FAITHFUL STEWARDSHIP IS EMPOWERED BY THE GOSPEL
Sermon Text, St. Luke 16:1-13 (v. 2a). “So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship.’ ”
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Heavenly Father, through Your Son our Savior, You teach us that we cannot serve both God and mammon: Deliver us from the love of money; and grant us grace to wisely and faithfully use all possessions that You entrust to us, for the furthering of Your kingdom, the relief of those in need, and the supply of our own necessities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Parish Prayers, ed. Colquhoun, p. 115)
Dear fellow stewards of the Master’s goods: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We use the word Stewardship in church and think immediately of money or offerings. Currently in our congregation’s life, we have this as an emphasis in trying to look seriously at some of the financial challenges and how we want to act responsibly; so we’ve had a Bible study on stewardship, which was about offerings, and in some of our communication you’ll see reference to some gifts that have been dedicated to the “stewardship campaign.”
It’s not inaccurate but a bit narrow. Stewardship means “being entrusted with things belonging to someone else.” Another word for steward is manager – not being the owner, but managing what belongs to the one who owns it.
In the Bible, outside this parable – which is the only time Jesus uses the word – stewardship shows up in 1 Corinthians, where it says pastors are “stewards of the mysteries of God,” stewards of Word and Sacrament, and that what’s “required of stewards is to be found faithful” (4:1-2). The word steward is applied in 1 Peter 4:10 to all Christians, how they use their God-given talents, to use them “as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
This parable is the reason “stewardship” is applied to money in the church. It’s known as the “parable of the unrighteous steward.” It involves how he handles his master’s money. The master seems to be a wealthy landowner. His debtors in the story are probably people renting his land. The profits go to the master. The master didn’t dirty his hands with the daily details. He entrusted this part to his steward. The steward answers to the master. So all that the steward did reflected on the master. Jesus is obviously comparing Himself to the Master and us to the steward.
What it’s about is when you must “give an account of your stewardship,” which is what the master says to this man. This obviously looks ahead to Judgment Day. It’s a reminder that prior to that Day, all the time you are accountable to God for your stewardship. But then this parable troubles us.
Upon hearing he’s about to be terminated, the steward tells a man who owes 100 measures of oil to cross it out and write “50” on the bill. He tells another who owes 100 measures of wheat to cross it out and write “80.” He did this for “every one of his master’s debtors.” The master isn’t fooled. He knows what the dishonest steward did; but far from condemning him, before he fires him he “commended the steward because he had dealt shrewdly.”
You want to be a faithful steward, and you’re ready to confess where you fall short and not pull one over on God. Yet here’s this guy falsifying accounts, being devious and dishonest, trying every trick he can think of to save his skin, and seeming to get away with it in the end. This is what bothers people: that “the master” – who represents God – commends someone who is so dishonest, unethical, self-serving, and unbothered by his sin. This seems unworthy of God. But Jesus isn’t commending the dishonest actions.
It helps to look at the verses following the conclusion to the story, verses 10-13, which are the second paragraph in the printed-out gospel lesson.
As Jesus goes on, He says, “He who is unjust” – unrighteous – “in what is least is unjust also in much.” Jesus makes a contrast between “what is least” and what is “much,” and between “unrighteous mammon” and “the true riches.” That’s another word we mainly hear at church – “mammon.” Jesus also uses this word in Matthew 6, where He preaches about worry. Mammon is money, but it’s more than that – it’s all our stuff, our possessions, plus all the demands on our time, our busyness, the many duties and responsibilities, everything pressuring us. Instead of letting these things take their proper place in life, don’t you often make them equal with following God trustingly?
Jesus is showing the riches that come to an end – which is what’s at stake in the parable – and we think these are big things: your job security, family ties, good health, keeping your house, being in debt, helping your kids have success, etc. Jesus calls them the “least.” Not that they aren’t important, but He compares them with what is “much … the true riches,” what we have in heaven. Jesus wants us to see it all from the perspective of “the true riches.”
So Jesus isn’t recommending being dishonest. Instead, He uses the single-minded commitment the man shows, which you often find out in the world. This man had, in fact, not been a very good manager and spent a lot of time “wasting his master’s goods,” but all of a sudden he puts all his brains, energy, and resources into his goal of self-preservation. He’s only concerned about himself. This is not a noble cause. But Jesus contrasts the man’s zeal for this with a half-hearted way Christians often approach “the true riches.”
