Stewardship and the Kingdom of God

Good to see everyone here after the feast. I hope that everyone had an enjoyable feast and a meaningful feast, whether you spent it here or were able to go away. As Frank mentioned, we had a fantastic time where we were at the feast site in Italy. Dave Housen was there as well. I think he's still enjoying a few travels before returning tomorrow. And I look forward to hearing feast stories from many of you as well.

As we kept the feast, we of course think of the kingdom of God, which is coming. That's where I'd like to start today in the sermon, is thinking back again to the time that we just got done spending at the feast and thinking towards God's kingdom. We read in Matthew 6, 33, that we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of the other things. In the context of this verse, it was talking about all the things that people deal with and think about and are concerned about as human beings, that all of these other things will be added to us. Seek first His kingdom and these other things will be added to us. I thought as we're returning from the feast, it's good for us to reflect a bit about this. This is always, to me, probably the most difficult transition of the year. As you return from the feast, you're immersed in God's way and fellowship with His people and building one another up and hearing His Word spoken every day and then back to our everyday lives.

That is the way it's meant to be. We're meant to live our everyday human lives, but, as pointed out here, with a different set of priorities that we need to keep in mind in our lives.

So as we think forward now to getting back and moving forward in our everyday lives, but also, as we heard, both in the prayers and in the sermonette, maintaining in our minds and in our hearts the things that we've learned and focused on during the feast, I'd like to spend some time today talking about how do we go about seeking first His Kingdom, and specifically, in the area of stewardship. The proof of what we seek first in our lives in the end is how we use our resources. And the resources we have are different depending on who we are as people, whether those be time, money, and other physical resources that we might have. All of us have these different resources and different measures, but we do have them in order to use them in the different pursuits that we have in life. How do we act as stewards of these gifts that God has given us? That's what I'd like to spend some time talking about today, in the context of how we're seeking His Kingdom in the way that we live our everyday lives. What is stewardship? We look directly at the definitions that might come out of a dictionary. We see some of these things. Somebody who's managing another person's property, finances, or other affairs. Somebody who's in charge of the household affairs of a large estate, club, hotel, or resort. Or a ship's officer is often called a steward as well, who's in charge of provisions and dining arrangements. So what's common among all of these definitions of a steward is a person who's responsible for attending to things.

Looks like I didn't pull that down quite far enough. Thanks a lot, Larry. So someone who's responsible for attending to things that belong to someone else. So a steward is somebody who's looking after other people's assets and responsible for caring for them. And there's stories of all kinds out there. If you look at them about different stewards, I read one. It was about a guy who was a wine steward for a very large and expensive home in France. And when the Nazi, when Nazi Germany invaded France, the family that owned this home had to leave, and the German officers took over this large chateau as their headquarters for their officers. And this wine steward was kept there and was then supposed to serve the German military officers who were there.

And unknown to the military officers who were there, there was an extremely expensive collection of wine in the cellars. All they knew was there was a lot of wine down there. And over the course of the war, what this steward did, keeping in mind the entire time the commitment that he had to the people who owned this chateau, is he would very carefully select the cheapest wines that existed in the wine cellar and serve those to the folks who were there, trying to convince them all along that they were getting the best that was available. And so as a steward who was responsible for that, in the end, this very expensive collection of wine, over the course of the war, he maintained it. And so when the rightful owners came back to the chateau, he as a good steward had preserved the value that was there. He looked after the assets that he was given to care for, and he used them in the way that the owner, his master, would have him do. Stewardship is also very much a biblical theme. If we look all through the Bible, we see so many examples of people that God has worked with from the very beginning who were put into a position, put into a place, in order to care for something that was not theirs. And as we'll talk about and focus on more today, we're very much in that same position.

But if we think, for example, about the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden.

