Stewards of God’s Grace

1 Peter 4:7-11

September 19, 2004

Good Stewards of God’s Grace

1 Peter 4

⁷The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ⁸Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ¹⁰Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. ¹¹Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Last week, during the sermon I mentioned the mission statement of our church and wondered out loud about how it fits within God’s expectations of this church.  I also wondered out lout how Jesus would react if a time of reckoning or final accounting, of storm and trial or meeting Jesus face to face were upon us.

This week, I want to ask and wonder out loud some more about how each of us have plugged in to the mission of our church.  Thinking about how each of us has participated in that mission and in the mission and purpose of God revealed through Jesus Christ and through scriptural witness.

I mentioned that out of our mission statement and out of scripture, we have a mandate and a charge to worship, teach and learn, to build a caring, intimate community connected to God and to each other and others.  We have orders to serve others, feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe those with no clothing, welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and the captive.

How much have we, individually or as a congregation, fit into this mission, this plan, this mandate?

“I don’t know,” you might say, “What do I have to give, how am I going to participate?  I don’t see any naked folks to clothe.  There are no hungry people to feed here in Salem, I’m not much of a teacher, I haven’t seen too many strangers in church lately, how am I going to participate in any of that?

A great church was built and people came from everywhere to see it.  They were impressed and awed by the beauty of the windows, fine warm colored, wood paneling, beautifully carpeted floors, rows and rows of cushioned pews spectacular antique illustrated bible on its pulpit, impressing pipe organ with ranks and ranks of great pipes and small ones and hundreds of sizes in between.

On the roof was a fine, brand new, roofing nail that held down a shingle.  Nobody came to gaze at this nail.  The tiny nail heard all the accolades of the visitors waft up through the ceiling beams and he became discouraged.  They noticed all the special, brilliant new accoutrements, but nobody mentioned the little nail, all he heard about was the flashy windows, organ, pulpit, and on and on.

“If I’m that insignificant, nobody would miss me if I quit!” and he pulled out, raced down the steep roof and fell onto the soft earth below.

That night, a great storm rocked the church.  The shingle that was held in place by the little nail struggled to hold on, but without the support and help of the nail, he was blown clear of the roof himself and water began to seep, down through the spot entrusted by the designer and the builders to that shingle and nail.  Water seeped through the wooden roof, dripping onto the new carpet, illuminated historical bible on the pulpit, and down the finely paneled walls and the dazzling windows onto the beautiful carpeting and even into the workings of the great organ.

Everything was ruined. 

What happened to the nail?  The same storm which ruined the church, buried it in the soft earth into which he had fallen and because he was no longer protected under the shingles layered over the one he would have held down, he began to rust and eventually decayed away buried deep in the earth.

In the passages we read together this morning from the Apostle Peter’s letter to his friends spread out in little churches throughout the Anatolian countryside, “be glorious and discipline yourselves,” “maintain love for one another and be hospitable to one another without complaining.”  Then he says, “Like good stewards, of the manifold grace of God, serve one mother with whatever gift each of you has received.”

What gift have you received?  The Gifts of the Spirit in Galatians 4:22-26 write these verses down if you are not sure what your gift is, what talent God has given you:  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.

God gives each of us, each Christian who has been affected by His grace these gifts.  Some have more of one and less of another, but we each have gifts and they grow in us.

How have you used them to fulfill the mission of this church?  How have you used them to fulfill the purpose of God in the world?  To worship, teach and learn, to build a caring, intimate community connected to God and to each other and others.  We have orders to serve others, feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe those with no clothing, welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and the captive.

With the Second World War behind him, the German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoeller, wrote his now famous confession called "I Didn't Speak Up," and it is apropos: In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.[1]

Maybe we’re simply called to speak up, to give a word of encouragement, to give a word of challenge, to do something which seems inconsequential, but perhaps has meaning and significance in ways we can’t measure in the moment.

The Apostle Paul also writes to his friends in Corinth about gifts of the spirit and gifts from God as well.  He reminds them that they are members of the same body of Christ, each with gifts for the greater glory of the whole body.  Again, write down this passage, 1 Corinthians 12:27-30 and find your particularly suited gifts.  He says that each church has apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, helpers, leaders, miracle workers and on and on.  Read the entire chapter and see how God wishes to use the particular gifts you have to fulfill his mission for the world.

These two passages in scripture are only a starting place to find descriptions of the gifts God gives.  The Holy Spirit is at work even now in each and every heart here to help us to realize what we can offer, what we can give, what place each of us has in the greater work of God.

No matter how minor or inconsequential we believe our own gifts to be, each member of the body of Christ, each person has the potential for great impact. 

In times past, relatively powerless persons have brought great shifts in history? Mahatma Gandhi, an unsuccessful lawyer, adapted the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount and the writings of Tolstoy and became the key to bringing independence to India, because he was ready.

Rosa Parks, in refusing to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama sparked the beginning of the civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s. She was a rather inauspicious person to take such a critical action, but she was ready.

Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison. He was released to bring a shift in the politics of South Africa at a critical juncture when many thought either that change would never come or if it did, it would be accompanied by a vast bloodbath. The transition to a more just society came relatively peacefully under his leadership after he was unexpectedly released from prison.  He was a man considered by many to be a criminal, one not worthy of such things, but he was ready to use his gifts for the greater good and God has used him.

Mother Teresa, a rather unpretentious nun, has been considered for sainthood for her simple act of trying to rescue people from the streets who might otherwise die. She was ready![2]

Each of us has been prepared for particular purposes, for special things with the particular and special gifts God has given only to us.  We must be ready to use what God has given and we must be in it for the long term.

“Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.

And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.'" The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.

So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities.[3]  We must be ready and we must be in it for the long haul.  And if we are, then we’re ready for stewardship.

Taking care of God’s gift to us, in order to take care of what God has given us to do.

So often the word stewardship scares people.  Folks hear the word and they run for the hills.  “Oh, no, here comes “money talk.”  The money talk is a part of a discussion of stewardship, but only a part of the great picture of stewardship. 

We are stewards of ourselves, the gifts and abilities God has given and stewards of the mission of the church both the mission of this particular church and the mission of the church of God everywhere and always.  Those two missions are intertwined and interrelated, but it were not tied and weaved in to them they don’t progress.  They just die.

Each of us must support God’s mission through this church, through our own independent efforts, through our involvement in other tasks and organized efforts.  Each must respond to God’s call to us to “Go therefore into all the world and make disciples,” to do “unto the least of these my brethren as you would wish to do unto me,” or “love your neighbor as yourself,” with as much of the gifts God has to give each of us as we are able.

And what happens when we jump in to help?  Sometimes we will be surprised by the result.

A wealthy man wanted to help a poor man.  The rich man hired the poor man to build a house on a hillside and went on a long journey.  The carpenter said to himself, “My boss is away.  I can use cheaper materials for the parts of the house that won’t show.  The house will be weak and undesirable, but nobody will know but me.”

The house was finished and on the day the builder was turning it over to the owner, the owner surprised him by saying, “This house is not for me, it is for you.”  In astonishment, he received the key back from the owner and only he knew that instead of the first class house his the owner had intended for him to have, he had something far less.

God gives each of us talents and challenges us to use them for his purposes.  But even as we do, all that we do will most likely turn and bless us as well.

And the way that we can be a blessing to each other and to our church is to participate in the mission and the ministry of our church and the mission and the purpose of God in this community through the Ararat Armenian Congregational Church.

Amen.