated exercise in philosophical idealism, but should become a real examination of what we actually aspire to do and provide a motivation for action.
• Communication. The building of a united community for stewardship requires that all parishioners take ownership of the parish and take responsibility for what the parish means within the larger communities of our time. This means that we all need to talk to each other, to be informed as to what people are doing (and why), to share information about the parish at all levels of parish life. To this end, the coffee hour, parish dinners and other events, a narrative budget system, witness talks, study groups of various sorts, information sessions - these are all possible components of the process of building and maintaining the unity and community of the parish family.

What is most important is that we celebrate and use all that we have, all that God has entrusted to us. We must move from an attitude immersed in a notion of scarcity to one that recognizes and revels in the abundance of what God has entrusted to us. We are a rich parish in so many and diverse ways; God has been generous to us; we need to give back generously in response so that we can continue to be the agents of God’s creative love for which we were intended.

Let’s put Paul’s rallying cry to the test:

Now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. (Ephesians 3:20-21; italics mine)

- endorsed enthusiastically by the Stewardship Committee

* Vision Statement: St. Matthias Church seeks to provide a welcoming home that encourages spiritual growth and that inspires us to use our gifts to serve Christ in the wider communities of God’s world.