It wasn't theirs. God placed them in it. And what did he ask them to do? He asked them to tend to it and to keep it. In addition to other instructions, which, of course, we know that they didn't in the end obey, but they were placed there as stewards over the creation of God. And in many ways, we, as human beings, are still stewards over God's creation. We take it maybe less seriously, depending on who you talk to, than we should. But we, as human beings, are still there to tend and keep the earth that God has given to us. Joseph is another one. I think we are at least generally familiar with the story of Joseph, who was taken first as a slave after his brothers, who were jealous of him, threw him in a pit, and sold him to traders who were coming through. And he was placed in Egypt and eventually became essentially the Prime Minister of Egypt, the person who was responsible under the Pharaoh for tending to all of the assets of the kingdom of Egypt.

And through the dreams that God helped him to interpret, the dreams of Pharaoh, he knew that there were seven years of plenty that were coming across Egypt. And if they carefully tended to all of the plenty that God gave them, the next seven years, which were going to create, were going to be famine, would be provided for. And that's exactly what Joseph did, again, as a steward.

He helped the people of Egypt to gather in all of this plenty that came in over the seven rich years, put them away in storehouses so that in the seven lean years that followed, they had not only enough for all of Egypt, but they were able to enrich the government of Egypt, the kingdom of Egypt, by selling that food to all of the people around who had nothing. Again, he acted as a steward, someone who was looking after the assets of someone else. And Jesus Christ, caring for his flock, we can think of very much in the same way. He speaks about the fact that he's a shepherd, that they're not his sheep. We belong to God. But Jesus Christ cares for all of us as a good shepherd. He gave his life for us, and he focuses very much in the way that he dealt first with his disciples when he was here as a human being on earth and all the people that he dealt with.

And, as we've seen in the Bible, we turn to many of these passages regularly, how he cares for us as people, how he gives his life for his sheep and watches out for them. And he cares for us. He tends to us, and he is a steward in that sense of what God has given to him.

What I'd like to look at today is three parables in Matthew 25, and I'd like to look at them in the lens of this idea of stewardship. And we're not going to dive deep into these parables, like perhaps we could, and think about all of the cultural elements and all the other things that bring out meaning. But we'll look at them in more of a general way and look through these three parables to talk about how they point out elements of stewardship that we need to think about.

And, as we'll see, the first two start very much talking about the kingdom of God. So, again, talking about how is it that people who view their lives as a part of the kingdom of God, who've been called by God, who seek that kingdom, how are we to live? And what are we supposed to do as stewards of the gifts that God has given us, especially in the context of his Holy Spirit that he's blessed us with? So, we'll see three lessons of stewardship that we want to focus on as we go through these three parables. First of all, a good steward is always on duty.

Secondly, a good steward produces growth. And then thirdly, a good steward adopts the values of the master. So, let's go through these parables and look at these three lessons in stewardship that we get from Matthew 25. So, we'll start with the idea that a good steward is always on duty.

So, turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 25. Perhaps some of you are already there.

Matthew 25. We'll read first the first set of passages in verses 1 through 13.

And this is the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. And as I mentioned earlier, verse 1, right away sets the context for us. This parable was written to talk about the kingdom of God. It says, The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. We're talking here about people who are going to be a part of God's kingdom, people who are called by God, and what their viewpoint, what their attitude towards life is and the way that they live. Five of them, it says, were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming and go out to meet him. And then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and for you, but rather go to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins also came, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know not the day or the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. So the last verse here, verse 13, gives us the point of what's happening. So it's talking about a wedding feast, and what happened, often they would have these torches. They would usually be either a wooden or perhaps a metal pole, probably mostly wood, with a rag wrapped around them, and you could dip them in oil, and that would light them on fire. And so you would have these torches as the bridegroom came. But because he was late, some of the people who didn't have enough of the oil to light those torches were out of luck. So there are two points that are made here in verse 13 at the end of the parable in terms of the lesson that is meant to draw out for us. We're told to watch, which we'll talk about secondly, and we're first told that we don't know the day or the hour. Why is this important? Why is it significant that we don't know the day or the hour of Jesus Christ's coming?

