Matthew 25:14-30
/“Stewardship Gone Wrong”
Matthew 25:14-30
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
It's stewardship season. The time of the year when the church starts talking a lot about money. It can be an awkward time when you feel like your pockets are being wrung dry as the church asks for more and more. I hope it doesn't feel like that this year, sometimes at other churches, it can feel like… Maybe it's never felt like that here and I certainly don't want it to you this year! Today we'll talk about stewardship and what it looks like when stewardship goes wrong.
The first way that stewardship can go wrong is if we start by comparing ourselves to others. Maybe we feel like the servant in Matthew’s parable who was given only 1 talent compared to 5 or 10 for the others. Compared to other people, we feel like we have hardly anything to contribute. We feel ashamed that we can’t do more or we give nothing at all because it feels like, “what difference would it make anyway?” Or maybe, it’s bigger than a personal level. Maybe, you’ve been comparing our church to other churches. We see them flourishing while it feels like we’re always one leaky roof away from calamity. But if we start with comparisons, we’ll never get stewardship right.
Because the second way that stewardship can go wrong is if we are afraid and bury our treasure. The man in charge is furious that his servant did nothing with what he was given. Fear is an extremely powerful force that moves not only individuals but nations. When we are afraid, we make choices primarily based on what feels “safe” in the here and now. We make choices that in any other context are wildly inappropriate. I think of the privacies that Americans quickly gave up in the Patriot Act when we were all reeling from 9/11. Our fear led us to accept decisions that we later saw as a huge mistake. Because what feels safe isn’t always the right choice. Sometimes, safety is an excuse to avoid the discomfort of vulnerability. In the case of the man from today’s parable, he was afraid of messing up, of squandering what God had given him. And I get it! Even as someone who is decades away from retirement, my stock portfolio is not particularly risky because I’m afraid of that risk! But any investor will tell me that I have to accept some risk, especially at this point in my career, if I want to see higher dividends in the future.
If we want to move away from fear, then we must move into faith that God will not only provide but guide our path. When the PNC put together the job description for this job, they wrote “our vision starts with a conversion of our community’s mindset to one of abundance rather than a fear of scarcity.” I was excited about that statement because it’s one I deeply believe in– a mindset of abundance radically changes our behavior than a mindset of scarcity. If we believe there is a finite amount of money to go around, of resources to be had, of love to shared, of grace to be given, then we hoard or latch on quickly to whatever we can get our hands on. But if we believe that God really and truly provides enough for our needs, then we can stop letting fear be our guide. I had a great talk with a mentor this week and as she prayed for me and for this church, she said, “none of us quite believe in abundance as much as we think we do.” I had to laugh because it’s true! I can talk a big talk from the pulpit, but then I go home and look at my bank accounts and have a small panic that the sky is falling. It is hard to move to a mindset of abundance.
The third way that stewardship goes wrong is when we forget that we are stewards and think we are the owners. When I think of a steward, my very first thought is of the steward of Gondor in the lord of the rings. I have a younger brother who is four years younger than me and when he was in middle school, my mom read aloud the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to over the course of an entire year. Night after night, they sat on the living room couch, reading aloud Tolkien's masterpiece and when they were finally done reading the books together, we all watched the series together. A family friend gave us the box set extended editions, and I have watched them at least a dozen times or more. Denethor, the Steward of Gondor is a fairly major character in the last of the films and books. He is the 26th Steward of Gondor, because it seemed for centuries that the line of the Gondor King had been broken. Denethor has never known of a true king of Gondor and in the long absence of the king, he has not only taken over the responsibilities for running the kingdom, he has taken over the throne. In the films, we see him sitting upon the throne in the White City and commanding the court, servants, as though he were the king himself. Denethor had forgotten that he was not the king. He was merely the Steward.
Stewards are not owners, they are caretakers. A steward is someone who is placed in charge while the true owner is away. This is, I think, the primary way that we stewardship wrong. We think that we are the owners. We think that what we have is ours. Our land, our money, our time. The things that we own we feel possessive of and the things that we've earned we feel even more so. Yet the Psalms tell us that “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” We are not owners. We are caretakers and stewards. The land that our homes and our our building are built upon? That belongs to the Lord. The money in our bank accounts? Belongs to the Lord. Our time and how we spend it? It, too, belongs to the Lord.
One of the primary spaces I understand myself as steward of is my home. I live in a 1920s Craftsman home in the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma. This house was built before any of my living relatives and has seen many, many owners over the years. I did not build this house and I sure hope I will not be the last one who lives in it. I am a steward of the land and of this home. I get to make choices about paint colors and decorations but I try to make decisions that don't just benefit me but benefit the person who will own this home 20 or 50 years from now. This fall, David and I will plant a tree between the sidewalk and the road because our neighborhood has very little shade. This tree will probably never give me shade as I walk on the sidewalk. But someday ,30 or 40 years from now there will be a mom, pushing her child in a stroller who will be grateful for the shade provided by this tree. When I think of myself as a steward of the land I live in, I try to think not just of my best interest, but the best interest of my community and of those who will come after me. My neighborhood is in need of more dense and flexible housing. If I am the steward of this lot of land, how can I use it in a way that builds a stronger neighborhood and community?
It's not just my home that I'm a steward of. You and I? We are stewards of this land and this church. This building itself is not the end all and be all. It is not ours to fret and fear over. It is not ours to hold onto tightly as though if we loosen our grip, we will lose it completely. This land is God’s, and we get to be its caretakers. It is our responsibility to use this land for God’s purposes.
I do not want us to be the steward from Mathews parables. I do not want us to take what God has given us and bury it in the ground for fear of ruining it. I want us to invest in what God has given us to use it for God's glory. This building, our parking lot, playground, grassy space, and our trees. How can we be good stewards of these for the benefit of our community?
If we believe that we are neither the first nor the last people to steward this place, then how can we imagine a future in which people will say “I am so glad those people cared for this land. Look at its beauty now.” I think of the oak trees planted in honor of Pastor Barlow and his retirement. They are so small and scrawny now. But you have chosen trees and not just any trees, but native trees with the hope that they will be a part of restoring this ecosystem. None of us will ever sit in the shade of those trees when they are full grown, but perhaps our children and grandchildren will. And when they do, they will remember that we did our best to steward this land.
It is easy for our understanding of stewardship to go wrong. Comparison, fear, misplaced identities are all easy traps to fall into. There’s an African proverb I've been thinking a lot about lately that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; If you want to go far, go together.” My hope is that together, we will go far. When our ideas of stewardship get misplaced, I hope that together we will remind one another that we do believe in a God of abundance, even when it is hard to do so. Next week, we’ll talk about how to do stewardship right but until then, may we focus not on what others have, but what we have been given. May we not be guided by fear but faith. And may we remember that we are the caretakers, not owners. For the Earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it.
