Stewardship Sunday-Pentecost+26/Proper 28B(Dan 12:1-3; Ps 16; Heb 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25; Mk 13:1-8)11/18/2018 Imagine an ancient temple where a priest stands with lots of of animals like goats, sheep, bulls, and doves, living and dead. If it is dead, then it is slaughtered with blood all over in the sanctuary, the holy of holies, and is burnt to ashes, filling the place with smokes. At the temple, especially in the holy of holies, a priest offers all kinds of sacrifices on behalf of others to be free from all the bondages and to stand righteous before God.
If we visualize all the sacrifices that have been offered at all the temples in the world as bricks, we can imagine building a very tall tower with them. With all these bricks of all the sacrifices offered to God by human hands, it will certainly be the tallest building in the world. It will be taller than the tallest building in the world which is Burj Khalifa located in Dubai. It is 2,717 ft tall. And this tower built with all the bricks of sacrifices will become taller and taller as if this becomes a project to build a second Babel Tower. And this tower can look quite beautiful and magnificent just like the temple by which Jesus’ disciples are so amazed in today’s gospel lesson. They want Jesus to agree with them on this gorgeous looking temple, “Look, Teacher! What large stones and what large buildings!” The point of this imagining a building built with bricks of sacrifices is not about the quantity of how many sacrifices have been offered. It is about this inevitably repetitive nature of a sacrifice to God. It is repetitive in its essence because that sacrifice given by humans is never satisfying. The second lesson we hear this morning talks about exactly this unsatisfying and unfulfilling nature of a sacrifice given by humans. “Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.” This kind of sacrifice is not good enough to undo our sinful pasts and heal our scars on our own. But also, it cannot stop us from sinning. In other words, despite all our human efforts to transform ourselves, we don’t seem to stop hurting each other, ourselves, and God with our own power. It doesn’t matter how often we give the same sacrifice again and again. Only God can save us from hopelessness and despair. So the author of the second lesson continues, “...Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins...by a single offering he [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” The sacrifice that Jesus himself offers is all that counts to transform the entire humanity. And how that sacrifice is done is said in Jesus’s words about the temple. “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Not a single stone of all these great buildings, which are the results of all the human efforts and achievements will be left. “All will be thrown down…” This saying of Jesus, as I was reflecting on all these lessons we hear this morning and trying to connect to the theme of Stewardship Sunday, has been strongly lingering. “All will be thrown down…” At first, this saying of Jesus doesn’t sound so encouraging or promising if we perceive Stewardship Sunday as something that the church has designated for its fundraising purpose. Who wants to donate when its institution proclaims “All will be thrown down” as the good news? But for us Christians, what seems to be a collapse of every human effort is the good news! And this message of Jesus is where we start our understanding of Christian stewardship. I am not sure if you received the stewardship letters this week. One is written by Amy, the other by me. In my letter, I briefly mention about the theology of stewardship in our Christian tradition. That we are created in the image of God is the very foundation of our call to be God’s faithful stewards. Two things to reflect on being created in the image of God. One is that we are not the creator of our own being. That we are created, that we are part of God’s creation, not a god of our own selves tells us our true nature as a human being. Jesus’s saying of “all will be thrown down” can actually be considered as “all that we human beings have created as if we are the Creator of the world will be thrown down.” Whatever Babel Tower we build, however magnificent and beautiful it can be, does not make us divine. The other thing about being created in the image of God is that after we are aware of our createdness or creatureliness, we believe that we are created in God’s own image. This image of God which is embedded and embodied in each human soul is in and of itself divine. And the most appropriate way of using this divine image in us is: first, know we are created, and second, exercise responsible stewardship. All material and spiritual things are given to us as God’s gifts and we are called to take care of them. So whatever we think we’re trying to build on our own doesn’t mean anything at all when we forget our very calling to be God’s faithful stewards. All will be thrown down if we believe somehow we can actually build something on our own. All will be thrown down if we think that we can be on our own, being so self-reliant, self-dependent, self-sufficient, not needing any help or support from others and God. All will be thrown down if our church can somehow manage to survive with an excellent financial management strategy. All will be thrown down if we stay in that privileged state of entitlement, not in the humble state of gratitude before God. At a personal level, all will be thrown down if I believe I am somewhat better than others, or if I deserve more rights, more privileges than others. This process of all things being thrown down might sound like a bad thing but it is not! It is God’s way of making all things new, restoring and reshaping us into God’s very own image. It is being immersed in the water of baptism, refined by the fire of the Holy Spirit, born again with Christ’s heart for love of God, of our neighbor, and of all the created beings in the universe. When all the walls that prevent us from loving God, our neighbor, and God’s creatures more are thrown down in us, we can truly become God’s faithful stewards. So, my friends in Christ, on this Stewardship Sunday, it is my sincere request that you ask the Holy Spirit to throw down all the walls that hold you back from loving God and others more, listening to God and others deeper, sharing with others abundantly, or understanding them more. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring down all the walls that do not help you flourish and blossom. And most importantly, ask the Holy Spirit to tear down all the walls that get in the way of accepting God’s love, embracing who you are as God’s gift, seeing yourselves and thus others as transfigured, and feeling truly and unconditionally loved by God that there’s nothing more precious than this love of God in Jesus Christ, that we can truly give ourselves out of utmost gratitude. Only when all these walls of apathy, ignorance, and entitlement are thrown down by Jesus’s death and resurrection, we can be God’s faithful stewards. Without this experience of God’s unending love, there is no true Christian stewardship. The second lesson from the letters to the Hebrews then urges us God’s stewards, “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” On this Stewardship Sunday, let’s encourage one another to love more and do good deeds for others. Let’s not neglect to meet together. Share that love you have received from Christ with others. This is the way to be responsible for the love of God we are given to share with others as God’s faithful stewards. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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