As human beings, we tend to work towards deadlines, don't we? We've probably all heard about deathbed confessions and deathbed conversions. If we all had it figured out, many people would simply say, and people have done this, I'm going to live the life I want to live, and when the time is up, I'll go to God, I'll repent, and everything will be fine. But until then, I'm going to have a good time, and I'm going to live my life the way I want to. Let's turn to another parable that immediately precedes the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. And let's talk a little bit more about this, because it's clear that this idea that we don't know the day or the hour becomes very important, because we're meant, again, as good stewards to be on duty, to mind our duties, and not to simply wait until we think our Master is returning, and then quickly get everything in shape for the coming of our Master. Matthew 24, verses 45 through 51. Who's a wise and faithful servant whom his Master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season?

Here's talking about a Master who's leaving on a long journey and leaves someone as a steward in place to look after the household. Make sure the servants are fed, make sure all the work that needs to be done, perhaps on a very large estate or plantation, needs to get done. Verse 46. Blessed is that servant whom his Master, when he comes, will find doing it. Assuredly, I say to you, he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, my Master is delaying his coming and begins to beat his fellow servants to eat and drink with the drunkards, the Master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him in an hour that he's not aware of, and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The common element of both of these parables is a delay in the coming. So there's an expectation of when things are going to happen, but along with that expectation of when things are going to happen, there's a difference in terms of how things are prepared for. Right? So in the second parable that we read, this whole idea of the Master delaying his coming is then associated with, look, I'm going to goof off. He's not coming back for a long time, so I don't really need to be diligent right now. I can save that for later once I see signs of him coming back. And it talks then about the fact that delaying the coming then is associated with being lax in duties and not worrying so much about the things that need to be done, not worrying about the job of being a steward. And so the important element here is that we need to make sure that we're tending to our own spiritual condition and what we're to be about, regardless of whether we think there's a deadline looming of when Jesus Christ is coming.

That's the clear meaning of the parable. That's tied very much to watching and what it is that we're to watch. Let's compare briefly the wise and the foolish virgins. I think this is interesting to contemplate for a few minutes because these people who are essentially bridesmaids at a wedding were expected to have their torches ready. And they were all the same. They looked the same and they were in the same condition when everything began. They both slept while they waited for the bridegroom to arrive, for the wedding party to arrive, and they all had the same equipment.

They had their lamps, they had the oil, they had the wedding clothing. It was not until the outcome of a longer evening than it was expected, the delay of the bridegroom's coming, the darkness of night, it was not until then that we could tell the difference between those who were wise and who were foolish. It's talking here about an inward relationship that we have with God and with Jesus Christ and how we tend to those things. Things can look very much the same. We can all have the same tools to work with, but it's only after we go through times of testing, it's only after a longer period of time goes by that we can know and that we can see in others, and perhaps even in ourselves, whether we're remaining on duty and keeping things strong in terms of our relationship with God and our commitment to Him. Are our relationships with God maturing?

So you can probably all remember relationships that you had, perhaps with a boyfriend or a girlfriend when you were young, and compare that to the type of relationship that people who've been married for many years might have. We actually celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary during the feast on the 1st of October, so my wife deserves a commendation for tolerating me for a quarter-century plus. But much to my embarrassment, I'll tell you about one of the first girlfriends that I had. If you remember back when you were in sixth or seventh grade, at least when I grew up, the big thing was that boys and girls would be going with each other, right? You'd ask somebody to be your girlfriend or your boyfriend, which really, in the end, meant nothing, right? It meant you might sit next to each other at lunch, you might actually talk to each other a few times.

