Text: Romans 12:1–8; 1 Peter 4:8–11; John 17:14–24
Facebook live: God’s Steward’s: Singular yet Plural!
“each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Pet 4:10
Today as we hear God’s Word regarding the fourth stewardship principle in our series, we want to keep in our hearts and minds the three principles we’ve already covered.
The first is “God’s stewards are God’s stewards,”
The second is “God’s stewards are managers, not owners,”
The third, is “God’s stewards are saints and sinners.
And that brings us to our fourth stewardship principle:
God’s Stewards Are Uniquely Singular, yet Profoundly Plural
Facebook live: God’s Steward’s: Singular yet Plural!
“each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Pet 4:10
Today as we hear God’s Word regarding the fourth stewardship principle in our series, we want to keep in our hearts and minds the three principles we’ve already covered.
The first is “God’s stewards are God’s stewards,”
The second is “God’s stewards are managers, not owners,”
The third, is “God’s stewards are saints and sinners.
And that brings us to our fourth stewardship principle:
God’s Stewards Are Uniquely Singular, yet Profoundly Plural
“God’s stewards recognize that their lives are not solo performances but are personal responses to God, lived out within the community of faith to benefit the whole world.”
We’ve all heard the Church called a family. And we’re all aware that the Bible speaks of us as God’s children, and therefore as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Even though the family analogy is a good and helpful one, God also describes our unique relationship in terms of each of us being a member of one Body (the Body of Christ).
Can you imagine if members of, say, Pistons, the Tigers, the Lions, or the Red Wings didn’t work purposefully, using their individual, unique skills and talents for common goals … well the Lions, Wings and Tigers seem to get it but not so much the Pistons!
We thank the Lions for this great season and their work and look forward to this game today!
But the body of Christ needs is a bit different.
It’s the creation of God. It’s the Holy Christian Church—the communion of saints as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed. And according to Scripture, the Church, which is the sum of all believers, is the Body of Christ, and the Lord Jesus is its Head.
As humans are composed of body and soul together, our bodies are made up of different members, and each has special characteristics, different looks, and unique functions that are all cohesively part of one body. Each of our body parts is valuable.
So, it is with us as individual members of the Body of Christ.
By the power of his Spirit, through his Gospel Word and Baptism, God creates the members of his Body—the Church—and he gifts each of those members with special talents and privileges to use with the other members. That’s so that that the whole Body may function as God has designed it to do, so the Body will be healthy and able to carry out its individual and collective purposes.
Last Sunday when we explored the third stewardship principle, God’s stewards are saints and sinners, and learned that our flesh is still completely infected by sin, that its nature is self-serving, and because of this we naturally wish to operate more autonomously. That’s why many people think that stewardship is really a personal matter between themselves and the Lord that concerns no one else. However, that understanding is not from God.
In our first reading this morning, the apostle Paul writes, “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom 12:5).
There is no doubt that we are individuals, each gifted in special and unique ways, and that stewardship a very personal response to God’s grace and love. Yet at the same time, stewardship serves the community—the common unity—the one Body, of which we are members.
In Romans 14, Paul explains,
“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” Rom 14:7–8
And in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul teaches further with a question:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” 1 Cor 6:19–20
Your own body is one unit even though it’s made up of many parts.
That’s the way it is with Christ’s Body, the Church. Paul reminds us that we were all baptized by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) into one body—whether Jew or Gentile, whether we’re black, white, Latino, or Asian,
“each has received a gift, to use and to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Pet 4:10
God has gifted each of you individually.
Not so that we can keep them to ourselves, and use them exclusively for our own benefit. Rather, we have those gifts so they would be responsibly used to God’s glory. God has gifted you with time, talents, and treasure so you may serve yourself, your family, your community and the needs of our common society.
But he’s also gifted you so you may serve the Body of Christ Jesus.
And the Body of which he made you a member [the church] is eternal, so that it will go on living, functioning, and serving after all the other things you serve with your time, talents, and treasure have passed away.
In 2 Corinthians 8, St. Paul teaches that part of the idea of giving and serving the Body of Christ is so everyone will get along well.
At some time, you may be the one who is physically or spiritually in need, and those who are healthy or who have more of life’s resources at the time should provide for your needs.
Then, when you’re healthy or your resources are more, you can be of help to someone else in the Body of Christ.
All members and their contributions of time, talents, and treasure are important, especially the things that aren’t so visible or those that appear less important. And all functions of the body are important, whether Sunday School, VBS, Bible studies, the youth, Parish and Altar Guild, Trustees, or volunteer service of any kind as a disciple and follower of Jesus.
Your very presence in church and in Bible study is of spiritual help and encouragement to others; just being there is important.
We don’t do what we do as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the Body of Christ, to earn God’s favor or to achieve his being pleased with us, do we?
No. Because God is already perfectly pleased with us on account of Christ Jesus’ obedient life, sacrificial death to sin, and new life, which are ours through faith.
We love because he first loved us.
Because his love is in us.
In addition to serving this Body in ways like those I’ve just mentioned, the Body of Christ also turns its attention to the lost and dying of this world so they, too, may know the Good News of God’s grace in Christ Jesus and be saved.
The Body of Christ consists of eyes, ears, and all its members … and you are each one of those members.
