An Uprising of Stewardship
Since Easter, we have been talking about the characteristics of the earliest communities of disciples of Jesus.
I think it is important not to lose sight of the arc of that storyline. We have been following the movement of Jesus’ teaching from its beginning as a pocket of folks rooted Israel to its expansion into Jewish and gentile communities throughout the Mediterranean and parts of Asia.
Think about it.
There was no print media. There was no internet. There was no social media. Information and ideas were passed through relationships between people.
So the kinds of ideas passed on from Jesus’ teaching included things like:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven…
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth…
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled…
This teaching, absent the wandering teacher Jesus, is happening person to person, within the context of relationships. Exchanges. Shared life. Meals. Shelter for a weary traveler. Shared service. Shared journeys.
And reading through the book of Acts, we see community after community take root, learning to be the ecclesia, the place where people gather to share the work of and commitment to bringing about the kin-dom of God…where the poor in spirit and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (which includes us all) really are blessed.
Our text from Deuteronomy describes the concept of Jubilee – a mandate that every 7 years, the community of Israelites will wipe the slate of indebtedness clean among neighbors. And in doing so, they are to be mindful of all God has provided and be sure that no one in the community has need. They are to be generous materially and also relationally, letting go of their mean thoughts and hostility and power over others.
Once again, we have to look at this Hebrew text within the arc of the bigger story. This command is handed down to people who over several generations were enslaved by Pharoah, struggled to become willing followers of the God who provided for them for 40 years of wilderness, and are now are embarking on becoming a society that will hold power and land and will develop haves and have nots.
I want to lay side by side the nature of becoming a God-seeking community in both of these texts. McLaren suggests that through Acts, followers of Jesus are becoming community that is marked by fellowship, discipleship, worship, partnership and now in today’s chapter, stewardship, where stewardship is understood as believing that “what is mine is God’s and I want to use it for the common good.”
The earliest of these Acts communities would have had members rooted in the story of the Exodus, too. They would have known about the murmuring and discontent of the freed Israelites in the wilderness. They would have known of the prophets’ condemnation of generations for being more in the world that of God. And they would have seen themselves on the next step of a journey with God. The God who was in flesh in the person Jesus.
So on this next step of the journey with God, these earliest Jesus-following communities would have been seeking to become. To become good followers. To become lovers of their neighbors.
And this becoming is not work that happens overnight. It is not work that happens even within one generation. It is not work that one sets out in a New Year’s resolution one year and checks the box on 365 days later. It is ongoing work – personal work and communal work. It is work that takes us forward and then back, shaped by our experiences from day to day. It is the work of taking the next faithful step again and again and again.
That means that it is not sequential work. As I look back over the work of the “uprisings” that McLaren describes, where each “uprising” is about an emerging bit of shared work, it is not as if fellowship necessarily leads to discipleship which necessarily leads to worship which necessarily leads to partnership which necessarily leads to stewardship. It’s not a linear path.
It’s more like fruit that is born of putting ourselves in relationships as a community where we are committed to participating in what God is doing through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in our midst.
In case you’ve never nurtured a grapevine, it takes a lot of years to have reliable fruit on those vines. And some clusters grow better than others. And some parts of the vine thrive differently from year to year.
It’s why we revisit these themes again and again. It’s why they are in our scriptures again and again.
So…let’s talk a bit about stewardship, one of the “fruits” that spring forth from a healthy community of Christ followers, one of the behaviors we practice year after year improving over time.
Stewardship is not just generosity. It is not just caretaking. It is a recognition that God has provided enough for all of God’s creation, and we are charged with remembering that and acting accordingly. Again and again and again.
It is also a recognition that God’s grace surrounds us in abundance, and we would do well to share abundantly like God does in recognition of and gratitude for God’s abundant grace.
Throughout Acts, the author records moments when the community holds things in common. That is such a lovely idea. Especially on paper, right?
Matt and I have daydreamed about living in community where there is a common shed with a lawn mower, a snow blower, a leaf blower, rakes, shovels, a chain saw…all that stuff that we don’t ALL need to own but we do need to use from time to time. And everyone has the key to the shed. And everyone borrows things and returns them, clean and ready for the next use.
Isn’t that a GREAT idea? Maybe I pay into a pot every month or year with my neighbors, and we decide together what needs to be added to the shed.
But how often have communities succeeded at such sharing?
Throughout Acts, too, we see Gentile Jesus followers and Jewish Jesus followers learning how to live together and support one another, materially and with understanding. That is its own exchange of abundance, isn’t it? (Think of how we might be called today to abundant grace and understanding with those whose faith, politics, worldview is different from our own!)
These are examples of the kind of community that the early church was seeking to be. A community where folks all had enough to eat. Where they had clothes on their back. Where everyone had “enough” and no one is hording an abundance. Where in spite of our differences of background, we are all seeking to work toward loving one another well.
I want to highlight one more thing about this call to stewardship – something I think we often overlook.
In our text from 2 Corinthians, Paul is once again writing to the church in Corinth, a place where there have been some nasty battles within the community. He’s challenging the community to remember all that Jesus has sacrificed for them, and in light of that to consider how they will give from what they have.
And to be clear, that is not just about money. They will give from their time, their talents, their material resources…they will give grace abundantly, hospitality abundantly, faith abundantly.
And they will share their experience abundantly.
Let me unpack that.
First, let’s note that Paul is not above invoking a spirit of competition or maybe a little shame. He says to them, look what the church in Macedonia is doing for the poor people in Jerusalem. And then he basically says, if you really love God, you’ll act with generosity too. Woo… yep. Invoking a little shame.
And when talking about the Macedonians, he specifically says:
“their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”
I believe Paul is saying that they are giving from ALL of who they are – the hard parts of their life and their joy – both the good and the bad - it is all shared in community. And the result of the ways they share in community is an overflowing spirit of generosity.
The word geek in my went looking for the Greek source of the word “generosity.” It turns out that this same word is translated across other Pauline letters as sincerity or simplicity. When I lay generosity, sincerity and simplicity side by side, I feel like I hear the concept of authenticity or even “oneness.” So maybe a helpful way of thinking about it is:
“their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in as an expression of oneness.”
As in all for one and one for all.
As in they are sharing the good parts and the hard parts and what results is that they have MUCH to offer the world.
So the work of stewardship, individually and as a community, takes a lifetime to develop. We are all at different points in the journey.
For some of us, the work is to begin thinking about abundance rather than scarcity – as in, “I have enough, what can I share?”
For some of us, the work is to begin thinking about how we share more of our life experience, as in “I’ve learned some things and I know life is hard sometimes.”
For some of us, the work is to begin thinking about our resources in new ways – as in, “we have this amazing building. How do we best serve the community with it?”
For some of us, the work is to focus our generous efforts in the best direction as in “We could send a check, OR we could get involved and understand the challenges. Maybe there is more than money to offer here.”
In the midst of a very challenging season, the people of Faith have generously shared. Thanks be to God.
And we are on a journey to expand our understanding of what it means to keep growing in that work year after year after year.
May it be so.
Amen.
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