Stewardship
"Give Of Your Best to the Master "
Whate’er the gift may be,
All that we have is Thine alone,
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, Oh Lord, from Thee."
In Chapter 12 of the book of Romans, we receive instructions from Paul to present ourselves, by the mercies of God, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him. There is a beautiful anthem based on this text with words to the effect: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Some traditions refer to this as our "spiritual worship".
The Scripture goes on to talk about the members of the body being one body, each with differing gifts and graces. Paul describes the intended use of the various gifts. It is my personal belief that this chapter of Romans presents a perfect description of service and stewardship. Read it in its entirety sometime during this season when "giving" is in the spotlight and occupies so much of our thinking.
So, here we are with a whole season, both sacred and secular, that has at its center "gift giving". The Bible is full of references to gifts and to giving – from the proper attitude we should have in our giving and in our "going about doing good." We find in Scripture discussions of what it means to make an offering, what a tithe is, and what a gift is. We find that these words are not interchangeable. There is much to learn.
The considerations surrounding the question, "What shall I give Him?" are many. We worry and wonder about what to give to one another. Are we as deeply concerned about what we give to Jesus? We give of our best to ourselves, and we try to give of our best to our loved ones. Do we try equally diligently to give of our best to our Master? There is a hymn in the Cokesbury Hymnal entitled "Give of Your Best to the Master". Its text is:
Give of your best to the Master,
Give of the strength of your youth,
Throw your soul’s fresh glowing ardor
Into the battle for truth.
Jesus has set the example,
Fearless was He, young and brave.
Give Him your soul’s best devotion,
Give Him the best that you have.
(Used By Permission - Public Domain)
The subject of giving raises many issues for us. We find we must consider our motivation, intent, resources, the needs of the recipient, duty to God, duty to each other, obedience, joy, self-discipline, greed, selfishness, charity, stewardship . . . the list could go on for pages and pages!
One of the questions we must ask ourselves is, "What is a gift?" I always think about our very small daughter clutching a handful of limp Dandelions which she presented to me with an angelic look and announced, "I brought you a present, Mommy." Was there any inherent value in the weeds? Of course not. Have I ever received a more heartfelt gift? Of course not!
Gifts and giving are very serious issues in many regards. There are no simple or "absolute" solutions to the problems these matters present to us. I promised when I joined the United Methodist Church to ". . . uphold it by my prayers, my presence, my gifts and my service." They have since added "my witness" to the vows. How do you decide what you will give in any particular situation? What is the symbolism behind your gift-giving? What are you trying to "say" with your gifts? Do you give, like many of us do, what you, yourself, would like to receive? What do you do during those times when you are less able to give what symbolizes and expresses what you feel? What do you do about those times, if any, when you are "financially embarrassed"? Are you still able to give? How do you value what you give? Is a gift only about money?
Jesus gave us abundant examples and lessons about giving, about generosity of spirit, and about our willingness to give all that we have and follow after Him, about the value of even the smallest gift, and about giving of ourselves and our resources to the least of His brethren. His parables are literally loaded with these lessons. Judging by the amount of time and energy Jesus expended to give us these lessons, it seems reasonable and safe to assume that He found the entire subject of gifts and giving to be of the highest priority and importance.
Is there a difference between a "present" and a "gift"? I believe there is. A present is complete as it is offered. It requires no action on the part of the recipient to complete its presentation. A gift, on the other hand, becomes a gift only when the person receiving it accepts it as such. A difficult lesson to learn, for most of us, anyway, is that it can also be a gift to receive graciously what someone else has to offer us. We love because God loved us first. Receiving God’s gifts to us as well as gifts from others brings Christmas joy and blessings to the giver.
We give because God has given us life and love in Jesus Christ. God gives to us freely, thoughtfully, and with love. He provides us with the example we need to do the same for others. God gives, maybe not everything we want or think we need, but that which we truly need.
I believe that people genuinely need and want to give. Something becomes a gift – perhaps I should say anything becomes a gift – when it is given in love and accepted in the spirit in which it is given! How wonderful to realize that this includes "us". When we give ourselves in love to Jesus, He accepts us in the same spirit in which we give ourselves. This is incomparable joy! Jesus gave Himself, in love, on Calvary’s cross for us - to secure for us salvation and eternal life. The gift to us of God the Father in Christ Jesus, His Son, is not complete until we accept Him as Lord and as Savior and invite Him to live in us forever. Can we do less for Jesus than give ourselves unreservedly in love to Him, and ourselves to serve each other in love in His name?
In I Corinthians Chapter 13 we find Paul’s words about love: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Paul goes on to describe the attributes of love, what it is and what it isn’t. He concludes this part of the chapter with: "Now abideth faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love." There is a lovely hymn in the United Methodist hymnal with this text, entitled "The Gift of Love". Copyright laws, even "Fair Use", will not allow me to post the text in its entirety, so I commend it to you for reading sometime during the season.
