In Jesus Holy Name January 20, 2008
Epiphany III Text: Psalm 24:1-2 Redeemer
“Stewardship: Managing the Things of God”
2nd in the series: Called to Care For His Earth
There are two major themes which weave their way through the scriptures: The “way to God” and the “walk with God”. The message today is not about how to have peace or forgiveness with God. It is about your walk. It’s about the management, the “stewardship” of all that God has placed at your disposal and mine.
(read the text)
If you look the word stewardship up in Webster’s Dictionary you’ll find this meaning: “Stewardship is the responsibility of managing some assets or affairs or property that belongs to some else.” Stewardship is managing something that isn’t your own. The key word in that definition is the word management. The word “steward” means “manager.
The first principle of stewardship is this: “God owns everything.” We sing: “This is My Father’s World”. He created it. He made it. So He owns it.
Principle #1 God owns it all. Principle #2 You and I were made to manage what God owns.
We were made to manage the resources that God put on earth, to rule over things and to take care of it. God’s first command involved “stewardship” of the earth. We are talking 1st Article of the Apostle’s Creed. We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker and Owner of heaven and earth.”
In our Jr. High confirmation class we are discussing this very article of the Christian faith. Martin Luther in his Small Catechism explains the first article of the creed with these words:
“I believe that God has made me and all creatures; He has given me my body and soul, eyes and ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses and still takes care of them.” Also clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, land, animals and all that I have….”
In the very beginning god gave human beings the responsibility to “care for the earth He created.” “The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)
John Evelyn (1620-1706) a churchman and founding member of the British Royal Society wrote: “the orderliness of the world machine attests to the sovereignty ….. of its Grand Architect. Human beings must exercise stewardship over the natural world so that we do not erase the marks of its Designer.” We who have been created in the image of God are to act as caretakers of his world.
John Calvin, contemporary of Martin Luther, wrote: “Let him who possesses a field, partake of its yearly fruits, not allowing the ground to suffer injury by negligence…let everyone regard himself as a steward of God in all things which he possesses.”
( Christianity Today April 1994 Article: Myth 1 the Church to Blame by David Livingstone.)
Creation tells of God’s glory and love. God lovingly provides the rains and cycling’s of water, providing food for creatures, filling people’s hearts with joy, satisfying the earth. (Psalm 104:10-18) The Apostle Paul wrote: “Creation gives clear evidence of God’s eternal power and divinity, leaving everyone without excuse before God. (Rom. 1:20)
When we abuse God’s creation we thereby grieve God. The resources of the earth are abundant but not inexhaustible. If there were an endless supply of apples and an infinite capacity of the earth to absorb garbage we could take one bite and throw the rest away and there would be no moral issue. Martin Luther wrote: “A religion that does nothing, that saves nothing, that costs nothing…is worth nothing.”
God created and set in motion all things necessary to provide for us a wonderful world.
1) I ask you to simply observe the earth’s energy exchange with the sun. Our star, the sun, pours out immense energy in all directions; heating everything in the path of its rays. A tiny part of the sun’s energy is intercepted by our planet. This energizes everything on earth, all life, oceans currents, the wind and storms.
A thin layer of gases that includes water vapor and carbon dioxide and other green house gases traps that energy and the earth becomes warm but not too warm.
The earth is warm enough to support life. The sun’s energy also contains lethal ultraviolet radiation. This can break up chemical bonds that hold together molecules and thus destroy the DNA of living things. We know one of the damages as skin cancer.
2) Here is another remarkable gift of our Creator. The gases that absorb ultraviolet light is called “ozone”, also created by God. This layer of gases is high in the atmosphere and is several miles deep. It is a shield created by God. Its purpose is to prevent most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation from reaching the atmosphere where we live.
3) God also set in motion a process to re build the soil which produces our food and sustains all of life. This rebuilding takes place unaided by human hands. It may take a century to produce 1/8 inch of top soil but in this way the land is nurtured, refreshed and renewed. The whole earth was created to reuse substances contained in soil, water and air.
