Stewardship & The Glue That Holds It All Together

Episode V - Another Take

Mike Fisher asked me to throw in my two cents on stewardship. I come from a radically different direction than Mike, though we quite agree. He’s spent his career mucking around in the hard, firm data of physics; I’ve spent mine mucking around in the soft, mushy stuff of religion, spirituality, and faith, all the while dipping my fingertips in puddles of anthropology, psychology and sociology. Some days I yearn for the clarity of Mike’s physics; the ineffability of spiritual stuff is not always comfortable. 

When I put it all together, I come out with this understanding: life is all about relationships, about living healthily within a community of somewhat like-spirited persons, about finding life through being healthily with others. And through the insights of my betters I’ve discerned that the glue that holds it all together, that makes living in the company of others joyful and life-giving is simply generosity, giving just a little more than my share. We live most richly, most in the image of the generous God who gives virtually everything when we too share, when we go the extra mile with others in their need, when we give just a little more than the other’s circumstances call for. Life is not about acquiring; it’s about giving, about sharing, about being generous . . . with my goods, but even, more being generous with my being, with my Very-Self. The sociologists and communitarian philosophers call this  ‘social capital,’ when the network of relationships is so warm that sharing, giving to others, doing for others gives pleasure and meaning to the giver.

So I struggle to be generous, to stay generous, not because I have to, but because it’s good for me. Generous with my Very-Self, and with all I have. Because it’s fun. Because it’s life-giving. For me. When it come to sharing my goods, the Biblical standard is a tithe, ten percent. “Why 10%?” I ask. And the answer I get from The Ineffable is a Jewish mama’s shrug of her shoulders, with an unvoiced, “Because 10% is enough to prove to Me and to your Very-Self that you’re not enslaved to your goods.” The Medieval standard was 10% to the church (a quarter of that each to the building, for the priest’s living, to the parish outreach,  and to the bishop). The so-called ‘modern tithe’ is half to the parish and half to other charities of your choosing. 

I struggle to stay generous. not because I ‘ought to,’ but because that’s God designed me to be spiritually healthy, in His image. It’s the way I’m meant to be !!

Jack Bowers
Stewardship Committee