Stewardship as a symptom?

In the fall, many churches embark on a stewardship campaign.

These campaigns are well and good.  There is nothing wrong with getting people to talk about money and pledging and responsible giving - especially in these times of finances being what they are.

However, I wonder (in the back of my mind) if we in the church is focusing on the wrong "ship" when we take a month out of the year to discuss stewardship.  There is a parable:

A woman is sitting on the river bank.  The woman notices that someone in the river who is caught in the current and cannot swim. Jumping into the water she swims out and pulls the drowning man ashore. She looks again to see another drowning man. Aain, she swims out and pulls him ashore. After several minutes the woman sees another man in the river, and another and another. She rallies the men that she saved to help her pull others out, but there are too many people in the river who are fighting to stay afloat in the current.

Stewardship campaigns can feel like we are jumping in to save the ministries that are struggling to stay afloat.  We all jump in and pool our resources and energies to ensure that the ministries survive.  We hear from people who have been saving jumping into the river and helping save ministries for years share their stories.  And each year we expect that we will get more and more people ashore to help ensure that we do not run out of people on shore to help rescue the drowning.

The thing about stewardship campaigns is that we reinforce the need for people to come ashore to save the drowning.  We all feel that the stewardship campaign is important and cannot see why we would not stop.  Saving the drowning feels really good.  

But I did not share the end of the parable:

After some time, the woman decides to stop jumping into the river and saving people.  Everyone is curious to know why the original hero stops saving people.  


"Where are you going?! We need you to help us pull people from the river!  Don't you see these people are drowning!?" the crowd shouts.  


She replies, "I am going to go upstream and stop people from jumping into the river."  


What would it look like to place less emphasis on stewardship (rescuing the drowning) and focus on stopping people from jumping into the river in the first place?

I think it would look like a Church that understands stewardship is important but it there is a more important "ship".  

If we focus on discipleship first and foremost, I wonder if stewardship takes care of itself.  If we focus on discipleship, I wonder if worship takes care of itself?  If we focus on stewardship then are we just treating a symptom, much like pulling people from a river, rather than addressing the source of the symptom?

Good weed

I always thought of a weed as I think of termites or roaches.  They are pests. 

Not so.

It was shared with me not too long ago that a weed is really just a plant that is out of place. 

This made me reconsider for a moment the inherent goodness in a weed (or a roach for that matter).

God creates all things and in all things God calls them good.  In fact God calls all of creation Very Good in the early chapter of the book of Genesis. 

Even roaches are good.  Even weeds. 

In the Church we have a tendency to want to ascribe the labels of “good” and “bad” on things in order to help segment out our lives and actions.  We do this in an attempt to help identify who is one of the chosen ones or who is a true disciple and who is not.

Just like what I have done with plants.  There are some that are good (flowers and grass) and there are some that are bad, and weeds are the king of bad plants. 

However, it is clear that God does not operate in this way.  All things are very good, and when things look like they have gone “bad” perhaps it is not the case at all.  Perhaps all that has happened is that this good is out of place. 

For instance take the action and emotion of hate.  Many Christians work to eradicate hate from our lives and world because it is “bad”. 

However, it is clear that hate is in fact a good thing when in its proper place. 

Should we not hate slavery?  War?  Violence?  Abuse?  Exploitation? 

Perhaps it would benefit our spiritual development if we stopped viewing the world through categories of good and bad.  What would it do to our spiritual development if we were able to see the Good in ALL things while noticing when things are just out of place?

Dumb sheep, hidden treasure and Jesus

Quick little parable of Jesus about the Kingdom of God (KoG):


‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.'


When reading this parable, you may be like me and consider that the KoG is like this treasure in which we find, sometimes stumbling across it, and when we do we rejoice and give all we have in order to obtain this treasure.  Sounds good to me.  


Until I realize that nowhere in that interpretation of this parable is there any room for God.  In fact, in this understanding of this parable, it is we humans who are doing all the work and God is absent.  Which is radically different than what the rest of Jesus' message is about, in which God is the one who is acting first and primary.  


Take the parable of the lost sheep.  The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine to find the lost one.  We get it.  God is the shepherd and we are the sheep.  Notice that God is acting first and primary in this common interpretation of this parable.  God is the good shepherd and we are the dumb sheep.  


Christians have a bit of a self esteem problem sometimes.  We are okay with identifying ourselves as dumb sheep and a man who "stumbles" across a treasure.  But we are not usually comfortable with identifying ourselves as more.  


Back to the parable of the treasure in the field.  


What if this parable is God is the one who found a treasure and put that treasure in the field?  Then God so delights in this treasure God gives all that God has in order to be one (reconcile) with this treasure?  What if humans are God's treasure?


The KoG is like God first found treasure (human beings), then put that treasure in the field (the earth).  And then God gave all that God had (God became human and lived, died and resurrected) in order to be one with this treasure (reconciliation with humanity).  


In a world (and sometimes in the Church) in which you and I are constantly told we are not good enough, not smart enough or pretty enough, could it be that Jesus is saying to us - God thinks you are good enough.  


What if the Good News is that God holds you as treasure?


We are comfortable with the idea that we are dumb sheep, it validates to us what the world says to us.  However could it be that a counter-cultural message that is the Good News be that you - yes, you- are God's treasure?  


If that is an uncomfortable idea, then perhaps we are beginning to see how some people really thought Jesus was wrong.  

Parable of forgiveness - Matthew 18

Matthew 18:21-35 is a parable of Jesus only found in the Gospel of Matthew in which there is an servant who after just being forgiven of a great debt, is unforgiving toward a servant of his own for a minor debt.  I have encountered this parable as a proof of God sending people to hell, as per the final verses in which it says, 

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he should pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’

Perhaps this is indeed a story of God punishing those who are unforgiving.  It seems weird to me that God would not forgive but punish those who do not forgive.  Does that mean that God should be punished until God forgives the unforgiving people?

It is for these reasons that we need to remember this is a parable.  As such there is great symbolism in these stories and to quickly literalness them blinds us to potential deeper meanings.

So in an effort to help open imagination of parabolic reading, I would offer this idea. 

When I live my life and am not forgiving my neighbor, then I find that I am tormented by the grudges I am holding toward those who I am called to forgive.  

Could it be that God allows us to be handed over to the one responsible for punishing prisoners when we do not forgive not because God is punishing us, but because we are punishing ourselves?  In my life I find that I am my own worst critic and hardest on myself.  When I hold grudges and refuse forgiveness when I know I should not, I feel terrible.  I feel tormented.  

And I will continue to feel this way until my debt is paid off.  That is to say that I will be tormented by my lack of forgiving until I forgive.