Atom“Blessed to Be a Blessing”
"Therefore the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants...out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him [far less] and seizing him by the throat,he said, "Pay me what you owe!"...Then his Lord summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt...and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?" Matthew 18:21-35
It was a moment of wonder. The water was calm, the sun was setting and my family was in the boat enjoying a lovely evening on the lake. It was one of those times when I catch myself wondering at the beauty of the moment and asking myself, “How did I ever get all this?” Perhaps you’ve had such a moment, too. You look around at great beauty or at great abundance and you ask yourself, “How did I ever get all this?” Perhaps it was also a summer evening, sitting around the campfire in the backyard or at the cabin with family and friends who are enjoying this place and this time and you ask yourself, “How did I ever get all this?” Or maybe it’s a Thanksgiving meal as it often is, with grandma and grandpa and all the kids around the big table in the dining room and the card table in the living room, and there is so much food and it is so good to be together and you think, “How did I ever get all this?”
Mind you, there may be many more moments in life when we are very aware of our losses – a difficult year with health or job, or even the death of a spouse. I know that also. But I hope there are also moments when we recognize the beauty and abundance of living in this country and in this land and are filled with wonder. And we don’t have to be millionaires to recognize our own abundance. I remember returning from Jamaica a few years ago, after spending time with families living in houses made of cardboard and corrugated iron and looking around at my own home and all my things and wondering, “How did I ever get all this?”
Indeed, how? People answer that question in different ways. Some will say it’s just fate. Life is a roulette wheel, and I happen to be red seventeen. Others will say they have what they have because they worked hard for it. No pain, no gain.
But a Christian responds differently. A Christian believes that everything we have is a gift, a blessing from the hand of God. A Christian believes that the abundance all around us – not just our physical possessions, but the air we breathe, the water we drink, the beauty of a sunset – all of it – is a gift.
And there is nothing like living in rural America to give one this sense of life as a gift. I remember my first experience living in a farming community during harvest season and being keenly aware of the incredible abundance of crops in the field, acre after acre and mile after mile of wheat and soybeans and corn. It had been a good year – good planting weather, plenty of rain, plenty of heat days for growing. The abundance was stunning. Certainly the farmers had worked hard to tend to their fields and to raise this crop, but then, they worked hard every year – even in the years when the crops weren’t so good, when it was too cool and rainy or when it was too dry. This year was evidence of life as gift. There is nothing like living in a rural community, tied to the fruit of the land to convince one of life and abundance as a gift from God.
There’s a word for this faith perspective. It’s the word stewardship. I know that for some, stewardship is a dirty little eleven-letter word. They associate it with pressure and guilt and pastors who work hard to separate them from their money. But stewardship is really a rich, beautiful and freeing way of thinking about life. A steward is someone who has responsibility for the property of another. A steward is a manager, using the owner’s property according to the owner’s purposes. For Christians, God is the owner of all things, and we are all stewards. God abundantly provides everything by grace. We are privileged to manage what God has placed in our care. Why do I have so much? The Christian says, “Because I’ve been blessed. All I have is a blessing from God.” It’s like the old doxology says, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
Too often I think we narrowly define this issue of stewardship to money. And while it certainly does include money, stewardship embodies so much more. It is all that we have; it is all that we have been given; it is all that we are.
In our consumer driven culture, there is a tendency to focus on what we don’t yet have – and advertising’s goal is to show us what we don’t have and do need - and that plants seeds of discontent that grow like weeds in our hearts and minds, leaving us constantly thirsting for more. But stewardship focuses on what God has already provided, and on what is already in our care, trusting that God has already given all that we need for this moment. Seeing life from a stewardship perspective – as gift of God – plants seeds of abundant contentment that grow like grape vines in our hearts and minds, leaving us grateful.
Consider for a moment the abundance in your life: family, friendship, faith, health, laughter, beauty, music, love ... or, good roads to drive on, safe water to drink, libraries full of books, heat in your homes, hot coffee on a cold morning or cold beer on a hot afternoon. Even those listening in from deer stands this morning, might consider their abundance – good food, good equipment, good clothes, and a wife that understands your need to go out. Stewardship points to God’s incredible abundance and answers the question, “How did I ever get all this?” with the confession of faith: “Because God is a God of abundance who chooses to bless abundantly.”
