THANKSGIVING STEWARDSHIP

        I am writing this one day before “Thanksgiving”, the day that was declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It was a day that “celebrated” the First Thanksgiving in America, celebrated by the Pilgrims in November 1621 at with their neighbors, the indigenous peoples of the land that taught them and shared their bounty.

        There’s argument whether that was actually the first thanksgiving, but true or not, in a proclamation by President Lincoln, when he entreated all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”

        Over time, the holiday became more and more about food and family. Of course, food and family are important, but on this Thanksgiving 2020, when many of us aren’t able to experience our Thanksgiving traditions. Steve and I will be home together, which is wonderful, but there won’t be sitting around a large table with extended family.

        I think many of us will be experiencing this same thing, for some of us, because we want to make sure that our loved ones are safe, and as I read on social media, having a Zoom Thanksgiving means we can avoid an ICU Christmas; for some of us, because we have lost a loved one, either because of COVID or for other reasons; and for some of us, because our health is suffering because of COVID or for other reasons.

        Because of this, maybe we can make this a spiritual Thanksgiving, where we can experience a Thanksgiving renewal!

·     We can commend to God and thank God for those persons, the essential workers, who gave their lives to keep us safe during a pandemic that we could not have planned for;

·     We can commend to God and thank God for those persons, those serving in law enforcement and the Armed Forces, who have given their lives to protect us and grant us freedom;

·     We can commend to God and thank God for our loved ones, whether they are gathered around our table or are gathered around their own;

·     We can thank God for the abundance that is God’s blessings.

 

        A cornucopia is often seen on Thanksgiving tables and on alter tables in churches during this season. Also called a horn of plenty, it often overflows with vegetables and other symbols of a harvest and fall season.

        What if our cornucopia, our horn of plenty, is filled with God’s blessings and God’s abundance: love and grace, joy and gratitude, generosity and stewardship?

        Happy Thanksgiving! May it be a blessed one filled with blessings and love for you and yours!

 

                      CREATION AND STEWARDSHIP

            My continued reading of the Catholic Church’s Stewardship Letter[1] from several decades ago, is now at the section titled “Living as a Steward.” This takes time to talk about creation and stewardship. God wants us to be God’s collaborators in the wok of creation, redemption and sanctification, and it all started with the first story of God’s love for us and that was in the creation…. “in the beginning, when God created the heavens and earth.” (Gen 1:1).

            I have always said that Genesis 1:1 is the first stewardship scripture! I have approached this Scripture regularly as a way to explain that nothing we have is ours, if God created everything. Therefore, keeping our “stuff” and ourselves, whether its our time, our work, our love or our bodies, to ourselves is NOT stewardship and goes against Scripture.

            But this letter looks at it a little differently, still in the context of stewardship. Exercising dominion over creation, as it says in scripture is not abusing the earth, but, rather, continuing God’s work by cultivating and caring for it. The letter says all of that boils down to one word and it is “work,” but not as a punishment for sin but because it is “necessary” for human happiness and fulfillment.”[2]

            So if work is necessary for our fulfillment as humans, that means that working is a way to be in cooperation with God’s creation. Our work, our vocation, are all means of living out our call from God. Of course, sometimes our work is messy, and sometimes our work is hard, and sometimes we just want to leave work and put our feet up and complain about everything. But if we look at our vocations as a response to a call from God and not as work, how would our understanding of work change?

            If our work is not a true fulfillment of God’s call, we need to look at our lives and

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[1] The 1992 pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response, by U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Stewardship.

[2] Ibid.

 

                              JESUS AS STEWARD

            My continued reading of the Catholic Church’s Stewardship Letter[1] from several decades ago, has led me to the section titled “Jesus’ Way.” Reading the title of the section made complete sense to me, of course, we must follow Jesus, and as Christians, we want to love like Jesus. But then, I started reading the section, and it took a little differently about the example of Jesus that we must follow.

