“Managing God’s Gift of Other People” Psalm 34, Lev. 19.9-18, Gal. 6.1-10, Luke 10.23-37, Oct. ‘16

1.                   Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word is taken from the Bible lessons for today.  It’s entitled, “Managing God’s Gift of Other People,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   In case you haven’t noticed, there are other people in this world. Some sources say the number is well above 7 billion—yes, billion, with a “b.” In the United States there are probably over 318 million people. That’s a lot of people! And all of them are God’s gifts to you. But don’t let such statistics overwhelm you. Just focus on the people around you—where you live, where you worship, where you work, where you play. They are God’s gifts to you. 

3.                   As we continue our stewardship series on Managing God’s Gifts, today we now focus on our neighbor. Remember that “stewardship” isn’t a dirty word. Nor is it a word that merely means “money” or “fund-raising” or “money sermon.” “Stewardship” describes how we believe and live as God’s children in all of life. All of our Christian faith and life is “stewardship.” If you want a better word than “stewardship,” think “management.” If you don’t know what a steward is, think “manager”—someone who manages what belongs to someone else. And that someone else is God Himself.

4.                   Last week, we focused on God’s gift of the world and how we can manage it according to His will—receiving it with thanksgiving, caring for it, and using physical things for the benefit of our neighbor. Today, we focus on God’s gift of other people. Yes, other people—all 7.3 billion of them around the globe, all 318 million of them in our nation, and every individual we have contact with—are God’s gifts. Being good managers in our relations with others leads us to love and serve them, especially as we bear witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus.

5.                   When we go back to God’s original plan for His creation, in Genesis 2, we see how God breathed life into Adam. Right after that, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Not only did God then create woman and institute marriage, but He also showed that we human beings need other human beings. If you don’t believe that, then check to see if you have a belly button. If you do, then remember that you needed two other people to come into this world. Your belly button is your lifelong reminder that you need other people and that God calls you to serve and love other people.

6.                   God created us to live in community. Other people, especially those closest to us in our families, are gifts from God. Just as God Himself is a community—three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one divine Being—He creates us to live in community. It begins with man and woman in marriage. It also includes other people around us. God wants us to “manage” those other people around us with love and service to them. He gives us those other people in our marriages, in our families, in the church, and in society.

7.                   We see this in our First Reading, from Leviticus 19. This chapter begins with God telling His Old Testament people and us: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). What does that holiness entail? Things like honoring mother and father, keeping the Sabbath, and not turning to idols (Leviticus 19:3–4). Then, right on the heels of this command to be holy, God talks about loving our neighbor.

8.                   How do you manage God’s gifts of your neighbors? As God says, don’t worry about snipping every last head of grain when you harvest your field. Don’t worry about plucking every last grape when you harvest your vineyard. “Leave them for the poor and for the sojourner” (Leviticus 19:10). Why? Because the Lord is your holy God.

9.                   Don’t steal. Don’t deceive. Don’t lie. Don’t take false oaths using God’s name. Don’t make God’s name as common as dirt. Why? Because the Lord is your holy God. Don’t oppress your neighbor or rob him. Pay your workers a proper wage. Don’t spurn the deaf or the blind, or cause them to stumble. Why? Because the Lord is your holy God. Don’t take other people to court just to get the advantage over them. Don’t respect the rich and famous over the poor and unknown. Don’t tell tales about your neighbors or disrespect their life in any way. Why? Because the Lord is your holy God. Don’t hate or hold a grudge against your neighbor, but try to reconcile with him or her. Try to treat every other person as you would want to be treated. Why? Because the Lord is your holy God.

10.               You see, your neighbor—in your marriage, in your family, in the church, and in society—is God’s gift to you. God has created that neighbor. He has loved that neighbor. He has redeemed that neighbor and covered that neighbor with the blood of Jesus, His Son. And He wants you to serve and love that neighbor just as He does—just as He has served and loved you.

11.               A quick look around will establish that this is not the way that society operates, nor most people in society. We live in a world that teaches us how to win friends and influence people for our own benefit. Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People may certainly offer some helpful wisdom for interacting with our neighbors. But, the well-known goals of winning friends and influencing people include increasing your own popularity, increasing your own prestige, winning new clients or customers, and becoming a better salesperson or executive. There’s certainly nothing sinful with Christians being popular or Christian business people gaining clients or Christians being better salespeople or executives. The problem comes when we try to win friends and influence people for our own benefit.

12.               Jesus didn’t say, “You shall love your neighbor so that your neighbor will love you more in return.” No, He said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). And, when He gave that 2^nd greatest commandment, He didn’t mean that you should love yourself first and then figure out how to love your neighbor after that. He knew that you already love yourself—too much, in fact. As Martin Luther said, that’s what sin is: being curved in on yourself. St. Paul’s words clarify how we are to love our neighbors: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).

