Visiting the Holy Lands makes the scriptures and Christ’s saving message a living reality that forever remains in the heart of the pilgrim. Each and every historical sight there makes God’s presence a joyous hope and an unforgettable experience. One such place for me was the "Sarantarion Oros," the Mount of Temptation, which is practically in between the village of His birth and the city of His death. It is an imposing sight, that can be clearly seen from the highway, marked with many holy shrines in this lonely and desolate area of Christ’s forty day fast.
Gazing up you can visualize where Jesus was tempted three times by the Devil. It is there on the top of that mountain where the evil one showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and made Him this tempting offer. "All these I will bestow upon You if You prostrate Yourself in homage before me." To which Jesus replied, “Away with you, Satan, for Scripture has it that you shall do homage to the Lord your God; Him alone shall you adore" (Matthew 4:9-10). Clearly, Jesus perceived that the devil's offer is fraudulent. The kingdoms of the world are not the Devil's to give. They are God's, and God's alone. We are merely the caretakers of what we possess. God loves us so much that He has appointed us Stewards of His earthly kingdom, and has granted us the privilege of using that which we possess, to His honor and glory.
God has charged us with the responsibility not only of Stewardship over material resources but also of human resources. We are Stewards not only of things but of life itself. We are Stewards of all creation, which is God’s lovingly gift to us. Our call is clear, is comes from the first book of the Old Testament where the Lord tells Adam his charge is to till and cultivate the earth, to care for and protect all that God has blessed him with.
It is time for us to now recognize that everything has been given to us to manage, to cultivate and protect for Him. God gives all to us to use and we in turn return it to Him as our recognition of His love and His sovereignty over our lives. This expression of faith is reflected through our actions; our faith determines the choices by which we live. And Stewardship is the key ingredient for that faith. It is easy for all of us to say our prayers, to attend our Churches and go through the motions of what a Greek Orthodox Christian is all about. But the real test comes in how we manage what God has given us.
Stewardship is the working out of our faith through giving in order to carry on God’s work. Our actions, our lives, and our giving are the most accurate measure of our faith. The material things in our lives, our time, our talent and treasures speak so clearly about what’s most important for us, they mold and shape who we are and how we live – we need to ask ourselves do we allow God to enter these areas of our lives? Does He impact our thinking in these choices? Christian Stewardship is faith in action.
St. Paul describes it clearly noting that the Corinthian Greeks who were in extreme poverty gave even in their dire hardship to help the Church in Jerusalem. They gave because God was the most important part of their lives and influenced all their choices. They choose to give because they trusted God. They were moved to action because love guided their choice. Stewardship is our commitment to Christ, our conscientious choice to support His work and commit ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ our God. Stewardship affords all of us this joyous opportunity to reexamine our priorities and values. It’s an opportunity to express our thankfulness, to give of ourselves and our means, to grow in grace, to break free from the past and move into a new adventure of faith. Stewardship enables us to participate more fully in the work God has given each person to do in the Church and in the world.
Our reason for being here today is to celebrate God and to celebrate God's presence and His power and His love and His promise of fulfillment. In celebrating these realities, new life is given to us. The realization of that new life involves a daily recognition that God is the owner and we are the Stewards of His material resources and His human resources as well.
All of this, ultimately, is a matter of trust, which is at the heart of our response to God. Moreover, God's appointing us Stewards is an act of trust on God's part. He trusts us, and when we realize that God is placing His trust in us it puts us in ever-closer contact with Him through our daily experience. God is trusting us to do our part as Stewards of our world, our treasures and our lives.
On one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the world stands the Royal Exchange, in London's financial district. Carved across the top of the Royal Exchange are the words, "The Earth is the Lord's" -- a constant reminder to those who are caught up in that financial world that they are merely Stewards. How wonderful it would be, if over the "Royal Exchange" of my heart and yours, we could always see those words and remember that God is the owner and we are the Stewards of His material resources and His human resources, both. Christ withstood the temptations of the Evil One, recognizing that the earth is the Lord’s, it is His gift to us, through Stewardship we offer back to Him that which is already and always His.
Fr. James C. Moulketis