And so I remember feeling pressured by the other kids in class and asking this girl if she would go with me. And of course, after that, I was so embarrassed and didn't know what to do or say that I never talked to her. And I didn't really... and the longer it went on, I didn't know what to do about it because I was even more embarrassed. So eventually we kind of broke up just because of the fact that nothing else happened. That's very different than a relationship that we have with a long-standing spouse, isn't it? Hopefully my wife will tell you that it's a little bit different than the relationship that we have. And how after the period of time when you're married, you share a lot of things that are going on inside of you. You rely on the other person. It's a very deep and intimate relationship as you share the closest things that are going on with you. And so the key here, as we think about this parable of the wise and the foolish virgins, is all about, are we on duty? Are we staying connected to God? Are we continuing to build and develop and strengthen that relationship that we have with Him over time? Or are we essentially taking it for granted and believing, well, He'll come sooner or later. When He does come, we can rebuild that connection and everything will be fine. The instruction to us here is that we need to make sure that we are keeping that connection strong. So as we come off of this time of the Feast, when we focused on God's Kingdom, we've had a foretaste of that Kingdom in so many ways, I think the most of which is especially the fellowship that we've had with one another, really dwelling on and thinking about His Word. As we're coming off of that, what I'd like to encourage everyone to do is take time to think about, at this point, what kind of stewards are we being of our own internal spiritual condition? It's a great time to reflect back on the things that we heard at the Feast, the things we reflected on, and think about ways and just find one or two, three ways that we can put those things in a concrete way to use in our lives that's going to strengthen our connection to God on an ongoing basis that we keep strong over the course of the next several months. This is always the time as we look forward to the next set of Holy Days in the springtime. We've got a long haul to go in the time in between, and it's a great time now to think about how is it that we recommit ourselves to God and really take the momentum that we have coming out of the Feast to continue to strengthen that relationship.

Secondly, producing growth. A good steward produces growth.

Turn with me, if you will, to the next parable in Matthew 25. This next parable is the parable of the talents. Many of us might have read this at some point in the past, and it's verses 14 through 30 of Matthew 25. Again, this starts just like the last parable did, saying that it's about the kingdom of heaven. In this case, it's making a comparison, saying the kingdom of heaven is like a man who traveled to a far country. He called his servants and he delivered his goods to them, and to one he gave five talents, to another two and to another one, each according to his own ability, and immediately he went on his journey. So this guy's going off. Often at that time, people might have gone to a far away country, perhaps to buy merchandise that they were going to bring back home to sell and make money trading in that way, and so they could be gone for quite a protracted period of time. So somebody had to be minding the store. So in this case, he gave to his servants the first one five talents, another two and another one, and he did it according to their ability.

As any of you who've worked and may have managed employees or worked in other groups of people, you see that people have different abilities to deal with different things, and in this situation, he spread out his assets among these people based on the ability that he thought they would have to produce. And then he received the five talents went and he traded with them and he made another five talents. Likewise, the one who had received two gained two more also, but the one who had received only one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. So after a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought the five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents, and look, I've gained five more talents besides them. Verse 21, his Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you are faithful over a few things and I'll make you ruler over many things. Enter the joy of your Lord. And then he who received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents, and look, I've gained two more talents besides them. And his Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you've not sown, gathering where you've not scattered seed, and I was afraid. I went and I hid your talent in the ground, and look, I brought you back what you'd given to me. But as Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant, you know that I reap where I've not sown and gather where I've not scattered seed. So you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have at least received back my own money with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So this parable again deals with an extended period of time. Right? The servant or the master gave these talents to his servants. If we look back in the earlier verses of this passage, it says quite a bit of time went by. So a common element here is the fact, again, what's being pointed out in the parables is a long period of time. Time can cause us to be weary, time can cause us to be lax, time can cause us to change our priorities in the way that we look at things.

But time is an important thing in terms of bearing out how we are as stewards. Now the encouraging thing about this parable is the fact that so much is given to those who multiply what they have.

And God doesn't expect us to do things that we're not able or gifted to do. For the person who had two talents, the response of the master was exactly the same for gaining two talents as it was to the other one who had five talents and doubled that amount. And so what's incredibly encouraging about this is that God deals with each one of us individually. He doesn't expect one of us to accomplish exactly the same thing or to do exactly the same things that the others do. What he does expect us to do, though, is to use what we have and to grow spiritually with it, as we see in the way that he reacted to the servant with one talent. To not hide it in the ground, but to always look for ways to take what we've been given, the abilities that we have, the resources that we have, and to use them in service to his way. So let's look at a couple of elements here of this.

