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August 13, 2006When I first read the passage from Deuteronomy that serves as our first lesson today, my mind went immediately to the Middle East, that blood-soaked land that people have fought over for millennia. Go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, a land with flowing streams and springs, olive trees and honey.
Jews, Muslims, and our predominantly Christian nation are all trying to seize and hold the land for their own, and we are all motivated by our religious convictions. Go in and take the land that the Lord is giving you.
I thought first about a chilling photograph I saw of a large group of Israeli soldiers praying as they prepared to bomb Lebanon, dropping terror and death on apartment buildings filled with women and children.
I thought about extremist Muslims who believe with utter certainty that God commands them to wipe Israel off the map so that they can reclaim what they feel was taken from them. Daily suicide bombings in Iraq are carried out in the name of God, in an attempt to possess that land.
And I thought about our purpose in the Middle East. It has subtle but very real religious undertones. Our leaders believe that our way of life and our political and economic system are not only God-given to us, but intended for all people. It is a sacred mission that our Secretary of State describes as “building a new Middle East.” This mission justifies 50-100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq so far: we consider this unfortunate but unavoidable “collateral damage.” This mission justifies the detainment, torture, and denial of human rights for an unknown number of people in Guantanamo and secret overseas prisons.
We all might agree that the good things of life – such as the land and its resources, freedom – are gifts from our Creator. But what is the proper response to those gifts? The response I’ve been describing so far is to start with the premise that what God has given us is now our possession. It is ours to protect and exploit for our purposes, since our purposes are blessed by God. But the result of this response seems to be only more division and bloodshed.
Another approach is to handle the gifts that God gives us with a different mindset. It is the mindset of being a faithful and humble steward. Everything in this life not only came from God. It all still belongs to God, and is only temporarily on loan to us. The land we live on and its resources, the land of the Middle East and everywhere else in the world, our freedoms and privileges, our relationships, our personal bank account, the individual gifts that each of us has: all of this belongs to God, and we are only temporary stewards.
What is a steward? It is someone who cares for another person’s property, like a manager of an estate. The property belongs to the owner, and the manager’s job is to faithfully carry out the owner’s purposes for it. The manager does not have the right to do anything with the owner’s property that is contrary to the owner’s will. It is not his to do with as he wishes.
And so what are God’s purposes for our land, our freedoms, our personal gifts and possessions? This is where Bible study comes in; this is where some knowledge of our theology and our faith tradition are essential. For when we examine what our scriptures and other traditions tell us, the message is very clear.
God intends for us to use the life that has been given to us for very specific purposes: love, reconciliation and harmony between people, caring for the poor and the marginalized, respect for all of creation. We are stewards of a sacred trust; we are asked to use everything that God loans us for these purposes, and not for others.
If we study our faith tradition further, we see that when we use the gifts of creation, of land, of our own personal gifts and resources for God’s purposes, blessing is the result. This is the theme of today’s readings from scripture.
In the first reading from Deuteronomy, Moses says that if Israel keeps God’s commandments, if they walk in his ways of justice and mercy and goodness, they will be blessed. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.
This is the Old Covenant: if you follow God’s ways, if you love one another, if you care for the stranger and the poor among you, if you act in charity and justice, if you refrain from greed and exploitation of others, if you are a good steward of what God is gave to you, your life will be a blessing to you and to the world around you.
The New Covenant is no different, really. Jesus himself is the new Israel, the new promised land, the new commandment. Jesus himself is the gift of God to all who place their trust in him. He is, our gospel tells us today, like bread falling down from heaven, like manna from above.
The New Covenant tells us that if you handle this gift humbly, faithfully, reverently and seriously, if you take him in sacramentally and eat this bread, his flesh, if you place all your trust in Jesus and his teachings and you risk living that way – which is the real meaning of “believing in him” – if you are a good steward of the gift of the Spirit of Christ that was given to you at baptism, your life will be a blessing to you and to others.
And so the new and old covenants both tell us that life is a gift. Israel was given a land flowing with rivers, wheat, and pomegranates. Jesus gives us new life.
Both covenants tell us that this gift is to be used according to God’s purposes, for we are only humble stewards. Moses enjoins Israel to be faithful to God’s commandments. Jesus asks us to trust in him and live according to his ways.
Finally, both covenants tell us that if we are faithful stewards and use the gifts of God for God’s purposes, we will be blessed. Moses promises peace and prosperity. Jesus promises new life.
And so what would it look like if Israel took seriously its role as humble and faithful stewards of that land that they believe God has temporarily loaned to them, to use for God’s purposes? How would they treat the Palestinians and the Lebanese? Would they then become a blessing, and not a curse to their Muslim neighbors?
What would it look like if all Muslims took seriously their role as humble and faithful stewards of God’s many gifts to them? How would they treat non-Muslims if they were seeking above all to follow Allah’s ways? Would they, too, become a blessing to all?
What would it look like if our leaders that are Christian took seriously their role as humble and faithful stewards of this land, of creation, of our relationships with others in the world? How would they treat the other, even our perceived enemies, if above all else, they wanted to be faithful to the precious gift of Christ and his ways? Would we become a blessing to the world again, as we have been in the past?
But more immediately for you and for me, what takes place when we remember that in baptism we are marked as Christ’s own forever, when we think about receiving the precious gift of his very being in this hour of worship? What do our lives look like when we really believe that everything about us is God’s - our body, our personality, our money, our time, our friends, our work? What happens when we understand that all of this is not ours to use according for our own purposes, but for God’s?
I think what happens is that our life becomes a blessing to us and to others. We find and create more harmony, compassion, understanding, and peace. As humble and faithful stewards of the gifts that God as given us, we discover our purpose. We discover the real meaning of what Jesus promised when he said I came so that your joy would be complete; I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.
End Document — St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church