Paul | Thesis: Gospel Living | III. Gospel Living Values

Christian stewardship focuses on recognizing all we have as gift from God and how we should respond to that gift. This understanding draws on the term oikonomos, as found in the Synoptic Gospels, the Epistles, and later Christian writings. This word and its variants are used to describe household managers, as found in familiar parables,¹ as well as civic managers and God's management of the world.² Gifts can be understood in a broad sense to include not only material possessions, but also talents, opportunities, relationships, and life itself.

Unfortunately, the term "stewardship" is used very narrowly in most parishes. It is often a code word for financial giving, such as when pastors give annual "stewardship homilies" appealing for money to balance the parish budget. The term is increasingly used to reference contributions of time, talent, and treasure to the parish. However, stewardship is most properly understood as a response to all of God's gifts and not limited to the confines of the parish.

A steward's response to God's gifts comes in three ways. First, one should love oneself by gratefully receiving God's gifts of grace. Second, one should love God by respecting creation and the rest of these gifts; this is done by nurturing and tending these gifts and returning them abundantly to God. Third, one should love one's neighbor by sharing God's gifts justly and charitably.

These responses should be made not only with respect to what we have been gifted with personally, but also as a nation and a global community. These steps have implications for the work we choose, how we spend money, the possessions we accumulate, and the way we treat our environment. I will consider the steps in the next three sections, as they relate to how stewardship can be seen as love of God, self, and neighbor.

Loving Self—Experiencing Grace

The first response a steward is called to take in response to God's gifts is to receive them gratefully, which requires acknowledging the gifts and their source. In a capitalist culture there is a strong tendency to consider everything in our possession to be things we own individually (rather than collectively) and have earned. However, our faith teaches that all we have belongs to God, but has been entrusted to us as gift. Gifts are not earned, nor are they deserved.

God's love is gratuitous. It comes before we have any possibility of deserving or earning it. God gives freely not because we are worthy (we aren't) or have earned the gift as a reward, but because God loves us. We can find this grace in God's forgiveness, the many gifts in our lives, and our lives themselves.

In a culture that is so concerned with fairness, achievement, personal rights, and "justice," it is sometimes difficult to accept values presented in scripture based on the divine economy of grace. God rains down manna from the sky, and Jubilee directives mandate canceling debts and providing food to the poor. Jesus poses parables that just seem unfair. He speaks of a master who pays his day laborers the same, no matter how long they worked (Matt. 20:1-16). He presents the story of a father throwing a huge party for his son who squandered his wealth, while his obedient son resents it (Lk. 15:11-32). He shares parables of masters who forgive debts for no good reason (Mt.. 18:21-35, Lk. 7:41-50) and an "unjust steward" who forgives debts owed to his master, to his master's subsequent praise (Lk. 16:1-8). God is not "fair" when seen through our judicial and capitalist lenses.

Not understanding and accepting God's grace in our lives can result in a number of obstacles to living a gospel-based life. "Prosperity theology," a perspective popularized in Protestant Pentecostal churches and gaining influence elsewhere, teaches that God wants his believers to be wealthy. Churches promoting these beliefs—such as Houston's Lakewood, featured in a recent time Magazine cover story on the subject—suggest that grace comes as a result of our beliefs, church membership, or church giving.³ It can fuel greed and an idolatry of money, as well as a comfortable righteousness that one deserves to keep any money and possessions that one acquires (ignoring the needs of the poor). Surveys conducted by Barna Research Group found that three-quarters of respondents (both those who do and don't regularly attend church) believe the Bible contains a specific passage that "God helps those who help themselves."⁴

Others may struggle with the extent of inequity in the world—in material wealth, freedom, health, and other areas—and come to a more subtle, but similar conclusion. The recognition of these disparities can paralyze us as we try to come to terms with why we are the fortunate ones. A common reaction is to convince one's self that we earned what we have (through studying, working, and/or praying hard). When we hear God's challenge for how to respond to our wealth in the midst of disparity, whatever that response may be, we may be inclined to walk away sad like the Rich Young Man (Mt. 19:16-23).

For those who take the challenge of loving God and neighbor seriously, there can be a tendency to minimize what is truly best for oneself. Some may burn themselves out by giving to an unhealthy extent in order to somehow earn what they have been given. Our service and giving should be motivated by the grace and gift we have received from God, not in an attempt to become worthy of them (which we can never do). The serious disciple can be susceptible to the trap of trying to "get it all right," which can either lead to a "paralysis by analysis" or an egotistical pursuit of perfection and worthiness.