First of all, recognizing the value of what we've been given, and then secondly, using it. First, recognizing the value. One might say that the person who was given one talent didn't really recognize the value of that one talent, because as the master said, if that servant had recognized it, he might have at least given it to the money lenders and earned some interest on it and realized there was a way to multiply it even in a modest way and would have been rewarded for that. Let's turn to 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 2, verses 2 through 8, again talking about recognizing the value of what's been entrusted to us as we're stewards of God's Spirit and the way that he's working with us.

1 Peter 2, verses 2 through 8, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power is given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. I apologize, I cut short the verses that we were going to use there, verses 2 through 4. Again, pointing out, though, here what great and precious promises have been given to us. We have to recognize the value of what we have, the calling that we've been given, and how powerful God's Holy Spirit is that's been entrusted to us.

Also, along those lines of recognizing the value of what we have in Romans 12, Romans 12, verses 4 through 6, here talking about the different functions of people who are part of the body of Jesus Christ. Romans 12, verse 4, As we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having them gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, let us use them. So what it's talking about here is that we're all given ways that we can add to what's happening within the body of Jesus Christ. And unless God is lying to us, every one of us has valuable things to give. There's a reason each and every one of us is part of the congregation.

We each have important things that we can give through our experiences, through God's Spirit working in us, that enrich the congregation. And God says that very clearly. He doesn't say, well, 75% of you have been given gifts and the rest of you are really just there to sit there.

He says every single one of us has something to add, just like a body, like a human body, working together, functions. Every part of it does different things, but 100% of that body is part of the functioning of the body. And we've probably heard the different analogies that get made, but we'll repeat it anyways. If somebody slices off your thumbnail, that's painful. It's hard for a body to function with an injury, even when it's a relatively small and insignificant injury, right? Now, some of you are probably football fans like I am, and you'll hear of football players having injuries that keep them out of the game. Injuries like turf toe. Okay?

Now, how often do we think that a toe is important to a football player? But the fact is, there are players who make millions of dollars a year who are kept out of games because of turf toe. It's a terrible injury to the toe, a lot of pain, and you can't run properly with it.

Now, you wouldn't think that what a football player is doing is making sure that their little toe is in good shape. You think of them being in the weight room and, you know, doing bench presses of multiple hundreds of pounds and, you know, 20-30 reps at a time, but something as simple as turf toe can take a football player out of the game. So we think of that analogy of a body of an athlete and think of ourselves as a body, as a congregation, more largely as a church of God.

Every single bit of it counts. God is given every part of it a function, and every function has value.

And so we need to know and understand that what we've been given by God, every single one of us has value. And, as we see in the parable that we've been reading, we're expected to use it.

Part of using it is recognizing the value, because as we read in the parable, I think the person who had one talent said, look, well, it's only one talent. The master's not going to miss this. I'll just make sure that one talent comes back. I don't really need to increase it because it's such a small thing. Not true. So God has given us abilities through His Spirit, and these all have tremendous value, no matter what they are, to the group. Secondly, then, the focus on using what we've been given. We turn to John 9, verse 4. John 9, verse 4. This is Jesus Christ talking.

I think this is no surprise to us, and we know this, that God's focus is on us doing.

We had a great sermon at the feast that talked about the fact that we should not think about the kingdom of God as retirement. It's not a situation where we work towards this goal, and when we hit the goal, we just sit back in a big golden armchair in the middle of a garden somewhere and do nothing for eternity. Right? God works, and Jesus Christ said that. And when we get to the kingdom of God, we're going to be working. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be fantastic because we'll be part of making this incredible increase to which there's no end, but it'll be work. It's the next set of things that have to be done. And that's what's exciting, because God by nature builds things, doesn't He? He builds and develops things. When we look, for example, at the things that we have around us, what do trees do? Trees grow. When they've grown to a certain degree, they blossom and they bear fruit. And that fruit falls to the ground. That fruit multiplies. It builds other trees. If you look in areas where there are gardens or trees that have been planted, what happens over the period of time? The fruit drops to the ground, new trees sprout up, and pretty soon you've got a whole forest that begins to grow up.

God's mind works in His creation, and it shows us these things in terms of what He's about.

