I want to be right up front about the fact that this is a stewardship sermon. Today marks the beginning of our Stewardship Education and Commitment Emphasis and this sermon is a part of that emphasis. I also want to be right up front about the fact that I will not be talking about money. Please don't misunderstand me. Money is a very important matter for the Church and a central issue in the subject of stewardship. Indeed, two weeks from now you will hear a stewardship sermon in which I do talk about money. But not today. Today I want to paint a picture of stewardship with broad, sweeping brush strokes. If you received a letter from me in the last couple of days, then you already know the underlying theme of what I have to say. As I have come to understand stewardship, at the heart of it all, it is about everything we do with everything we have, in response to God's love and grace.

If what we do in terms of stewardship is in response to what God has done and is doing in our lives, then an appropriate place to begin would be an examination of God's love and grace. To what are we responding? Such a list would, of course, be infinitely huge. But that does not mean we should not at least address the subject. And so, we might begin at the beginning. "God created the heavens and the earth" -- not to mention we ourselves! If you have enjoyed a sunrise or a sunset recently, then add that to your list. If you have eyes to see a tree, or ears to hear the song of a bird, or a nose with which to smell a flower, or a tongue with which to taste your favorite food, or skin with which to feel the wind, then add those to your list. If you have family who love you, or friends who care about you, or a teacher who gave you the gift of knowledge, or a neighbor who waves and smiles when you walk by, then add that to the list. If you have ever offered a prayer and had any sense at all that there was someone who heard you, then your list is growing. If you have, in one way or another, experienced the unseen touch of the eternal in the midst of the finite, or if you have become aware of the sacred here among the ordinary, then you have at least glimpsed a piece of God's love and grace. If you have ever felt encouraged or comforted or empowered by the knowledge that you are loved by God, then you understand something of the magnitude of God's gift. Indeed, everything we have and everything we are comes to us as a gift from God.

Such an awareness is an important prelude to any discussion about stewardship, because it keeps before us the essential truth that what we do, in whatever specific form it takes, does not spring forth out of thin air and does not exist in isolation. Stewardship is a response which is prompted by an impulse of gratitude. It is saying yes to God because God has first said yes to us. Remembering this helps to prevent our efforts from becoming drudgery or an obligation. It serves to remind us that stewardship, like faith itself, is primarily a relational matter. It emerges out of and occurs within the context of the relationship which we share with God.

Both scripture readings for this morning illustrate this reality. In the dramatic story of Isaiah's heavenly vision, we watch as he moves from being overwhelmed by the presence of God to experiencing the transforming power of God's unconditional grace to responding to God's call to action. In all of that experience, God is always the primary foundation upon which everything else is built. It is an awareness of who God is, what God has done and who God is calling him to be which prompts Isaiah to respond, "Here am I -- send me!" (Isaiah 6:8) And that is stewardship -- choosing to respond to God with his life.

In the story from Mark's Gospel about Jesus calling the first disciples, we find a different kind of picture, but the same results. The scene is far more ordinary and mundane than Isaiah's heavenly throne room. It is just Jesus walking along next to the Sea of Galilee, encountering men who are working on their fishing boats. In many ways it is a story with which many of us can more easily identify. It is a good example of the ways in which the holy is experienced in the midst of our living. There is nothing dramatic about the experience. But there is something which is powerfully compelling. Jesus simply says, "Follow me" and they respond not with words, but with decisive action. Something beyond description (and probably even beyond explanation) leads them to make significant life changes as they choose to follow -- thus beginning a journey which they could not possibly comprehend. And that is stewardship -- choosing to respond to the God whom they experienced in Jesus.

And what then of us? How does all of this play out in our lives today? To be honest, I cannot give you many concrete and definite answers, because the answers will be different for each of us. Isaiah experienced God in his own unique and personal ways and thus responded as only Isaiah could have responded. Simon and Andrew and James and John each encountered God in Jesus from their own perspective and responded with a life which was uniquely theirs. And so it will be for us. To answer the question of how we can respond to God, we must first ask how we have experienced God. What are the gifts which you have been given? What are the needs which catch your attention? What are the dreams which won't let you go? The answers to questions such as these will go a long way towards providing the answer of how you can respond to God. But whatever specific shape your individual responses take on, I invite you to always remember that it is a matter of stewardship -- everything we do with everything we have. Such a perspective will help us experience all of life as an encounter with the holy! May we be stewards who respond to God with our lives.

For most people, most of the time, stewardship is not a subject to which they give much thought. My comments in my newsletter article notwithstanding, it's not exactly a fun and popular topic of party conversation. But to the extent that such thinking does take place, I suspect it tends to be focused primarily on matters related to giving -- whether that be in terms of time or talents or money. Stewardship is often connected with issues such as how much to give, or proportional giving, or being generous, or making sacrifices in our giving. Or we look at reasons for giving, like generosity, or gratitude, or responsibility, or faith. Or we turn our attention to what can be accomplished when we give -- things like supporting worthy causes, or helping people who are hurting, or providing resources to teach our children, or maintaining the church building as a worship and learning and fellowship center. And all of those things are important and vital aspects of stewardship, worthy of our attention and our best efforts. I do not in any way want to undermine the value of such issues. Indeed, you will hear many of them addressed next Sunday in my sermon. But today I want to look at another side of stewardship -- a side which often attracts far less of our attention but occupies a significant portion of our lives. I want to look at stewardship in terms of what we do with what we keep.

