Dana Reardon -A steward's work is not stealing

The steward's work is not stealing

The other night I was watching the movie Oceans Eleven. As the unsavory characters assembled the best team of pickpockets and technical men and explosive experts, etc., to plan how to get a large sum of money out of a casino, my mind started to wander and wonder how much different stewardship people are. We get together and talk about how to get money out of people. We find experts in different fields and gather them.

If all we are trying to do is to get money out of people then we aren't a whole lot different from the gathered felons of Oceans Eleven. Oh sure, we convince people instead of stealing from them. But sometimes are words are like sleight of hand and people feel used afterwards.

There have to be differences and there are. First of course, as a stewardship leader, I am not getting money for me. Well, I guess some people would say that pastors are doing it for themselves since their salary often depends on financial stewardship. I do, however, also put 10 percent in -- what I ask people to give to.

But stewardship work is not like stealing, and it is not like fundraising. Because it ought to be changing your life and your way of looking at the world. When I am robbed I feel violated. When I learn to give I feel blessed.

If my work as a stewardship leader does not leave you feeling richer instead of poorer and truly blessed by God, then I have not accomplished what I have set out to do.

When you are robbed, something that is yours is taken away. It turns you inward and makes you more protective. When you give, something that has been given to you is passed on. When you give it opens you up and makes you more a part of the flow of life. Giving is like being part of that Ocean. What we have flows by us in abundance and some even flows through us, but it all goes by as there is more coming.

Lord,
Stand with me in the flow when I get nervous at the tides and help me to share with joy what flows by me.
Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.