Weekly Stewardship devotionals have been created as a companion to the weekly sermon during the eight weeks of Stewardship. Please use these devotionals to meditate on throughout the week. Printed copies are available next to the printed sermons outside the transept.
Sunday, November 10, Stewardship of Life at Its End: Snoopy and the Peanut’s gang creator, Charles Shultz, has been considered one of our most articulate Christian theologians. Sketching common life, his comics and movies distilled relationships and growing up’s challenges to simple figures and words. In child-like wonder, he named reality while also teaching the mystery of faith.
Sunday, November 3, Stewardship of Community: Have you ever played the game Would You Rather? In it, you choose between two (often humorous) unpalatable options, such as, “Would you rather wear clown shoes every day or a clown wig every day?”
Sunday, October 27, Stewardship of Technology: Many of us can’t imagine life without technology, but even those of us who value it see its dark side. We’re aware of the research on rising rates of loneliness, depression, and suicide. Cultural critics crystallize our concerns: “Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images.”
Sunday, October 20, Stewardship of Creation: Think about what we get to name in our lives. Some of us have had the privilege of naming children. Others have named pets. A few of us have probably named our cars. We name these things because they mean something to us; they serve more than a utilitarian purpose in our lives. We take great care in selecting each name, seeking to reflect the nature of the person or thing being named and honoring the meaning it carries.
Sunday, October 6, Stewardship of Time: Mechanical clocks were developed by monks in medieval Europe in order to mark hourly time to pray. Your watch (or your cell phone clock) began as a spiritual accessory, a reminder to connect with God.
Sunday, September 29, Stewardship of Treasure: In his recorded ministry, Jesus talks an awful lot about money. More than a quarter of his parables cover finances, and he devotes more air time to money than love and prayer combined. Rarely does Jesus praise people for their use of funds, which makes the widow particularly worthy of our attention.
Sunday, September 22, Stewardship of Work None of us has mastered every skill. We rely on trained people to build our homes, diagnose our illnesses, farm our food, and perform myriad other tasks that sustain us. Likewise people rely on us for our expertise—whether or not we are paid for it in the marketplace or appreciated for it in our family or volunteer roles. This practice existed long before Adam Smith labeled it “division of labor” in The Wealth of Nations. For millennia trade has allowed both individuals and communities to thrive.
Sunday, September 15: Stewardship of the Mind Let’s be honest; most people in our country don’t drag themselves, much less their children, out of bed early each Sunday morning to attend church. The demands of this world—emails, deadlines, activities, social and family commitments—don’t pause for worship. Attending church on Sunday is decidedly non-conformist.