And what He's about is growth and multiplying and moving forward and developing. And we need to let that spirit work within us as well to continue moving forward and developing growth in our lives.

Hear Jesus Christ saying, He has to work the works of Him who sent Him while it's day.

And the night might be coming when no one can work, but He was focused on this time when He was alive and on earth and fulfilling those things that He'd been given to do.

Romans 12 verse 6, again talking about the area of spiritual growth. What does it say here? We've been given gifts that differ according to the grace that's given to us, and the focus at the end of verse 6 here is, let us use them. Again, like we read in this parable, the fact we've got to take what we've been given and we need to put it to use. It doesn't always have to be large things that we do.

I think sometimes perhaps we get, we start thinking that we can't do something because the task is so large or we can only accomplish small things, but there are very small things that can make a large difference. I don't have the verse in front of me right now, but there's a verse in the Bible that talks about, you know, blessed is the person who gives a glass of cold water to someone I sent to refresh them.

Simple things like looking out for another person can be taking the abilities that we have, the spirit that we have, and multiplying it. I'd like to read a story that that speaks to this. You see the title of it here, All the Good Things. It was written by a lady who was a Catholic nun and a teacher, and I'll read the story to you. And again, what I'd like to draw to this story is the fact that small things can make a large difference, and we should think about that.

We don't have to be looking for the next, you know, forget about five talents, the next hundred talent thing to do, right? We can use simple things to help other people and to drive forward what God wants to accomplish. This lady writes, starting this story, he was in the first third grade class I taught at St. Mary's School in Morris, Minnesota. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark Ecklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, but had that happy to be a live attitude that made even his occasional mischievousness delightful.

Mark talked incessantly. I had to remind him again and again that talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so much, though, was his sincere response every time I had to correct him for misbehaving. Thank you for correcting me, sister. I didn't know what to make of it at first, but before long, I became accustomed to hearing it many times a day. One morning, my patience was growing thin when Mark talked once too often, and then I made a novice teacher's mistake.

I looked at Mark and said, if you say one more word, I'm going to tape your mouth shut. It wasn't ten seconds later when Chuck blurted out, Mark's talking again. I hadn't asked any of the students to help me watch Mark, but since I had stated the punishment in front of the class, I had to act on it. I remember the scene as if it had occurred this morning. I walked to my desk, very deliberately opened my drawer, and took out a roll of masking tape. Without saying a word, I proceeded to Mark's desk, tore off two pieces of tape, and made a big X with them over his mouth.

I then returned to the front of the room. As I glanced at Mark to see how he was doing, he winked at me. And that did it. I started laughing. The class cheered as I walked back to Mark's desk, removed the tape, and shrugged my shoulders. His first words were, thank you for correcting me, sister. At the end of the year, I was asked to teach junior high math.

The years flew by, and before I knew it, Mark was in my classroom again. He was more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen carefully to my instruction in the new math, he didn't talk as much in ninth grade as he had in third. One Friday, things just didn't feel right. We'd worked hard on a new concept all week, and I sensed that the students were frowning, frustrated, and frustrated with themselves, and also edgy with one another.

I had to stop this crankiness before it got out of hand, so I asked them to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then I asked them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed me the papers. Charlie smiled. Mark said, thank you for teaching me, sister.

Have a good weekend. That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate piece of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday, I gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. Really, I heard whispered. I never knew that meant anything to anyone. I didn't know others liked me so much. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. I never knew if they'd discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't really matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and with one another again. That group of students moved on. Several years later, after I returned from vacation, my parents met me at the airport. As we were driving home, mother asked the usual questions about the trip, the weather, my experiences in general, and then there was a lull in the conversation. Mother gave dad a sideways glance and simply said, dad?

My father cleared his throat as he usually did before saying something important.

The eclons called last night, he began. Really, I said. I haven't heard from them in years. I wonder how Mark is. Dad responded quietly. Mark was killed in Vietnam, he said. The funeral is tomorrow and his parents would like to know if you can attend. To this day, I can still point to the exact spot on I-494 where dad told me about Mark. I'd never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. Mark looked so handsome and so mature, and all I could think about at that moment was, Mark, I would give up all the masking tape in the world if you would only talk to me.

