Good Morning.
The readings assigned for today are
varied and interesting, Today begins a series of readings in the book of
Esther, a very interesting book. But my
mind is elsewhere.
I recently read a book titled “The
Party’s Over” by Mike Lofgren. Mike
Lofgren spent twenty-eight years working in Congress for Republicans, the last
sixteen as a senior analyst on the House and Senate Budget committees. Briefly it’s about the corruption that
Lofgren believes is eating away at the soul of our nation. His analysis points to a failure of “citizen
stewardship” (my expression, not his).
His solution starts with turning off Fox News and Entertainment Tonight
and exercising our brains to understand the true issues that are facing this
nation. The so-called culture wars are a
distraction, not the real issues at all.
He goes back to Eisenhower and points out that Ike tried to warn us that
unless WE (you and me) were vigilant then what we are facing today would
occur.
Lofgren includes one quote from Huey P.
Long from 1932 that summarizes the situation:
“They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of
Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings
you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street
kitchen."
Over the past 50 years we have not been good stewards of
this blessed nation. And yes, I believe
that this nation is blessed, and like all of God’s blessings what we do with it
is the important thing. That’s
stewardship!
At the same time I’ve been thinking
about Christian stewardship. I don’t
like looking for simple definitions of things, but if faith in the reality of
Jesus Christ is our core, and how we live our lives is the real time expression
of that faith, then “stewardship” is the seminal concept that describes the
life of Christian faith. How we live our
lives as Christians can be measured by stewardship – or the lack thereof.
At the bottom of all my emails I have a
quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "A
blessing is the visible, perceptible, effective proximity of God. A blessing
demands to be passed on; it communicates itself to other people. To be blessed
is to be oneself a blessing.” God has
blessed all of us with varying gifts, talents and treasures. The recognition that all that we have comes
from God is the recognition that God is active and alive in our lives. The blessings that we have received are meant
to be used by us to extend God’s blessings to others. Consistently using our blessings for the
extension of God’s presence in this world is faithful stewardship.
That includes the appropriate utilization of our intellect,
both as citizens and as Christians. We
need to take the time to know why we are in a financial crisis in this country
– and no, it’s not because of Medicare, Social Security, food stamps or student
loan programs. To do that means searching for answers, not just watching
televised opinions.
We need to know what the Gospel means today so that we can
share its message of hope and love with others.
To do that also means searching for answers, not just watching televised
opinions. It means taking scripture
study seriously and wrestling with God’s will for all people – all people – and
then expending our gifts for the glory of God.
How we live our lives as Christians can
be measured by stewardship – or the lack thereof – because the gifts that we
have received are meant to be faithfully shared with the world. The life of this nation, a blessing, depends
on the faithfulness of our stewardship.
The life of Christianity, the greatest blessing, depends on the
faithfulness of our stewardship.
Let us pray: Lord God, source of life itself and all the
blessings that you have given to us, especially the blessing of Your Son,
forgive us when we become lazy and selfish.
Shake us and awaken us to the responsibilities that accompany the blessings
that we gladly and greedily accept.
Restore to us the sense of responsibility that we have to this
nation. Restore to us the responsibility
that we have to use all our blessings for Your glory. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
The readings for today are Esther
1:1-4,10-19; Acts 17:1-15; John 12:36b-43; Psalm 69:1-38 and Psalm 73.
May we respond to God’s blessings with
faithful stewardship.
Pastor Jim
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