Stewardship-From East and West

Stewardship Moment
Read by Harriett Meeker

Sunday, October 30, 2022

From Luke 13:22-30 we hear these words.

Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then in reply he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

These are difficult days for people who long to see God’s Realm of love and light become real among us. The challenges of the past few years have brought attention to widening divisions and heightening hostilities and there are some who believe and behave as though they do not need to share with those they deem “unworthy”. Stewardship is not hoarding. We must never say, “I got mine—now you get yours, but don’t take anything of mine.” If we learn anything from Jesus Christ, it is that he wants all people to come into the kingdom of God, even as he acknowledged that some will not make it.

We are stewards of Christ’s message of love and redemption. We should not hoard it and hide it. It is not our place to decide who are worthy, who is allowed to sit at Christ’s table. Jesus says people from all over will come and eat plenty. We as God’s people should look forward with joyful anticipation to the time when there are no longer any divisions among us and we are all one, walking in the light of Christ in a new world of peace, harmony, and justice. No one of us is more or less worthy as we ask for God’s forgiveness of our narrow views of who will be allowed into the kingdom. We pray for God to heal our hearts and for a chance to share more tangibly in creating a place of welcome at God’s table.