Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on 06 November 2022, by Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were Psalm 145:1-5, Proverbs 3:9-10 and Matthew 25:14-30.

God of love and faithfulness,

May your Word touch our heart and deepen our faith. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us and transform us to be a more responsible steward of God. 

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable and pleasing to You oh God, our saviour and liberator. Amen!

 

***

The Church has designated this week as Stewardship Sunday.

 

Call for Stewardship has been a tradition by many churches in HK and beyond. In KUC, it has been a practice arranged annually to encourage church members to make pledges to give faithfully, lovingly and generously, not only money (the financial gift), but our time and our talents to the church.

 

For some years, we did not have Stewardship Sunday. We revived it last year. This year we arrange it again with a pledge form printed for members to consider areas of ministries they would like to participate and financial contribution to give to the church. 

 

What is stewardship?

Stewardship begins with God and God’s creation.  

 

Genesis 1:26, it says -

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

The scripture in Genesis has laid the foundation on stewardship - when God created the world, he has entrusted human beings to take charge and take responsibility for caring for all creatures.

Stewardship is thus the will of God proclaimed right at the beginning when the world was created.

When God entrusted human beings to take care of the world, it implied God has deep trust on human beings of what they can do. With this trust, God has expectations upon humankind. Stewardship implies we are God’s co-workers and working partners. It is a very privileged and honourable invitation.  

 

As a church community, we centre our life in Jesus Christ. We are called by Jesus to follow his footstep to advance the Kingdom of God. After his death, Jesus’s followers built up churches to witness to him. All disciples including you and me, are required to take care of the household of the faith community – the church, in order to achieve the mission of God that Jesus has started on earth. 

 

All people who are created in God’s holy image are given talents and gifts to do the work of God. Being the steward of God is an inherited duty. Stewardship is also a natural response for the disciples of Jesus Christ.

 

For Christians who have baptized and joined the Church, they pledged to serve Jesus and the world by engaging in ministries through the church. 

 

Stewardship Sunday is to remind sisters and brothers in Christ our calling from God and our pledge to Jesus as a faith community. 

 

Stewardship Sunday is to re-dedicate ourselves to the service of God. 

 

My sermon title today is “Am I a responsible steward?”

 

My intention is to help sisters and brothers to reflect on the importance and our attitude being God’s stewards. 

 

Am I a responsible steward?

 

A responsible steward must put God as the first priority. 

 

The key of stewardship is our life centring in GOD, which means our motivation of serving and working are for God and not for our own self-interest, not even for the interest of the church as an organization or institution.

 

If a church is established only for the sake of growth in number of membership without caring for people’s well-being and soul, it is NOT responsible stewardship. Good stewardship is able to connect people to the love of God and to unite people with joy and trust. Good and responsible stewardship is not about building a big church to honour earthly leaders or to make people feel good.

 

For KUC has been a small congregation with less than 100 official members. Quite a number of sisters and brothers who are active in serving the church are not necessarily registered church members. We have been very organic and appreciate flexibility. This allows our community which is very diverse to enrich one other with different initiatives from members and friends who join the community. The welcoming nature of KUC and her practice of equal participation amongst members and friends make this community unique and beautiful.

 

To enhance good participation and effective services in church, we need to avoid institutionalizing the church and not make over complicated mechanisms that at the end of the day become a barrier to our service for people and communities that are in need of our help. 

 

Being a responsible steward, we need to remember the existence of the church is to serve God, God’s people and God’s creation. Church is not built to serve the structure and policies. It is quite to the contrary, structure and policies are developed to enhance church ministries. 

 

In our calling for stewardship, the church needs to cultivate spiritual qualities of God’s servants and uphold this principle – God’s Kingdom and God’s people first. 

 

***

 

Am I a responsible steward? The sermon title today was inspired by the gospel story on the parable of the talents.

 

In the parables of the talents, the master highly acknowledged the two slaves who were able to double the money he gave by making good investment. But the emphasis of the master is not about the amount of money they had made. What he said to both of them was “Well done, good and trustworthy slave…” The master was happy with their attitude. The master was happy because these two slaves took up his command very seriously and they worked in responsible manner.  On the other hand, the slave who hid the talent in the ground without taking further action to invest the money was condemned by the master as “wicked and lazy slave!”. The slave was wicked because he did not own his responsibility. He made excuses for his laziness and irresponsible manner. That was not acceptable to the master. 

 

Jesus used this parable to illustrate a very important attitude and quality for disciples who followed him. God’s servants have to be good and trustworthy by taking their responsibility when they are entrusted to do the work. A responsible steward has to honour God’s commission and take it seriously with respect to God. 

 

In the parable, the slave who was considered wicked by the Master gave an excuse for his inaction that he feared the master who was harsh. The master pointed out straight away – this slave was telling lies.  

 

A responsible steward is not pointing fingers to others for his or her failure. 

 

Indeed there are life situations affecting our participation in church ministries – work pressure, unemployment, illness, unstable family income, all kinds of personal problems… you name it.

 

A responsible steward is able to reflect on their life circumstance and take responsibility for their lives. 

 

Responsible stewards know their priorities in life. They recognize that they have a choice in life. They can make decision on their own and make a difference to their lives. 

 

I have witnessed sisters and brothers living a life of responsible stewards in the midst of their illness and life challenges. A senior sister was suffering from cancer. When she was in hospital receiving treatment, she went to other patients in the same ward bringing them water and words of comfort. She was ill and yet she kept serving others whenever she was able to. 

 

I have been impressed too by our Filipina sisters who have tried their best to come to the church for worship every Sunday and help the church to do different services in the midst of their long working hours during the week.

 

A responsible steward knows that we have choice in life and we can make a good one for ourselves and for God. 

 

***

 

Am I a responsible steward?

 

The lectionary reading for this week we heard this morning is taken from Psalm 145.

 

The message from Psalm is very important for us to remember when we are reflecting on Stewardship.

 

Being a responsible steward, our first and most important duty is to praise and give thanks to God. Therefore, worship life and engaging in worship are more important than all other tasks. 

 

I shared at the beginning of my sermon, stewardship begins with God and God’s creation.

 

The climax and essence of stewardship is our praise, honour and gratitude to the almighty God! 

 

This God is great, source of life.

 

This God is compassionate, source of love. 

 

This God is kind and generous, source of all provision.

 

Stewardship is not just about working and doing. It is about our being and our relationship with God. To affirm God’s love to us and our love to God through Jesus Christ is the core foundation of stewardship. 

 

We love because God first loved us. We serve because God first served us.