Stewardship of Treasure

There is a common assumption that “Stewardship” refers specifically to church finances or fundraising. That is to say, it is a decision rule about how much one ought to give to the Church. Stewardship is far more. It is a spiritual attitude about who we are and what we have.

Everything we have, even life itself, is a gift from God. With that understanding comes a desire to give back in thanksgiving a share of all we have been given. Furthermore, we recognize our responsibility to use those gifts wisely. Stewardship is this attitude of responsive and responsible gratitude.

To see stewardship simply in terms of questions like, “How much should I put in my envelope each Sunday?, How much is enough?, and How should I decide?”, is to look at the end, not the beginning. What we give is a reflection of the depth of our commitment, a way of measuring how far we have come, not a place to start.

Stewardship begins with a relationship. We are loved and called into a relationship with Christ. With that in mind, our stewardship is the measure of our fidelity to that relationship; the tangible, visible result of a longing to give back to the One who loves us. The more we love, the more of ourselves we desire to give.

Christ has no body on earth but yours, 
no hands but yours, no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which 
Christ’s compassion for the world is to look out; 
yours are the feet with which 
He is to go about doing good; and 
yours are the hands with which 
He is to bless us now.
~St. Teresa of Avila