Nine Principles of Stewardship
(February 2004, Reprinted with permission
from Jim Kelley, Charlotte Diocese)
Stewardship is not marginal to the Gospel. Jesus continually challenges people of the kingdom. At times the response to this challenge is positive: the sharing of the possessions, the willingness to forgive and heal, the total commitment of one’s person to the Lord. Often, however, no response is forthcoming: the wounded are passed by, a harvest is hoarded into barns, and one’s wealth and person are jealously guarded. One thing is certain - the call to be good stewards is constant.
This talk is an attempt to contribute nine principles that might make us better stewards. The discussion takes place, as must all faith reflection, in the context of the life of the Church. The Church Jesus founded is called to do many things: to worship and pray, to share values and vision in education, to foster a faith community, to provide strong leadership, to reach out to others in justice and charity. Though related to all areas, stewardship is more visible in the act of reaching out. History records how, for one reason or another, different functions of the Church are stressed during different periods. In the Church today we are keenly aware of the need to be a good steward because of the limited resources that are available to us. But it is always important to relate stewardship to the other aspects of Church life lest it lose its proper perspective (meaning) and become a distortion.
Our baptismal commitment draws all of us into servant hood and stewardship. No one is exempt from making a contribution to the building of the kingdom: a kingdom of peace, truth, charity, freedom and justice. Our mission and ministry are no different from that of Jesus, which is to bring life, life to the full (John 10:10). Jesus is the good steward and we participate in that way of life. Through grace and serious effort we will be able to travel that road and give a joyful account of the gifts entrusted to us.
1. Stewardship is grounded in faith: the radical conviction that God gifts us and calls us to use those gifts for the building of the kingdom. (I Cor. 12:4-11)
Faith gives us identity as stewards and puts us into a relationship with a God who has endowed us with blessings and graces. Because of creation and even more because of baptism (a new creation), we are bonded to God in a covenant relationship. God not only calls us into community but also entrusts us with his world. Many gifts that are given us meet our own physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs. Many other gifts and graces are given primarily for the well being of others. Stewardship is the ministry by which we nurture and share our gifts. The challenge is not to forget the faith dimension underlying this important work.
2. The central obligation of stewardship is accountability. (Mt. 25:31-46)
One of the central experiences in human life is that of trust. Being a trustee of someone else's personal revelation or investing another with some precious gift of our own is a powerfully moving moment on the human journey.
Trust, however, is not without a serious demand, namely, that one day we give an account of what has been entrusted to us. Most Christians do not have an annual evaluation process to measure the quality of their stewardship. Would that such an instrument was available and operative, the obligation of accountability remains whether or not there is an explicit evaluation. In gentle but no uncertain terms the Lord will ask what we have done with the life entrusted to us. The human heart longs for those glorious words: “Well done, good and faithful servant…”
3. We must be stewards of time, talent and temporal goods. (Mt. 25:14- 30)
An old song containing a perennial truth goes: “the best things in life are free.” One such gift is that of time. Be it ten or ninety years, we are asked to give part of that time in service for the well being of others. Talents are also sheer grace. Whether one is a parent, teacher, doctor, farmer, lawyer, the exercise of talents rebounds to the building up of the community. Treasure, an accumulation of good, property, and money raises some difficult choices for the Christian. Pope Paul VI once wrote: “Both for nations and for individual men, avarice is the most evident form of moral underdevelopment.” The challenge is to share not only from our surplus but also from our necessities. In all three areas - time, talent, treasure -the basic call is to a spirit of generosity and sacrifice. Grace is needed to have a generous and gracious heart to live out stewardship in all three areas.
4. Stewardship faces the obstacles of greed, selfishness, and irresponsibility. (Lk. 12:13-21)
How well Augustine seems to capture one of life's movements when he states: "The soul is greedy to wish to know so much, and to have and hold it, and so, grasping for time, materiality and multiplicity, we lose what is uniquely our own." Jesus warns about storing up things and gives as a standard of love one’s willingness to feed his sheep and tend the needs of others. (Jn. 21:15-17) Greed and stewardship are not compatible within the same heart. Selfishness, the mother of greed, is the radical tendency to protect and enlarge our ego. When a basic option is made for self to the exclusion of others, stewardship becomes an impossibility. Irresponsibility fails to see and respond appropriately to the needs of others. Turning away in unconcern or positing acts that infringe upon human dignity characterizes the irresponsible person. Stewards assume humbly and graciously the responsibilities of their state in life.