The church was packed with Mark's friends and Chuck's sister sang the battle hymn of the Republic. Why did it have to rain on the day of the funeral? It was difficult enough at the graveside. The pastor said the usual prayers and the bugler played taps, and one by one, those who loved Mark took a last walk by the coffin and sprinkled it with holy water. I was the last one to bless the coffin. As I stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as a pallbearer came up to me.

Were you Mark's math teacher? he asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. Mark talked about you a lot, he said. After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates headed to Chuck's farmhouse for lunch. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting for me. We want to show you something, his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. They found this on Mark when he was killed, and we thought you might recognize it. Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded, and refolded many times. I knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had listed out all the good things that Mark's classmates had said about him. Thank you for doing that, Mark's mother said. As you can see, Mark treasured it. Mark's classmates started to gather around us. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home. Chuck's wife said, Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album. I have mine too, Marilyn said. It's in my diary.

And then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet, and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. I carry this with me at all times, Vicki said, without batting an eyelash. I think we all saved our lists. That's when I finally sat down and cried.

I cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. So, touching story, but it points out something very important, I think, in the context of what we're talking about here. One talent is incredibly important. One word, or a few small words, can be so incredibly important. And as we reflect and we think about coming off of the feast, what it is that we're doing to multiply our talents, let's not be afraid to think small, because small things can do a lot for other people. God wants us to create growth. God's all given us gifts and abilities that we can use in our congregation. We can use with one another as people, that we can use in our neighborhoods, that we can use in the church as a whole. We just need to keep looking for ways to build, to break down those barriers that we have within us. I think we all have them.

I know that I do, whether it's reactions that we have from the way that we were treated when we were kids, that caused us to withdraw, whether it's other things that we have within us, there's things that stop us from reaching out to one another, complementing one another, helping one another in different ways. And we need to keep focusing on what are those barriers that stop me from reaching out, from developing out more of my talents, from getting a little bit uncomfortable and doing the things that I need to do in order to help the lives of other people more through God's spirit. And we need to break those things down one at a time. And remember, the one talent is not too small. So now, following the feast is an ideal time to look for ways that we can be even more active in using the things that God has given us. Let's look thirdly now, the idea of living according to God's priorities. As a good steward, we need to live according to the priorities of our Master. I think this sums up the things that we see, the elements that we see in the first two parables. Let's turn to verse 31 of Matthew 25. Matthew 25 verse 31.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, again, talking about God's kingdom coming, he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him and he'll separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He'll set the sheep on his right hand but the goats on the left. And the King will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, and I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me. And the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when do we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink, or a stranger and take you in? Or when did we see you sick or in prison? And the King will answer and say that I'm assured I saved you inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

What's interesting to me here, what's written here, is that even the people that God is accepting into his kingdom didn't even realize in this account, this parable, didn't even realize fully what they'd done. They were just living God's Holy Spirit working through them and having his mindset of helping other people. And he said at the end of the day, you know, when you were doing that, you were doing it to me, even though they didn't even fully realize what they were doing. And he'll say to those on the left, essentially the opposite, depart from me into everlasting fire, for I was hungry and you didn't give me food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you didn't take me in, naked, you did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. And they'll answer and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger? And he'll answer them, saying assuredly, inasmuch that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment. So God's talking here about his overall attitude, which is, don't wait around and look for the specific people that you think are worthy of your help. He's saying we're supposed to have this attitude of reaching out and helping others, enriching their lives, expressing his love to them through his spirit, regardless of what they look at, look like, and where they are. What we find out in the end is when we do that, when that attitude and that mindset, which is the mindset of Jesus Christ, is reaching out through us, we are doing the things that he expects us to as his servants. Society teaches us to use whatever we have as resources to maximize our enjoyment, right, and to gather as much as we can to ourselves.

But that's not the ideals of our Master. That's not how he says we should live our lives.

