In the Beginning
What image comes to mind when
you think of “stewardship”? My guess is “money.” When it comes to
stewardship, many of us tend to think it is all about money. However,
stewardship is much more than just to raise money for the church budget. For a
better understanding of stewardship, we need to go back to the story of
creation. The Bible clearly tells us the reason why God created us. In
Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make
human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the
sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,
and the small animals that scurry along the ground” (NLT). Human beings were
created to live and rule with God on the earth. You and I were created for
relationship. We were created for intimate relationship with God. We
were created for relationship with our neighbor. We were created for
relationship with creation. Stewardship is about our relationship with
God, with our neighbor, and with creation. Worshipping is stewardship. Spending
time with our neighbor is stewardship. Giving our money to God’s purposes is
stewardship. In other words, stewardship is a lifestyle. From today we
will explore this holistic view of stewardship for four weeks. My prayer is
that this journey together will help us to define how we should live as God’s children
and disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life.
“Adam, Where Are You?”
Among many other aspects of
stewardship, we are called to be stewards of our relationship with God. Worship
is our first and highest calling and joy: “intimate loving relationship
between the Creator and a creation.” When we are in tune with God, we glorify
God because that is precisely why we were created. In the Garden Adam and Eve
were created to live and rule with God. But they were not satisfied. They didn’t
want to merely live with God. They wanted to “be like God.” They wanted to be
gods. They wanted to be the master of their life. From the moment the man and
woman chose to disobey God, that intimate relationship has been broken. They
began to separate themselves from fellowship with God. So they hid from God.
But God came to them and called them, “Where are you?” Our God always takes the
initiative in relating to humanity. We do not have to beg and plead for God’s
love and grace. God always actively seeks us![1]
In today’s passage we meet a
Samaritan woman whose relationship was broken with God. She always felt
something missing and thirsty in her life. But she didn’t know what it was. She
tried to quench her thirst through the relationship with men. So she ended up
having five husbands, and now she is living with another man. Her life was just
like drinking seawater. The harder she tried to quench her thirst, the
thirstier she became. And now Jesus actively seeks this woman. The Bible
says, “He had to go through Samaria ”
(John 4:4). Why? It is because Jesus had to meet this Samaritan woman. Jesus is
now waiting. He is sitting down by the well where this woman comes to quench
her thirst temporarily. Regardless of our actions or response, God’s grace is
actively present in our lives. God always takes the initiative and seeks us.
Henry Nouwen, a well-known
spiritual director and Catholic priest, had taught at some of America ’s
premier universities. But despite his academic success, he left those institutions
and became a priest in residence for mentally and physically handicapped people
at Daybreak community. In particular, Nouwen became a close friend of Adam, who
was profoundly retarded and unable to speak, walk, or dress himself. Each
day Nouwen took almost two hours to finish this task – bathing, shaving,
brushing his teeth, combing his hair, helping him eat breakfast, and so
on. Nouwen said it had been difficult for him to live with Adam at first.
But he had learned to love Adam, truly to love him. In the process he had
learned what it must be like for God to love us—spiritually uncoordinated,
retarded, able to respond with what must seem to God like inarticulate grunts
and groans.[2] In the
process Nouwen found his true identity in Christ. He said, “We, like him (Adam),
are also precious, graced, and beloved children of God, whether we see
ourselves as rich or poor, intelligent or disabled, good-looking or
unattractive.”[3] No
matter what we are, no matter where we are, God pursues us, loves us and calls
us, “Where are you?”
