In the invitation to a stewardship of vocation, we are invited both to a certain attitude towards our work – all our work is properly serving and watching over God's world. And we are also invited to adopt a certain attitude toward the world. All the world is God's garden which is God's temple.
Please note: This material was presented at a 2003 gathering of the Southwest Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The presentation originally included art work and Hebrew quotations that cannot be reproduced on this site. Please contact Dr. Jacobson at djacobso@luthersem.edu if you are interested in having these resources.
The Stewardship of Vocation (Part 1 of 6)
Good morning. Good to be back with you. This event has been amazing. Thank you for asking me to be part of it, and thank you as well for the tremendous work you do in the southwestern synod.
My assigned topic this morning is the "Biblical and Theological Foundations of Stewardship." A fairly large topic for 55 minutes on a Saturday morning.
I rather like the verse that I take to be the thematic verse of the conference: Let them return to the Lord,
that he may have mercy on them,
And to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:7)
My hope is that all my comments, though not stemming from this verse, might lead us ultimately to life lived in the mercy and pardon of God. Though after reading the latest Harry Potter book, I have some concerns about treating the subject of stewardship through a lengthy lecture.
Here's what Hogwart's caretaker Hagrid has to say on the subject of gifts to giants:
"Dumbledore wanted us ter take it very slow. Let 'em see we kept our promises. 'We'll come back tomorrow with another present', an' then we do come back with another present – gives a good impression, see? An' gives them time ter test out the firs' present an' find out it's a good one, an' get 'em eager fer more. In any case, giants like Karkus – overload 'em with information an' they'll kill yeh jus' to simplify things."
Keeping that advice in mind, I'd like to have a bit of fun with thinking about the biblical and theological foundations of stewardship. Actually I like having a bit of fun with almost everything, and playing with scripture usually strikes me as fun, so we are half way there.
What I would like to do is this: Let's begin by looking at this topic from above, a big picture look, and then let's look at it from within, a more intimate picture through the book of Ruth. And as long as we are looking, I plan to use a bit of art to underline the text and help us on our way.
So what do I mean by beginning with the big picture? Well from above, the big picture, we might begin exploration of stewardship with a psalm. If you can see this, I invite you to read it with me.
Psalm 111:1-10
Leader: Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Men: Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
Women: He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.
Men: He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
Women: He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
All: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
Stewardship begins with knowledge of the character of God. Knowing who God is and what God has done. Faithful stewards know the story of God inside and out. And then they give thanks. In, with and under all faithful stewardship lies a common psalmic refrain with variations:
* Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.
* Give thanks to the Lord for his mercy, his steadfast love, his hesed endures forever. (Hesed is a very important word meaning love, sentimental love, committed love, everlasting love – the sort God bestows on us)
* Give thanks to the Lord, creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all creatures.
* Give thanks to the Lord, for I am most wonderfully made.
Stewardship is rooted in praise and thanksgiving to God for all God's wondrous works, beginning with the work of creation. I always love to start speaking of God as creator through psalms, where what God has done and how we respond are so intimately linked.
That being said, when speaking about God as Creator, it is never very long before one is pulled back to the first chapters of Genesis. And in looking at the subject of stewardship from above, Genesis is almost as good as Psalms as a place to begin.
I would suggest that we learn from these first chapters of Genesis about three aspects of our stewardship:
1. Stewardship of vocation
2. Stewardship of creation
3. Stewardship of time
Let's think first about stewardship of vocation {Slide, Erastus Field} by looking at Genesis 2:15. This is where folks so often begin discussions of stewardship.
"The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it."
Now such a verse probably works pretty well in southwestern Minnesota in so far as the original vocation of humanity is pictured as farming. Humans are created to do work, to have a vocation.
Ecclesiastes would go one further. Humans are not only to work as their basic expression of being. The preacher (3:13) says that "it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil." There is more to this vocation than merely having work; work is given to us by God for our good pleasure, like food and drink. And the root of this pleasure, and the reason that this work is a primary act of stewardship, is found back in our verse in Genesis 2. Here it is helpful to consider the underlying Hebrew.
The human, is not merely to "till and keep" the garden. The human is to "serve and guard, watch, keep" the garden. The word "keep" is repeated over and over again in Psalm 121:
"The LORD is your keeper ... The LORD will keep you from all evil ... The LORD will keep your life."
Just as the Lord watches over us, guards us from evil, keeps our life, so we are to keep the garden.
And there is more. The other verb, usually translated "till," is another common word, used 317 times in the Old Testament, meaning "to serve." This word also rings with theological fullness, like the Greek dolos that Frank Thomas spoke about last night. If such service comes from oppression, it becomes slavery. But the ultimate vocation of service culminates in the suffering servant of Isaiah, whose service moves to bearing the iniquities of us all. The suffering servant becomes the suffering slave to all. So Genesis 2:15 teaches us that we properly steward our vocation through serving and keeping the object of our toil.
More even than this, in Genesis the object is the garden, which is the microcosm of God's world. So when we serve and keep the garden, we are serving and keeping God's world. And these two verbs combined are the same verbs used in reference to God's temple. So in serving and keeping the garden, we are serving and keeping God's world as if it were God's temple. Thus, in this invitation to a stewardship of vocation, we are invited both to a certain attitude towards our work – that all our work is properly serving and watching over God's world. And we are also invited to adopt a certain attitude toward the world – that all the world is God's garden, which is God's temple.
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