Stewardship also asks a second question, however. A colleague tells of one of these “thankful’ reflective occasions when the family was all gathered ‘round and his father asked with thankful wonder, “How did I ever get all this?” And his mother responded thankfully – but thoughtfully, “And what will we do with what we have?”
Stewardship also answers the question, “What will I do with what I have?” God has provided all things for our sustenance and our enjoyment, but God has also blessed us abundantly so that we might be a blessing to others. In the story of Abraham and Sarah in the Bible, God tells Abraham, “I’m going to make of you a great nation, and I will bless you so that you might be a blessing to others.” And God does indeed bless Abraham with great abundance. And Abraham does indeed bless others, including you and me. God blesses Abraham and Sarah with a son, Isaac, in their old age, and Isaac has a son named Jacob, and if you keep pressing out that family lineage, you’ll discover that from that initial blessing comes Jesus, Savior of the world. God blesses Abraham, and Abraham does indeed bless the nations.
“Blessed to be a blessing” is how God’s people are called and empowered to live. Jesus once said, “To whom much is given, much is required,” and from the perspective of stewardship we have all been given much.
And it’s not only a church attitude. It’s also a community attitude. I was reminded of this when I picked up my “Roses for Rotary” this weekend. The Rotary club here in DL does much in this community to lift up an attitude of “blessed to be a blessing,” but I also read this week of how Rotary International has made it their number one objective right now is to eradicate polio from the planet by inoculating every child in a given country within a two-day period so that the virus has no place to live. Thanks to Rotary, there are less than 300 cases of polio globally today.
You might know, however, that Rotary hasn’t done this alone. Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft fame have made the eradication of polio their number one objective, and so they’ve partnered with Rotary to the tune of a half billion dollars! Bill Gates spoke at that Rotary convention in April, and as he talked about this partnership he got a little choked up. I don’t know where Bill Gates is in his life of faith, but he quoted Jesus that day, saying, “To whom much is given, much is required.” That’s stewardship. God has freely given in abundance. We’ve been blessed to be a blessing to others. You probably don’t have what Bill and Melinda Gates have. But you do have what God has blessed you with!
Which is really Jesus’ point in today’s parable about the unforgiving servant. The first servant has a debt of 10,000 silver talents. Let me put that level of debt into context. A silver talent was about 75 pounds, valued at 6,000 denarii. A denarii is equivalent to a day’s wage for a common laborer. To translate this into today’s currency, the servant owes the king $3,240,000,000. To put it simply, Jesus is using exaggeration to make a point. It’s an absurd amount money that not only shows the king’s generosity; it also makes the servant’s offer to repay the king absolutely ludicrous. And most stunning of all is the king’s willingness to simply forgive the debt. That’s generosity!
On the other hand, the second servant owes the first one 100 denarii, which today would equal about $5,400. The point of this story, of course, is two-fold. First, we’re left wondering how it is possible that one who has been forgiven so great a debt could be so petty as to violently demand repayment of a small debt from a fellow servant. Second, we realize that the king was most interested not in repayment, but in paying that generosity forward, blessing that first servant so that he might be a blessing to the second servant. Forgiveness is an issue of stewardship, and so is all of life. We’ve been blessed to be a blessing.
It is God’s desire, friends, that we be people who, by faith, see ourselves as blessed to be a blessing. We are to be a people much like our own human hearts. The heart pumps blood in at one valve and then sends it out through another valve. The heart never stores up blood for use at a later date. It is constantly circulating throughout the body. It gets blood, then it gives blood. It receives, then gives!
This is the life of a disciple. We first receive from God, and then we give. The giving always starts with God. We love, because God loved us. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We freely give because we have freely received. We’ve bless because we have been blessed.
So let me ask: “Why do you believe you have what you have?” Is it fate? Is it the result of hard labor? Or is it because you are abundantly blessed? And, just as importantly, what will you do with what you’ve been given? Watch another “God’s work, our hands” clip that Petra Vanderford has put together for us. This one is the ministry we call “God’s Faithful Followers.” Those who serve in this ministry, like so many others at FLC, do so out of this sense of stewardship – of being “blessed to be a blessing.”
GFF Video Clip – “God’s work, our hands…your hands have a place at First!”
Roxanne Lindquist would have me remind you that they continue to be in need of more hands to share the blessings with God’s Faithful Followers! We give ourselves and we give our offerings for the work of our abundant and loving God who blesses us with every good gift to be a blessing to others. Thank you for your generosity, for the ways you bless because God has first blessed you. Please pray with me...
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