Editor’s note: Monthly articles from LCMS Stewardship Ministry are hosted here on The Lutheran Witness site. Visit the “Ministry Features” page each month for additional stewardship content.
Catechesis is the perfect place for the steward leader to debunk the idolatrous claim that we as mere human beings own any part of creation. When God’s Word is brought to bear, it quickly becomes clear who God is, and our relationship to Him as steward is defined.
God is God and we are not. God owns all things. At no point in the first two chapters of Genesis, or anywhere else in Scripture for that matter, does God ever transfer title and ownership of even one iota of the created order to us.
This is where we run into our ongoing struggle with stewardship. Human beings have claimed ownership of their little corner of the created order from the earliest days. “MY Blanket! MY teddy bear! MY cookie!” This desire for ownership does not subside in childhood, either. As we age and mature, we just find more creative ways to express our ownership of creation.
We use words like “deed,” “title,” or “bill of sale.” While all of these are indeed legal ownership terms in the kingdom of the left hand, Scripture is clear that they are NOT ours. Don’t believe it? Look at Psalm 24:1!
Clarifying with the Catechism
Luther helps the steward leader put this all in perspective in the Small Catechism. The earth and the fullness thereof and all those who dwell therein belong to God by virtue of the divine miracle of creation. God made it. He owns it. The First Article states this clearly. We believe that God created the heavens and the earth. If you create it, you own it. God did, so He owns it all.
But here is where the Lord proves to be most gracious. Luther puts it this way in the Small Catechism: “He gives me clothing and shoes, wife and children, land, animals and all I have.” Here is where catechesis makes it clear that what we think we own is actually given in trust. God still owns it all. But He places these things into our hands to “support this body and life.”
Receiving the trust with thanksgiving
The steward leader needs to be careful with this, though. The word “gift” denotes a transfer of ownership. In our world, when a gift is given, the giver no longer has control of how it is used. It can be treasured, trivialized or trashed. That is not what God has in mind with His provision to support this body and life. It is better stated as a trust, for with a trust comes accountability, and what is entrusted to the steward says volumes about the ultimate owner!
When this trust is rightly seen through Holy Spirit-wrought faith, it calls us to living, active and daily stewardship. Luther captures this in his explanation of the Fourth Petition: “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.”
The life of a steward is the life of thanksgiving. We are called to live out the trust that the Lord has graciously granted to us within the created order. This thanksgiving is directional as well. It is lived out back to the One who entrusted it to us as we live it outwardly toward our neighbor. We do not deserve any trust. Yet the Lord gives it.
Thankful stewardship reflects God’s grace
As faithful stewards live out this thanksgiving in the world, God’s workmanship is on display. Our neighbors see our thankful stewardship and are directed back to the One who has entrusted to them all that they have. The grace of God on display in our stewardship likewise points our neighbor back to the One who has entrusted it all to them!
This thankful stewardship does not save. The steward does not get bonus points for their faithfulness. But it does open the door to conversation where the Word of God is shared. In the stewardship of the Word, the Holy Spirit is afforded the opportunity to convict the owner of their idolatry and calls them to repentant faith in Jesus Christ. He is the Perfect Steward who gives us reason for the greatest thanksgiving.
Called to a living, thankful stewardship
Faithful stewardship does not happen by chance. It goes against our sinful nature. It is only possible when the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies and keeps us in the one true faith.
Thankful and faithful stewardship is so out of place in our broken and fallen world that it will stick out like a sore thumb. This living stewardship of the created order for the sake of the Gospel is the stewardship to which we have been called. The Spirit calls us to it. Catechesis shows us how. Therefore, the two are essential in the development of faithful, thankful stewards.
LCMS Stewardship ministry features may be reprinted with acknowledgment given to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
