Stewardship Of......
Trees, Time
Talents, Treasures
Bible Reading:
Psalm 8
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11
1 Peter 4: 7-11
Deuteronomy 8: 10-18
PREPARED BY
KEN GEHRELS
PASTOR
CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
NEPEAN, ONTARIO
Steward ship o f.... Trees, Tim e, Talen ts & Treas ures p.1
STEWARDSHIP OF TREES
(PSALM 8)
What an utterly amazing thing it is - this universe in which we live.
Enormous.
Stand under a clear night sky,
away from city light pollution
look up - and what word other than majestic can you use?
Or at the base of an old white pine, gazing up towards the crown?
Or - like we hope to do as a congregation next Sunday afternoon - head up to Gatineau Park and
gaze out over the lookout, seeing G od’s paintbrush splash acros s the forest?
O Lord, how m ajestic!!
And we????
How sma ll it mak es u s all feel.
How limited.
Live s tha t, as we’v e se en s o trag ically, c an dis appe ar so quick ly.
What are human beings; mere mortals??
What of the lives of these little ones just baptised?
their value?
their reason for being?
Psalm 8 picks up and amplifies a call that comes in the very first chapter of the Bible about who these four
children are, and what their task on earth is all about: You have made them a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and ho nour....
Lindy, Elianna, Jason, Shauna - royalty, they are.
Princes and princesses in the Cosmic Kingdom of Heaven.
Royalty with a challenging task.
You have given them dominion over all the works of your hands;
You have pu t all things under their feet....
All th at w hich God has made - at their disp osa l.
Res ponsible for it a ll.
Stewards, they are - of trees, and of all creation.
Talked about that with a couple of parents this week. As with just about everyone - well, you can guess what
we talked about.
September 11 h as shaken up just abo ut every North American. It has ripped away our com placency.
The sheer pain has woken us from a rather lethargic stupor in our comfortable, painless and at times
decadent lives. It has forcibly confronted us with the meaning of tragedy, fear, helplessness. Something
we’ve been so insulated from. Something that is the regular part of the lives of humanity in most other
regions in the world.
Ruwanda.
Sierre Leonne.
Bosnia.
Chechnia.
Sudan.
Palestine.
Violence, poverty, starvation, slavery, persecution.
Steward ship o f.... Trees, Tim e, Talen ts & Treas ures p.2
And here we sit on this heap o f wealth, consumption, and a grow ing environmental cesspool called North
America.
Parents, congregation - fellow pilgrims in the family of faith:
We made a pledge this morning before the Lord, a pledge to raise these royal children. It’s a
continuation of our pledge to raise all our children as responsible servants of the Lord.
Even more basic than that - in living this pledge we face the challenge of growing ourselves as
servants of the Lord. Leading these little ones not only by our words, but by our example.
Growing them in Christian obedience in basic elements:
- getting them into church community life right from an early age
- teaching them the rhythm of bible reading, prayer in the home and in their personal life
- help ing them grow in ethic al and mora l purity.
And then, remembering this call of Psalm 8 -
Helping them not to be jaded by North American riches, and Canadian insular peace. To see beyond
the richness of Ottawa’s suburbs and into the huge challenge of living as caretakers in this world made by
Majestic God.
Caretakers of th e creat ion - w hat a ch allenge w ill face them, with inc reas ed le vels of to xins in
groundwater and air, global warming, dwindling natural resources, challenges in developing new technologies
and biological processes.
And as co-caretakers of other royalty - of fellow human beings. The cries of children dying agonizing
deaths by starvation.... thousands each day. Or those who grow up in refugee camps. Or die as victims of
ethnic cleansing.
Our children will not be able to stand before God, shrug their shoulders and sa y, “but was I to be my
brother and s ister’s keeper? ”
God will hold them accountable.
Jus t as H e hold s us accountable toda y:
accountable for how we handle our responsibility of being dominion keepers, stewards and guardians
of Creation and its inhabitants
accountable for how we raise our little ones to heed this stewardly call of God.
And when He does, when we one day stand before Him:
What answer will we give?
