The Steward’s Song

The Lutheran church has for generations been called “the singing church.” This refers not only to the fact that we sing, but also to what we sing. We have a long heritage of hymnody that not only stirs the soul but feeds and confesses the faith.

What Lutherans sing, if it is to be faithful, must flow from what we believe. What we believe can only flow from one source, the Holy Scriptures. Stewards sing. This doesn’t mean that the steward needs to be operatic or a pop sensation. But stewards sing. They sing with their lips. They sing from their soul.

The song of praise that comes from a steward’s lips flows from the “mercies of God” that St. Paul talks about in Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Giving our first-fruits Stewardship flows not from the head, heart, or hand of the steward. It flows from the mercies of God.

In the second verse of the classic stewardship hymn “We Give Thee But Thine Own” (LSB 781), William How rightly describes the posture of the steward. It is not a posture of doing but of receiving: May we Thy bounties thus, As stewards true receive. And gladly, as Thou blessest us, To Thee our first-fruits give.

As Psalm 24 rightly notes, the earth is the Lord’s. Nothing belongs to the steward. Everything at the disposal of the steward belongs to God. Stewardship is the free and joyous activity of the children of God and God’s family the church in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes. God entrusts the created order to the steward.

This trust is given for the express purposes of worship of the Lord and the care for the neighbor. The steward can in no way claim ownership of that which is entrusted to him or her. It is received as a blessing so that it might be used in blessing. The blessing of the steward is in no way deserved. It is grace! Since the Garden of Eden, human history has been marked by the ongoing crisis of stewards idolatrously claiming ownership of that which belongs to God.

Daily contrition and repentance, worked by the Holy Spirit through faithful reception of Word and Sacrament, leads stewards to realize this. Daily the failed steward is convicted and condemned. But in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the failed steward is drowned and dies, and a redeemed, restored steward is returned to the task of stewarding the treasure of God, the Gospel, in such a way that it can be shared with others.

(Pastor Tim Homan serves both Grace Lutheran and Mammoth Lakes Lutheran churches. Grace Lutheran Church is located at 711 N. Fowler St. Bishop. Sunday services are at 10:45 a.m. Mammoth

Lakes Lutheran Church is located at 379 Old Mammoth Road,

Mammoth. Sunday service us at 8:45 a.m. For more information, call (760) 8729791.)