Gospel Stewardship - Sermon for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost
November 19^th, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
Gospel Stewardship –Matthew 25:14 - 30

    It’s not about your money.  Today's parable is not about you money, not really.  

   Money makes us uptight…  I once heard a high Synodical official make the following stewardship pitch:  “Money: You got it, we need it, let’s have it!”  He may have been kidding, a little.  I hope so.  Nevertheless, his slogan went over like a … well, you can supply your own metaphor to describe how badly his little aphorism was received.   

    Talking about finances makes us uptight.  I think maybe this is because money seems like a miracle.  Some commentators describe the miracles of Jesus as shortcuts.  Jesus did things that could have been achieved by normal means and processes, but as Master of the Universe, He could do them without all the time, material and human effort normally involved.  When our Lord wanted to feed the 5,000, He had no need for vast fields nor to sow seed.  Nor time or climatic conditions to foster growth.  No effort required for harvesting, milling, baking, or transporting the finished bread to the hillside.  Jesus, Lord of all those processes, jumped straight to passing out plentiful food for all His guests. 

    And money seems a little like that.  It isn’t, really, but we like to think so.  If I have enough money, that wonderful communal technology that gives me power over the work and material goods of others, I too can quickly put together an amazing meal for friends, or secure medicines and treatments to heal a loved one, and so on.  So, unsurprisingly, we like to control money; it makes us feel like little gods.  With enough money, we tend to believe we can purchase safety, power, ability, popularity, happiness.  It’s all an illusion, really.  But we love the illusion.   

    At any rate, talking about money messes us up.  Money talk especially prevents us from hearing rightly.  Consider the talents in our parable.  A man, the lord or master of a household, seemingly a sizable estate, is going on a journey.  He leaves his servants, his slaves, in charge during his absence.  He charges three of them to manage large sums of money, five, two and one talents, respectively.  Scholars disagree about the value of a talent, which was a certain weight of silver.  It was worth a lot of money.  Other scholars use a more technical term: a talent was worth “a whole lot” of money.  Significant cash.  Each servant was given a lot of silver, and told to steward it for the master. 

    From the results, we learn that the master expected them to put his money to work, to invest it for the purpose of growing it.  Don’t be stingy, don’t consider your master a hard man, don’t fear failure, don’t be like the third servant.  Invest the talents your Lord gives you.  Put them to work, be bold.  Don’t be miserly.  All true.  Thousands of sermons,  newsletters, books and seminars have launched from here to describe a dizzying array of stewardship programs, including some as crude as: “You got the money; we need it; so let’s have it.” 

    But is Jesus even talking about money?  Let’s break it down. 

    Who’s the master, the lord, in this parable?  (As He so often does, Jesus is talking about Himself.)

    Who are the slaves, the servants the master calls to be stewards?  (For sure the Apostles, and the pastors and teachers who followed in their calling.  But also, I would argue, every Christian in some way is called to be a steward of the talent the Lord gives.)

    What is this journey that the lord goes on, and when and what is His return?   (Remember, our Gospel was first spoken just days before the Cross, when Jesus spent a lot of time talking about His final coming, on the Last Day.  The journey is Jesus’ exodus, through the Cross, out of the Tomb, and back into heaven, to the Right Hand of power in His Father’s glory.  The return is when Jesus comes back, visibly, once more, to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.) 

    O.k., then, to understand Jesus correctly, how many talents of silver did Jesus leave with the Eleven Apostles, when He went on His journey?  What’s that?  Zero?  Jesus gave His Apostles no money, no silver or gold, when He sent them out to build His Church?  Well then, what treasure did Jesus leave for the Apsotles to steward?    (The Gospel, the Word of Law and Gospel, of forgiveness and salvation for sinners, found in the blood Jesus shed on the Cross.) 

    If we are going to use the parable of the talents to talk about stewardship, and I think we should, let’s start by understanding what the thing is which the Lord calls His servants to steward.  Christ did not leave earthly riches for His Church to steward.  Sometimes the Church has been poor, sometimes rich, but that has always properly been a side issue.  The fundamental, for sure, true stewardship we have been given, as the Apostolic Church, as Christians, as pastors, is the stewardship of the Gospel.  If we are properly stewarding the Gospel, our Master is pleased.  If we are afraid to invest the Gospel, if we hoard and protect and keep it buried in a hole, our Master is not pleased.  And, as we see in the frightening case of the third servant, a failure to put the Gospel to work is actually a sign of unbelief.  Lord have mercy! 

