Stewardship Reflections – November 2006

Jesus answered “The first is … you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12: 29 – 31)

Everything belongs to God. But he has entrusted to every person a unique set of talents, treasure, and time to care for his kingdom. How does all this work? What is my role as a steward in God’s kingdom, and what is the focus of my stewardship of all God has given to me? I think that in the quote above Jesus gave us two very important relationships to focus our stewardship of all that He has given us. First we are to love God above all else and to serve Him. Second we are to love one another. I can think of no better way to fulfill both relationships than through our stewardship of our time, talents and treasure.

First I have to thank God for all the blessings He has given me. He placed me in a family that nurtured me, taught me about God, brought me to church and showed me the example of worship and reverence for God. My mother and father taught me by example to love God and showed me ways to serve Him. They spent time with others in God’s church and I learned that we are a community. I learned that we have collective strength and collective responsibilities. I was blessed with this example from my earliest memories and it continues today. I think about the wonders that God has done in my life and I cannot do anything except try to strengthen my relationship with God.

But it also makes me think other thoughts as well. If God gave each of us a unique set of talents to use while we are on this earth, why does there seem to be such a variation of abilities among people? Surely God could have given each of us sufficient talent to achieve great things. Why do some people seem to have such rich blessings of intelligence, material possessions or interpersonal skills, while others seem to have so little? Why did Paul write about the fruits of the spirit being distributed among people rather than universal? I think that one of the central ideas of this diversity is that we are meant to depend upon each other and to take care of each other. We have different talents, but as Paul points out, one is not greater than the others. Each is necessary for the well-being of the body. We, the Body of Christ, are meant to share our talents, to make nurture of the body a priority, and to spend our time and our talents on the people of God. And I think that means within our congregation and outside it.

Jesus set the standard here for relationships. He made our relationship with God primary and our relationship with each other equally important. Is this a stewardship issue? I think there is a strong link between our use of time, talents and treasures and our love for God and our neighbors. We who have been blessed with talents and treasures have a responsibility to use those for the good of God and our neighbors. And we all have our own set of talents and treasures to share. Paul makes this clear, and I believe that his message is one of action fulfilling the commandments that Jesus spoke about.