Transcript Slide 1

© 2010 American Baptist Home Mission Societies
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two
About Stewardship
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Opening
Readings
Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits,
that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his
negligence; but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as
he received it, or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its
fruits that he neither dissipates it by luxury, nor permits it to be
marred by neglect. Moreover, let everyone regard himself as the
steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will
neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those
things which God requires to be preserved. . . . The creation is
quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled
with the most exquisite and the most abundant furnishings.
Everything in it tells us of God.
—John Calvin (1509–1564)
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Opening
Readings
Love all God’s creation,
The whole and every grain of sand in it.
Love every leaf,
Ever ray of God’s light.
Love the animals,
Love the plants,
Love everything
If you love everything,
You will perceive
The divine mystery in things.
Once you perceive it,
You will begin to comprehend it better every day.
And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all
embracing love.
—Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821–1881)
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Opening
B. Hymn: “ The Common Doxology”
C. Reflection Activity
There is a fierce and emotional debate taking place in our county about gas
drilling, which is complicated by our economic challenges. One farmer
recently summarized the problem as: “The environmentalists don’t want
anyone to make any money.” On the other hand, some who oppose the
drilling consider proponents to be simple and short-sighted. Truth and
effective options are not helped by extreme rhetoric or negative
characterizations.
Think of a time when you held a strong opinion about a subject and could not
productively engage in discussion.
• How did you frame the issue?
• Was your description accurate and fair? How did you assess your
opponents?
• What assumptions, fears, or prejudices were reflected in your language?
• How might you have reframed the issue or changed your assessment of
those who held a different view in order to open up communication and
leave room for the Spirit of truth to work?
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Opening
Reflection Activity
Read “Behold the Dandelion” and consider the
following questions:
• How did you form your ideas of what constitutes a
good yard?
• Who decides what a weed is and on what basis?
• How would you feel if your yard was not as
groomed as your neighbors’?
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two
II. Practical Impracticality
A. Stewardship Defined
While we often think of stewardship as giving of our financial
resources, stewardship actually means managing the
property of another on his or her behalf. Faithful stewardship
requires managing the property of another according to that
person’s will and pleasure.
►Since God entrusted creation to our care, how we relate to
creation is a matter of stewardship. Faithful stewards care for
creation according to God’s wishes.
B. The Impracticality of Biblical Stewardship
1. Guidelines given to ancient Israel for the care of the land
don’t maximize return and may seem impractical to
contemporary thinkers. For example:
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Practical Impracticality
∙The sabbatical year: The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: ‘When you enter the land
that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. Six years
you shall sow your field and six years you shall prune your vineyard and
gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of
complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord; you shall not sow your
field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your
harvest nor gather the grapes of your unpruned vine; it shall be a year of
complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its
sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound
laborers who live with you; for your livestock also and for the wild animals in
your land, all the yield shall be for food’” (Lev 25:1-7 also Ex 23:10) .
∙ Leaving part of the harvest: When you harvest your olives, don’t try to get
them all for yourself, but leave some for the poor. And when you pick your
grapes, go over the vines only once then let the poor have what is left (Deut
24:19-2, CEV). When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to
the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You
shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your
vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord
your God (Lev 19:9-10).
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Practical Impracticality
2. Such laws diverge dramatically from the commonly held
perspectives that:
▪The land I own and work is mine and I am entitled to all it
produces; and
▪ It is proper to do whatever it takes to maximize production.
Instead these laws remind us that:
►While land may be held in trust by people, it is ultimately God’s
land and God has the right to determine both how it is treated
and how its yield is handled.
► Respect for the land is essential and requires an eye toward
long-term viability for future generations.
► Creation is designed to support all people and other creatures.
► Creation can support human need, but cannot abide our
greed.
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Engagement Exercises
1) Abraham Heschel speaks of the Sabbath itself, rather than
humanity, as the pinnacle of creation:
To the philosopher the idea of the good is the most exalted
idea. But to the Bible the idea of the good is penultimate; it
cannot exist without the holy. The good is the base, the holy is
the summit. Things created in six days He considered good,
the seventh day He made holy.
Such a view challenges both the human sense of being of
primary importance and also our focus on doing,
accomplishing, and achieving as the measure of goodness.
How might our lives, our relationships with one another
and with creation change if we embraced Sabbath as holy?
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: Engagement Exercises
2) Dieter T. Hessel writes:
The Torah (or covenant law) conveys an ethic of environmental care with
social justice— not over against or instead of, but together. Key passages
such as Exodus 23, Leviticus 19 and 25, and Deuteronomy 15 express the
covenant obligation to respond to the poor, to give animals Sabbath rest, to
let the land lie fallow, and to cancel debts periodically, if not to redistribute
land. Theology with this sensitivity poses no either/or choice between
caring for people and caring for the earth. The way people treat land and
animals is as important a sign of faithfulness as the way people treat each
other. Modern anthropocentric Christianity forgot this, bowing to ideologies
of economic growth that sacrifice both ecology and equity.
▪ In what ways do you see human beings functioning with an understanding
that we have to choose either to care for ourselves or for creation; that the
two concerns are in conflict with one another?
▪ Do you trust that we would be okay if we followed stewardship of creation, as
outlined in the Bible, and limited production while sharing proceeds with the
poor, the foreigner, and animals? If not, what experiences make you think
otherwise? How do you reconcile your beliefs with these directives from
Scripture?
▪ If, according to Scripture, the either/or perspective is a false one, how might
you go about experimenting on a small scale with a lifestyle that reflects
these biblical mandates?
A Matter of Stewardship
Session Two: About Stewardship
Closing Prayer
Every creature, every plant
every rock and grain of sand
proclaims the glory of its Creator
worships through colour,
Shape, scent and form.
A multi-sensory song of praise.
Creator God, may we join
with the whole of your creation
in praising you, our Creator
through the fragrance
and melody of our lives.
—Celtic Prayer of Creation
© 2010 American Baptist Home Mission Societies
This resource is supported by the America for Christ offering and is
made available at no charge to all American Baptist Churches