` Lent 4 - 2002

Lent 4 - 2002



Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Laetare – Lent 4 (March 10, 2002)
John 6:1-15
TITLE: “Stewardship of the Gifts of God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read from John chapter 6, Jesus’ feeding of the 5000.

This morning we begin our spring stewardship drive, entitled Forward in Faith: For the Church of Today and Tomorrow.  As I reflected on our texts for this morning, and of our stewardship drive, it struck me how much we take for granted when it comes to stewardship and the gifts of God.  But we are not the first ones to be faced with this dilemma.

Jesus sees the crowds before Him who have gathered to hear the Word of God, and He bids His disciples to get them something to eat.  The disciples, though, simply cannot believe that they can feed all these people.  So He asks them the question: “Where shall we buy bread so that these may eat?”  Philip and the other disciples just can’t understand.  They just don’t realize that when the Lord of creation says something, it will happen. 

And the people, the very ones who came out to hear Jesus and to receive His teaching, they didn’t get it, either.  Jesus gives them more than they need, and rather than looking to Him as one who can give them Eternal Food, they see Him as a bread king.  They come to believe that He can give them everything they need so that their lives will be easy, so that they won’t have to work or do a thing.  In other words, they missed the point completely.

As we think about the gifts God has given us this day and every day of our lives, there is a basic question we must ask: do I look as these gifts I receive from God as gifts to be used for His glory and the welfare of my neighbor, or do I look at them as possessions that I must cling to and use for myself?

Of course, we all look at our possessions selfishly.  God has blessed our nation almost beyond measure.  We have a higher standard of living than any other time in the history of our nation.  Even in the midst of an economic slowdown, Americans have more disposable income than any other industrialized nation in the world.  Truly God has deeply and richly blessed us.

And yet there is a tendency amongst all of us to take this for granted.  There is always one part of us that believes whatever we receive is something we deserve.  God has given me so much so that I can live the way I want, eat good food, buy the stuff I want, and enjoy myself as I see fit.  Or almost worse, we can easily have the view that God is gracious now, but He won’t be so gracious later.  Therefore, I had better hang on to every penny I have, and not give to anything or anyone.

But the very idea of stewardship is based on the reality that we truly own nothing, and that God is the one who gives us all good things.  God is the one who made us.  He is the one who keeps us in this life, and he is the one who provides for my every need.  As we confess in catechism:

I believe that God has made me and all creatures.  That he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.  He also gives me clothing and shoes, house and home, wife and children, land, animals and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.  He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.  All this he does only out of fatherly, divine, goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me.  For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey him.  This is most certainly true.
(Explanation to the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Small Catechism)

This gives you and I a perspective on life that is really worth having.  As long as my possessions define me, then I am enslaved to them.  Christ our Lord would have you remember that all of your possessions already belong to God, and that, as St. Paul says, "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out" (1 Timothy 6:7).

So when we talk about stewardship, it is important to note that this is not finally about getting money for the church, for the Lutheran school, for the parking lot, or encouraging you to take care of your family, or asking you to do or be or give to anyone or anything else.  As your pastor it does not matter to me how much you give to church, for the parking lot or for the school or anything else.  It doesn’t matter whether you ever give a dime.

Maybe that surprises you.  I’m sure that many of you, when you hear that we are starting a stewardship drive, think to yourselves, “Oh great, a seven week guilt trip on why I should give more to church.”  That, my friends, is not what this is all about.  For you see, we believe as the Christian Church that God will always provide for His church.  No matter what happens, no matter how good or how bad the economy is, or the level of interest of the members is, or everything else that, humanly speaking, seems to make a church tick, none of those things are what makes this Church work.  What makes this Church a Christian Church is that God promises that He will always provide for everything we need.  No matter what happens, like the people in our text, God will provide.  Perhaps we can’t see the way.  Perhaps to our eyes it doesn’t look like it will all come together.  But we believe it will, no matter what may come.  That’s Gospel, my friends.

So the point is that I want you to learn and understand that your possessions are a gift from God, and that you use them for His glory and the welfare of your neighbor.  But you don’t use them this way because you have to use them that way.  You get to use them that way.  For just as God always promises to provide for His Church, so He also promises that you will always have everything you need.  In other words, your giving is about faith.  You are able to give because you believe that God will take care of you.  And when you give, when you take care of your neighbor, be it family or church or community, God actually uses you to accomplish all of His great work here on earth.  You get to participate in God’s creation.

In the book of Acts we hear about the early Christian church and the incredible growth they experienced in the face of persecution and certain death.  One of the things that truly defined this early church was that they saw their possessions as a gift from God that they gladly used for the well-being of all.  As St. Paul says, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). 

So where is the Gospel in all of this?  The Gospel is very clear.  While you and I fail time after time to believe as we should and give as we should, Christ never fails.  He sacrificed all.  He gave up His livelihood, He gave up His family, His friends, His health and well-being, and in the end, He gave up His very life.  That is stewardship, my friends.  Christ our Lord dared to give up everything, even life itself, so that you would have life.  That is why we say that Jesus is the priceless treasure, the one gift above all others.  When you have Him, you have everything you could possible want or need.

And because you have Him, you are free to give, to create, to work with all of the possessions that God has given you.  What a treasure!  God frees you to be His child, knowing that He will always take care of you.

This day Jesus gives you the Bread of Life for your salvation and eternal well-being.  You don’t have to cling to these possessions and life as though everything depends upon them.  Your life belongs to God.  You are hidden in Christ, and in Him, you have everything you need.  The gifts that God gives you, He gives you because He can.  He gives them to you because He loves you.  He gives them to you because He wants you to look to Him for every good and perfect gift.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Copyright © 2002 by Todd A. Peperkorn.  This sermon may be reproduced freely, as long as the author is properly cited for any reproduction in print.
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