The feast reminds us that we have a greater calling, right? It holds out that vision of a fantastic kingdom that's coming. It gives us an opportunity for fellowship that we don't have most of the time with like-minded people, which strengthens that. As stewards, we have to take that. We have to think, then, about how we're using the physical blessings that God has given us, the resources that we have, to help other people. I'd like to turn to one last account in the Gospels that helps to bring this idea home. Again, the idea of taking on the values of our Master.

Luke 10, verses 25 through 29.

Behold, in verse 25, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Jesus, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What's written in the law?

What's your reading of it? So, a typical strategy that Jesus Christ used, right? Taking a question and redirecting the question back. And so, the lawyer answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to him, You've answered rightly. Do this, and you'll live.

But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, Who is my neighbor?

Typical thing that an attorney would do, right? You have to look at the words that are in there.

We have to define these things very carefully, and we need to focus down on, Who is my neighbor?

And Jesus then goes into the story of the Good Samaritan. We're not going to read through in the entire story, but Samaritans at that time were people who were looked down on. They weren't as good as the rest of them. The Jewish people who Jesus Christ was interacting with would not generally have anything to do with the Samaritans, because they found them to be inferior. And so, Jesus Christ goes on and makes this story that he gives of a Samaritan or a person who was traveling between two cities, was fallen upon by robbers and basically left at the side of the road with everything he had stolen from him and having survived a pretty bad beating. And then he talks about the different people who walked by him. Pious people, people who from all the outward appearances were extremely righteous people. And they made a broad path around this person because they couldn't dirty their hands with helping this person lying on the side of the road. And then he makes the point that the Samaritan comes along, and a Samaritan who is, again, considered a lesser person by those people that Jesus Christ was talking with, went, took this person, helped him, took him to an inn, made sure that he got a room, and made sure that his needs were taken care of.

And then Jesus Christ asks the question back to the lawyer and says, which one of these was righteous? And that's what we see here. And actually what he says is, which was the neighbor.

So this story was a long way of Jesus Christ answering this lawyer, saying, you asked who the neighbor is? I'll tell you how you know who the neighbor is. In verse 36, he said he asks him, and obviously the point is clear, it's the person who actually helped this person who was beaten and robbed. And in verse 37, he said, he who showed mercy on this person. And Jesus Christ said to the lawyer, go and do likewise. So the lawyer wanted a legal definition, seemingly was willing to go ahead and do what was required, but wanted to know in a very defined way, who's my neighbor? Who are the people I should focus on? I'll tune the rest out. I'll focus on the people who fit this definition.

And the point that Jesus Christ was making was everyone that's out there who has a need is someone that we should look to see if there's a way that we could fulfill that need.

So as good stewards, we have to live the values that our master has. And that's really the point that Jesus Christ was making in the end. I'm not picking and choosing between people and saying, these are deserving, these are not deserving. I have an attitude of showing love and asking you to use the things that you've been given to help in the places where you are. And when we come across things, and in the example of the Good Samaritan, you come across somebody lying in the road needing help, the mind of God, the spirit of God, even just regular humanity would say, you go and you help that person. And that's the point that was being made. So God's love extends to all mankind, and we have to evidence the same attitude in that way, in the way that we deal with others. So again, using this theme of coming back from the feast, the aftermath of the feast is also an ideal time for us to reflect on the values of our master. It's easy for us as we come back to get immersed back into our everyday lives and the things that we need to take care of. And as we read at the beginning in Matthew 6, 33, there are plenty of pursuits of our lives that do need to be tended to. So it's not a question of either or. It's a question of priorities and making sure that we have room in our lives, that we realize that all of the things that we're doing day to day have to fit within the overall frame of going after God's kingdom as our top priority. So in conclusion, we prove that we're seeking God's kingdom by, first, by exercising stewardship in our lives. We've been entrusted with gifts, with God's Holy Spirit, with His calling, that are beyond measure in terms of their value.

So as we think about how we go forward with our lives coming back from the feast, we'd like to encourage everyone to think about how we are doing as stewards. And a good steward always needs to be on duty, should be someone who produces growth, and someone who adopts the values of the master.

Let's all be good stewards.