Thank you for reading our text this week (Mark 10:35-45) and adding your observations and questions. Last week we defined a steward and talked about stewardship of truth - what we are doing with the knowledge that God has entrusted to us in the Gospel. This week we will focus on stewardship of power, as Americans. What does Jesus have to say to those who have been born into the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world about our involvement, through voting, in this democracy? How could this be a part of the "giving" and "serving" character of Jesus?
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The stewardship of power. Wow.
Even the poorest of us is weathly by world standards. It is a frightening responsibility. We don't think we have anything to spare yet most households have more than one vehicle where much of the world has none. We think bicycles are recreation (I have four at my house that are hardly used) where for most of the world they are a luxury of transportation with wheels. We are obese at an alarming rate (a reason to use those bikes) and most of the world doesn't have enough to eat. We flush our toilets with drinking water when most of the world's drinking water is suspect at best and often dangerous. We can't imagine our kids having no access to immunizations or medicine or medical care of some kind because even the poorest kids here are able to access something through government aid. (Not always adults but that's another matter...)
We are able to do all this because we are powerful and wealthy as a nation.
It should make us humble but I'm afraid we are more often arrogant. When I've traveled outside the US I've been embarrassed at the pride and rudeness of my fellow citizens.
I am tempted to launch into political commentary here -- about how we think we know the answers to the world's problems but those answers are provided on our terms...
but more to the point of this passage, we are not to "lord it over" or show off our power and wealth. Jesus turns it all on its head and makes us into servants if we are following his lead.
We don't do it well. We'd rather write a check than serve in a bread line. It's easier to contribute to a tax-deductible charity to get our hands dirty.
I am equating money and health and influence with power, and I suspect we are not the stewards we should be of the very abundant living we have. I wonder how we will be held accountable for what we waste -- not the scraps on the plate that could feed starving children, but the fact that our cell phone charges alone could support one or more families in other parts of the world.
Paula