13.               Isn’t this what we see in our Gospel? The man who fell among robbers needed someone, a neighbor, to love and help him. First, a priest happened by. And did nothing! Just passed on by. Next, a Levite happened to see him. Again, no help! Just passed on by. Finally, a Samaritan “came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion” (Luke 10:33). The Samaritan put his own needs on hold and actually put himself at risk. He bound the man’s wounds, carried him to the inn, and paid for him to stay there. This is a wonderful picture of managing God’s gift of other people, the people whom God puts in our path.

14.               Not only is this a picture of God’s will for us to love and “manage” our neighbor, but it’s also a picture of how our gracious God loves and rescues us. Jesus Himself is our Good Samaritan. We have fallen among the robbers of sin and death. We’re left stripped, beaten, and half-dead in our own sins against other people and by sins that other people commit against us. But Jesus comes to our rescue. In His divine compassion, He comes to us and binds our wounds. He pours on the oil and wine of His healing forgiveness when He baptizes us, absolves us, and feeds us at His Table. He brings us into the church, where He continues to arrange for our ongoing healing and recovery from sin and death. And what price has He paid? He went to the cross to suffer our wounds and to die in our place, taking on our beatings from sin and death. Then He rose on the third day to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Jesus is our greatest neighbor who has loved and helped each one of us.

15.               Based on this compassion and healing from Jesus, you and I are set free to love and serve our neighbors. Now we’re ready to hear what St. Paul says in our Second Reading. First, he says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Then, he says, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). How do we “manage,” or steward, the people around us who are God’s gifts to us? We love them and serve them for their benefit.

16.               How can you manage, or steward, God’s gifts of the people around you? Focus on the people God has put closest to you in your life. Consider your family. How can you love and serve your spouse, your children, your parents, and your siblings—for their benefit? Consider your church. How can you love and serve your fellow Christians—for their benefit? Consider your place of employment. How can you love and serve your supervisor, and how can you love and serve your fellow employees—again, for their benefit?

17.               Here’s the best way that you and I can “manage,” God’s gift of people. St. Paul says, “If anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). If we truly love and want to serve the people that God has put on the path of our life, we will want to give them Jesus. We will want to warn them of their sins—sins of unbelief or self-centered actions or destructive lifestyles. We will want them to join us in the healing and compassion of Jesus. We will want them to rejoice that Jesus is their Good Samaritan too. The greatest and best way to love and serve our unbelieving neighbor is to bring the Gospel of Jesus to them and them into the Church. The greatest and best way to love and serve our Christian neighbor is to practice the love, forgiveness, and reconciliation of Jesus with them at all times and in all circumstances.

18.               God wants us to live in community, and He gives other people to us as His gifts. He wants us to love and serve them as He has first loved and served us. That’s good stewardship—“management”—of people in our families, in our church, and in society. Amen.

"Managing God’s Gift of the World," Psalm 24, Gen. 2.4-17, 1 Tim. 4.1-4, Mark 8.1-9 Oct. ‘16

1.                   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The message from God’s Word this morning comes from the Bible Lessons for today.  It’s entitled, “Managing God’s Gift of the World,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   Stewardship. It’s a word that brings different reactions. Maybe you hear that word and wonder, “What does it even mean?” Maybe you hear the word “stewardship” and think, “Oh no! It’s that time of year again? How far behind are we in this year’s budget? How much will we need for next year’s budget?” Or maybe you hear that word and grab your wallet to keep it safe from prying offering plates!

3.                   Well, here’s news for you. “Stewardship” is not all about money. Money is only part of the picture. “Stewardship” involves all of our Christian faith and life. It describes how we believe and live as God’s created, redeemed, and sanctified children in all of life.  We often use the term “stewardship” to translate the Greek word oikonomia. That Greek word literally means “the management of a household or family.” The Old English word from which we get “stewardship” means the same thing. It’s what the housekeeper or the butler would do in their service to the lord of the manor. The lord of the manor owned the mansion and the whole estate. The housekeeper or the butler managed what belonged to him.

4.                   So it is for us Christians. Our loving triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is the “lord of the manor” for the heavens and the earth and everything in them. We manage what God Himself owns. In this stewardship series we will focus on the big picture of Managing God’s Gifts.  Today, we begin with God’s gift of the world, all of His physical creation in all of its material beauty. Psalm 24 sings the glories of our heavenly King: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).

5.                   In order to appreciate fully God’s gift of His world and everything in it, we need to go back to Genesis chapters 1 and 2, before the fall into sin. There we hear how God created everything—the heavens, the earth, light, dark, sea, sky, land, vegetation, fish, birds, all the animals and critters, and even us human beings—all of it, out of nothing. Only God can do that! And since He created it all, He owns it all.  Then notice what our mighty, heavenly King did. He turned management of His good creation over to His human creatures. He entrusted His whole created estate to their management, or stewardship. He told Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28). In Genesis 2, God explains what this means: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15).

6.                   Subdue God’s good creation? Have dominion over heavens and earth, over land and sea, over fish, birds, and animals? Some may balk at that. Maybe you have some misgivings too. It sounds so abusive, so oppressive. It can be that, but only after Adam and Eve plunged us into sin and brought death into the world.  But,  in God’s good order, the words “subdue” and “have dominion over” meant nothing more than receive, guard, keep, use responsibly, manage well, take care of—that is, practice good stewardship. God wants us and all people to work and keep His world of physical, material things, both animate and inanimate. He wants us to manage it all, and manage it well.