What in the wide world do we do with a text like Paul's? What should we think of a hymn text that tells us that nothing we do, say, think, have or GIVE is worth anything at all if the motives of our hearts are not driven by love? What do we think of a text that speaks of our gifts of all that we are and all that we possess – indeed, all our efforts and strivings to profess our love to others – as being of "thin profit" if we are not guided always in our giving by love? How easy is this to do? How hard is it to do?
One thing we must begin to do is to fight the temptations of the culture in which we live that encourage us to allow abuse and excess to taint even our most cherished institutions and practices, even our most holy of holidays. The practice of gift-giving is no different. We have allowed ourselves to become a money and profit driven culture, concerned with "getting and having" almost as an addiction. We are in love with "stuff". We are foolish stewards in our consuming and spending. It is virtually impossible to hope and think that our foolishness does not spill over into our gift-giving practices.
We use gifts for all the wrong reasons . . . to bribe, to manipulate, to "control", or to influence another. We give at times because we think we "have to" and feel obligated or otherwise indebted to someone. We get into games of gift-giving "one-ups-man-ship" and "tit-for-tat" giving, always trying to either "outdo" or "match" each other in our giving. We give at times to assuage our guilt. We choose gifts that are completely "out of sync" with our values, morals, and ideals. We get carried away by the sights and sounds at the mall. Merchants study us and "know" our habits and weaknesses, and they do not hesitate to exploit us rather mercilessly.
America has become a "Consumer Culture", often with some disastrous results. There are some very unflattering characteristics that describe a consumer society. Our very environment is in grave danger because, in part, of the over-consumption of the worlds resources that we indulge in rather freely, as if our resources come from an inexhaustible supply. They do not, friends. Being a consumer society means that we are characterized by some or all of the following "symptoms".
(1) We have chosen to prize conformity over individualism. We profess with our lips to value the worth of the individual, but we profess with our buying power the notion of "if-you-don’t-have-it-you’re-inadequate."
(2) We have chosen to believe that what is bought and sold is inherently better than what isn’t. We accumulate "things" in vain attempts to acquire happiness, while we overlook important things like friendship, contentment and true security. We become frantic for the newest, biggest, most expensive, most technologically advanced "stuff". We are gadget crazy! We have lost the art of giving of ourselves and of valuing what we do when we do so. We have stopped considering making our gifts!
(3) We believe that "more and bigger" are inherently better than "less and smaller". This includes "more expensive" as well.
(4) We consume the earth at alarming rates, having forgotten completely that God created us to be stewards of the earth, and to manage it, not use it all up! We act as if we think the earth has unlimited natural resources, cheap energy, and plenty of space for waste disposal. The only thing that is worse than what we are doing is our failure to care that we are being poor stewards of all that our Lord gives us to bless us.
Jesus was a Revolutionary! He spent most of His all-too-brief earthly ministry trying to teach us about fairness and sharing and giving to those less fortunate than ourselves, and about caring for each other and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. He spoke to us over and over in His parables about justice issues and about how we are to regard the last and least among us. He ate with sinners – kept company with the "dregs" of the society of His day – called "tax collectors" and fishermen to be His closest companions and entrusted the success of the spreading of His message, His teachings, the Word of the Father, to such as these!
Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease!
We have to learn to do more than consider ecology and turn our attention to issues of fair distribution of the world’s goods and resources. Jesus has made it quite plain that we are meant to "SHARE" in what the world has to offer.
What can we do if we need a whole new set of behaviors? Where do we look for new values and ideals by which to determine how we shall live and how we shall give?
We can attempt to give to each other in ways that build up and enrich our relationships. To do so, of course, we must be willing to become major investors and senior partners in our relationships! We must learn to give gifts that replace quantity and money with thoughtfulness, creativity, "good timing", and self-involvement.
We can attempt to give to each other in ways that enable each of us to reach our full potential physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
We can attempt to give in ways that honor and conserve life. We must become acutely aware that how we live affects the earth and the people of the earth. What one of us does - - - how one of us lives - - - truly matters in a broader, grander scheme of things.
We can attempt to give in ways that honor and affirm all who spend their lives working for those intangible things needed most by ourselves, our loved ones, and all who will come after us in future generations. Some of these intangible values might include world peace, an inclusive society and a healthy environment. We must learn to realize, celebrate and honor our kinship with all of nature, with all of the earth!
Christina Rosetti’s beautiful Christmas hymn. "In The Bleak Midwinter", addresses in verse four our gifts to our Lord. You are as familiar with the words as I am:
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part,
Yet what I can, I give Him - give my heart.
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part,
Yet what I can, I give Him - give my heart.
(Used by Permission - Public Domain)
As usual, we are back to the question, "What should I give _________?" (fill in the blank with the names of those to whom you will give your gifts this Christmas.) There are innumerable ways to find guidance in our giving . . . ways in which to achieve the objective we just considered. We can give gifts of our time and ability; homemade and handmade gifts, gifts purchased from catalogs of self-help craft groups, "double gifts" (gifts to a charity in your honoree’s name), gifts made by those who honor the labor and the laborer rather than exploiting "cheap" labor, gifts of no-interest loans to organizations like Heifer Project International or Koinonia Partners or Habitat for Humanity; gifts of real estate or money to non-profit groups, scholarships for worthy deserving youth in your church, and the gift of life (give blood - - - be an organ donor, etc.). The possibilities are endless, the personal rewards amazing.
