Stewards of God’s Grace—Exodus 34: 1-6; II Cor. 12: 6-10
Several years ago, I attended a learning retreat type of get-together. As we all started talking and working together, there was a theme, or a phrase, which began to gnaw at me as problematic—not quite a thorn in the flesh, but a problem, none the less. First one person said it, then another one or two echoed it. The phrase was this: “Well, they say the Disciples of Christ is the best-kept secret in Georgia.” Finally, because sometimes if I think it, I say it, I blurted out, “That’s absolutely shameful…why is it a secret?” And that is how I ended up not going to any more such get-togethers.
Our faith, our walk with God is meant to be shared. That’s what it means to be stewards of God’s grace, the very same grace shown to us every day. Now, that does not mean we take every opportunity to smack somebody upside the head with a Bible. Our stewardship must be passionate, but also tempered with gentleness. And yet, in our modern times, such sharing has become almost unpleasant because people boast about their faith without having the Christ-like life to back it up. The question is this: Can someone learn your faith, not from the Bible studies you attend or the words you say, but from the way you live your life? Do we live as if we believe?
Look at what the Apostle Paul says: “If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message.” If we are not careful, the message may easily slide into boasting—a message about all the success in our lives, and not about what God has done for us. Paul did not want people to look at him and see what he had accomplished saying that he’s a great preacher, or brilliant teacher, or fearless missionary, no! Paul wanted people to look at what had been accomplished in his life and say, “My, my, see how Christ has worked through him.”
So what, exactly, are we to share? Paul goes on to talk about a thorn in his side—a messenger from Satan to keep him humble by tormenting him. In some form or fashion we all have such a thing in our lives. It may be an illness we struggle with. It may be chronic pain (a literal thorn!), mental health struggles, any kind of general, daily struggle which reminds us of our own inadequacy or tells us, “No, you cannot do that.” I have a friend who struggles from a disorder called “imposter syndrome.” It is generally described as “a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. ‘Imposters’ suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense” of being a fraud or failure that overpowers any feeling of success or competence, according to a 2008 article on the issue in Harvard Business Review.
Whatever the thorn in our side is, it will tell us that we are incapable of doing what God has called us to do. And it will tell us that we are a failure no matter the success we find in God’s grace and God’s strength. But God gives us a reminder just like Paul was given a reminder. The Lord says, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Paul goes on from there to say we can be proud even of our weakness as we know that when our weakness shows, Christ’s strength will bear us through. Paul talks about all the hardship, insults, beatings, imprisonments and so on that he’s struggled through, and then says this: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Perhaps that’s why Paul could sing and praise God even while wrongfully jailed, why he could still share the good news even when beaten and left for dead, why he could encounter any difficult situation and KNOW that it had no power over him because of those words: my grace is all you need. Perhaps those are some of the most powerful words in our Christian walk, as we work out our salvation. We are reminded even further in Exodus of God’s grace and God’s strength for us.
We are told that after the Hebrew people had turned from God while Moses was on Mt. Sinai and the Ten Commandments had been broken (literally smashed), God had Moses create another set of tablets for the commandments. Then God passed before Moses saying, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” God is filled with love for us, with faithfulness in all things. These two scriptures are a powerful reminder that in all things God takes care of us, period, for we are loved and cherished by the One who created us.
So now that you know the what, let’s talk about this stewardship part. Paul says, “I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message.” Our work doesn’t stop at just the getting of the grace and the securing in God’s strength. We are to share this in our life’s message. All of the good that God has done for us should not be the best kept secret we have. It should be the mantra of our lives. I like how Dr. Bill Curwood, a well known Disciple pastor in Kentucky said it, “I never run out of things to say about the amazing love of Christ.”
But even as we speak the truth of our faith, even as we tell of God’s grace and God’s strength, our lives must also show it. For example, once upon a time, the perceptions of other people used to greatly concern me. I used to be careful to make sure I did things in a way that people would like me, and that I could make them happy. I worried about how what people said, did, and all of those “approval-seeking” things. I don’t care anymore. My life’s goal is to remember that God’s grace is sufficient and that God’s strength is perfect, and in all my ways, my comings and goings, I’m to speak God’s truth and live a Christ-like life. Everything else is just noise to distract us.
So we come back to that question. Can someone learn your faith, not from the Bible studies you attend or the words you say, but from the way you live your life? Do we live as if we believe? We are to be stewards of God’s grace, not keeping the secret, not hoarding the blessings. But even as we tell of God’s love in our lives, we must also live in such a way that we reflect that. Paul shared his story of God’s work in his life, “My grace is all you need…for when I am weak, then I am strong.” We, too, have a story to tell of God’s grace and strength in our lives. May we, then, share that good news, so that all will know that God’s grace is sufficient.