STEWARDSHIP OF TIME
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)
Stewards of trees......
That we are....... and of time.
Of that great collection of moments which confront us.
86,4 00 seconds clumped in pac kets that stream to ward s us eac h day.
Ecclesiastes 3 provides us with a pot pourri of what time dishes up, a vast array of "could-be’s", a pot
luck of experienc es from the sour to the s weet, the he avy and the light, the h arsh and th e tender.
Look at thes e va rious vign ette s, each a slic e of life, a nd try to s ee a pain ting -- no t a ne at order ly
painting, but sort of an ancient Picasso.
See the s cenes fla sh b y:
The moments that come to us u nasked and unc ontrolled,
Steward ship o f.... Trees, Tim e, Talen ts & Treas ures p.3
like birth and death
war and peace
as well as the moments we can choose,
like silence or speaking
planting and uprooting.
And then the question -
What does the wo rker gain fro m his to il?
How are we to face, to ha ndle, this time stuff?
What do w e stand to ga in fro m all th is, espe cially w hen so m uch of it seems be yond our c ont rol?
Ah, we wonde r.
We loo k back down the corridor s of time see king to make sen se o f it all.
And as w e ho ld ou r little c hildre n, w e loo k ahead to an unknown future and spe cula te - h ow long w ill it
last; what will it bring; how will humanity respond? How safe will it be for them?
And to none of these can we find secure answers.
Only God can fathom it.
God makes all things beautiful in their time.
So says the Tea cher. All things fit. Somewhere...
At least from God’s distant divine perspective.
For us, well, sometimes it seems right.
Like when we greet healthy, safe arrival of newborn children.
Or when we’re surrounded by loving family and friends.
But sometimes.......
Well - How do you fit 9am on Sep tember 11 into that statement?
v.11 - "He has set eternity in the hearts of m en...."
We loo k back to the horiz on o f time ...
and we look ahead into the fog of the future.
And whe n there a re no ans wers found there, w e look beyond and outside of tim e, beyon d this
mishmash of bipolar experiences, beyond the timeline to eternity; to the Eternal One who has set us in the
midst of all this.
in the midst of life’s wild oscillations,
sometimes this way and so metimes tha t,
in the midst of the vast diversity that life throws at us,
we reach out beyond those things to grab something solid.
SomeONE solid.
God.
God sees, knows and grasps all things of all times.
He has c ontrol from beginning to end - "all things."
Earth times
Our times
The times of our children & grandchildren.
That, in trust, we leave to God.
We must.
As we must pick up the task that He, in trust, leaves to us:
to live the moment to the full,
to seize the day, carpe deim.
to utilize well, rather than foolishly squander
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God’s gift of now.
Bow before the so vereign supremacy of the On e who holds the strings over the ev ents of time.
Then rise an d take hold of ou r responsibility as servan ts of His -
this moment,
this time that He places before us.
We face them as responsible servants committed and devoted to the Son of God, who has entered
our times and moments .
As we face the challenges and the off-speed balls time throws at us, pitches that sometimes tw ist into
bean ba lls, w e know t hat we have a Heave nly Br oth er, a Sav iour w ho s its a t the Fat her’ s righ t hand c ons tan tly
interceding for us – sending His heavenly wisdom and strength and power to face the times.
In that power then, we can take responsibility for how we handle the times;
the moments t hat a re tak en an d woven somehow into God’s eterna l tape stry.
moments with our children and grandchildren
moments in the classroom
moments with our lover
moments in the lab
Making them moments that matter.
For this, too, we stand accountable.
Of this, too, we are stewards.
In this, too, we stand responsible for how we raise our children.
STEWARDSHIP OF TALENTS
(1 Peter 4:7-11)
Challenging, isn’t it?
Incredibly challenging days in which to raise children, and see grandchildren grow.
Last days, actually - so says the Bible. The end o f all things is near.
Some people have asked me this week - “Do you think this is the beginning of the end?”
A ques tion requiring a “yes/no” kind of a nswer.
