Blog & Pastor Letters

God’s Personal Assistants

If you have ever planned a large-scale event, whether it’s a musical performance or a religious conference, you may have dealt with someone’s personal assistant. Possibly this person would be a representative of the keynote speaker or the master of ceremonies for the local bishop; perhaps it’s even the staffer of a local politician or the lackey of a well-known musical act.

Waiting is not always so easy. If you lack patience, like me, you probably want whatever is going to happen to just happen already. I remember waiting on the births of my children. There was the time I sat with my dying father in the hospital. One year, we waited to see if our oldest child got into the college of his choice, or any college at all, which seemed quite nerve-wracking.

Did you know that you can become royalty, for the right price? It’s true — for the low, low cost of $50, you, too, can purchase a 12-square-inch souvenir plot of Sco¡ish land and call yourself “Laird So-and-so.” Now, this lordship or ladyship doesn’t come with the ability to boss anyone around, but maybe your friends will be impressed enough to bend the knee.

In the time of Christ, sacrifice was nothing new to the Jewish people. The Israelites were experts at sacrifice. So, after centuries of every kind of offering imaginable, what was so special about Christ’s? What made it so different from the sacrifices offered by the Levitical priests for centuries before his death?

What does sacrifice look like? I think of those who serve in the Armed Forces. They have sacrificed much for my freedom and to work towards real peace in our world. I think of those in service to our Church: priests, deacons, and religious. Their lives are dedicated to prayer and good works so that the Good News might not only be preached but be seen in the love they display toward God and their fellow brothers and sisters.

“Stewardship” can get a bum rap these days. When folks hear the term “stewardship” from the pulpit, their eyes tend to kind of glaze over. “Here’s Father asking for more money,” they groan inwardly, “Get ready for the passing of the pledge cards.”

Christ refutes this idea when he gives us what he calls the greatest commandments — instructing us to love God and to love our neighbor. Now, Christ is a man who chose his words carefully. He meant exactly what he said — and he didn’t say that the greatest commandments were to tithe and to give money to charity. If he had wanted stewardship to be only about money, he would have said so.