Christians who know God need to continue to be active in the political process; in business; in the culture to make sure our rivers are not polluted. We need to encourage corporations of which we may be a part; we need to encourage our local and state officials; we need to encourage our own personal households too practice the principles of “reduce”, “reuse”, “recycle”, not out of environmental legalism to protect the false theology of “mother earth”, but with delight, serving God as redeemed and responsible stewards.
We “reuse” because God did not make a throwaway world.
We “reduce” because the earth can not absorb our man made plastics, tires and Styrofoam. Use the black, blue and green containers provided by your city or county. They work.
We “recycle” because God does.
We should use the theological term “creation” rather than the more secular word “environment”. Why? Because it becomes an opportunity for witness. Creation speaks of a Creator and we are creatures responsible to our God. “We also need to broaden our understanding of the word stewardship. Inside the church the term is often restricted to matters of money. Those outside the church world are using this word ‘stewardship’ as they speak of the care of creation. This again opens the door to witness.
If you hear your friends or acquaintances using this term stewardship in regards to the environment…you might ask a simple question. “To whom is the steward responsible?” (Christianity Today April 4, 1994 Loren Wilkinson)
To speak, to listen, to use words like “reuse”, “recycle” is simply to be a model of good living and are acts of pre-evangelism.
These words of God in Genesis “to have dominion,” “to rule”, “to take care of”; when taken seriously means that we do indeed have the responsibility for caring for God’s earth not as an option, but as a divine command. So, begin with simple acts. Don’t throw paper and trash out your car window. What’s the latest commercial….by our local city? “Scrap it, don’t grind it.” Help keep your city sewage facility cleaner.
Genesis chapter 1 & 2 tells us that after God had created for 5 days, creating the heavens and the earth with its protective atmosphere, the animals, plants, and birds… he said: “It is good.” But God knew that something was still missing. So he created humanity. He created Adam and Eve.
You know that humanity was created differently from the animals in two ways.
1) Different in character. We are created in the image of God. We have the ability to love. He made us to be creative.
2) Different in our job description. God gave us responsibility to be fruitful, to fill the earth, to subdue it, to rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air and over every creature that moves on the earth. He put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Please take out the insert inside your bulletin. (Today I’m using “The Divine Drama” by Harry Wendt illustration 3A a picture of the earth and man both with a ribbon around each…with the words. “My property, handle with care, my property and instrument for service. Develop, care for and use responsibility.)
1) top right a circle with four arrows moving out
this is the symbol for God. God is one. He has no beginning and no end. God is love. (I John 4:16)
2) Genesis 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth. 1:26,27 God created humanity in the image of God. God is love and we are to love one another. The 1st and 2nd greatest commandments. (Matt. 22:37) If we live in the image of God then we will love and serve God and one another.
3) God owns it all. We use what belongs to God. Remember the story of the rich man in Luke 12:13-21? His life was given to him by God.
When we live according to God’s will we find meaning, purpose and joy in life.
The better your stewardship, management, the happier you will be. For example, if God gives you great talent and you don’t make the most of it…you’ll be unfulfilled. If God has given you everyday of your life, all 86,400 seconds a day, and you don’t manage your time wisely, you’ll experience waste which puts you under pressure and you’ll feel defeated.
When we are wise managers of the things god gives us to manage, we will enjoy the use of his gifts. God gets great pleasure watching us manage and enjoy the things he has placed into our hands. He made them. We manage them.
Did God give you this creation in which you live? Then stewardship involves ecology, taking care of the water and the earth. Did God give you your body? Then stewardship includes physical fitness. I hope that is part of your New Year’s resolution.
Did God give you 24 hours in a day? Then stewardship involves time management.
What I’m talking about in this series is not a trivial issue. It is the reason we were created and put on earth to be managers of everything God has given us.
