Free to Serve and Give

Free to Serve and Give

John 8:31-36

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost ~ October 5, 2008

It’s that time of year again! No, not football season. No, not the changing of the leaves. No, not the rejoicing of parents that kids have been in school for awhile. It is that time of year for us to focus on our Stewardship Campaign. Don’t all cheer at once! J

Yes it is time for us to think about our giving habits, it is time to examine why God has made us stewards of His creation. Yes, it is even time to think about the dreaded “B” word – Budget. But I propose today that instead of dreading things that have to do with money that we take a fresh look at why all of this is important. (And for those of you who are wondering – money actually is one of the most talked about earthly themes in the Bible!) We need to view stewardship from the view of freedom in Christ, and to see that fear of money lead to us being a slave to money.

In our text for today Jesus is speaking to a crowd that John describes as being “Jews that believe in [Jesus],” so they are not a hostile crowd. Jesus tells them that the truth, which comes from God’s Word, will set them free. But the crowd doesn’t understand what Jesus means and questions His teach. They believe that they have never been a slave to any one so why would they need to be set free. (I always was interested in this comment by the crowd because it seems to not fit with the greatest story of their culture – the Exodus, where they were slaves to Egypt and God set them free)

Now before we judge these “believing Jews” let us remember that we live in a country that prides ourselves on freedom. We want to be free. We don’t want anyone or anything else to have even the slightest control in our lives. The problem is that this isn’t true. There is no such thing as total freedom. There is always something that wants to be in control of our lives. Right now in our country and world it appears that money wants control. 24/7 we hear about it! But it is true, something will always be master in our life and Jesus is alerting us to this fact.

Left to our own we may think we are free, but sin has control of our lives. If we believe in the Bible as God’s Word and truth in our life then it is clear – sin is master of our lives without Christ. When left to ourselves, to our false freedom, we will ultimately go down the path of destruction. Only when we turn control of our lives over to Christ will He free us from the slavery of sin and then He becomes our true Master and we are set free. Not free in the sense that we are on our own, but in that we becomes servants (or slaves) to Christ who frees us from the destructive path of sin.

So what does this have to do with stewardship? Well, everything. Let me explain. When we live our lives in sin our focus is self-centered and we view everything around us as “ours” or at least something we want to get for ourselves. When we think this way, that what we have is ours and ours alone then stewardship becomes a selfish act of giving what we believe is ours to the Lord. It becomes a pride-filled thing and in essence becomes, “See what I have given!” We hand on to our “money pot” and give only out of a sense of guilt, duty, or even pride.

A foot note here before we go on – I have been talking in terms of “money” and stewardship but I truly believe it is much more than money. It is more about our whole lives, which money plays a big role, and also includes our time and talent and the giving of our whole lives to God. But when we are caught up in selfish habits money tends to rule our lives and we even forget about the rest of our lives.

Now back to our story. Jesus says after the exchange from the people about not being a slave, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:34-36, ESV) Clearly Jesus is telling the people that you are either a slave to sin or a slave to the Son, namely Jesus Christ. When we are a slave to sin it will lead to destruction. But being a slave to Jesus brings freedom. I know, a paradox, or I would call a Divine paradox.

So, stewardship needs to begin for the vantage point that we are a servant, or yes a slave, to Christ. Then that changes everything. Instead of being motivated by guilt, fear, duty which really is pride, we are not motivated by a love for God that has set us free and in whom we own our whole lives. And from this perspective it frees us out of the idea of “how much should I give?” to “how can I serve God?” And serving God is primarily fulfilled as we serve the world (moving from self-focus to others focused)

Luther said that we are all really “masks of God” when we serve our fellow man. When the baker bakes bread for someone else he is the “mask of God” making sure the person “get’s their daily bread” (Lord’s Prayer). When we serve others we are the hands and feet of God. And so the attention of stewardship turns from an inward focus to an outward focus. The question becomes, “How can I use my resources (time, talent, treasures) to help my neighbor?” and in so doing we give honor and glory to God.

Luther said that you can really divide all our tasks and roles in the world into four categories – Family, Work, Citizen and Christian. Each of these roles that we fill each day provides opportunities for us to exercise good stewardship. Being a servant of Christ, freed from the shackles of sin and selfishness, we can move into each role as an opportunity for us to give to others and in turn give glory to God. So stewardship begins from our understanding that we are free from sin in Christ and a servant to Him as we serve our fellow human being (love your neighbor as yourself).

And that fits so beautifully with our mission statement which has an “others” focus to it and more specifically in the “care for” aspect of it. I truly believe that caring for others is a stewardship issue. It is back to the question we need to always ask ourselves, “How can I use the resources God had given me to help others?” All of our church ministries should be focused outward. We need to ask – “How can we use what we have here at Mount Olive to reach out to Aurora and our surrounding community?” There are many people who are enslaved to sin, who the world has a strong hold of, who need to hear about the freedom we can bring found only in the truth of Jesus Christ. That is so powerful and so urgent that we should be striving to use all our resources to tell others about Christ in word and deed.

That’s stewardship – How can we help others know about Jesus? And yes that means pledge cards, talk of money and budgets, because they are important, as long as they serve the purpose of God’s Kingdom – seeking and saving the lost. We have been set free – now let’s use all the blessings of God to help others be set free in Jesus. We need to always ask, “How can I use what God has given me to help others and give glory to God?” Amen.