The Challenge of Good Stewardship
Friends,
The Gospel today recounts the parable of Jesus about being good stewards. It is a marvelous story of how God blesses us with time, talents and treasure. God generously gives us everything that we need and much, much more besides. The challenge is this: how do we use the lavish gifts that God gives us? I believe the Gospel gives us the answer. God blesses us with plenty, and God expects us to use this plenty for others. In the Gospel, the two good stewards doubled the money that the master gave them. The lazy steward simply returned the talent unused.
I believe that we should examine ourselves very carefully about how we return our blessings to the Lord. One very simple way is to evaluate how much we give to our church each week. There are several aids to assist us. A goodly number of us use envelopes, and we give back to God a tithe of our money in a weekly offering envelope. This envelope is a weekly reminder of giving a portion of our blessings back to God and his church. Some of us use the EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer. This is my favorite. I determine how much I want to give back to God and to my church, I fill out a form, and that amount is deducted each week from my bank account. It is simple and relatively painless. The important point is that we should sit down and review our budget and then make a conscious effort to give back to God what God has given to us. Just dropping a one-dollar bill in the collection is really not hearing this Gospel about being a good steward. We are just cheating God and cheating ourselves.
Peace,
Fr. John Maxwell