5. Stewardship has a built-in tension that balances out the individual good and the common good. (Phil. 4:10-20)
The photograph of planet earth taken by the astronauts has had a powerful effect on many of us. For the first time in history we see ourselves as a small blue and brown ball flying through space with incredible speed. The realization that we are a global village is beginning to dawn on us. A sense of radical solidarity is slowly developing. As a single family we are truly interdependent: when one nation suffers, we all are affected; a crisis in one area of our planet makes an impact everywhere. Thus in being stewards we are called to a lived sense of the common good. Certain institutions and programs are necessary for the good of all and we must see that they are established and maintained. We are also aware that as individuals we have vested interests. To a point this is necessary and valid. However, from a Christian perspective, the individual good is not the central focus of our lives. Our individuality must be seen in the light of community; community must be respectful of the unique dignity of every individual. Stewardship, when properly exercised, protects and promotes both individual good and common good in as balanced a fashion as possible.
6. Stewardship is more a way of life than it is a single, particular action. (Mk. 10:28-31)
There are no transitory stewards, i.e., people who might claim the title of steward by a one-time donation, a few hours or months of service, a sporadic, seasonal sharing of talents. Commendable as these particular actions are, they do not qualify an individual to be identified as a steward. Something more is needed. Stewardship is a basic attitude that leads to a consistent life-style of sharing and caring. It is an existential posture that flows from a basic understanding of life. Life is a gift and a task coming from a God who invites us to continue His life-giving work. And that work touches every season of life.
7. Stewardship is a dynamic reality that changes according to giftedness and circumstances. (Lk. 10: 1-16)
Neither life nor ministry is static. Cultural circumstances are constantly changing; personal gifts and limitations change; financial resources fluctuate for a variety of reasons. Stewardship is lived within this fluid context. Its expression will vary accordingly. Parents raising a family will have a different sense of stewardship from that of an elderly couple who have leisure time for a broader type of ministry. Stewardship exercised by the poor will have a different countenance from that of the rich. The missionary in Central America will render to the Lord an accountability different from that of the contemplative. Stewardship necessarily varies with the needs of the world and the giftedness of people. Flexibility and creativity are important qualities in a steward who wants to be authentic and credible. When stewardship becomes rigid or too structured, it fails in its central task: the giving of life, life to the full.
8. Stewardship provides a "spiritual technology" by which a person translates faith vision into faith life. (James 1:19-27)
“How to” books sell extremely well. Most of us have a strong, practical side and a methodology by which we take a theory and get it into real life becomes popular quickly. It is not particularly helpful to be given a vision of what ought to be done and then deprived of the necessary tools of implementation. Stewardship is a spiritual technology, which allows us to take our call to be a sharing and caring community gathered around Jesus, and to live out its values in our daily lives. Stewardship is the channel by which love is incarnated in concrete situations. As such, stewardship shuns abstractions and romanticism. It is concrete and real, plunging us into a messy world that needs loving care. Stewardship gets things done. In a sense, the steward is an intersection between grace and human need. God gives the initiative and we cooperate with it in being instruments of love, forgiveness and compassion.
9. Stewardship is grounded in prayer and conditioned by discipline. (Mt.6:7-21)
It is in prayer that we hear God's call to be for and with others on life’s journey. In that mysterious silence the Lord invites and commands us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned. In that paradoxical solitude we come into contact with the whole world. In that time of surrender we allow God’s will to become central in our lives. A solid prayer life necessarily leads to stewardship. Of equal importance is the spiritual exercise of discipline. Through voluntary self-denial we gain an inner freedom that allows us to be truly for others. Mortification breaks down our egotism and selfishness. Discipline keeps us alert and sensitive to life and the needs of others. It would be difficult to imagine a steward maintaining that identity without a solid prayer life and without the exercise of discipline. Without prayer there is no authentic listening; without discipline no authentic freedom.
Conclusion
Theology is a reflection on our faith journey. One dimension of that journey is stewardship and these reflections are sketchy notes attempting to throw some light on this profound reality. By way of conclusion, we might turn to the signs of the Holy Spirit as an evaluative tool in recognizing a steward and disciple of Jesus. (Gal. 5:16-26) Where a deep joy permeates the generous service of reaching out to others, where a genuine peace is manifest in the relationship of life, where a strong but gentle love is both received and given, there stewardship is found.
Indeed Jesus comes to His people through His stewards so that all peoples might experience the love and forgiveness of God. One question remains: are we willing to participate in the mission and ministry of Jesus?