·         The Beatitudes and Sermon on the Mount describe our lives as Christian disciples (Matthew 5:3-7:27)

·         Jesus described a disciple’s life in terms of stewardship…not because stewardship is the whole thing, but it is part of it. (Matthew 25:14-30)

            A steward is someone to whom the owner turns over responsibility for caring for what is owned, managing everything and making the sources yield as much as possible. You can’t be a steward if there isn’t trust and accountability.

            But it’s not just our “stuff.” Everything—worldly and spiritual—were created by and come from God.

• ·         Spiritual gifts like faith, hope and love
• ·         Talents of body and brain
• ·         Relationships with family and friends
• ·         Material goods
• ·         Achievements
• ·         The world itself

The stewardship letter says:

“one day God will require an accounting of the use each person has made of the particular portion of those goods entrusted to him or her.

Each will be measured by the standard of his or her individual vocation. Each has received a different “sum”—a unique mix of talents, opportunities, challenges, weaknesses and strengths, potential modes of service and response—on which the Master expects a return. He will judge individuals according to what they were given.” (20)

            So, it seems it’s not about the tithe (giving of 10% of what WE have); it’s not about “what would Jesus do”; it’s about being responsible with everything we’ve been given.

            And we must ask ourselves:

·         What will be used for God’s work?

·         What will we keep clenched in our fists for ourselves?

·         What will be returned go God?

  By the way: the two pictures at the top are from my trip in January 2018 to The Holy Land and were taken at the Church on the Mount of the Beatitudes.

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[1] The 1992 pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response, by U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Stewardship.

 

 DO WE HAVE A CHOICE BUT TO SERVE AND LOVE THEE BEST OF ALL?

            I’ve been reading the Catholic Church’s Stewardship Letter from several decades ago, and have been moved by some of what I have been reading. Today, I’d like to visit a bit of the section titled “The Call.” It says that “the Christian vocation is essentially a call to be a disciple of Jesus.” The letter goes on to say that the stewardship is part of that.

            However, the line that grabbed me said “Christians are called to be good stewards of the personal vocations they receive.”

            How often is our understanding of stewardship limited to money or serving in the church? Too often! What if our understanding of stewardship is taken with us outside the church walls and outside our church “work” into our “work” lives? That may seem easy if the call is to “ordained” work or “church” work. But…

• ·         What if your call as an attorney is Jesus’ call on your life?
• ·         What if your call as a farmer is Jesus’ call on your life?
• ·         What if your call as a day care provider is Jesus’ call on your life?
• ·         What if your call as teacher is Jesus’ call on your life?
• ·         What if your call as [fill in the blank] is Jesus’ call on your life?

            Jesus calls all of us to follow him. Jesus called the original 12 disciples to follow him, to leave their lives and to become “fishers of men.”

            We are called by Jesus as individuals. Just as each of us is unique (just like snowflakes), our calls an our vocations are unique. We are called and we must respond!

            The call is for us. The call is now. The call is urgent.

            So what is our response? It can be no, like the rich young man:

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matthew 19:21-22)

            But when we say yes, when we become a disciple of Jesus Christ, then that response leads directly to stewardship.

 

            Stewardship is the evidence of discipleship. Stewardship is discipleship. We must apply the resources that we have been trusted with to further the kingdom of God. We must make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, so that “thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.”

            Hear these words of the hymn, “Jesus Calls Us” with new ears:

Jesus Calls Us

Text: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1818-1895
Music: William H. Jude

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1.      Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea; day by day his sweet voice soundeth, saying, "Christian, follow me!" 2. As of old the apostles heard it by the Galilean lake, turned from home and toil and kindred, leaving all for Jesus' sake. 3. Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world's golden store, from each idol that would keep us, saying, "Christian, love me more!" 4. In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still he calls, in cares and pleasures, "Christian, love me more than these!" 5. Jesus calls us! By thy mercies, Savior, may we hear thy call, give our hearts to thine obedience, serve and love thee best of all.   Serve and love thee best of all!!