Of what are we Stewards?
The Rev. Robert Fruehwirth, Rector
As at many churches, October is stewardship month at St. Matthew’s. This means we will have the Vestry leading the church in the Annual Pledge Campaign — a campaign critical for our annual budgeting process. You will receive paper mailings asking you to reflect on and make your pledge for 2024. Our canvassers will be reaching out by phone across the parish to ask about your pledge, yes, but also to check in across the community. Sunday Forums in October will share ideas about stewardship and the facts of our parish budget.
Behind all this activity, however, there are deeper questions: What are we stewards of? And for whom? And why?
This parish belongs to God, so we are stewards for God. We are temporary managers of this parish, God’s parish, here for God’s glory. And by WE I don’t mean ME, or the Vestry, I mean each and every one of us. Being a member of this parish means having a responsibility to be stewards of God’s parish, careful stewards of this place and community with the aim of extending God’s glory, showing more of God’s presence, in our world.
When we ask what exactly we are stewards of, what we are called to care for, we are likely to think first of this amazing property with its beauty and charm — the gorgeous church, so well taken care of, the churchyard and grounds, our village-like campus comprising the Parish House, the Hayden Building, and Education Building. We’ve taken great care of these grounds, adding to their beauty annually.
We are also stewards of the Christian Faith itself in the Anglican and Episcopalian traditions. This is a rich heritage to make new in each generation in our music and worship, our teaching and formation, our private prayers, our spiritual and personal development. We let the Sacraments shine. We let Scripture speak. We engage in conversation with the great teachers and mystics and spiritual writers in our Anglican heritage. We wrestle with our moral formation and what God calls us to.
One can also think of the community of St. Matthew’s — all these people from so many different backgrounds and walks of life, coming together to enjoy fellowship and to offer one another mutual care, support, and enjoyment. One can think too of the mission and outreach of the church in our social ministries, taking Christ’s love into the world in direct service and in our tending to the pain and wounding in our society.
Of all this we are stewards: our grounds, our Christian Faith and Anglican Heritage, our fellowship and mutual care, and our mission in the world. We are gardener-stewards adding fertilizer, removing weeds, building trellises to support new growth, and pruning limbs that could harm revered trees.
At the heart of all these objects of our stewardship (grounds, Faith, community, mission), there is one dream, one possibility, one purpose for them all. This is God’s desire to make in this world, with our hands and hearts, a new kind of community of human beings. This is a community grounded in God’s mercy and love, reaching out to others across social divides, anchored in God’s promises — all centered around our faith in Jesus of Nazareth as God’s word, learning how to live and walk in his Way, each day of our lives
At St. Matthew’s, we are, each of us, stewards of the possibility of the Way of Jesus and his kind of Community being made more and more real through us, in our parish, in Hillsborough, and in this world. This showing forth of God’s desire, is what gives glory to God, and this is the motivation of all our stewardship.
It is an honor to be a co-worker with you all in this work.