7.                   It’s what we confess in the explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed, where Martin Luther instructs us: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. . . . All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.” This is good stewardship—good management—of God’s gifts: receiving them from Him, thanking Him for them, and using them as He intends.

8.                   The problem is, we now live in a sinful world corrupted by death, with poor management of God’s good world. We fallen sinners routinely abuse the gift of God’s good earth. We toss our candy wrappers or our cigarette butts on the ground with an out-of-sight-out-of-mind neglect. When we repaint the living room, we may not properly dispose of the unused paint or paint thinner. We have huge companies that look for inexpensive ways to dispose of waste materials from their factories and end up polluting God’s earth with toxic sludge or smog.

9.                   Enter the environmental movement. They tell us we must protect the environment. We must learn to recycle. We must drive our cars less, or at least drive more fuel-efficient and cleaner cars. We must “Save the Earth!” or “Save the Whales!” or “Save the Rain Forests!” We must be more “green,” that is, aware of how our actions, our use of materials, and our disposal of materials impacts planet Earth. These can be good practices. Good management of God’s gift of the world wants to take care of the many things, creatures, and resources that God gives.

10.               But, where we run into problems, is when the environmental movement turns planet Earth into a goddess to be worshiped and protected at all costs. Maybe you’ve seen the bumper sticker that says “Love your mother” right next to a picture of planet Earth—or the one that says “Walk gently on Mother Earth,” again, right next to a picture of planet Earth. The idea is that Earth—also called “Gaia”—is the goddess, and we must do homage and protect her. Good management of God’s earth, however, does not mean deifying the created order.

11.               Nor does it mean exploiting the land, the sea, or their many resources, as if physical things do not matter. When we mindlessly litter, when we waste food, when we poach animals, when we flush out or bury toxic waste, we are playing God and forgetting that we are but managers of God’s good world. A manager who wastes or spurns the Master’s possessions deserves only to be fired.  God’s Word gives us a completely different way of managing God’s good gift of the world and everything in it. In our Gospel, we hear how our Lord Jesus Himself respects the created order of His Father. We can even rejoice that He also uses the created order to deliver the gifts of His salvation!

12.               Jesus had been teaching for 3 straight days, and the people had been gladly hearing and learning the Word of God from Him. But by that time, they were hungry. If Jesus had told them to go home to get supper, they would have fainted on the way. So our Lord once again shows His deep compassion. He took the seven loaves and the few small fish—created things—gave thanks for them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to give to the crowd. And all 4000 people in the crowd that day ate their fill and were satisfied.

13.               Our Lord Jesus Himself practices good management—of God’s material world. He uses the gifts of creation to feed and satisfy these 4000 people. “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people.” So we, God’s managers, learn to pray “that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving” (SC, explanation of the Fourth Petition). Managing God’s gift of the world means receiving His material world, in all of its many-splendored wonder, with thanksgiving and using it for our benefit and the benefit of people around us.

14.               Since we don’t always do this, and since we too often neglect God’s good world, and since we may even be tempted to deify God’s good creation, we look to Jesus not only for daily bread, but also for His mercy and forgiveness—His “bread of life.” This Jesus, who fed the crowd of 4000, also came to redeem and restore us and all of God’s creation. This Jesus, “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity,” is also “true man, born of the Virgin Mary” (SC, explanation of the Second Article). This Jesus Himself had and still has “body and soul, eyes, ears, and all [His] members, [His] reason and all [His] senses” (SC, explanation of the First Article).

15.               This Jesus received all these gifts of God’s created world and managed them in order to save and redeem you. His physical body was cruelly whipped. His physical head was crowned with thorns. His physical hands and feet were pierced and fixed to a cross. His voice cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), to proclaim you forgiven and redeemed. And, on top of all that, this Jesus rose victorious from the grave, with His physical, material body. His resurrection on the third day also becomes the first day of a new, restored creation. This Jesus even uses things of His creation to deliver His salvation directly to you: water for your Baptism, to make you His child; sound waves for you to hear His Absolution; and bread and wine in His Supper to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation.

16.               Your Lord Jesus redeems you in body and soul, so that you may live once again as His faithful stewards, or managers, of His world. Let’s listen to St. Paul’s words from 1 Timothy 4:4: “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.”  You and I have been redeemed by Jesus Himself to care for His creation—to manage the gift of His world.

17.               Instead of deifying the created order, we treat it with proper respect, because “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). Instead of wasting, we conserve. Instead of spurning physical things, we delight in all that God gives in His created order. Instead of littering or polluting, we find ways to properly and safely dispose of trash or toxic waste. Instead of abusing or poaching animals, we care for them, and, yes, even use them for food, as God has given (Genesis 9:3). We can delight in God’s good creation. By His grace, we can manage God’s gift of the whole world.  Amen.