“You have here a delicate task. The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defense. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift. He is also, in theory, committed to total service of the Enemy [God]; and if the Enemy [God] appeared to him in bodily form and demanded that total service for even one day, he would not refuse. … The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged. The humans are always putting up claims to ownership which sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell and we must keep them doing so. Much of the modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they ‘own’ their bodies… It is as if a royal child whom his father has placed, for love’s sake, in titular command of some great province, under the real rule of wise counselors, should come to fancy he really owns the cities, the forests, and the corn, in the same ways as he owns the blocks on the nursery floor.”

“We produce this sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion. We teach them not to notice the different sense of the possessive pronoun – the finely graded differences that run from ‘my boots’ through ‘my dog,’ ‘my servant,’ ‘my wife,’ ‘my father,’ ‘my master,’ and ‘my country,’ to ‘my God.’ They can be taught to reduce all these senses to that of ‘my boots,’ the ‘my’ of ownership. … We have taught men to say ‘my God’ in a sense not really very different from ‘my boots,’ meaning ‘The God on whom I have a claim for my distinguished services.’”

“And all the time the joke is that the word ‘mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything…. They will find out in the end, never fear, to whom their time, their souls, and their bodies really belong – certainly not to them, whatever happens.” (101-104)
St. Peter writes: “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10) St. James writes: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” (James 1:17)

We are given what we have, to use to serve others. We are called to faithfully administer God’s grace (his free and undeserved gift), in various forms. We are not owners, but stewards – put on earth to serve God, to administer his gifts. People who think that they own what they have are like foolish children. When we are young we are naturally acquisitive – original sin makes us all hoarders of what we can lay our hands on. We have to be taught to share with other children, and it is painful. It is with much tears that we relinquish our hold on toys or food so that others can enjoy them.

My sister once took my colored pencils and I lit down the hallway at home to snatch them back from her. Unfortunately there was a glass door at the end of the hall and when she went through it she slammed it back behind her. I put out my arm to push it open and went straight through the glass cutting my arm badly enough that it landed me in hospital to be sown up! All because I wouldn’t share my colored pencils!!!

John Wesley said, “When the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being and placed you in this world, he placed you here not as an owner but as a steward – as such he entrusted you for a season with goods of various kinds – but the sole property of these still rests in him, nor can it ever be alienated from him. As you are not your own, but his, such is likewise all you enjoy.”

Instead of thinking that we are owners we would do well to consider Jesus’ parable of the tenants (Mark 12:1-12). The owner of the vineyard did all its improvements. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away. At harvest time he sent his servant back to collect some of the fruit. They seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. They did the same with the second servant he sent. The third one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. Then he sends his son and heir. They killed him so that they could own the vineyard.

The picture Jesus paints is that of men and women who have been given life by God, who has placed them in this world to be fruitful. He asks that all men and women use their lives, and all that they enjoy, to serve others, to faithfully administer it for him, who has given it to them for this purpose.

There is no doubt that many people ignore the claims of the owner – God is ignored. They are indifferent and skeptical of the claims of his messengers. In fact they are irritated and angered when his messengers expect a response from them. Even Jesus gets ejected, and his voice is silenced.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do?” Jesus asks. “He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
The story is told of a visitor in a large, wealthy church. When the time came to take up the offering he reached into his wallet and selected a five dollar bill, and waited for the usher. He observed that the man taking the offering in his aisle was none other than a multi-millionaire of national reputation. Wishing to make a good impression, he exchanged the five-dollar bill for a one hundred dollar bill, and placed it in the plate. What would you and I do if, instead of the usher, the one who received our pledge and offering was the owner, the Lord himself? Yet, of course, he does. He sent his Son last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

A man contributed a great deal to build a church and support its ministries. Later on, the businesses in which he was invested drastically dropped in value. He lost millions. A friend said to him, “If you had the money you put into that church, you would be worth more today.” But the man replied, “That is the only money I have saved. If I had not given it to the Lord, it would have been lost with the rest.”
There is an epitaph in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London to General Gordon who after a distinguished military career was killed at Khartoum in 1885. You would think much would be said of his exploits, but these are the words engraved on the wall: “Sacred to the memory of Charles George Gordon, who at all times and everywhere gave his strength to the weak, his substance to the poor, his sympathy to the suffering, his heart to God.” He saw himself as a steward of the life God had given him.

The Mayo Clinic was founded by Charles H. Mayo and William J. Mayo. In 1915 they donated $2,000,000 to establish the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research as an adjunct to the clinic and in affiliation with the University of Minnesota. What is often not known is that the Mayo brothers were Christian stewards in all their work. They believed that money must go back into the service of that humanity which paid it to them. “We try,” said Dr. William Mayo, “to take up the medical and surgical education of selected and promising men where the state leaves off. From 1894 onward we have never used more than half our incomes on ourselves and our families, latterly much less. The very roof of my house goes out of the possession of my family when I die. I wouldn’t want my children deprived of the fun and benefit of wanting something and going out to fight for it.”
The greatest example of stewardship is that of Jesus himself. He did not cling to the possession of his glory but gave it up, and became a servant for our sake. He gave all he had so that we might receive forgiveness, the gift of eternal life, freedom from fear, and life in all its fullness.

How can I tell whether I act in the belief that I am an owner or a steward? If I am honest it would be measured by how much I spend on myself and how much I give away. There are people like the Mayo brothers who give 50-50. Some are 100% owners. Some see all of life in terms of stewardship. Most of the world gives only a token amount. That is why the Bible gives us the tithe of 10% to guide our giving. That percentage is meant to be given to the support of the work of Christ through his church.

We are given the opportunity to practice good stewardship through our support of the work of Christ. As you receive requests for support, pray for guidance as you consider your stewardship of what God has lent to you. We are renters, not owners, and he expects a share of the harvest he has given us. “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10)