No, I’m not s ure what to th ink about the en d.... whether w e have on ly a few weeks or years left before
Christ returns. I’m not sure – because that is a timetable that is kept in the secret places of heaven. It’s not
for us to know. And an y who claim otherwise are either foolish or unbiblically arrogant.
Does it see m like it can’t go on muc h longer?
Yup.
Does it feel like we’re getting awfully close to Christ’s return?
Yup.
But peop le - ma ke su re you ’re rea dy every day.
Because while earth may last, say, another few years – there’s no guarantee that you’ll make it home from
church this morning.
The end o f all things is near.
When Peter writes this he is not holding a stopwatch in his hands.
It’s not chronological time, but chapters of time that he’s thinking about.
We’re in the last cha pte r of h isto ry’s b ook - the era between Chris t’s f irst a nd s eco nd c omin g.
Things are moving towards their eternal conclusion.
There is no waiting.
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And no turning back.
Prayer, love, hospitality - these become urgent items in the last chapter of history, when - at any moment - the
final trumpet will sound and the curtain will come down; when the Eternal Judge will step forward.
Urgent that we live these things.
Urgent that we raise our children in them.
And - do you notice what accompanies them?
An urgency about using gifts - those strengths, abilities, talents and opportunities that God lays in your lap.
Some of us know what they are.
For these young children it’s potential yet to be discovered.
And it must be discovered.
And used.
The original word with which this passage was penned is the ancient greek word charisma. It lite rally
means, “a grace gift.”
The strengths, ab ilities talents and opportunities that God pres ents to us are linked deliberately to
grace, the gracious goodness, care, forgiveness and healing wholeness of God.
The grace that comes to us in Jesus
in His life of service on earth
in His sacrifice and death on the cross.
in His gift of the Holy Spirit.
As we hav e been so serve d by Him, we are called to grace the lives of others with service. To share w ith
them our strengths, abilities, talents and opportunities. They are not given primarily for our own pleas ure
and consumption.
That’ll be one of the hardest lessons these little ones will have to face.
That’s on e of the harde st things for all of us to rem ember.
And it’s one of the key things for us to exercise in living obedient lives of service and devotion;
stewards of our gifts
stewards for the Lord.
STEWARDSHIP OF TREASURE
(Deuteronomy 8:10-18)
If you played a word association game and sa id, “Stewardsh ip”
inevitably most peop le will come back saying - “money.... giving money.”
In fact - that happened this week as people heard we’d be dealing with stewardship.
“Why,” someone aske d, “do you want to talk about money when the smoke is still rising in New York?”
“How,” another one wondered, “do you relate giving to baptism..... other than maybe that you’ll have
less to give ‘cause you’re buying diapers and formula?”
Trees.
Time.
Talents.
Can we see the scope?
Can we see the challenge that faces us in our personal lives?
As we raise our families?
As we set examples for our grandchildren?
Steward ship o f.... Trees, Tim e, Talen ts & Treas ures p.6
Of course, money does have a part to play in the equation.
It’s one of the gifts that God gives - a gift for which He holds us just as responsible as He does
the care of creation,
the use of our mome nts,
and the exercise of our abilities.
It is here that I really worry when I see these little ones.
I worry because of what I see in the adult population.
Did you hear what is warned against in Deuteronomy? Making the claim:
“My power
and the strength of my hands
have produced this wealth......
for me!” (v.17).
Doesn’t th at sound te rribly, terribly familiar?
If that is what the teaching by example radiates out from those who are adults among us - how will these
children learn?
How will we fulfill our baptismal vows?
How will we ever bring th em to see that it is God who gives the ability to produce wealth, and tha t therefore
what we h ave is som ething we hold - in trust - from our Lord an d Maker?
If we forget that, says the Scripture, we are hell-bent down the road to forgetting Him.
But the reverse is also true.
Therein we find hope.
And a huge challenge.
So, tell me, dear people -
As Lindy and Jason and Elianna and Shauna grow
As they watch us, begin to imitate and develop life patterns
What will they see?
What will we be teaching them?
And what will Go d say?