Some have difficulty accepting God's grace. The strong ascetic voices in our tradition have sometimes drowned out those in scripture that remind us that we were meant to enjoy creation. The gospel message is Good News to everyone, not only the poor. God loves us, wants us to receive that love, and desires for us to become the fullest human beings we were born to be. Jesus tells us he came so that we "might have life and have it more abundantly" (Jn. 10:10). The conflict between enjoying gifts and guilt from considering those still in need is played out in Jesus' anointing with perfumed oil at Bethany (Mt. 26:6-13). Scripture affirms that God has a spirit of abundance and expects creation to be enjoyed, and Jesus continues that tradition by attending parties and table fellowship. That tradition has thankfully continued, as Hilaire Belloc professed:

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There's always laughter and good red wine.
At least I've always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!⁵

Our challenge is to discern how God wants us to enjoy our gifts and share them so others might enjoy them. Loving ourselves means living balanced lives in which we receive as well as give.

[I]nstead of experiencing their sinfulness through arrogance of power, calloused indifference to the suffering of their neighbors or excessive dominion over the weak and powerless, a number of feminist authors and liberation theologians argue that most women and oppressed minorities around the planet have been socialized to love and attend to themselves too little.⁶

We must have humility to receive God's freely given gifts and let them motivate us in the right direction. This work can help us appreciate the "unfair" way that God treats us, giving us more than we deserve. Now that we have considered the importance of receiving as a way of loving ourselves, we turn to the next response: loving God by how we respect and act on those gifts.

Loving God—Respecting Creation and Gift

A second aspect of stewardship is the way we respect and develop gifts and then return them to God. We know and love God initially through God's work of creation, and for this reason the Bible begins by telling stories of God's creative actions. The priestly creation account recorded in Genesis remind us of the goodness of God's creation and in the role that humankind was given in caring for that creation (Gen. 1:26-2:4a). This is the work of stewardship:

God wishes human beings to be his collaborators in the work of creation, redemption, and sanctification; and such collaboration involves stewardship in the most profound sense—.⁷

While those who followed other gods made static idols to represent them, the Hebrew people were not allowed to do the same for theirs. Their active, creative God could not be adequately represented by something inactive. God created living, breathing, active humans in the divine image and likeness to collaborate with God in continuing the work of creation.⁸ The work we do in our occupations and "ordinary everyday activities" is the way we share in the Creator's work.⁹ We will consider this imperative from the perspective of vocation later in this chapter, but will now explore our creative potential in responding to the gifts we have been given.

After receiving God's gifts gratefully, a steward will nurture and tend them responsibly. Many gifts may degrade if they are not cared for, but may be developed with some attention. This step suggests asking the question, "What is God's intention for this gift?" A talent for musicianship or counseling could be developed into a greater capability. A home should be maintained in a responsible manner, rather than allowing it to fall in disrepair (and later require more resources to restore). A steward's role is as manager, rather than owner.

In particular, the earth itself and all of its resources should be cared for responsibly. The growing field of ecotheology explores the faith basis for this, beginning in the creation narratives and including a prominent role for Franciscan theologians.¹⁰ The most basic starting point is recognition that all creation is good (Gen. 1:31) and essentially sacred. Francis of Assisi recognized an interrelatedness of all creation—animate and inanimate—and embraced fully mutual kinship with other creatures. He saw Christ present throughout the natural world, and came to know and love God through creation. These values challenge us to work for environmental justice, protecting biodiversity, working against global warming, and not subordinating the rest of creation to human priorities.

A number of Christian organizations have been based on the connection between faith and the environment. The Episcopal-sponsored Regeneration Project has encouraged hundreds of congregations to educate their members on environmental issues, conduct energy audits and make energy efficiency improvements to their facilities, purchase and utilize renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and support "green" public policies.¹¹ The Web of Creation website offers resources for integrating respect and care for creation in worship and religious education, as well as overall action plans for congregations.¹²

Our response to God's gifts includes returning them abundantly, another way to love God. Part of this step occurs in concert with the first step of initially receiving the gifts, based on the principles of firstfruits and tithing found in the Hebrew Scriptures. God lays claim to the first—and best—of everything, from the firstborn to the first of the harvest, first shearing, and first dough. The first is to be set apart as holy and belonging to God. Immediately giving the first of everything we receive back to God is an act of respect that God is the giver of all and a commitment to living with Gospel values. Lynn Miller writes:

It means putting our money and our time to use as signs of the kingdom of God. It is offering to God from the first of what we receive, before calculating the risk or counting the cost, before deciding if we can afford to be God's kind of steward.¹³

This kind of giving is not from our leftovers—the change in our pockets or the money in our bank account at the end of the month—but from the top.

God offers an option to redeem a firstfruit (Ex. 13:11-12). The first offspring of every animal belonged to God, but one had a choice to either kill it or sacrifice another animal in return. Firstborn people were redeemed in this way, and this is the reason Mary and Joseph offered a sacrifice in the temple for Jesus (Lk. 2:22-24). When the Israelites sacrificed the Passover lamb and marked their doors with its blood they redeemed Israel, God's firstborn nation, and freed it from slavery. Jesus, God's firstborn, is sacrificed to redeem humanity from slavery to sin.¹⁴ In being resurrected, Jesus is also the first-born from the dead, God's firstfruits offering of the resurrection in which we will all share.¹⁵ The theology of firstfruits reminds us to immediately return some of what we have been given back to God, but it also reinforces other aspects of our faith.