    The Christian Church, pastors and people together, has a calling to steward the Gospel, each contributing according to the shape of our various vocations.  Your stewardship and my stewardship, the stewardship of a parent or a child, or the Gospel stewardship of a believer living out her days in a nursing home, each of these stewardships will have its own shape.  All together, Jesus has called us to steward His Good News.  So, all of our stewardship conversations should stick close to this truth. 

    So then, what does it take to steward something?  Where do we begin?  What is the first requirement for a person, called to be steward, to exercise good stewardship?  

    You can only steward what you have been given, what you have in your control, in your temporary possession.  For example, if I ask you to take care of my dog Maggie while I am on vacation, but I don’t put a leash on her and pass her off to you, how can you steward her?  If she is loose, running around the Hills, how well can you care for her?  You have to receive Maggie, before you can care for her.  You can’t be a good steward of something you don’t have.  You can’t put your talent to work, you can’t invest it, if your Master doesn’t first give it to you. 

     So, if Christian stewardship is fundamentally the stewardship of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what is the first step of Christian stewardship?  

    Receive the Gospel.  Step one in Christian Stewardship is to be filled with the Gospel.  Receive, believe, and continually deepen your faith and understanding of God’s Word.  Once you have her on a leash, you will do better taking care of my dog Maggie, if you are acquainted with her, know what makes her tick, how you can best care for her.  Same thing with the Gospel:  the deeper and fuller your acquaintance with the story of Jesus and His Church, the better steward you will be equipped to be.    

    Happily for us Christian stewards, the Lord has clearly told us how and where and when we can get ahold of this Gospel we are supposed to be stewarding.  In His Word.  God delivers the Gospel, and we are called to receive it, wherever and whenever we can.  This especially happens in the gatherings of God’s people that we call congregations, where the Lord goes so far as to invite us into a family feast, full of Cross conversation.  He even connects His Gospel Word to Water, Wheat and Wine.  And, God the Holy Spirit comes with the Word, to open our minds and hearts to believe and understand, more and more.    

    Not sure how to be a better steward?  Then get more Gospel.  Be filled to overflowing with the Good News that, despite who you are, despite your sinfulness and your many sins, despite what you deserve, God through the blood of Jesus Christ forgives you, makes you alive, binds Himself to you, and goes with you, to guard and keep you day by day, until He brings you into His joy, forever.  Fill up on this Gospel, and then consider how you might best steward it in your life.  Think and pray about how, where and when you could invest the Gospel in the lives of others. 

    Step one in Christian Stewardship: Be filled with the Gospel.  Step two: Home first.  Your home and your local congregation are the first mission concerns of every Christian.  Jesus went on a journey, to carry the Good News of salvation into heaven, presenting the scars of His victory before the heavenly altar, so that the hope of every Christian is eternally secure.  Where did He leave His slaves?   He left them at home to steward His talents. 

    Now, to be sure, Jesus does send some of His stewards on earthly journeys as well.  We call them missionaries.  But most of the Master’s slaves are directed first and foremost to work around the house.  Christian homes and healthy local congregations are God’s Plan A for growing His Church.  Even more, traveling stewards, missionaries, also depend on local congregations.  Remember, it was the Church at Antioch who sent Paul and Barnabas out to plant churches.  And that greatest persecutor turned missionary wrote his letters primarily to help congregations and pastors understand how to be healthy congregations, in the place where they were.  The first missionary concern of every Christian is local, in the home and in the congregation.  Think of how tremedously the overall Mission of God would be boosted if every congregation and every Christian were properly focused on receiving and understanding and promoting the distribution of the Gospel at home, to their fellow members, to their families, and to their local unbelieving neighbors.   