If we are called to be faithful in giving away a portion of what God has given to us, whether that takes the form of time or talents or money, then are we not also called to be just as faithfully responsible with the portion which remains in our control? I believe the answer is yes. Over and over again in scripture there is a clear sense that we are called to respond to God with our whole lives. The Psalms speak about giving thanks to God with our whole being. The prophet Micah tells us that what the Lord wants is for us to "do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God." (Micah 6:8) In response to a question about which is the greatest commandment, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy when he says to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul and mind and strength." (Deuteronomy 6:5/Matthew 22:37) The focus is always on the wholeness of life and the reality that all of our living is a matter of faith.

It is within this context that Jesus tells the story about the man who entrusts a portion of his wealth into the care of some of his slaves. In the end, it is a story about the responsibility of being stewards of that with which we have been entrusted. What we choose to do with our lives, or what we allow fear to keep us from doing, is finally what is important. Not because such choices and actions will somehow earn us a ticket into God's kingdom, but because God has designed life to work best and be experienced most fully and richly when we live it intentionally, with our priorities ordered towards enabling everyone to experience fullness of life.

So, what does it mean to speak about being responsible stewards with what we keep? In concrete, practical terms, how do we begin to allow faith to shape and order the whole of our living? In one sense, I suspect that for many of us, to a great extent, it will not involve drastic or dramatic changes in how our lives already are. If you have made an effort to make decisions in your life which are in keeping with your faith, then such faith will already be evident. None of us are perfect and there is always room for growth, but for many of us, faithful living is already a part of who we are. In another sense, however, taking seriously the idea of stewardship in all of life will transform our entire experience of faith. It moves us beyond being "Sunday morning" Christians. It enlivens even the mundane aspects of our lives by affirming the connections with the divine source of all of life. It enhances our sense of purpose in life as we remember that everything we do holds meaning and makes a difference.

Practicing such stewardship is not always easy. Sometimes it means spending more time and energy making decisions. Sometimes it means making unpopular choices. Sometimes it means living with the uncertainty of not knowing for sure what is best in a given situation. But we can move forward with the confidence that we are never alone and we are always loved.

Because we are talking about the ways in which faith impacts virtually every aspect of our living, it would be impossible to cover the subject even in a superficial way. But a few examples might give you a sense of what such an approach to life might look like. Time is a resource which each of us can use. We all have 24 hours each day which can be used in a variety of ways. The choices we make about how we "spend" our time have direct implications regarding faith and our experience of life. There is a commercial on TV right now which shows a woman in the kitchen with her two young daughters running around asking if they can go to the beach. She replies that she can't take them today because she has to meet with a client. One of the daughters responds, "When do we get to be a client?" The woman quickly reassesses her priorities with regards to how she is choosing to spend her time and says to her daughters, "You have five minutes to get ready to go to the beach, or I'm going without you!" She grabs her cell phone, takes her kids to the beach and does her business from there. Such options are not always possible, but it does illustrate the fact that we do have choices in how we spend our time and those choices impact not only our lives, but also the lives of those with whom we share life. It's easy to fall into unhealthy habits simply because we don't pay attention. Good stewardship means being intentional about our choices and decisions.

Another aspect of such stewardship has to do with how we use our money. Our personal budgets reflect our faith, perhaps much more than we would care to admit. What is important to us? What are we choosing to support with the resources at our disposal? A good question to keep before us (regarding not only money, but also all of the other life choices which we might review) is, "Will the results of this choice enhance my life and the lives of others in the world, or will it detract from an experience of abundant life for me or for others?" Such a question keeps open a wide range of possibilities, while at the same time maintaining a sense of connection with the rest of creation and with God. It becomes something a balancing act. Some of our choices in life will directly enhance the quality of life for others -- volunteering in an elementary school or a crisis center for example -- while other choices will be directed more towards ourselves -- joining a health club or renting a movie might fit in this category. But in all of the various ways in which we use the resources of our lives -- time, money, talents -- an attitude of stewardship will keep before us a desire to enhance life rather than detract from it. So, even in our choices which seem most personal, we will want to reflect on the impact we might be making, both in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.

Several years ago, when apartheid was still going strong in South Africa, there was a big debate in some parts of the Church regarding investment policies. One position was that the Church should not be supporting apartheid and should, therefore, divest any interest in companies which did business in South Africa. The other position was that the Church should maintain such investments so that they could fight for changes from within the system. Today similar debates focus on investments with tobacco companies, or companies involved with child labor, or environmental concerns or whatever. The point is not so much what the specific issue might be, or even which approach one chooses in deciding about such investments. The real point is that such decisions are taken seriously and examined from a perspective of faith. How is my faith being lived out in this particular choice?

How we relate to our children -- how much time we spend at work -- where we invest our savings -- the kinds of things we do for entertainment -- the car we buy -- the ways we treat our neighbors -- all of these represent choices we make in our everyday lives. And they all have something to say about our faith. It is not a question of whether we are stewards of what we have been given in this life. It is only a question of what kind of stewards we are being. How are you responding to God with what you keep?