This “Perspective on Hope” considers the blessings that come from giving our best to God.
REV. DR. JEROME DEVINE
Director of Connectional Ministries, Detroit Conference
“Blessed are you who are poor, … who hunger now, … but woe to you who are rich, … who are well fed now …” Luke 6:21-15, NIV
It is near the end of harvest season here in the Midwest. Perhaps it is not coincidental that it is also stewardship season in most of our local churches. While many of our local churches are no longer directly linked to the less than predictable outcomes of agriculture and the final fruits of a year of labor, some still are. In the earlier days of agriculture in our region one might not know how much they could offer to God until the final field of grain or fruit was harvested. Having grown up on a farm I always looked forward to riding on the combine to see the harvest come flowing into the hopper. It brought joy to me to be able to scoop handfuls of grain and let the kernels trickle through my fingers. Every handful was a reminder that we had survived another season and had reason to rejoice.
Admittedly our methods of farming have become far more sophisticated and somewhat less unpredictable than in decades and centuries past. GPS systems guide the planting process, and computerized planters place seeds precisely so that the yield can be maximized. Pesticides and herbicides seek to limit or eliminate any loss from weeds and insects. Storage bins and early contracted prices allow farmers a bit more stability than in years past. Even so, we cannot control the temperature or the rain. In years of plenty we give thanks, and in lean years we seek strength to start again in a new season.
So what might such life lessons have to do with stewardship and in particular the scripture verses quoted above? When I read the Beatitudes from the Gospel of Luke, they do not always immediately resonate for me. After all, who really feels blessed by being poor? Who truly enjoys being continuously hungry? There have been times when even the Church used such phrases to encourage people to simply be happy with their lot in life, and not to question the systems of inequity and greed that create poverty and hunger for many. In the same frame of thought, if someone has worked creatively and been given opportunity to thrive does that automatically mean they should be cursed with a “woe to you”? And we certainly want to be careful about saying anything about “being well fed now” since most of us as United Methodists have spent way too much time at all-you-can-eat church buffets.
The Beatitudes and stewardship in the fullest sense for me is simply about taking responsibility for responding to God’s movement in our midst with whatever I have and in whatever circumstances I find myself. It is God’s invitation to me to help restore the balance of God’s intended wholeness for all.
“The Beatitudes and stewardship in the fullest sense for me is simply about taking responsibility for responding to God’s movement in our midst with whatever I have and in whatever circumstances I find myself.”
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to spend 10 days in Liberia, preaching at the Liberia Annual Conference as well as exploring ideas with the West Africa Central Conference bishops and other leaders. There were creative concepts of stewardship being generated, which would allow for every person to be an important part of the overall work of the Church, from whatever means they had within their lives. One district in the Sierra Leone Conference is an island, literally. The members of the United Methodist churches in that district are primarily involved in fishing. What if they had a boat to send their fish to market on the mainland? This could become their means of offering something to the larger work of their conference. In several of the local churches across Liberia the members began growing gardens so that they could utilize some of the crop for their families and then offer some of the harvest to the church to be sold at market or used in one of the schools.
I was fortunate to be able to volunteer as the assistant to the pastor of a rural United Methodist church while I was in college in Iowa. One of the unique aspects of Adaville UMC was that one of the members left a legacy gift of farmland to the church. He had enjoyed “plenty” in his lifetime, and made a faith decision to respond accordingly. The intent was for the harvest to be sold each year and the profit to be used for mission outreach, not for the upkeep of the local church. Every season the members of the church would share in the preparation, planting, care and harvesting of the crops from that legacy land gift. All volunteered their time and equipment so that they could expand the impact of God’s grace regionally and globally when the harvest came in. They were good stewards with this gift, as well as with the harvest from their own fields. I also remember when these same faithful disciples of Jesus Christ reached out to neighbors who had been injured or become ill and they helped those families by helping them harvest their crops as well.
Perhaps the “blessed are you” comes as we offer all of who we are and the particular resources of our lives to be shaped, guided and expended for the work of God in our time and places. With grace we can all maximize who we are and what we have for God.
Last Updated on October 25, 2016