LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 42

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42 DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS

for the sick, to comfort the discouraged, to bring joy
to those in tears? Are you using these talents for Him,
for the Giver of every good gift, for the omniscient Lord
who has so marvelously equipped you? We sometimes
forget the stewardship of our talents, do we not? Let
us pray God that He would open the eyes of the church
of today to see that it is the arsenal of God where He
has stored the limitless talents of His people, the num-
berless pieces of equipment by which He intends to
carry on His warfare. We are His stewards. He will ask
an accounting of the use of all the talents He so freely
gave us.

The Stewardship of Treasures

We come to the last element in our stewardship, the
stewardship of treasures. What’s that? My treasures
are all the material things that God has given me. “All
the earth is Mine,” He said, and what is His He has in
love shared with me. “All the earth is Mine!” When
I hear those words, it is so easy for me to think of neigh-
bor Bugenhagen’s cow and his corn and forget all about
my own wallet. You may have your name printed in
gold on your wallet. Put a sticker over it with the
words, “This is the property of Jesus.” Every dime in
your purse or pants pocket belongs to Him. He is loan-
ing it to you without interest. All He wants is to see
whether you use it as He wants you to use it. Cer-
tainly He wants you to use it on yourself. That’s why
He gave it to you. But that is not the exclusive use.
He appeals to you to use it in a manner that will let His
kingdom come to men.

If you are truly His priest, as we said you are, then
there will be sacrifices. A priest sacrifices or he is no
priest. We have a call from God to sacrifice. What we
sacrifice, our money, is the result of His goodness and
the result of our labors. Money is us! But it can kill
us. It can be like a stone tied around our necks. Lord
Tennyson used the right words when he wrote, “What
is gold but a stone, unless a wise man have it?” We
have to pray for wisdom to use our money wisely. If
we have that wisdom, we may even pray God for more
money. The great Shelley once wrote, “I desire money
because I think I know the use of it. It commands labor,
it gives leisure; and to give leisure to those who will
employ it in the forwarding of truth is the holiest pres-
ent an individual can make to the whole.” We add, to
share such truth with the rest of humanity, this is the
noblest contribution that money can make to the wel-
fare of mankind.

This wisdom in the right use of treasures for the
advancement of the kingdom comes only to those who
by God’s grace have made their lives Christocentric,
centering in Christ, dedicated to Christ. God wants no
gifts from those whose lives are anthropocentric, cen-
tered in man, considering man as the final aim of the
universe, for their lives are dedicated to none but Satan.

“All the earth is Mine!” What does this now mean
to me? It means that I have learned that God owns

all the earth. He owns me and all that I have. I am
but a steward of His treasures, not of my treasures. How
shall I persuade my people, my congregation, my boards,
my sheep, to share their treasures with the King?

The Motivation

I cannot use Old Testament methods and try to give
them a New Testament flavor and say to my people,
“Now either it’s the tithe, or else!” That’s not only bad
theology, that’s falsehood. I have to paint them a pic-
ture. May I close my sermon with this picture. Unless
I see it clearly, I will not have the answers to the prob-
lems of stewardship. ,

There was a garden in which God and man walked
together on equal ground, each being perfect in holi-
ness. And then came a small stream, very tiny in its
beginning, the stream of sin. As this stream washed
away and eroded the ground of the garden in which
God and man stood as equals, the chasm became wider
and wider. God and man ultimately were completely
separated. Why? Because the torrent of sin had washed
away all common ground between God and man. “Your
iniquities have made a separation between you and your
God.” (Isaiah 59:2)

Man said to himself, “I want back to God.” He
started driving into this wide chasm the foundations
of his own bridge. He poured into it his gold and his
silver, his cattle and the produce of his orchards and
vineyards. He poured into that chasm his own living
children. He killed them as sacrifices. Why? Because
he wanted to build a bridge. The torrent of sin came
and wiped out the foundations of man’s bridge. Man
and God were still separated in spite of all the efforts
of man.

Way over on the other side God began to build His
bridge. He drove the pilings of His prophecies deep
into the sides of the chasm. The bridge began to take
shape and form. Millennium after millennium went
by until the zero hour of God arrived, and the bridge
was to be completed and then dedicated. He had just
one center span to put into the bridge. Across that span,
as the bridge of prophecy merged into fulfillment, He
laid a cross. On that cross He nailed His Son. You can
hear the construction crew driving the spikes through
His quivering flesh. In His dying gasp He cries out,
“It is finished!” What’s finished? The bridge! Easter
morning the body isn’t there. This is Resurrection Day.
The Easter dawn rises in all its glory. The bridge is
dedicated. Man can again walk back to God across the
bridge. God calls out to man: “Come, for all things
are now ready. The bridge between sinfulness and
sinlessness is done. It has been dedicated in the resur-
rection of My Son. Come into the paradise prepared
for all those that love Me in My Son.”

There is no other motivation for stewardship. My
prayer at the close of this sermon is that this conven-
tion in humility will walk once more to the bridge and
behold, “It is finished!” Walk across it to meet God.