We are not limited to firsts in returning God's gifts, but are also encouraged to give back to God after we have developed our gifts. The tithe is meant to convey a minimum return to God, rather than a maximum. We are to give with a spirit of abundance grounded in a recognition that God will provide for our needs. This return of gifts as a final step reinforces that we are not owners, and these gifts are not ours to keep. This aspect of stewardship also questions the culturally ingrained values of private inheritance, which keep resources locked up so they can be passed through generations of a single family and perpetuate cycles of poverty.

We love God by respecting, nurturing, and returning God's gifts—the second part of our response. Finally, we turn to the way we are called to love our neighbors by sharing the gifts with them.

Loving Neighbor—Sharing Our Gifts

The response a steward makes that embodies loving our neighbor is to share God's gifts justly and charitably. This step recognizes that God does not entrust a gift to a steward for that person's exclusive use, but for the common good. God gives us gifts so that they may be shared with—and perhaps entrusted to—others. The Old Testament, Gospels, and Epistles all encourage sharing resources rather than storing up what one does not need.¹⁶ This step argues against a view that disparities in wealth distribution are divinely ordained, pointing to the Sabbath and Jubilee directives of the Old Testament and the example of the early Christian communities, who held possessions in common.

This step makes a distinction between charity and justice. Charity means giving to those in need, but justice involves addressing the social sin that resulted in people being in need in the first place. In The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day writes about her disappointment in the action of some priests:

The scandal of businesslike priests, of collective wealth, the lack of sense of responsibility, the poor, the worker, the [minority], and even the oppression of these, and the consenting of the oppression of them by our industrialist-capitalist order—there was plenty of charity, but too little justice."¹⁷

Theologian Doug Meeks argues that the stewardship practiced in most North American churches is still largely influenced by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who believed wealth production followed natural laws such as survival of the fittest:

Carnegie said that Christian faith has to do with charity, and charity does not extend to the questions of economics. Thus we have the basic understanding of stewardship in most old line and many new churches in North America—the voluntary giving of leftover money and time.— if we use American philanthropy in the Church we can usually get—about 1.7%. This is a lot of money—. But American philanthropy is not biblical stewardship.¹⁸

This distinction can also be understood as the difference between philanthropy and discipleship, where the latter is rooted in relationship with Jesus, call, community, and justice. Giving charitably can be misused as a means for alleviating guilt about participating in the injustice one was trying to address.

Sharing God's gifts justly also has relational implications. The authors of Habits of the Heart note that in addition to feeling good about oneself, part of the reward for socially responsible giving can be an emotional investment "that enfolds and somehow makes meaningful a tremendous amount of pain, frustration, and indeed loneliness."¹⁹ These are some of the consequences of being willing to love and be vulnerable. They further identify the virtue "generosity of spirit" as

the ability to acknowledge an interconnectedness—one's "debts to society"—that binds one to others whether one wants to accept it or not. It is also the ability to engage in the caring that nurtures that interconnectedness.²⁰

As God's children we are called to be in right relationship with each other (particularly those most in need), and a motivation for giving should be to improve these relationships. Realizing how broken these relationships may be to begin with—often as a result of social sin—can be a painful experience.

All forms of giving do not necessarily strengthen relationships. Well-intentioned giving without the challenge of justice usually retains some aspect of hierarchy or status: a noble giver to a needy recipient. Maureen R. O'Brien writes:

Much "Christian service" is rooted in a charity model which, while proceeding from a language of neighbor love, is also practiced by people who are committed to maintaining a dichotomy both between themselves and the objects of their charity, and between this "public" activity and the undisturbed "private" dimensions of their lives.²¹

Catholic social teaching advocates a preferential option for the poor, but it also emphasizes human dignity and solidarity. These principles suggest that the relationship between two people sharing in God's gifts should be characterized by mutual respect and equality. Both should be open to receiving from and giving to the other. This is, of course, much more dangerous than giving to an anonymous recipient because our heart becomes involved. This is how Jesus lived his ministry, meeting with the poor and outcasts and the rich and powerful. He got to know them all, often over a meal, and he loved them all. As Paul reminds us, "If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3).

As we have seen, stewardship gives us a gift-based perspective on how we are called to evangelize and live our lives as disciples. In the next theme—Sabbath economics—we will take a deeper look at the topics of grace, gift, and sharing, particularly looking at how gifts or our desire for more gifts can get in the way of our relationships with God, neighbor, and even ourselves.

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