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October 3, 2010

Consecrated Stewards are Obedient Stewards

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Series: Stewardship 2010: Consecrated Stewards Category: Biblical Scripture: Luke 17:5–17:10

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 17:5-10
October 2-3, 2010

“Consecrated Stewards are Obedient Stewards”

Two of my daughters attend Our Savior Lutheran School in Arlington, and we’ve worked out a carpool arrangement with another family. They take the kids in the morning, and we pick them up in the afternoon. Each day we pass by Woofs Dog Training Center on Four Mile Run Drive in south Arlington. There always seems to be people coming and going from this place as dog owners come seeking help to train their dogs and make them obedient to their human masters. My family has been talking (and talking and talking) about getting a dog, but so far we haven’t gotten one. We do have the two cats: Max and Miss Kitty. So, why isn’t there a cat training center out there somewhere? Sounds like this could be a new business market for some adventurous soul. Truth is, we all know why there are no cat training centers out there: we don’t train cats, they train us. It’s like the sign that I once saw hanging in a veterinarian’s office: “Dogs come when you call them. Cats take a message and get back to you later.” It is that subject of obedience that is before us today – not for dogs, but for us as God’s people. Based on Jesus’ words in the Gospel lesson, the theme for today’s message is “Consecrated Stewards are Obedient Stewards.” May the Lord’s rich blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word, for Jesus’ sake.

So, we’re focusing on what it means to be stewards – managers – of God’s gifts in our lives. If we pause even for a moment, we realize how daily and richly God showers good things on us - blessings that we don’t deserve or merit, and yet God still graciously provides all that we need for this body and life. The question we’re concerned with is this: how am I doing in managing what belongs to God? How goes it with my managing of God’s gifts? Thus far in this fall preaching series called Consecrated Stewards, we’ve looked at several different points about stewardship: how God’s stewards are faithful, how God’s stewards are compassionate. To be faithful, compassionate, and obedient stewards of God – that is our calling in Christ.

To really get a handle on what it means to be obedient stewards, we have to expand the Gospel lesson for today to include the first five verses from Luke 17. That sets the tone and gives the context for what follows (read Luke 17:1-5). Here Jesus warns his disciples to guard against temptation, for themselves as well as for fellow believers. And Jesus also calls his disciples to freely and readily forgive one another. It’s because of what Jesus calls them to do that they cry out: “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). They know how weak and inadequate their faith is to do what Jesus calls them to do. They can’t do it on their own, and neither can we. They need help. We need help! Their prayer is our prayer: “Lord, increase our faith!” Jesus makes clear to them and to us that faith – even a very small faith – is capable of otherwise impossible things. The unclean spirits (Mark 1:27), the winds and the waves (Luke 8:25), even death itself (Luke 7:11-17) were obedient to Jesus. Our faith connects us to him and to the power of God which makes all things possible (Luke 1:37). So, if the unclean spirits, the natural elements of wind and wave, and even death itself were and are obedient to Jesus, why do we have such difficulty with obedience? Why is it that we struggle so much with submitting ourselves to the Lord, and to his will and purpose? Obedience is not something that comes natural for us as human beings. Like our dogs that we send to obedience school, we have to be taught this. And so we cry out: “Lord, increase our faith!”

We live in a world where we’re used to accumulating points or getting cash back with use of our credit cards, or frequent flyer miles when we travel. Maybe this rewards-based thinking spills over into our faith life. Jesus’ story of the servant probably strikes us as being kind of harsh. Couldn’t the master at least say, “Thanks” or “Good job” to the servant who’s been hard at work outside plowing the fields, and then has to come inside to prepare and serve dinner? Verse 9 is a rhetorical question: “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?” The master doesn’t thank the servant. Why? Because the master has given the servant everything needed to be faithful and worthy in his service. Any success is due to the gifts that the master has given the servant. While the master makes great demands of his servant, he also knows that his servant is capable of doing this and doing it well. The long and short of it is this: performance of duty does not entitle one to a reward. So also, when we have accomplished all that God has commanded us, we have no claim upon God, except through his grace. Again, this may sound harsh to our ears, but it is God’s own truth. We cannot put God in our debt, as though God owes us something. Now, it needs to be pointed out that elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel (12:35-37), Jesus speaks of how God will treat his servants with gratitude and blessing who have faithfully done his will. But the truth remains that the attitude which seeks reward because of faithful obedience and service is improper and out of place. Better to call it what it is, and that is sin – a twisting and perversion of God’s will and purpose. At the end of the day, as God’s consecrated stewards, we can only say: “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” (Luke 17:10).

If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that our calling to be God’s consecrated and obedient stewards falls far short of what God would have us be and do. And so, we turn our eyes to Jesus, who for our sake “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Why? Why did Jesus do all of this? He did it for us. He did it for us because he knew we couldn’t do it for ourselves. He lived that perfect life we could not because of our sin, and he willingly died the death we deserved because of our sin. Through his perfect obedience and his sacrificial death upon the cross, all of our imperfection and our disobedience is forgiven. In Jesus, we are acceptable and pleasing to God. With Jesus as our model of faithful obedience, we go forth to manage his gifts – all of them – with renewed faith. Even if that faith is as small as a mustard seed, God can do amazing things with it. And so we go forth – back into the world which God dearly loves – as God’s consecrated and obedient stewards. Amen.

other sermons in this series