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Where our treasure is
Christian stewardship is about lifestyle, about values and about the kind of witness we make to the world.
by Vernon Broyles III
Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). That was his “bottom line” on how to live in full obedience to God. It is essentially nonsense to the culture in which we live and, unfortunately, is essentially ignored by most of us who claim to be the followers of Jesus.
We are a society (pagans and believers alike) plagued by the drive to accumulate wealth, which we believe, falsely, is our security. We are seemingly oblivious to the ultimate — dare we say “divine” — reality that in our earthly economies “moth and rust corrupt” and “thieves break in and steal” and, by the way, “downturns,” “recessions,” and “depressions” destroy individuals, companies and the social fabric of whole nations.
November is the month, at least in most Presbyterian congregations, when we have our stewardship season. It is the time we all are urged to review our financial status, noting all the ways in which “God has prospered us,” and then respond in gratitude by filling out a pledge card indicating how much of our wealth we are willing to offer to God through the church in the ensuing year. Sadly, many of our stewardship programs at both the local and the national level are little more than fund-raising schemes — “How do we pay the light bill and the staff and keep the organization going, and how much, if any, will be available for outreach beyond our walls?”
There are, of course, exceptions; however, these are not, in the last analysis, the product of guilt or necessity, but of joyful commitment to God of our earthly “treasure” in the deep faith that both our lives and our wealth truly belong to God. It is not about particular “causes” we like or dislike. It is about the fundamental question facing all of us who claim to be Christian: “Do you really believe that God has a total claim on your life and all your resources?”
Stated concretely, the real test posed by Jesus in Matthew 6:21 is a look at our checkbooks — not our pledge cards. It is there, in riffling through check stubs, that we will see clearly where our treasure is, and unless Jesus is wrong, where our hearts are also. Yes, Presbyterians believe that God’s church is both visible and invisible. That means, among other things, that there are many ways we can serve God with our financial resources beyond the institutional church. But it is equally clear in our Reformed tradition that we are called by Christ into visible, gathered communities, which are our primary locus of both support and accountability as we seek to live out with integrity the faith we proclaim.
Christian stewardship is finally about lifestyle, about values and about the kind of witness we make to a nation and world that does not understand and cannot comprehend the difference between lives committed to accumulating wealth, albeit at times using it to “do good,” and lives lived in the conviction that we, and all we have, belongs to God, first and last.
Vernon Broyles III is a volunteer for public witness in the PC(USA)’s Office of the General Assembly. |
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