Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.              Psalm 119:2

 "The Joy of Stewardship"  Luke 17: 7-10

 Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ” Luke 17:7-10

            A long time ago, a very long time ago, I loved participating in sports, especially team sports.  I still love watching sports and I love bicycling and try to do it as often as possible.  But back in High School Days to me there came a special joy in representing the school, putting on the team uniform with the Knight’s logo (we were called the Knights), and playing the schools in our area.  My sport was soccer and I had the joy of playing fullback with slide tackles and hopefully making a few defensive plays in the field to keep our team in the game.  In fact, I remember joining up for the first time.  Like a lot of school sports programs you had your tryouts.  A week of intense practice occurred where you tried to prove to the coach you were worthy to be on the team.  He watched you and all the potential players on the team.  Then came that final day when the cuts were made.  If you were like me you prayed about it in the hopes that you made the cut.  The roster for the team was posted and with nervousness you went into the Gym or the hallway where you could see if you made the team.  In my case I waited until everyone else was gone so I wouldn’t have to embarrass myself.  I looked at the names and joy of joys, my name was on the list.  Team practice after school- be there, first game in a week.

            To be told you made the cut and you were part of the team had a joy to it that is unique.  Believe me, I did have those moments of disappointment in case you were wondering when I didn’t make the cut in other sports so I do know what that is like.  But when you make the team there is nothing like it.  And in a way, that is what Stewardship is really all about. 

            I have thought long and hard about the best way I could present to you the joy of stewardship and I like this illustration.  You are part of the Lord’s team.  By the grace of Jesus Christ you have made the cut.  I could say your name is written down in the Lord’s Book of Life because the Bible says so but if the Lord will indulge me it is as if you look on the team roster and lo and behold there is your name.  So often we take that fact for granted.  But it should fill us every day with the same incredible sense of joy I felt when I found out I made the school team.

            However, as the Lord recognizes in Luke’s Gospel today, so often it all seems like nothing more than an incredible burden.  If I reminded us all today that as the first Sunday in October it is that joyous month where we emphasize stewardship at St. Paul ’s would joy be your first emotion?  Or would it be what so many Christians feel when the Lord brings up this part of their life: “Oh, no. Not again.  Here comes the guilt and the nagging.  And I know where it’s all gonna end up – with money!”  It seems that the only mantra so many unbelievers know and which sadly so many believers echo is:  “All they care about in the Church is money. Money, money, money!” 

            That is not the definition of Stewardship.  The real definition of being a steward for God is to recognize that everything we have is the Lord’s which He has given us the responsibility of managing.  He gives us our moments and our days.  He gives us our vocations in life which Vicar spoke about last week.  He gives us our families.  He loans us His children for a little while to raise up in the faith.  He gives us all our talents and abilities.  He gives us our resources.  He gives us our opportunities and chances to succeed.  He gives it all to us to manage as if all these things were our own.   

            But because of sin we think that everything is our own.  We think when we give anything to God that it is our gift to Him from the things that are ours whether it be time or money.  And in our worst moments we do what Luke hints at today and ask, “Yeah, but what’s in it for me?”  Or whenever the subject of giving anything to God comes up we groan – even criticize God’s people and God’s leaders for even daring to burden us with these things.  We ought to be excited that our Lord wants us to be part of His team.  But Luke bluntly asks you this morning:  “Is that how you feel about being a Christian today?”

            Is serving the Lord a burden.  I’ll be blunt.  Is Jesus Christ a burden to you?  He asks you for one hour a week in Church.  So how did you wake up today – with joy or with a “Oh man, I don’t want to go to Church!”  Did you fight with your mother and father the whole way to Church and complain because you had to come to Church today for one hour.  Did you scream today about how you didn’t want to go to Sunday School or the ignite team?  When the Lord asks you to pray does it fill you with joy or is that too much to ask you?  When the Lord asks you to be faithful in your giving does that annoy you?  Does the subject of stewardship bore you or infuriate you or make you feel guilty?  If so, Why?

            You were never a burden to Jesus.  Every moment of His life He lived it for you.  And when He died on the cross for you He never once complained.  Carrying the burden of your sins was something He gladly did for you.  And whenever you come to Him He never drives you away, not ever.  In fact, seeing you come to Him brings Jesus joy.  He yearns for that.  There is not a single Sunday when Jesus ever says, “I don’t want to go to Church today.”  How would you feel if when we get on our knees to confess our sins the Lord replied to us, “You know, I’m a bit tired with forgiving you.  You bore me with all your sins that you commit again and again.  So why don’t you carry them around for a little longer?”  But He never ever does that.  He forgives us before we can even ask Him.  And He cannot wait today to invite you to come to Holy Communion.

            Somehow it all begins with that humble attitude that St. Luke speaks about today.  Humility tells us that when we do anything for the Lord Jesus or give anything to Him our hearts remind us that our best gifts cannot compare to what He has given us and gives us every day.  Someone once spoke about tithing to the Lord with offerings not as “I give 10% of my income to God” but “All I have is the Lord’s, and believe it or not all He asks of me is a measly 10% and then tells me I can spend the other 90% anyway I like as His child to make my life happy and secure!”

            In fact, I am going to let you in on one of the greatest truths that not many believers recognize.  The Lord Jesus in the Bible spends so much time talking about how we manage the things of life and our finances because how we handle those external things is probably the single greatest indicator of how we handle the inner things of the faith.  What I mean by that is how we handle finances and resources and time is probably the greatest measurement of the kind of life in the Lord we have in our hearts and souls and minds.  A person who grumbles about giving and has no joy in serving the Lord probably has little time for prayer or love of God in the heart.  And the flip side is that someone who has devotions every day and comes to worship regularly like you are this morning and reads the Word of God regularly and prays usually has his or her financial life in order.  It doesn’t mean that Christians don’t have financial challenges at times – the last six years of my life with two kids in college had a lot of those for me and my family.  But a person who has their act together spiritually usually has nothing but joy when it comes to these other things.

