Stewardship

Stewardship means the management of all things in our lives.

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Stewardship does not mean
    what we usually think it means.

It has to do with management,
   but it is not just the management of money
       or financial resources.

Stewardship involves everything.

Money is included,
    but the principles of stewardship
        guide us in more than what we give.

Those principles are also closely related
    to the way we earn and spend our money
        and our whole attitude toward property
            and relationships.

Spending on products that are sustainable
    is an important part of stewardship in our time.

Stewardship even has a role to play in evolution.

Charles Darwin wrote,
   "In the long history of humankind
        (and animal kind, too)
             those who learned
                to collaborate and improvise
                   most effectively
                       have prevailed. "

In the process of development and growth
    collaboration and improvisation
        are both forms of stewardship.

For me, the most important resource
    in learning to understand the meaning
        of stewardship
             is a parable of Jesus.

His parables were teaching tools,
    examples from ordinary, everyday life.

The stories made a single point,
    illustrating one important concept.

In the case of the parable I'm about to read,
   that one concept is stewardship.

Luke 16:1-13 New International Version (NIV)
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
    Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ 
    Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
    www.zondervan.com
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 “‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”


This parable is often regarded
   as too difficult to understand.

Why would Jesus make an example
     of mismanagement?

But mismanagement is not the point of the parable.

Management is the point of the parable,
       and for our purposes today,
              management means stewardship.

What the manager did in the parable
     involved the use of property of his employer
           for his own benefit, yes,
                 but doing it in a way
                     that benefits many others.

So this gives me the basic concept of stewardship
    that I find most meaningful:
        It is the management of any kind of resource
            in our hands
                for the benefit of others.

This is how I see collaboration and improvisation
     as described by Darwin
         in the successful processes of evolution.

It may or may not be altruistic or idealistic,
      but the benefits for everyone will be similar.

The steward in the parable
    was skilled at improvising a solution
         to his situation.

He did so in collaboration
     with his employer's debtors.

He benefitted, and so did they.

He is often called the dishonest steward as a result,
    but he had the legal right to do what he did.

Even his employer commended his shrewdness
    before he was sent away.

Jesus did not commend his shrewdness,
    but spoke clearly of making friends for ourselves
       by means of the worldly wealth
          in our hands.

The money and property in our hands
    is that worldly wealth,
          and it's there to be used
                not only for ourselves alone
                     but for as many others as possible.

The question arose in our response time last month
     whether stewardship and capitalism can coexist.

Capitalism has as its goal
    the accumulation of money and property.

Stewardship seeks to distribute money and property
     in ways that will benefit everyone the most.

So stewardship and capitalism are not opposites,
     but they are necessary
         to keep each other in balance.

If capitalism is to survive,
     stewardship can enable it to provide resources
          for many more people.

Laissez faire capitalism,
    that is, capitalism without restraint,
        tends to concentrate resources
            in very few hands,

so it cannot coexist with stewardship.

We hear a lot of discussion about socialism lately.

In reality,
   socialism simply refers to ownership
        of the means of production and distribution.

In a socialist society, production and distribution
    are in the hands of the collective,
        of the state, the local government,
             or the workers of a farm or factory.

As such it can be a vehicle of stewardship,
    providing for benefits to the greatest number.

The problem is that socialism does not include
     a cure for greed.

Wealth is managed by very few people 
     as a socialist society carries out the tasks
          of production and distribution.

Corruption all too often becomes all too easy.

Prevention and punishment of corruption
    require the expenditure of too many resources.

A mixed economy,
    where capitalism is managed
         under principles of stewardship
              seems to work much better.

Other principles can be used to manage capitalism.

It can enhance the power of the state.

It can concentrate wealth
     in the hands of a few people.
          (Does that sound all too familiar?)

The principles of stewardship work best
     because they refer to management
           for the sake of providing resources to others,
                to as many people as possible.

Mutual aid toward survival is good principle
     not only for species
           as in natural selection and evolution,
                but also in the development of societies.

Where resources are limited,
    the principles of stewardship
        are even more important.

A mixed economy enables a population to survive
      and even thrive in times and places of scarcity.

Land is scarce in the Hawaiian islands,
    and a concept of Kuleana rights
        allows tenant farmers
            to access  landlocked parcels.

There have been attempts to diminish those rights,
     but they stand to this day,
         enabling a kind of stewardship of land
              that serves their society well.

 In many ways stewardship enables species
     and communities to thrive
          when they could not do so
                without good management.

A way to sum it up is something I've said before
    and I'm sure I'll say it again:

We can provide for everyone's need.

We cannot provide for anyone's greed.

Amen.

So let it be.

Blessed be.