Text: Isaiah 43:1–3a; 2 Corinthians 5:14–21; Luke 19:1–10
Facebook live: Stewardship 1
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” 2 Cor. 5:17
This morning is the beginning of a series of Sundays that will focus on the important topic of Christian stewardship. It’s a subject that is little understood, misunderstood, or not understood by many, and yet stewardship is part of the very fabric of our lives as people, especially as people of God, as people who’ve been reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit though Water and the Word (our Baptism) and given a new life to live, a new life that’s lived with purpose, to the glory of God.
The support, care, and management of God’s ministry here in this place, as well as the care and management of all the other aspects of our lives, is the outward expression of our being children of God.
Our church body after much study and discussion defines Christian stewardship as “the free and joyous activity of the child of God and God’s family, the church, in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes.”
Today we speak about:
1. God’s Stewards: Are God’s Stewards.
This sounds a bit repetitive. But this foundational principle makes an important point. And that is: that we are the Lord’s, since he is the Creator of all things.
We are his creation, originally formed out of the very substance of this earth, knit together by him in our mother’s womb, as Psalm 139 informs us.
And not only that, but as believers, as baptized people, we are a new creation, people personally redeemed by God, people given a new life to live.
And so, stewardship is, as St. Francis of Assisi said long ago:
“Everything I do after I say, I believe.”
Because of our inherited sinful nature, most often the characteristic we naturally display is self-centeredness.
Martin Luther called it “the heart turned in on itself.”
St. Augustine, an Early Church Father, called sin being curved in on oneself, which is really quite descriptive because that is the most prevalent characteristic of sin. [The looking inward]
All people, including you and me, naturally think of our bodies, our lives, this world, our personal resources, and the resources of this world in relation to us at the center. Even what we do or don’t do for others is covered or affected by sin.
We’re like a husband working in his garage, where his hands are soiled with dirt and grease from his project, who’s told by his wife that she’s going out shopping for a while. He gets the idea to do something nice for her while she’s away. So, he goes inside the house and straightens up the lamp shades, the pillows on the couch, folds some laundry, and replaces the towels in the bathroom. When his wife comes home, she’s astounded, and she’s angry. For you see, he didn’t wash his hands. They were soiled, and all his loving work, everything he’d touched, was tainted with dirt and grease.
Sin touches everything we do.
And so, it’s true more often than we realize, our old nature doesn’t think or operate in terms of being in an intimate, dependent relationship with God, let alone as being God’s very own stewards, trustees, or caretakers.
Gen 1:1, reminds us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,”
This helps us put ourselves, our lives, and this whole world into the proper perspective, underscoring the basic truth that God created all things and therefore he’s the rightful owner of all things.
For without this truth providing the right perspective and foundation to our faith and lives, the only thing left is the idea that all the things we surround ourselves with are ours to use or abuse as we please, as if it all hasn’t been put into our care, or entrusted to us by God.
The Old Testament Reading this morning supports and confirms God’s love for us and his relationship to us as Creator and Redeemer as he spoke through the prophet Isaiah:
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine … For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior’ ” (Is 43:1, 3).
And the apostle Paul confirms this truth, writing to the Christians in Corinth, saying,
“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. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19–20).
God through Christ, in his grace and mercy, by Jesus’ death on the cross, saved us from the eternal condemnation of our self-centered, self-fulfilling ways, and so St. Paul in the sixth chapter of Romans enlightens us, saying,
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
That is, having been given a new life, we live that new life with a different perspective on the whole of our life and on all the things of this life.
And in our Epistle this morning from 2 Corinthians, Paul informs us,
“the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. . . . Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:14–15, 17).
Everyone is seeking fulfillment and purpose in their lives, and they pursue those in any number of ways, but the truth is, we are the Lord’s.
We are his creatures, the offspring of the one man he formed from the very dust of the ground.
So, when we live as if we aren’t his and aren’t stewards of his, when we don’t live in accord with all that that means, life is out of sync, and life will then, on the larger scale, seem meaningless, purposeless, and unfulfilled.
Paul says in the second chapter of Ephesians:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8–10).
Due to God’s undeserved kindness and love, you and I are saved from the just condemnation and eternal punishment our inherited sin and actual sin deserves, and we can and should rejoice in that reality, always expressing our gratitude.
See, the Lord didn’t save us so we would continue living as if we aren’t in a restored intimate relationship with him. Rather, he became one of us, who then willingly suffered, was crucified, and rose again to save each of us for his good pleasure and a life filled with purpose—the purpose of doing good works, which God has prepared for us to do.
This means, that we get to managing all of life for God’s good purpose.
So, whether you’re in church, at work, at school, at home with your family, out in the community, or traveling about, whatever you’re doing and wherever you are, remember, God’s stewards are God’s stewards, and you are to be so to his glory, according to his revealed will as we find it in Holy Scripture and as explained in the catechism.
In other words, it’s a witness to the truth of who you really are through Baptism and faith: a redeemed child of God, a steward of the one and only God.
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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