Sounds like it’s stewardship Sunday!  Don’t worry it isn’t, however, Stewardship is not a once a year endeavor. Stewardship has nothing to do with pledge cards or every member visits. It is an ongoing part of being Christian, of being faithful.

The role of a steward was an important and common position in biblical times, these days however, the word brings to mind cruise ships more than anything else. However, the concept of stewardship is still very much alive and well in its biblical sense, we just use job titles.

  • Financial managers: have the care and stewardship of a person or businesses finances.
  • A general contractor: will have stewardship over a building project being responsible for it’s timely and quality competition.
  • Even a Wedding Planner is a steward of the event.

A steward is simply a person who takes on the responsibilities of a person in their absence.

In our gospel reading these past weeks Jesus has been teaching about his upcoming absence. Jesus is teaching about his leaving via the cross and the resurrection, and his return…the end of times, the second coming, and more importantly what to do in the meanwhile.

It is clear that for Jesus, teaching his disciples about his return and how to prepare for it was very important. Jesus speaks of signs and signals of the end times, but also that no one will know the day and time, so we must keep awake and not be fooled. Then, in Matthew’s there are 5 parables in Matthew all detailing, how to act and live in the time between Jesus’ resurrection and second coming.  The parable of the faithful and wise slaves, the thief in the night, last weeks 10 brides maids, today’s gospel about the investing slaves and then finally, next week the sheep and the goats.

We are living those parables, living In the between time.  Jesus has been resurrected but has not yet returned. This is our time, these parables are for us.  Because it is as if Jesus, having gone away for a time; entrusted us to be stewards in his absence. Just like the three slaves in our gospel today.

This is a challenging parable and most especially with the treating of the 3rd slave.  Just like all of these apocalyptic parables we are given examples to follow and examples not to follow.

The master, the Lord in this parable has given each slave the stewardship of 2 to 10 million dollars. Which speaks to me of the trust that this Lord has in his stewards and the relationship he must have developed with them. When the Lord returns and gathers accounts from the first two stewards he speaks to them with kindness and approval, giving them further trust and responsibility; inviting them to enter ‘into his joy’.  The relationship displayed here is one of mutual trust and good stewardship.

This is completely different from what we hear about steward number three. This third fellow was entrusted with some 2 million, a high level of trust from a master to a slave, and yet the steward doesn’t seem to have the same relationship with the Lord as the other two stewards.  When the Lord returns and demands of his stewards and accounting this his third steward says to his Lord;

 “I knew you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not seed.”  That is bold did he just call his Lord a thief? 

And is he saying that the same Lord who invited the other stewards to enter into his joy is harsh and unforgiving?  Clearly the third steward sees his Lord quite differently from the others.

Steward the third continues “I was afraid, so I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.”  He was given millions to be steward of, was given a hearty amount of trust and responsibility and essentially for who knows how long shoved his Lord’s trust and his Lord’s gifts in a hole refusing to have anything to do with them.

Why the difference between the first two stewards and the third? The first two make no mention of fear…nor do they speak of the Lord’s harsh and thieving nature and as far as we can tell for those first two interactions there is no indication of that personality.

Could it be that third’s relationship with the master effected how he viewed the stewardship entrusted to him?  The fear or trust in the Lord changes how the steward acts?

We are in the in between times waiting for the day and hour that our master will return. We are the stewards of all that has been entrusted to us by our Lord, be that individually or collectively. What we dare and what we will risk seems by this parable to depend on whether we have developed a relationship with our lord of trust and joy, or a relationship of fear and punishment.

The relationship we have with the Lord seems to be key in this apocalyptic readings.  Just like the bridesmaids and bridegroom of last weeks parable, and next week’s reading on sheep and goats;  The key to how we live out this in between time seems to depend on our relationship with Christ, on how well we know him.           

Those first two stewards felt confident enough in their relationship with the Lord to risk, and risk a lot!  Their relationship was one of trust, productivity, and good stewardship. The kind of stewardship that we hear of in our reading from Thessalonians.

“for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober;”   

We are expected to be good stewards in the absence of the master, we are expected to be responsible and take good care of all that is entrusted to us.  Making the most of all we have been given to the glory of our master. We are to work, pray, feast, be in community and live out the trust we have been given.

To live in the symbolic day; in the light which represents truth, clarity, integrity, and goodness. This is shown, albeit briefly, in the work of the two stewards who increased their masters investments.  They made good use of the gifts entrusted to them and their gifts grew, to the benefit of themselves and the Lord.

In contrast we are told we are not to live in the night, represented by darkness which is aligned with laziness, sinfulness, activities that are hidden, shameful, and deceptive.  We are encouraged not to live in fear, burying what we have been gifted for fear of its loss, but we are told step out into the light and help one another to be good stewards. Not out of fear of punishment, but in hope, faith, and love. Thessalonians tells us that we are not destined for wrath, but for salvation…

Which brings us back to the third steward.

“'You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.
As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"

Yikes! What to do with this. Our third steward is the one who has declared the Lord to he harsh and grasping, despite evidence to the contrary. We are not told why only this third steward thinks this way, nor where this info came from, but we do get the response.

Well, says the Lord, if you judged me as harsh and grasping and if you were in fear of what I might do…why did you still did nothing?! You have done nothing out of love or fear, not even the most passive means of productivity, putting the money in a bank. The Lord is angry, angry not that he failed, or didn’t do as well as the others, nor even at the words he spoke.  It seems the Lord is angry that he has squandered this opportunity…even the Greek for what we have as ‘worthless’ is literally translated as ‘unprofitable’.   This is bad stewardship. Not even trying to fill your responsibilities, this is the Thessalonian’s person of the night who simply sleeps away the time they haven been entrusted with.

The slave didn’t do anything bad, he simply did nothing at all because he didn’t know the Lord enough to trust him…what he knew was based in darkness and fear.  So, we read he was cast into that same darkness, sitting outside the gates with those foolish bridesmaids of last week. Weeping, grinding his teeth and as my mother would say…thinking about what he has done. Like the first two stewards who were given more, this steward did nothing and now he gets nothing, cast into the darkness of shame, regret, and in time, one hopes repentance. Because we are told that we are not meant for wrath but for salvation, we are beloved…we are meant for the day…for truth and for light. However, if we choose to live in the darkness, we will be in darkness.  We are stewards and it is up to us to make good use of all that is entrusted to us, for the glory of the Lord.

Which begs the question…What is it we are called to do?

Well. Come back next week for part two of this fantastic sermon…. Exploring what it means to be a good steward…or rather a good sheep.