MANNA AND QUAIL  Jack  Walchenbach  9-21-08

          I’m not sure if I want to offer a sermon this morning, in the formal sense of that word, or just have a little pastor to congregation chat. My inclination is toward the latter.

          I have in my hands a little booklet which I dearly love, entitled, “Stewardship and You.”  It’s all of 15 pages, and mostly cute cartoons, the easiest thing to read ever. The Stewardship Committee decided that everyone in the church ought to receive this booklet, and initially was going to mail it out to us all with other stewardship materials in the coming stewardship season. But then they thought, if we mail it, nobody is going to read it. So the decision was made to give it out to everyone, can you guess when? That’s right, as we come to church, on October 5^th. They figured, if we give it to people in church, it will get read. And guess when, in the service, they thought it would be read. Well, it isn’t during the offertory! So I bet you can’t wait until October 5^th.

          Let me tell you why I really like this little booklet. Because it says the right things about stewardship. Let me give you a couple of examples. It asks the question, “What is a steward?” And here is the answer. A steward is a person who manages the affairs of a household or an estate for the owner. In other words, a steward is the MANAGER OF THE AFFARIS OF GOD ON EARTH. So stewardship has to do with a lot more than money, especially for us who believe that everything we have is given to us by God. Human life, for example is the first and greatest gift of all and carries with it great responsibilities, like care of the bodies God has given us.  LIFE ITSELF IS STEWARDSHIP. Or, we are given the gift of time, and nobody knows how much time each of us has, but we have a stewardship of time. This insight is true of just about every area of our lives. We have a stewardship of health of body and mind, of talents, use it or lose it, of relationships, and what we call our possessions. The bottom line here is, “we brought nothing into this world, and we take nothing out of it.” Whatever we have is a gift from God. And, in appreciation, we choose to share a portion of these gifts. But I won’t tell you what is in the rest of the booklet, lest I spoil it for you during your sermon reading on October 5^th!

          What a wonderful, positive, truthful, and sincere basis for what stewardship is all about.

          You know what it all boils down to, folks. It boils down to a firm belief in the abundance of God. I would like us to come into the upcoming stewardship emphasis this October and November with an affirmation of God’s abundance, a feeling of God’s amazing, all encompassing grace such that we are driven to respond in gratitude.  A great description of God’s abundance and grace is given in the Old Testament lectionary lesson for today, the experience of manna and quail in the wilderness. The Israelites are out there in the desert 2 and ½ months after leaving Egypt. Hungry, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “Hey, why did you bring us out here. We had plenty of meat and food back there in Egypt, but you have brought us into this desert to starve us to death.” To these grumblings, you would have thought God would have reigned down fire and lightning on the complainers. But instead, God says to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. And at twilight you will eat meat. Then you will know I am the Lord your God.” The eating of the manna in the morning, and the quail at night, was intended to show to the people of Israel that God is a God of great abundance, even in response to their adversity.

          I have to admit, when I was thinking about this text a week or so ago, my thought was, well, Israel came to an understanding of God’s abundance only in the midst of adversity. But we don’t have much adversity, so maybe God should send us some. Then came, on top of Fannie Mae and Fannie Mack, the news on Sunday that another venerable investment house Lehman Brothers, would be forced to file for bankruptcy. Then came Fed’s decision to rescue AIG with an $85 billion taxpayer loan. And I said “OK God, you can turn off the adversity!

          And how about the NT lectionary lesson for the day. A landowner goes out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agrees with them to pay a denarius for the day. That was at six o’clock. And nine o’clock he hires more, and agrees to pay them whatever is right. At noon, three, and even five in the afternoon he does the same thing. At the end of the day, payment was made, beginning with the last ones hired, who, to their amazement received a full days wage, a denarius. Those hired first thought this was great, for surely they would be paid much more. But they also received a denarius.  They started complaining, to which the landowner says, “Friends, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money. Or are you envious because I am generous?” It’s as if the landowner said, I wanted to have compassion on those who had no work, so I gave to them out of my own abundance.

          What’s the lesson here? When God gives, God gives out of his vast abundance and grace. As Luther said and Paul before him, we cannot earn what God gives us; we cannot deserve it; what God gives us is given out of the magnificent goodness of God’s heart. What God gives is not pay, but a gift; not a reward, but grace.

          It’s worth while to remember that this parable was given in response to Peter’s question who said to Jesus, “Master, we have left everything to follow you! And then he asked, “So what are we going to get out of it?”

          A person is not a Christian if his first concern is, “what am I going to get out of it?” The Christian works for the joy of serving God and each other. That’s why the first will be last and the last will be first. Many a person in this world , who has earned great rewards, will have a very low place in the kingdom because rewards were his sole thought. Man a person who, as the world counts it, is a poor man, will be great in the kingdom, because he never thought in terms of reward but worked for the thrill of working and for the joy of serving. It is the paradox of the Christian life that he who aims at reward loses it, and he who forgets reward finds it.

          Stewardship is about believing in the abundance of God. And our attitude toward that abundance.

          Israel gave thanks for the manna and the quail, surprised at God’s abundance.

          The workers gave thanks for the full days payment, surprise at the owner’s abundance.

          Our stewardship this year will be a blessing if we come at it confident in the wonderful, magnificent grace and abundance of God, and our response is one of gratitude and grace.

          Friends, if there were any year in which it would be well if we were good stewards, if a steward is a person who manages the affairs of a household or an estate for the owner, and if therefore as stewards we manage the affairs of God here on earth, then this is the year. It can all be done grateful for the abundance of God here at Westminster in the past, particularly the past 32 years or so, and grateful that we are on the edge of a new day and a new time, with the coming of a pastor whom surely God, out of that same abundance, has already chosen for us. It’s a great time to be alive, and a great time to celebrate the sheer grace and abundance of a loving God.