Today’s scripture: Isaiah 22:15-25 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (John Seksay):
“O you disgrace to your master’s house! I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post!”
What are good stewards exactly? They are persons who exercise proper trust and prudence in the management of resources, because they know that the resources are not intrinsically theirs. They did not create the resources; they simply hold them in trust. Who could be candidates to be called stewards among us today? Politicians, by their job descriptions, if not their behavior. The captains of business, if they want stability for their enterprise. Every person who walks the face of the planet and looks to it for sustenance, actually. What we need for ourselves (and/or our families) often comes from elsewhere — food, water, clothing, income, shelter — and we must manage our resources properly to remain safe, or comfortable, or even — dare I say? — prosperous.
Many of us have heard the song that goes, “Mama may have, Papa may have, but God bless the child that’s got his own.” The downside to a comfortable existence is the possibility of growing forgetful of the spiritual roots for worldly disciplines that create that secure space for us. What we call “ours” is a shared measure of the bounties of our world that we hold in trust against need. These things that form the web of our security are not some automatic inheritance in most cases. There are many unhappy circumstances that can remove some — or all — that we have presumed to be our own.
The Apocalypse gives us four horsemen: War, Plague, Famine, and Death. I have to think that the common sire of the horses that they ride was named Hubris. “Those people must have brought it on themselves!” All of us have said that at one time or another. Perhaps some of them did — but not every unfortunate soul. Greed or wrath in others can leave a trail of destruction behind them, the consequences compounding widely. Ask homeless people about sleeping in the streets by night and holding a cardboard sign by day. How many of them had that as a childhood dream or a career plan after graduation? Ask families in the refugee camps where the homes that their namesakes shared for generations suddenly went. Remember Enron? Remember Rwanda?
When we cease to properly cherish what we have by nurturing the web of life that provides it, we start living in a house of cards. When we habitually sequester more than we require, or give less than we take, the effects will accumulate and the consequences will be shared, just like the bounty that could have been there instead. Attitudes beget actions, and actions spawn reactions; ask any Syrian. Even the query “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is surely a stewardship question. So what kind of stewards were we today?
Thought for the day: Have I acknowledged what I “have” as a stewardship blessing? How am I using it to bless others around me?
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.