We think eternal life is important to us. You say that you can never lose your faith and nothing could come in between you and God. But if you think about it, what you spend your time doing or worrying about, what your life actually shows, is that you let quite a lot come in between yourself and God. It comes back to whether eternity is in the picture when it comes to what you do with all you have, or what consumes you, what your worries are.
Jesus says what this is. It’s the sin of idolatry. It’s the sin against the 1st commandment. He says it makes us like the unbelievers. “After all these things the Gentiles [heathen people] seek,” He says. They aren’t His children in the true sense. But our worrying makes us be like them, not being children of the Father who knows our needs and takes care of us. It’s why Jesus speaks so often in the gospels about money, coveting, greed, and worldly cares.
The importance of this – if you look just at the money part of stewardship – is seen where the Bible says: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1Tim 6:10). So this is serious.
We have to make an account of our stewardship, which is how that parable began. Because of how we bungle this, it’s good to know that Jesus steps in. He isn’t only the Master whose goods we are stewards of. Didn’t He come to take our place as the unrighteous steward? He took these sins! Didn’t He live a perfect life, so His perfect stewardship of everything is what you place before God, and He judges you not guilty for Jesus’ sake?
This is how you’re forgiven. This needs to guide us as we hear Jesus say, “And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Here, when Jesus says “what is another man’s,” He’s talking about how our earthly goods really belong to God; and when He speaks of “who will give you what is your own,” He’s talking about heavenly things. It sounds like if you are faithful with earthly things – if you’re a good steward – then God will give you heavenly things. Jesus is not saying that. You don’t earn heaven by being good with earthly possessions. Nobody earns it. Nobody is good enough, except for Jesus. Right after this, Jesus tells the Pharisees how wrong they are for being “those who justify yourselves.” We can’t be justified and worthy in God’s sight by good stewardship, either.
You’re justified by grace alone. God won’t approve of you for how good you are at placing your family, money, home, job, etc., second to God; or how well you use your things to God’s glory; or how much progress you make at doing it better. You don’t become better in God’s sight for doing any of this. You can’t get any better in His sight; you’re completely holy by faith, for Jesus’ sake. Stewardship of money, or stewardship of any of the things or people in life, is part of our sanctification; and your sanctified life is just the way you give thanks to Him. We want to always remember that our offerings in church are thank-offerings, as they were called in the Old Testament.
God will only approve of us as stewards for Jesus’ sake. It’s about Him and what He did for us; what we do is secondary, it’s a response of joy.
The purpose of Jesus’ instruction is to put this in the right order. Jesus wants you to see your life from the heavenly perspective, to see your life starting with “the true riches.” He wants this to affect your life, so what you do doesn’t earn something but just shows “the faith that lives within you” (ELH #227:10). It does take work – since our old nature, the sinful self, fights our new nature – but it’s work that Christ and the Gospel give you the strength for.
There are a few basic things to guide our thinking and actions as Christians who want to be faithful stewards:
1. Faithful stewardship doesn’t come from the Law – pressure and duty – but from the Gospel. As a forgiven Christian, you live free from fear and guilt. This applies to how we live as stewards, not only of money, but of all that we’re stewards of: our time, our body and mind, our family, all of it.
2. Faithful stewardship is part of your life of sanctification. In this part of the Christian life, your sinful self will struggle with your forgiven self. You’ll be tempted to worry, to envy, to be selfish. We drown the old Adam daily in repentance. Stewardship is part of a godly life. Let the Holy Spirit guide you.
3. Faithful stewardship is connected to the fruits of faith. Chief among these are love and joy. It should come from a place of joy, moved by the love of Jesus, whose love produces our love. “God loves a cheerful giver.”
4. Stewardship of money isn’t the chief stewardship. That would only make you a Pharisee to think that way. Stewardship of your faith comes first. Being a faithful steward of your marriage and family relationships, of your health, of God’s creation, of all the gifts of God, are areas to direct your life of sanctification – always remembering that you serve a Master of mercy, and that the “account of your stewardship” is paid in full – by Jesus.
Amen!