Consecrated Stewards
by Pastor Bill Geis

“The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.”
Zephaniah 1:7

For the past several weeks you’ve heard the phrase, “Consecrated Stewards.” When something or someone is “consecrated” it is set apart from the ordinary and reserved for a holy purpose. It’s like reserving the best china for holiday meals. Sometimes consecrated things are designated for use; sometimes consecrated ones are designated to receive.

Lord speaks through Zephaniah, calling us his “consecrated.” He is expressly setting us apart big gifts. Read on (Zephaniah 1:7ff) and you’ll see some fiery words. God expresses great disappointment that those he has reserved for his best gifts, think so little of the “Giver.” He accuses them of complacency, and by their indifference, voting “no confidence” in their God.

How could those who know better stoop so far to say, “The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.” (v. 12)? I’m convinced that Zephaniah is not merely speaking to a rebellious ancient community. I’m convinced he’s preaching to me and to you. It’s easy to slip into that trap of indifference and fail to see what God is doing. It’s so easy to allow evil influences, a culture of negativity and the weakness of personal doubt to tarnish consecrated material.

A beautiful aspect of a consecrated life is stewardship. Yet it is tarnished. We hear the word stewardship and immediately go negative. All too often stewardship is code for “the church needs money.” Ironically, stewardship is more about receiving than appeals for money. Read Jesus’ parable of the Talents. God is giving. The stewards are receiving a huge trust. One “Talent” in Jesus’ day was an unspeakable amount of money. At about the equivalent of 20 years wages, talk of Talents was non-sense. Yet here’s Jesus telling a story about an outrageous man who takes a king’s ransom and risks it all in the hands of poor stewards.

You and I are recipients of God’s extravagant risk taking. It’s important to stop and take inventory of that reality. Precisely because God is not indifferent or uninvolved, he’s asking for you to access what you are doing with his wealth. The first step in cleaning out the cobwebs of bad stewardship thinking is to recognize that all that we are using is his. And he’s thrilled that we have it!

Another part of that house cleaning is to ask yourself, how could I be more aligned with God’s stewardship plan for my life? Don’t go negative with that question. There’s a huge temptation to judge others who aren’t pulling their weight or to feel guilty about my own use of money and service. I believe that God taught us the practice of tithing to keep us focused on the positive. When one tithes, they take a percentage of their wealth (usually 10%) and give it to purposes that serve God and neighbor. In order to tithe, you have to know what you already have. To examine what we have is to the first step in learning how to accept God’s offerings of grace in your life. You can’t be a true tither unless you count the 100% God has placed into your hands.

In our services today, we’ll talk a little about tithing. This message isn’t about what the church needs. This is what we need to receive as the people of God. We need a healthy view of stewardship—and in particular of money. It’s a part of the Christian conversation of grace. For too long it’s been the conversation of guilt and thus sequestered into silence. Stewardship needs to have its beauty restored. You and I both know the Lord has sacrificed for us so that we might be “Consecrated Stewards.”

(c)2008 St. John's Lutheran Church and School | 505 S Park RD | La Grange IL 60525 | www.sjlagrange.com
See the Archives for Previous Issues