Christina’s poem speaks of shepherds and lambs and Wise Men and doing our part – of giving our hearts. There are ways to be "modern-day" shepherds and take "lambs" in Jesus’ name to those who need them so desperately. UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and Heifer Project International are two organizations through which we might work to "take a lamb" to the least of these of Jesus.
We can easily find ways to increase wisdom in ourselves and in others. We have an example in Jesus in His earliest days when His parents found Him in the temple sitting with the elders, going about His "Father’s business". Scripture tells us that "Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man". When we choose to honor by our gifts institutions of learning in which Christ is lifted up and in which our children – indeed our very future – are enabled to grow in the same way as Jesus did, we honor God, Himself. There is great JOY in being modern-day "Wise Men" bringing gifts so important to life to those we love! There is no better way to honor Christ and serve God, bearing fruit for His Kingdom!
We come again, as we always do, to the last line of the hymn, "Yet what I can, I give Him, give my heart" and we ask ourselves, "What does it mean to give my heart, and how can I do that? What does God require of me?"
The prophet Micah answers the question, "What does God require of me?" in the following way: "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:8 (KJV)
We are instructed over and over in the parables of Jesus to "bear fruit" for God’s Kingdom. It seems likely to me, then, that what must happen in the hearts of believers when transformed by the power of God and the blood of Jesus, is that we must bear this fruit by exhibiting in our daily lives the exact change that has taken place in our hearts and in our lives. We are to give ourselves – to bear fruit – in service and in love. We are to "give our hearts".
There are all sorts of discussions in various denominations of "faith-versus-works". People believe passionately that "good works" produce faith and assure the "doer" of a heavenly home for eternity. After all, we are told to be "doers of the Word and not hearers only", are we not? That's one of the very first "memory verses" I ever learned as a child.
People believe just as passionately that faith will produce the works - - - that people of faith will bear fruit as commanded by God. I believe this personally. When a believer matures in the faith, the natural inclination is to "share" that faith with others, to take the message to a sick, hurting world and bring the same change into the lives of the people we find in our world as instruments of God’s love, mercy and incomparable grace - - - to "bear fruit for the kingdom". Living by faith should virtually guarantee our "fruit", but does it? I guess the debate between "faith and works" versus "works and faith" will go on. I guess wonderful Christian people will go on bearing only minimal fruit. Somehow we must move beyond "business-as-usual" mindsets and "bear our fruit". We must become the property of the Master and of our Maker!
Such a transformation can free us from old attitudes, old temptations, old values, and old habits. We are in the world, but not of the world. We are transformed, and molded and shaped from within by the power of God – by the love of God. It is our task to find out what the will of God is for each of our lives, and then present ourselves to Him to be that holy and reasonable sacrifice that Paul speaks of in Romans. We are then fit to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
It is not always easy to know and do the will of God, but we find it by drawing close to God through His Son, our Savior. We learn from reading and studying the words of Jesus that which is morally good, and right, and acceptable to God. We learn to think as God thinks by learning and following Christ’s teachings. We learn what is perfect, and we seek to emulate Christ insofar as is humanly possible! The good, acceptable and perfect are our guidelines for what it is that God would have us do . . . our guidelines for bearing "fruit". When we learn what is acceptable to God, and how we can use our opportunities, gifts, and resources to bear the most fruit for God’s kingdom, what is morally good and what will thus have a good effect and influence on others, we begin to live, move and have our being within God’s will for us. We begin to bear that fruit, and we begin to give what we can - - - to give our hearts.
Paul gives us a lengthy and detailed set of instructions about how we are to live within the human community – how we are to relate to each other – how we are to give our hearts to Him. We find in these verses of Romans, Chapter Twelve instructions about using God’s gifts to us in humility and a spirit of service to strengthen each other.
Paul says, "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference o one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality."
Gracious! What a mouthful! It points out the complexity of life. It shows us how we are to live and to relate to each other – again, how we are to bear the fruit for the Kingdom of God. This is the standard. This is the guideline and the blueprint. Our conduct toward each other is best expressed as love. The closest we come to meeting the standard laid out for us in the teachings of Jesus and this writing of St. Paul the apostle, the closer we come to giving Him what we have to give - - - our hearts.
Thus it is made obvious that love is the ultimate gift. God has shown us His great love for us in the Gift He gave us in a lowly stable in Bethlehem, and again on a cruel, crude wooden cross on Calvary’s hill and once again on the day of Pentecost when He sent us the Comforter Christ promised us when He assured us, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will pray the Father and He will send another Comforter, even the Holy Spirit." He has given us great spiritual gifts and told us to bear fruit. Our gifts are our response to our blessings and to our understanding. We must learn to give as our hearts direct us and to do so with JOY!
No comments:
Post a Comment