Proper 25b, Monroe
Readings
Introduction
I want to talk about God -- (kind of an expected topic for a preacher) I want to talk about gratitude -- I long for the day when "gratitude" is as common place among believers as is judgment or anger. I want to talk about "stewardship" -- not so much in the context of giving money to the church but in the context of Genesis 1:26.
Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” (ESV)
or as the King James Version put it.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (KJV)
The traditional translation is that men and women were given "dominion" or "rule" over creation. My understanding of the passage is that we were made "stewards" of creation.
I want to talk about "stewardship", something built upon reverence, awe, and gratitude. # Job's reverence before the majesty
Over the past few weeks, we have seen how Job was so secure about his relationship with God that he could even argue with God. He could maintain in his passionate pleading with God that he, Job, had been unjustly punished; but through it all Job held closely to his relationship with this God.
Finally, God's patience wore down, the bold mystery of God's creative majesty is revealed to Job, and he can only be silent.
Then Job spoke from the position of reverence before the majesty of God. Reverence is the operative word.
Job answered the Lord: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. [And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.] "And Job died, old and full of days."
So the story seems to be in some sense a "happy" story. Through much suffering and strange divine behavior, but in the end a sense of calm and peace.
What I am interested in is our proper response to the majesty of God. It is not the larger theological issues that could occupy us a long time.
It only happened as the majesty of God was revealed to Job. From the whirlwind. To Elijah it came in the form of the still small voice. This past week it was revealed to me In the bare oak tree outside a window. Before such a revelation, reverence is an appropriate response.
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Out of our reverence we seek to respond with faith, hope, and charity (love).
Gratitude
A mentor and friend of mine was named Bart. He shared with me that he identified with our gospel passage from Mark because of the name of the blind beggar. "Blind Bartimaeus". The result for my friend was that every time his name was mentioned by someone it was like a reminder of the blind beggar who called out to a wandering healer, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
And he was healed. And like Job, in the face of such an experience, gratitude is the appropriate response.
For my friend, this passage in Mark's gospel was the single most important story for his Christian life -- outside of the Resurrection itself. It was this passage that told him who he was and whose he was.
"I once was blind, but now I see." After such an experience, gratitude is the appropriate response.
It's all grace
For myself, an analogous experience has been reading and re-reading a novel, titled A Diary of a Country Priest.
The narrative is what the title describes, focused on the priest, struggling to be faithful in his vocation, falling short by his own standards, but being picked up along the way by the love and affection of friends. Then comes a diagnosis of a terminal illness.
Not sure where to go after this stunning diagnosis, the priest decides to visit an old friend from seminary. After the two talk awhile, the priest isn't feeling well so he accepts an offer to stay at the friend's home for the evening. The priest dies that night. Although another priest can not be found quickly enough to give him his last rites, the priest's dying words are, "Does it matter? Grace is everywhere."
One writer said of the text:
The Diary of a Country Priest has changed me because it is so damned honest. The reality of suffering is to be accepted (ameliorated, yes, but accepted as a part of life) and countered with courage and faith in the mysteries and unfailing grace of God. In sum, Bernanos’ harsh honesty has forced me to be a bit more honest about how I am to live.
In 1948, as Georges Bernanos lay dying of cancer, he penned a letter to a friend saying, “May you feel the sweet presence of Jesus Christ who makes into one reality sorrow and joy, life and death.”
And in his last breath, Bernanos’ suffering, dying priest of Ambricourt weakly uttered with joy amidst pain and with hope in the consuming darkness, “Grace is everywhere.”
In the end, and through the darkness, it is.
To go back to the beginning of these words today, everything that surrounds us, all the vastness of inter-stellar space, grandmothers and aunties and uncles, grandchildren, and bare oak trees, deer in the forests, fish in the sea, and the breath-taking developments of modern science and technology ...
One could go on and on. But all of it is gift. And we have been made stewards of it.
Grace
Some of you have heard this story before. I have told it many times. I do that because it is a formative story for me.
When I was in seminary. My family of 3 had moved 900 miles to be at Nashotah House, Wisconsin. We abruptly went from a household with 2 incomes to one with none. Our first-born child was 1 1/2 years old. There were financial pressures galore.
One day I went to the mail room where all the students had mailboxes. I opened our box and there was an envelope with no stamp or return address, but inside was (I think) $50 in cash -- $50 was more in 1980 than it is now. That was all.
That was the first time I was really hit over the head with how my life was built on the unearned gifts of others.
Now, of course, at that time in my life I had already experienced the fruit of practically an infinite number of awesome gifts that made my life possible. But it was that event that left me speechless and determined to begin to build my life on the building blocks of gratitude.
I began to be intentional about giving from the abundance of the gifts of my life. That included giving to the church. But it was so much more than that. The criteria for my giving at first was undeveloped, but in time I learned that giving was something that I needed to do. For the sake of reverence. For the sake of gratitude. For the sake of stewardship.
I began reading, maybe 20 years ago, about how my generation (Boomers) was developing a new (relatively new, I suppose) set of criteria for giving away our wealth. I associate it iwith Bill Gates, but he was just a useful example at the time. He was the wealthiest man in the world based on the value of his company Microsoft.
I remember reading first of criticisms of him as being a self-centered exemplar of what was known as "Yuppies" at the time. It's a label that has been attached to my generation along the way of our journey. It evokes a concern with one's own well-being and happiness, success in the world. In op eds of the time I recognized the irony of the fact that 15 years earlier our generation had been known for our idealism, a commitment to change the world for the better. A commitment to being stewards of the gifts passed down to us.
It seemed as if since we found the task difficult, or met with failure, in the enterprise of making the world a better place, that we would just focus on bettering our own lives.
So there was criticism that with all his wealth, Bill Gates, did not have a practice or commitment to giving / sharing any of his wealth.
Seemingly Bill Gates took the criticism to heart and created a foundation from his wealth. That foundation has in the meantime become probably the leading and most important single foundation on the planet, it's mission being in part "to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S."
At their origins the foundation sought to use business practices and goals in how it invested its money. That's a big part of why they have become so important and so successful. I don't want to disparage the work of the Gates Foundation. I do want to question whether good business, being successful, is the main criteria for the kind of stewardship I'm talking about today. Is being successful what Jesus was getting at in his ministry? Jesus tells us often in his parables that the measure that this world applies to situations is not the measure of the kingdom.
Culmination
C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: “The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.”
Right at the top of the list of such things is "Love." A good case could be made that love is the most important and most valuable thing there is in this creation we share. But the only way to get love is to give it away.
I became convinced a long time ago, in the mail room at Nashotah House, that all the success, all the wealth, all the security that I might gather was only as valuable as what I gave away.
The criteria I apply to my giving is not based on success or sound profit and loss statements. Those are important. But my giving is based on:
- my dependence on so many others for who and what I am today
- my gratitude for the unearned gifts that have brought me to this day
- my desire to share the things that are most valuable: love, compassion, generosity, hope, faith.
And the greatest of these is Love.
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