            So I am grateful for the Stewardship committee we have.  So are the Churches of our District here in New England .  Do you know that the Lord’s stewardship committee here at St. Paul ’s has been used as a model for our sister congregations here in our New England states.  A number of Churches adopted their 10-10 emphasis after we did it last year.  I have been asked to preach at sister congregations on the subject of stewardship – one of them wants me to kick off their own stewardship emphasis this month by preaching and telling them what the Lord did among us.

            In fact, if you will indulge me in a moment of Christian pride in the Savior, let me tell you why Stewardship at St. Paul ’s is done right and why it is an example to others, to the glory of Jesus Christ.  First, we emphasize stewardship at the right time.  Most Churches do it only when there is a crisis financially or right before the next Church budget goes into action.   At St. Paul’s we emphasize it as a lifestyle we lead for the Lord and we emphasize it in October when it is not connected to Church Budgets or finances but to the heart redeemed by the Lord. Stewardship at St. Paul ’s in fact is not about money, at least not 100 percent.  It is about how we lead our earthly lives before we get to heaven and eternity and that includes every area of life that God has given us.  Stewardship at St. Paul ’s is not about a Church budget.  I don’t know about you but one thing the Stewardship committee has taught me is that I don’t give to a Church Budget.  I give to Jesus Christ.  Stewardship at St. Paul’s does recognize what the Bible says about giving and we do believe in the blessings of tithing and the greatest joy in my heart today is to know that by the grace of God our congregation practices tithing in the way it gives blessings outside the walls of our Church and I believe in my own life in the blessings and joy of tithing – I could not preach this sermon if I were a hypocrite asking you to do something I do not do myself.  Stewardship at St. Paul ’s also believes the Lord when He says to give first fruits to Him.  That means we do not give leftovers to God but first and upfront  to the Savior – and that way there is always money in the checkbook for the dear Lord.  And above all and I praise the Savior for our stewardship leaders:  they stress the joy and the blessing of being faithful to God.  Like the servant in Luke today there is a humility that says, “Look at what the Lord did for us.  Can I do anything else but in humble love respond by serving Him…. Not for what I can get but because serving Jesus for His sake is pure joy.  The fact that Jesus would even ask us to be on His team – that’s the joy. 

            For He doesn’t need us to accomplish His great things.   The Lord is fully capable of doing everything on His own if He wanted it.  He did not need our help in saving creation or us.  But he asks us to be part of the team with Him.  And because of faithful stewardship, at St. Paul’s, at least there has come an explosion of activity and things done in the name of the Savior.

            I remember a year ago when I stood in this pulpit.  If you were here you might recall that least year at this time it was a time of challenge for us.  I do not know why our Father above chose to test our faith in Him but we had some tough times financially.  We were asking ourselves if the Lord really wanted some ministries and missions to keep going.  We wondered if we could keep the vicarage ministry going.  And you can imagine that there were moments when our faces hardly had much joy at Church council meetings or other times. 

            So as we did in the past we emphasized stewardship.  And I remember telling all of you with all the stewardship leaders here that the Lord could do it.  If by His mercy and grace the Holy Spirit could put faith in our hearts we could believe that He could bring us out of despair and out of this time of testing.  But there were some tough times upon us and the voice of the Lord kept echoing in my heart:  “Yes, but will you believe?  Will you trust in me?”  Any many times my sinful reply to the Savior was, “But Lord, do you really know what You are doing?”  And then I hit Him with the worst:  “Lord, You don’t seem to know how to run your own Church!”  How that must have hurt Him.  And I remember some of our leaders saying to me, “Pastor, we do love Him.  But we truly question whether He can erase a financial deficit for this year.  Maybe in 2007 things will be better.  But it is not going to happen in 2006.”

            And in repententance I remember praying like I never prayed before for those three months form October to December 2006.  I prayed that the Lord if He was willing would show us all that He could do it.  The dollar amount was immaterial.  I know the Lord will give us always what we need even if your earthly goals are not always in line with His.  But I felt like we needed that assurance that He could do it.  Not in 2007.  I wanted Him to do it in 2006.  “Show us Lord that you are faithful.  Show us that you can do anything.  Show us that you are mighty enough to say, ‘See, I live up to the stewardship promises I have given you, my people.’”

            It came to December.  In fact, it came to the end of the year.  In fact, if you remember, December 31, 2006 fell on a Sunday.  And at the last possible minute after the very last service of the entire year the word came to me from the Financial Secretary.   The Lord made the budget.  He erased in three months the entire financial deficit we were facing.  It was in His own way and in Hs own timing.  But that year which I will never forget the Lord showed me and all of us and all our leaders that He will live up to His Word.  Even if we struggled to believe He would.  And you don’t think I had joy in my heart that New Year’s Eve!  That is where a very humble Pastor, humbled by a loving Lord, learned to say,  “Lord, you can do anything. And eve if I am just the waterboy – thanks for letting me onto your team!”  And the explosion of activity and mission which resulted in 2007 from all of this is just the tip of the iceberg for what the Lord can do among us here!

            The Lord…..a burden?  Never.  And that’s why Stewardship is a joy – to live life for the Lord and to His glory.  Can there be anything better on earth?  Amen.