The ‘Currency’ of Stewardship

Currently I am taking our church through a study on biblical stewardship. As I introduced the topic to the congregation and laid the groundwork for the series to come, I think I came back to (probably more than I should have) the idea that many in the church and culture in general have unfairly labeled ‘Christian stewardship’ with the stigma that true stewardship is about money. It is important to recognize that if we are to define stewardship in light of God’s grace and blessing, it is about far MORE than just money.

I suggested that we may in fact be able to consider the stewardship of our resources as ‘currencies’ and of which there are three main currencies for which we are responsible: our finances, our aptitudes and abilities and our time. If we truly strip away the surrounding tissue of life, circumstances and how we serve God, we can begin to see our stewardship ‘budget’. In building the understanding of the topic, I really wanted to drive home the point that, much like a budget in which we operate our lives and businesses, if one area begins to lack, the other areas begin to hurt as well. It is the same… if we want to maintain healthy stewardship, we must understand that we must not only be responsible with our finances, but with EVERY ‘currency’ that God has blessed us with.

To illustrate, I expounded on the Parable of the Talents in Matthew (Matt. 25:14-30)… to the point that Jesus was trying to demonstrate to the crowd gathered that day that being a steward was not just about having something great, but about doing something great that honored the master. The reason that he entrusted these bondservants (indentured servants) with these vast sums of money* was of great intrigue to the crowd Jesus spoke to. It was to illustrate that we, too, are given some great things, things of immeasurable value that don’t belong to us….and we’re supposed to do something about it. Not for own earthly gain, but to “the Master’s joy” as shown in verse 21 and 22. When we use what’s been entrusted to our care improperly, or worse, not at all, to save our own tail or to bring us glory, the reward is despair and heartache.  Our true joy in stewardship, our reward is not that comes from making a bunch of money, or receiving acclaim from our exceptional abilities or being the best time-manager, it is the reward of joy and satisfaction that comes from honoring God by using what He has given to us to His glory.  It’s about hearing the Master say, “You’ve done well with what I left you, as I hoped you would and I have been honored.  You haven’t hold onto it too tightly… well done faithful friend!”   All these currencies have been entrusted to our care for now and are to return to God someday, HOW we use them in the here and now is the choice laid out before all of us.

As I prepare to continue with the sermon series, I am writing what will probably be the most challenging discussion of the three currencies… money. Because our lives (especially as Americans) are interwoven with money so tightly, it is an issue of utmost importance to discuss, but probably one of the hardest to navigate. I pray for both Godly wisdom and guidance as I navigate through the waters of biblical financial stewardship… yet I find encouragement in a quote from C.S. Lewis that I came across in study and in also reading (in what is one of my favorite books) Mere Christianity:

“One of the dangers of having a lot of money is that you may be quite satisfied with the kinds of happiness money can given and so fail to realize your need for God. If everything seems to come simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment totally dependent on God.”

In truth, biblical stewardship is not really about money or ability or time at all… it’s about dependence… it’s about grace…  it’s about obedient love.

*Having a contextual understanding of what exactly Jesus is saying is of extreme importance in understanding this parable fully. The unit of money that a talent is equated to is approximately 20 years worth of wages and a bond-servant is much like an indentured servant, a person who works for no wage to either pay a debt or settle another’s debt. So to the first servant, a sum of 100 years of wages, to the second 40 years of wages and to the third 20 years of wages… or in terms of today’s value… $4.5 million, $1.8 million and $900,000 respectively. The point is Jesus was showing the amazing gap between resource and the man (in that day in age) in His example and by doing so, placed the emphasis no longer on the money or the man, but on WHAT was being done. As you can see by using the extreme examples, Jesus is able to show that we cannot value what we have as our own, but that we have a responsiblity to be faithful with what has been given… and in doing so, not only gives the the dynamics of biblical stewardship of our earthly resources, but the overtures of the Gospel and dynamic between grace and spiritual stewardship of our lives.

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