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Stewardship: the Mirror to Spiritual Health and Wholeness: A Personal Story by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy It is unfortunate that when people hear or read the word "stewardship", what they envision is "fundraising." I recall well a parishioner who said, some years ago at a stewardship seminar, that "stewardship" is just a church word to obscure fundraising - sort of a "marketing tool" really. While that observation may be somewhat cynical and blunt, it likely represents a typical thought for many contemporary Christians. When ancient biblical texts were being translated into English, scholars translated the Greek word oikonomia as, in Old English, "sty-ward." A sty-ward was the reliable worker appointed by the manor owner to be a trustworthy custodian of the pig sty. These animals were indispensable to the life and well being of the whole community. Under the authority of the Lord of the Manor, these persons were to lovingly and prudently care for the resources that didn't belong to them, and for which they would be held accountable. In the inspired adoption of that well understood word, English scholars communicated profound truth about our relationship with God, the Creation and each other. As Christian disciples we are servants and stewards of God. "We are to become persons with responsibility, that is with an office, having authority in the communal life. We are responsible for the physical resources necessary for existence, and we are expected to be diligent in the very earthly tasks assigned in the world, for the very fate of the community depends on our trustworthy custodianship." (Public Theology and Political Economy by Stackhouse) In this broadest sense, then, stewardship is about acknowledging the sovereignty of God and God's gift of domination to us, the crown of his creation, to care for God's own possessions. "Don't you realize that you yourselves are the temple of God, and that God's spirit lives in you? (I Corinthians 3:16) Some of you have been kind enough to offer encouragement to me as you have noticed that I've lost some weight over the last several months. My physician has said for years that I should lose weight, has offered pamphlets and diet plans and exercise regimens and dire warnings. While I appreciate her professional concern for my well being, none of this talk has had any impact on my behavior. To be honest, I resented what I heard as generic doctor "fear mongering." But last spring, a nurse I work with on my Credo team (A National Church clergy wellness project) gave a lecture in which she quoted this scripture above and said, simply and lovingly, that health is a "stewardship issue." Our bodies are vessels entrusted to us and we can choose to honor or to dishonor God by the way we care for and tend them. That seed, planted last spring, germinated for weeks but once it began to grow, has begun to bear fruit. For me, "diet" was a word that implied denial and loss and, yes, shame. Stewardship of the Body is about life choices which have been experienced by me as liberation, not bondage. What my friend Barbara accomplished my doctor could never accomplish: namely, conversion of the heart, a response motivated by love and grace rather than one based in fear and anxiety. "The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery leading you back into a life of fear, but a spirit that makes us children, enabling us to cry `Abba,Father!'" (Romans 8:15) Stewardship is, at heart, a spiritual issue, not a giving issue. When I acknowledge God's ownership of this glorious earth, as a disciple I don't have a choice not to recycle and reuse. Others may claim a cynical response, may quote statistics about the inadequacy of recycling as a strategy to reduce waste and pollution. But for me it's not a "cost benefit" issue, but rather a "relationship issue." God created a "good" world and as a co-creator with God, living under authority, I have a responsibility to return this world to God as good as I received it - or at least, to leave as light a footprint as I can on the earth for having walked it in my lifetime. As one of our Vestry leaders said recently: "it's a matter of respect." How I seek to care for my body and the choices I make in seeking to care for God's creation inform how I care for the resources of time, energy, skill, talent and money. God has entrusted and invested in me. But my responsible use of God's resources given unto my care for my lifetime is not about earning God's rewards. New Life is a freely given gift, unearned and undeserved (that's what "grace" means). As I trust God more in my life, I've discovered the joy of living with less anxiety and fear - it is to discover freedom - and to acknowledge the sufficiency of God's abundance. And as I reflect deeply on how awesome is that gift of new life, I find myself in a place of stunned gratitude and compelled to generosity in response. When I come to stand before the mercy seat, God's pleasure, not God's disappointment, is my heartfelt desire. Some weeks ago, Joyce Stickney quoted a rabbi who said words to this effect: When I come before God, God will not say "Rabbi Jacob, why were you not Moses but rather, why were you not Rabbi Jacob." To accept and live into the challenge of being fully human, living responsibly and responsively is the goal of spiritual health and wholeness. And while I have come a long way, I still have far to grow, as do each of you. I invite you into the journey of intentionality. "It is just like a man going abroad who called his household servants together before he went and handed his property over to them to manage. He gave one $5,000, another $2,000 and another $1,000- according to their respective abilities… Some years later the master of these servants arrived and went into the accounts with them. The one who had the $5,000 came in and gave him an additional $5,000… Well done, said his Master, you're a sound, reliable servant. You've been trustworthy over a few things, now I'm going to put you in charge of much more Come in and share your Master's rejoicing." (Matthew 25:14f)
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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