From One Kernal Comes Bread for the World photo by Eric Fritch, Chinook Farms, St. John's Snohomish, WA
Stewards' Stirrings 
13th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18 - Year A
in the Diocese of Olympia
This is a resource here in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia to help point to some stewardship themes in the weekly lectionary to make it easier to preach, teach, study, pray and speak about stewardship throughout the year.  

 

 

Refrain for Proper 18 Year A
For where two or three are gathered in my name,* 
        I am there among them.

Click   13th Sunday after Pentecost Year A for a link to this Sunday's readings which include: Exodus 12:1-14 and Psalm 149; or Ezekiel 33:7-11 and Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:8-14; and Matthew 18:15-20. 

There is a difference between a task and ministry.  A task is about checking an action off a to-do list and ministry is about developing the relationship within the action.  Our readings this week emphasize the stewardship of relationships that honor God and God's relationship with all people.

While the reading option from Exodus may read like a task list, it is rooted in Israel's relationship with God and one another as the people of God through which God will bless all nations.  It is the marking of time with a new beginning. Like new creation, this marks their new life in freedom redeemed from their slavery in Egypt by God.  The unblemished lamb becomes both offering and sustenance, and marker of the portal of their freedom.  They eat bitter herbs to remember the bitterness of the oppression of slavery.  This is so they will not forget what it is like to be enslaved or to enslave, and to remember that God has liberated them from this oppression.  The unleavened bread is quick food made for a hasty meal for an expedient departure.  The meal of lamb, bitter herbs and unleavened bread is roasted over a fire. This fire is symbolic of the Fire of God in the burning bush and the God's Pillar of Fire that will lead them by night and the plume of Cloud that will lead them by day out of Egypt into freedom. The meal is eaten in the posture of traveling with "loins girded" ready to go.  All of these actions are to be memorialized in liturgical form for future generations to remember their liberation from slavery and their Redeemer.  So while it may read like a to-do list, it is a kinetic liturgy stewarding the relationship between God and God's people.

Our option from Ezekiel places strong accountability on those who are called to be God's messengers of living in right relationship with the world.  Not only is there a message to the messenger but the word is clear that God will not stand for evil to be perpetrated on people and creation.  And as Christians we are called to proclaim God's gospel message in both word and deed stewarding right relationships in the world.

Here in chapter 13 of his letter to the Romans, Paul describes what it looks like to steward our relationships with one another and with God.  He references the Ten Commandments and that they are summed up in the living in relationship with your neighbor in love as we love ourself. Selfless love is the fulfillment of the law. And it is stewardship of our relationships in response to God's love for us and all people. 

In our gospel reading this week Jesus addresses how we steward our relationships in the midst of conflict.  Jesus instructs us to reconciliation in a process that honors each party and is rooted in mutual respect.  This is the way of the Church, how we steward our relationships.  And even when a conflict is unresolved due to one objecting to the communal perspective, that one still is to be treated with love and respect due all people.  Remember Jesus frequently ate with tax collectors and healed Gentiles in need. Jesus does not say that holdout is to be an anathema.  Aher in community that he is there with them.  Jesus' word here about binding and loosing on earth exemplifies how the Church's actions are to be reflective of the heavenly love that flows from God. And further, Jesus reminds his followers that when they gather in community that he is there with them.  Therefore, the Church is to represent Christ in relation to the world, stewarding God's love with all people and creation.

How is your "to-do list" transformed into ministry through the stewarding of your relationships with God and with the world?



Grace,  

Lance 


The Rev. Canon Lance Ousley 
Canon for Stewardship and Development
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
1551 10th Ave E.
Seattle, WA  98102
 
 
 
For more Stewardship resources go to TENS.org
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