“God’s stewards are uniquely singular, yet profoundly plural.” Again, that means that “God’s stewards recognize that their lives are not solo performances but are personal responses to God, lived out within the community of faith to benefit the whole world.”
And just like all the stewardship principles we’ve learned so far are, this one is quite profound when you consider it carefully. We are each fearfully and wonderfully made by God as unique and valuable people individually, but we have also been given a new life in Christ that isn’t a solo performance.
Rather, it’s part of an ever-living and everlasting Body—a Body whose members will benefit from God’s love and grace together, forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Sermon Rev. Rexford E. Umbenhaur III, pastor, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Los Angeles, California Modified
Even though the family analogy is a good and helpful one, God also describes our unique relationship in terms of each of us being a member of one Body (the Body of Christ).
Can you imagine if members of, say, Pistons, the Tigers, the Lions, or the Red Wings didn’t work purposefully, using their individual, unique skills and talents for common goals … well the Lions, Wings and Tigers seem to get it but not so much the Pistons!
We thank the Lions for this great season and their work and look forward to this game today!
But the body of Christ needs is a bit different.
It’s the creation of God. It’s the Holy Christian Church—the communion of saints as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed. And according to Scripture, the Church, which is the sum of all believers, is the Body of Christ, and the Lord Jesus is its Head.
As humans are composed of body and soul together, our bodies are made up of different members, and each has special characteristics, different looks, and unique functions that are all cohesively part of one body. Each of our body parts is valuable.
So, it is with us as individual members of the Body of Christ.
By the power of his Spirit, through his Gospel Word and Baptism, God creates the members of his Body—the Church—and he gifts each of those members with special talents and privileges to use with the other members. That’s so that that the whole Body may function as God has designed it to do, so the Body will be healthy and able to carry out its individual and collective purposes.
Last Sunday when we explored the third stewardship principle, God’s stewards are saints and sinners, and learned that our flesh is still completely infected by sin, that its nature is self-serving, and because of this we naturally wish to operate more autonomously. That’s why many people think that stewardship is really a personal matter between themselves and the Lord that concerns no one else. However, that understanding is not from God.
In our first reading this morning, the apostle Paul writes, “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Rom 12:5).
There is no doubt that we are individuals, each gifted in special and unique ways, and that stewardship a very personal response to God’s grace and love. Yet at the same time, stewardship serves the community—the common unity—the one Body, of which we are members.
In Romans 14, Paul explains,
“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” Rom 14:7–8
And in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul teaches further with a question:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” 1 Cor 6:19–20
Your own body is one unit even though it’s made up of many parts.
That’s the way it is with Christ’s Body, the Church. Paul reminds us that we were all baptized by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit) into one body—whether Jew or Gentile, whether we’re black, white, Latino, or Asian,
“each has received a gift, to use and to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” 1 Pet 4:10
God has gifted each of you individually.
Not so that we can keep them to ourselves, and use them exclusively for our own benefit. Rather, we have those gifts so they would be responsibly used to God’s glory. God has gifted you with time, talents, and treasure so you may serve yourself, your family, your community and the needs of our common society.
But he’s also gifted you so you may serve the Body of Christ Jesus.
And the Body of which he made you a member [the church] is eternal, so that it will go on living, functioning, and serving after all the other things you serve with your time, talents, and treasure have passed away.
In 2 Corinthians 8, St. Paul teaches that part of the idea of giving and serving the Body of Christ is so everyone will get along well.
At some time, you may be the one who is physically or spiritually in need, and those who are healthy or who have more of life’s resources at the time should provide for your needs.
Then, when you’re healthy or your resources are more, you can be of help to someone else in the Body of Christ.
All members and their contributions of time, talents, and treasure are important, especially the things that aren’t so visible or those that appear less important. And all functions of the body are important, whether Sunday School, VBS, Bible studies, the youth, Parish and Altar Guild, Trustees, or volunteer service of any kind as a disciple and follower of Jesus.
Your very presence in church and in Bible study is of spiritual help and encouragement to others; just being there is important.
We don’t do what we do as Christians, as brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the Body of Christ, to earn God’s favor or to achieve his being pleased with us, do we?
No. Because God is already perfectly pleased with us on account of Christ Jesus’ obedient life, sacrificial death to sin, and new life, which are ours through faith.
We love because he first loved us.
Because his love is in us.
In addition to serving this Body in ways like those I’ve just mentioned, the Body of Christ also turns its attention to the lost and dying of this world so they, too, may know the Good News of God’s grace in Christ Jesus and be saved.
The Body of Christ consists of eyes, ears, and all its members … and you are each one of those members.
“God’s stewards are uniquely singular, yet profoundly plural.” Again, that means that “God’s stewards recognize that their lives are not solo performances but are personal responses to God, lived out within the community of faith to benefit the whole world.”
And just like all the stewardship principles we’ve learned so far are, this one is quite profound when you consider it carefully. We are each fearfully and wonderfully made by God as unique and valuable people individually, but we have also been given a new life in Christ that isn’t a solo performance.
Rather, it’s part of an ever-living and everlasting Body—a Body whose members will benefit from God’s love and grace together, forever.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Sermon Rev. Rexford E. Umbenhaur III, pastor, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Los Angeles, California Modified
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