Successful Stewardship?

Stewardship is not a new topic. It has been discussed, dissected, disputed, and in some cases, despised, for generations. Why is that? Stewardship is challenging because it reminds us that everything we have belongs to God — everything we have has been entrusted to us to manage for HIS purposes, even if our purposes do not align with His. We struggle with stewardship because we willfully refuse to answer the question, “What does success in stewardship look like?”

But then again, even that is the wrong question. Any definition of success runs into the Law. The Law of God is good and wise, but we will never succeed in fulfilling it. The metrics and measurements of the Law accuse, causing the steward to ask himself, “Have I done enough?” The honest answer for anyone is, “Nope, I have not done enough!” We cannot do enough because the Law requires perfection. What fulfills the Law? A consistent tithe? Giving everything away for the sake of the poor? Somewhere in between? Perfection in thought, word and deed, just like we confess each week? Any quest for stewardship success will leave either a conceited steward or a broken and bewildered steward. Neither is successful.

If we cannot accurately talk about stewardship success, what would be the better way? We should use the standard that St. Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 4: “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:1–2). The standard that St. Paul suggests for the stewards of the mysteries of God is faithfulness. While Paul is indeed talking about the exercise of his apostolic office in these words, he uses the same term that is elsewhere used for our everyday stewardship. The standard is faithfulness.

This faithfulness is marked by repentance. Like St. Paul, every steward who knows the Word of God knows that we daily sin and fall short of the glory of God. This is true in our relationship with the Lord and our relationships with others. We have been created by God and redeemed by virtue of our Baptism into Christ; in our new life in Christ, we strive to be good stewards out of love for God and our neighbors. Yet our stewardship efforts will continue to falter; we fail in our relationship to God, sinning against the first table of the Law, and we fail in our relationships with our neighbors, sinning against the second table of the Law. The faithful steward will readily confess that their stewardship is not in any way perfect.

But the Holy Spirit that has called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified every steward is also the One who by grace through faith in Jesus will then keep the redeemed steward in the one true faith, a faith which then shows itself in faithful stewardship. This faithfulness is created at the font and nurtured at the altar.

How should we define faithful stewardship? We can use a two-question diagnostic. First, since everything we have comes from God, we ask ourselves, “How has the Lord blessed me?” Second, since we are royal priests reflecting God’s grace and mercy in the world, we ask, “How is God calling me to respond?” These two questions are challenging because they do not fit neatly into a chart, nor can they be put on a commitment card once a year for budget purposes.

Rather, the answer to these questions flows directly from our identity as children of God and our part in God’s family, the church, in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes. The ultimate purpose of stewardship is for all people to come to the knowledge of the truth of God revealed in Jesus Christ and be saved. Faithful stewardship is nothing other than our faithful stewardship of the Gospel using all the First Article items entrusted to us.

Successful stewardship is faithful stewardship. It is not about amount but rather identity. It is not about balanced budgets but about the way the Gospel works in and through us. Faithful stewardship points people to Jesus.