STEWARDS OF THE FEAST OF LIFE
A man named John Johnson was one of the volunteer workers in the highly organized Stewardship Campaign of a large Church. Being a highly disciplined person, John Johnson meticulously carried out his responsibility. He visited each family that had been assigned to him, without exception, calling back several times if necessary if no one was at home. He filled out with precision the record cards he had been given. He presented the Church's case for the need for loyal support with vigor and enthusiasm. His very last call was to an elderly woman who listened to his pitch for a while but then became very angry. She said to him, "John Johnson, I knew your grandfather, I knew your father and now you come along. You Johnsons are all alike. I've despised you for years and if you don't leave this house I'm going to break this broom over your head." He made a hasty retreat to his car, pulled out the report card and wrote, carefully, "Doubtful prospect."
In today's Gospel, Jesus is tempted three times by the devil. Like John Johnson, the devil presented his case with vigor and enthusiasm, only to discover that Jesus is a "doubtful prospect." The scenario ends when the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, then makes this pitch: "All these I will bestow upon You if You prostrate Yourself in homage before me." Clearly, Jesus perceives that the devil's offer is fraudulent. The kingdoms of the world are not the devil's to give. They are God's, and God's alone. We are merely the caretakers of what we possess. God loves us so much that He has appointed us stewards of His earthly kingdom, and has granted us the privilege of using that which we possess, to His honor and glory.
God has charged us with the responsibility not only of stewardship over material resources but also of human resources. We are stewards not only of things but of life itself. This means in the first place, that I don't own my own body; you don't own your own body. When we abuse our own body, it is not just a matter of abusing something that belongs to us, we are abusing God's property, God's act of creation. This intricate, beautiful thing that God has created--our body--is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul says. And we are the stewards of our body. Parents have a problem because they invest so much of their time and energy in their children that before they realize it--subsconsciously, at least--they have acquired a sense of ownership. Parents are stewards, but not owners of their children. Many husbands and wives feel a real sense of ownership toward each other. The same is true in many close- friend or best-friend relationships. It is so easy to slip into this attitude without saying it in so many words but acting it out toward the other person. Some of the deepest experiences of pain involve middle-aged persons and their older parents--parents who still think that they own the child.
Biblical principle of life permeates our whole being, every level of our existence. And it ties back into our reason for being here today, which is to celebrate God and to celebrate God's presence and His power and His love and His promise of fulfillment for each one of us. We celebrate these realities and new life is given to us. But the realization of that new life involves a daily recognition that God is the owner and we are the stewards of His material resources and His human resources as well.
All of this, ultimately, is a matter of trust, which is the heart of our response to God. Moreover, God's appointing us stewards is an act of trust on God's part. He trusts us, and when we realize that God is placing His trust in us it puts us in ever closer contact with Him in our daily experience.
There was a young man named Buddy who spent two years working in the oil fields of New Mexico in order to earn money for college. One winter day, when he was ninety feet up on the derrick, Buddy slipped on some ice that had formed on the platform he was standing on. As he fell toward the ground, his safety rope took hold. He dangled precariously in the air for a long time before being rescued. Speaking about it later, Buddy could not stop saying how grateful he was to God for saving him. He said that he learned from the experience that he could trust God to watch over him. The friend with whom he was talking asked, "Did you ever fall again?" Buddy said, "No. After that experience I always took a hatchet and some sand with me up to the platform. I would chop the ice away and then spread the sand. The friend, half-jokingly, said, "If you trust God to look after you, why do you take all of those precautions?" To which Buddy replied, "I trust God to look after me, but what I learned in that accident was that God is also trusting me to do my part."
God is trusting us to do our part as stewards of the feast of life.
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