    Step three:  When the Gospel starts to overflow and overfill souls in your local congregation, then you are ready to look beyond.  Look to your neighboring town or neighborhood, that lacks a faithful church.  Look to you neighboring congregations, your circuit, to see if you and your congregation might provide some valuable support to them.  And of course, get to know and seek to support the farther flung Word and Sacrament missionaries of your Church.  Be connected.  Know their work, pray for their ministry, support them as the Lord gives you opportunity.   

   Now, for a moment, it’s finally time to talk about that very common stewardship tagline: Time, Talents and Treasures.  Except I don’t like that slogan.  I mean, it’s useful, but we’ve corrupted the meaning of talent, and of treasure.  Biblically, from our parable, talents are the Gospel, which is also our true treasure.  But we think of talents as abilities, and treasure as money.  We need a better catch phrase.  Time, Abilities and Currency?  Time, Skills and Material Blessings?  Not too catchy. 

    I don’t know if there’s a better slogan.  But certainly an important part of supporting the Gospel ministry of your local church, and beyond, is dedicating time.  Time dedicated to deepening you and your family’s knowledge of God’s Word, and time spent doing the things needed to make a congregation function.  The Lord puts many different tasks before us, from music to cleaning to bookkeeping to ushering to knowing and caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Doing any of these things takes time, and what a wonderful way to use the time God has given you. 

    It is also helpful when members with particular skills and abilities offer them up in service to the congregation.  Although we should also remember that, very often in the Church, willingness to take responsibility is more important than having specific skills.  God will provide the necessary abilities, often in surprising ways. 

    Finally, as we see throughout the Gospels, Acts and the Epistles, financial donations are needed to make the earthly side of church things run, so the Gospel can be proclaimed and received.  That ox of a preacher is not to be muzzled while he grinds the grain, and all that. A warm, well lit room can be a great aid for receiving the Gospel.  And acts of love, of mercy and care, for your fellow members and for your nieghbors, is a primary way that God attracts the attention of unbelievers, that they too might be drawn to Christ and His gifts.     

   Gospel-cheered believers are to be encouraged to joyfully support the ministry of the Gospel, with their time, their energy and abilities, and with their material wealth.  We are wise to do this, for ourselves, for our family, and for the world.  With the reality of true Gospel stewardship firmly in the front of our mind, we should specifically think and pray about how we use our earthly blessings in support of Gospel ministry.   

   Not feeling it?  Return to #1, and double down on receiving the Gospel. 

    Having a hard time prioritizing the Church?  As Jesus focused on the End Times in the days before Good Friday, think about what you will be remembering and cherishing and wanting to have around you as your earthly life draws to a close.  Will you want to check your bank balances, or your social media likes, or your favorite team’s odds in the next game?  Or will you want your family and friends around you, and a confident peace that your death is but a doorway to the joyful presence of Christ? 

    Burning out?  Giving and serving leaving you feeling empty?  Be served.  Get more Gospel.  And also, be careful not to let Satan trick you into spending too much time thinking about your stewardship.  Naval gazing is always dangerous.  Take stewardship seriously, but don’t worry constantly about whether you are doing or giving enough.  Don’t believe the lie that the Church will fail if you don’t give more or take on one more responsibility.  Stewardship in the Church is not an obligation, but a privilege for those who know and trust in our True Treasure, Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior.    

    Concerning Christian stewardship, I would suggest you take just a couple of weeks each year to prayerfully consider your stewardship and make a plan for the following year.  Then, barring some unexpected and major change in your life situation, leave it alone.  Try not to worry about it till next year.  I even have a form to help you do this.  Check it out,  make an annual plan.  Then relax.  Live in Christ, revel in the Gospel, marvel at the blessings God provides, and stick to your plan until the next year rolls around.   

     True stewardship starts by receiving the Gospel.  This means that, in the midst of your stewardship efforts, your Lord and Master Jesus Christ will be holding you close, forgiving your sins, and giving you great joy as He works in you and through you.  Because caring for you is central to His Mission, as well as His Mission to your fellow Christians, and to your neighbor, and to the ends of the earth. 

    Rest in Christ and and rejoice in the Gospel Talent He gives to you.  For in this Gospel, you have the sure and certain promise that Jesus is with you now, and will one day soon bring you into His Father’s joy, forever and ever, Amen.