Stewardship

Stewardship

July 12, 2026

Minister: Rev. Mary Kay Sauter, guest minister

Text: Matthew 22:34-40

Download a printable PDF of this sermon here.

CENTRAL FOCUS:

With God’s love for our world, and our call to love God and our neighbors, what does Stewardship look like—what does it mean?

 

These are interesting times. Not easy times. However, this community of faith—all of you—make it as good as it can be for me and for all of us. And the staff—clergy, support, security, programming—all amazing, gifted, committed, loving, smart people.

Last Sunday Kate Taber led a great discussion about being a Christian and American in these uneasy times. What we ended up with was the word responsible—no matter how hard it gets as part of our faith we are all still responsible for change for helping make things better. Then JT’s sermon—using the first nine first verses of Joshua, chapter 1. Quoting the weekly-E news, “As part of God’s faith-seeking people, we seek to be citizens of God’s realm—uplifting and critiquing our national story. Joshua 1:9 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you.”

And then on Tuesday there were 8 of us at the 12:00 vigil—all are welcome to join us—we have relevant readings and in silence we stand on Franklin Avenue to honor George Floyd and all others who have died because of injustice. On the first Tuesday of the month, we have lunch together, and during it I was challenged by Peter Eichten to take Stewardship out of the financial world—the capitalist world—and make it spiritual, theological. So, I learned this week to be responsible, be strong and courageous, and seek deeper spiritual meanings to words like stewardship. This is a great place, a great community of faith.

I’d like to share with you, my theology. Then hopefully what I preach will make more sense. I know some of you have heard me say this many times, but maybe some not at all. It’s called Process Theology. In every milli-second God knows what every person’s choice should be for there to be true peace and harmony throughout the world. Can you imagine that world?—everyone has enough of everything they need—food, housing, medical care, education—and because greed doesn’t dominate, there are no wars, all children are safe. In God’s world there is no need for dominators. Unfortunately, we are also influenced by everything around us—people who are family, friends, enemies, how we were raised, where we went to school, the news, books, tv, politics, all the religions of the world—all influence us. Our calling is to be open to God—open to God so God can influence us to make choices to help create peace and harmony throughout God’s world—this whole planet. And open to God—all the time—not just during a prayer time, but all the time. I call this stewardship. I also looked the definition up on my phone. “At its core it is about accountability and making decisions that respect the needs of others and the limits of available resources.” That fits loving God and our neighbors as ourselves.

So, let’s look at our scripture. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he didn’t quote one of the ten commandments. He said—as we’ve heard in Sunday School, confirmation, in worship over and over again—love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself. This is the answer to all the world’s problems. If everyone believed this, lived this, the world would be transformed into a place that’s safe for all the children, which would mean for all of us. It sounds kind of easy—just love each other. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy—or we wouldn’t have wars, poverty, ecological crises, political divides, etc. We should all want peace and for everyone to be safe. We should forge partnership across political divides rather than some have the need for domination. It should be easy, but after centuries we still haven’t figured it out.

If we love God and love our neighbor and love ourselves, then won’t that automatically make us great stewards of God’s creation? If we love God, won’t we be driven—out of that love, out of our thankfulness for this creation and for God’s love—won’t we be driven to be great stewards of God’s creation to show that love—to share that love with everyone? How come then it’s so much easier to be influenced by family, friends, society, the media, and politics rather than by God and God’s word, such as today’s text?

Richard Weis, who was a dean at United Theological Seminary, taught a stewardship workshop I attended. He said that our purpose in life, according to the Bible, is the stewardship of the planet for the sake of all—which is all about loving God, our neighbors, and ourselves. We have been entrusted with God’s creation— with full responsibility—so what happens to the planet is in our hands. According to Dean Weis, God created the world and all that lives in it for “shalom” which means wholeness. God gave creation, the world, a structure, which is justice for all people, which maintains this wholeness or shalom. God created the world with the ability to sustain all of its inhabitants and provide them with “enough.” One’s surplus should not come at the expense of another’s “not enough.” Rather, we want justice. Then Dr. Weis goes on to say that the Church is the community of those who have been restored to this identity and made for this purpose. The Church is to be both the agent and the place of experiencing the emerging restoration of creation to God’s intended shalom or wholeness. This wholeness is about sharing God’s love with the whole of God’ creation. The who? Everyone?

So, what’s the problem? For the answer, Dr. Weis returns to our identity issues. He compares what our culture says it means to be fully human and what the Bible says. For example, the “Bible says we are to be stewards of creation, while society says we are consumers. The Bible promotes interdependence, partnerships—we need each other and others need us—versus society valuing self-sufficiency, standing alone, being protective of what’s ours. The Bible is collaborative society/world versus competitive society/world. The Bible: Share the surplus so each has enough versus acquiring and accumulating as much as you can. The Bible: In order for all to live, each must limit their accumulation versus there is no limit to the satisfaction of our own desires, I can have whatever I want. The Bible: Money is just another resource to be allocated to ensure shalom versus if you pay money you should get something. The Bible: Our spirit is nurtured by living up to who God made us to be; our worth is given by God versus our spirit is nourished and our worth is measured by what we possess.”

As individuals, we should all love the whole of God’s creation—all of it including people we don’t like. However, no one individual, no one congregation, denomination, religion, is expected to fix the world. Individually we are to be open to God’s calling—God’s wisdom—God’s grace and love. Individually we are to answer that call—recognizing the resources—the skills, the money, the time, the heart, soul and mind that we bring to the effort. But God’s work must be done collectively—we as individuals form a community of faith that wrestles with our use of what we have available to us for this purpose and what other organizations we can work with. Whether we are doing the activities with others from the church or another organization, whether we work or donate money, we are not doing it alone; we are doing the work of God with other people. None of us can do this alone.

As we look to the future and ask how can we be good stewards, Dr. Wies suggested that we look at three different areas: 1.“the resources—buildings and grounds, money, location, relationships, knowledge, experience; 2. our opportunities—local/regional, national/global; and 3. our people: skills knowledge, experience, roles, relationships, time, energy, personal resources and finally local and global relationships—all God-given—all given in our calling to serve creation.” As you know, these areas are ones we look at throughout the life and ministry of a church, but particularly in the times we are in now, this interim time. May it be a very productive and challenging and exciting time for us. I believe it is. And foremost, be open to God’s wisdom as individuals, as committees and boards, as families. It will make a difference.

God’s love and influence surround all the people—every moment of every day. If we were all totally open to God, we would love God with all our heart, mind and soul and our neighbors as ourselves. And ourselves—yes ourselves—because some find it very hard to love themselves. If we did so, our world would be very different. Alas, that is not the way of the world, and we are influenced every moment of every day by the whole world around us—everything we have heard, seen, read, experienced. So, let us become more interested in our quality of life than in our standard of living. More interested in our relationships with others than politics. More interested in learning more than in being right. More interested in kindness than in power. More interested in our differences, which are gifts, than seeking those we are like. More interested in God and God’s creation than ourselves.

Love who? God. We are to love God with our whole being—heart, soul, mind, spirit. And our neighbors as ourselves—they are who?—everyone on this planet. Even those we don’t like—even those we hate. And remember, God loves everyone—even those we don’t like. That love means we don’t hurt anyone, we care for everyone, and we work with God’s help to make the world a better place for all.

This is a great congregation. We do share God’s love. Let us continue to be open to God’s love. Be open to God’s guidance to make the world a better place for all people. Be open to God’s wisdom just as much as we can. It will make a difference in our world. That’s good stewardship—good spiritual stewardship.