This morning at Advent Lutheran Church (ELCA) we continued the Easter Hope series and celebrated Stewardship Sunday.
Sermon
My message, “Growing for the Future” is based on the stewardship theme passage: 2 Corinthians 9:1-15,
You can watch below or read the manuscript.
Excerpt
I’ve been blessed to learn from many mentors in and beyond the church. This morning I’m especially thankful for the Rev. Dr. Robert Bohl.
Pastor Bob held many titles over the course of his career. His most frequent title was Senior Pastor – a role he held less than 20 miles from here at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth. He also served as Moderator of his denomination’s General Assembly, chair of the board of the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, and chair of the Board of Trustees at Princeton Theological Seminary.
I got to know Pastor Bob when he came out of retirement to serve as Interim Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Naples, Florida – a role that meant he was my boss.
Before I met him, Pastor Bob had written an article that still makes the rounds. It is titled, “The ‘S’ Word.” The subtitle is key: “Stewardship is a spiritual matter, not a code word for raising money.”[1]
Pastor Bob writes: “Giving has always been a mark of Christian commitment and discipleship. The ways in which a believer uses God’s gifts of material goods, personal abilities, and time should reflect a faithful response to God’s self-giving in Jesus Christ and Christ’s call to minister to and share with others in the world.
Those who follow the discipline of Christian stewardship will find themselves called to lives of simplicity, generosity, honesty, hospitality, compassion, receptivity, and concern for the earth and God’s creatures.
Christian life is an offering of one’s self to God.”
Pastor Bob didn’t merely write those words as expert advice to others, he lived them. For him, stewardship as a spiritual matter was not just how he acted but rather defined who he was. And, because of him, this increasingly became my perspective.
Our New Testament reading this morning is from Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Corinth. In this passage he’s focused on a practical matter, but he approaches it from a theological angle.
Paul is in stewardship campaign mode. He has organized a collection among Gentile churches to support the impoverished believers in Jerusalem. He’s following up with the Corinthians – reminding them of his original ask back in the sixteenth chapter of I Corinthians. Paul wants this local church to come through by raising the funds as he originally requested.
He sends this part of his note as a stewardship reminder, inviting them to think about their giving to the glory of God.
[1] Originally printed in Presbyterians Today, May 1997.