God’s Way of Salvation
God seeks to restore a relationship
with us through Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s way of salvation. Romans
1:2-3a says “The Good News was promised long ago by God through his prophets,
as written in the Holy Scriptures. It is about his Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ” (GNT). We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We all have turned to
our own way. The relationship has been broken. God gave us his law, but we did
not obey. God sent his prophets, but we didn’t listen. Finally, when the time
had fully come, God sent his only Son to reconcile us to himself. On the cross
Jesus endured the separation from God that should have been ours. On the cross
he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. On the cross the way
has been opened for us to be reconciled to God, to be united with God once
again! (cf. Isaiah 53:4-6) Jesus is God’s way of salvation. In today’s passage
the Samaritan woman tried hard to quench her thirst through the relationship
with men and through her religious traditions. But Jesus said to her, “You will
be thirsty again! But when you drink the water I give, you will never be
thirsty again! It will become in you a well of water, springing up to eternal
life!” (John 4:14) Jesus is the way we are united with God. But Jesus is
not a means or a ticket to heaven. Jesus himself is the end and the treasure. Having
intimate loving relationship with Jesus is the most precious act of worship.
A.W. Tozer said, “Worship means to
feel in the heart.” When we love someone, we can feel it. Worship is to feel
in our hearts first and express that feeling in some appropriate manner. Probably
many of you remember the story of Pascal. He was perhaps the most brilliant
mind of his generation. At the age of 19 he invented the world’s first
mechanical calculator. He achieved both wealth and honor at a young age, but
for some reason he felt miserable and empty. He was thirsty. On November 23, 1654 he got a horse
carriage accident, but miraculously he was saved. He saw this as a warning
directly from God. That night he humbly came to Jesus and encountered him in
his room. He kept a record of this experience on a piece of parchment: "From
about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve… FIRE… God of
Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and
scholars...Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy...'This is life eternal that they might
know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.' Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ...May I not fall from him forever...I will not forget your
word."[4] For the
rest of his life Pascal carried around this parchment sewn inside his coat. For
Pascal, he encountered Jesus as fire. For the Samaritan woman, she experienced
Jesus as water. That changed her permanently. How have you encountered
Jesus? How do you feel Jesus in your heart today?
“God, What Are You Up To?”
Worship is to feel in the heart.
Worship is not limited to certain locations and times. Whatever we do “in
spirit and in truth” is act of worship. In today’s scripture Jesus invites
all of us to live in constant, ongoing communion with God, rather than to chat
once in a while. Then, what does “constant, ongoing communion with God” look
like? Pastor Billy Graham can be a good example. In 1982, the Today show in New
York City scheduled an interview with Mr. Graham. When
he arrived at the studio, one of the program’s producers informed Graham’s
assistant that a private room had been set aside for Mr. Graham for prayer
before the broadcast. The assistant thanked the producer for the thoughtful
gesture, but told him that Mr. Graham would not need the room. The producer was
kind of shocked that a world-famous Christian leader would not wish to pray
before being interviewed on live national television. Graham’s assistant
responded, “Mr. Graham started praying when he got up this morning, he prayed
while eating breakfast, he prayed on the way over in the car, and he’ll
probably be praying all the way through the interview.”[5]
I think Mr. Graham understood what it means to live life of worship.
God himself came to us to live with
us forever. Call to worship is the call to live in continual communion with
God. Today, every time you face something new – whether you meet somebody
or enter a new social setting, pray this prayer: “God, what are you up to?” Do
this all week. Let us acknowledge that God is here with us and walk with us as
he had done in Eden in the
beginning. As we continue to do this, we will begin to hear God’s voice calling
us tenderly, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me!” (Song of
Songs 3:10) Amen.
[1]
“Our Wesleyan Heritage,” UMC Website, http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/our-wesleyan-heritage#EN1
[2]
Philip Yancey, “Yancey: The Holy Inefficiency of Henri Nouwen,” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1996/december9/6te080.html?start=1
[3]
Henri Nouwen, Adam: God’s Beloved (New York: Orbis Book, 1997), 31.
[4]
Blaise Pascal, Christianity Today, http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/evangelistsandapologists/blaise-pascal.html
[5] Skye
Jethani, With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God (Nashville :
Thomas Nelson, 2011), 116.
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