Owners or Renters?

Psalm 123 Matthew 25:14-30

Remember when you bought your first car?  Your first home? Dave and I bought our house in Downers Grove more than 35 years ago.  We could do what we wanted to inside our house, and outside the house, if we got village permits.  We made it ours.

As believers in God, we all have been given ownership.  This implies both the responsibility and rewards of taking care of and managing.  When we own up to something, we are declaring, admitting, and confessing.  Again, taking responsibility.

You’re likely thinking about the time, talents, and possessions God has given you.  It is so much more than that.  It also means recognizing how do we belong to Jesus and how we allow Jesus to become ours, to live within us.

As Christians, we are called to a mission by Jesus.  The hoarder in today’s parable, wasted not just money but an opportunity, and was judged harshly.  We have a responsibility to God to take care of the treasure God has given us.  That means our world today. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is among us. ( Luke 17:20-21)

The treasure is also Jesus who is forever with us and the Good News of the Gospel. We, as Christians, can live now in the kingdom of God.  This very moment.  We own it.  We do not rent it just on Sundays.  Our relationship to God and the world is one of stewardship. We are to use everything entrusted to us in such a way that it benefits God’s kingdom.

Jesus tells us in all four Gospels, ‘For if you want to save your own life, you will lose it; but if you lose your life for me and for the gospel, you will save it.”  (Mark 8:35)  What is Jesus asking that we lose for him?  As C.S. Lewis vividly puts it:

It may be a hard thing for an egg to become a bird; it is a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while it is still an egg. We are like eggs, today, and we either must be hatched, or go bad!

Is this us in the church today?  Safe inside the walls which we have long considered a haven Step out! Risk! Live dangerously! Take constant chances with your life and goods for Jesus. Don't try to bottle up your life so as to hang on to it at all costs. That is the way to find life. To find joy! Live dangerously! To live for Christ is to love humanity with his love. Love dangerously. And that is always a risk

As we begin to understand this parable of stewardship as about something other than worldly goods, this changes how we carry out Jesus message.  Jesus is entrusting something much more to his disciples when he leaves. What exactly is this?   The last words of Matthew’s gospel tells us.

Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. ( Matthew 28:18-20)

The treasure is the Good News, the mission of Jesus Christ.

Go – Jesus commands

Make disciples –

Teach  - others to obey my word

Remember -  I am with you always.

This is the mission of the body of Christ, the purpose of our church.  We must seek, reach out, and be fruitful living out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.  Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, have we ventured anything for you? Have we risked our lives for your sake? Lord, teach us to risk, to abandon, to fling away what would be stewardship only to ourselves. Give us faith and courage to go out and bring the lost into your kingdom. For your name's sake, Amen.