A Steward's Lifestyle

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, May 5, 2024
John 15:9-17

    As you may know, for spring break we went to Montreal as a family, and while there, we learned the history of the founding of the city.  Montreal was founded not by French fur traders and explorers as with other areas of early Canada, but by French Catholic missionaries, about 35 people in total, who wanted to start a Christian community in the New World in the late 1500s.  The area where they chose to settle was prone to flooding, and one year it was so bad they were worried the settlement would be wiped out.  The founding priest promised God that if the waters would not destroy the existing structures they had worked so hard to build, the priest himself would carry a large wooden cross and plant it on top of Mount Royal, the highest point near this settlement.  The flood waters did recede, and in gratitude to God, the priest followed through on his promise to carry and place a cross permanently on the top of Mount Royal.  Still today, this mountain overlooks the city with the cross on top, and there is a city ordinance that no structure can be built taller than the cross atop Mount Royal.  
Today there is a big city park nicknamed the Central Park of Montreal on Mount Royal, and our family visited after hearing this story of Montreal’s founding, wanting to see the cross up close.  The current version of the cross is metal and was placed there about one hundred years ago.  There has always been a cross in that spot since the first one was placed there over four hundred years ago!  We were surprised when we drove to the overlook where you could hike up to the cross and saw no signs pointing us the way to the cross; there was no obvious way to go to find this famous landmark.  I said, “This is supposed to be the highest point of the city, why can’t we see this cross?!”  After walking around with tired, hungry kids for half an hour, we finally asked a passing jogger, “Where is the cross of Montreal?”  And he pointed us in the right direction – it was not an obvious way.  We turned a corner up a slight hill of steps, and there it was almost out of nowhere– trees had been blocking our view.  Our pilgrimage to the cross was complete.  On the way back to our car, we passed another family, looking at their phone, and pointing in different directions.  Even though they were speaking in French, we decided to approach them.  “Are you looking for the cross?” we asked.  “Yes! We think it’s that way.”  This young man pointed in the opposite direction of where the cross actually was.  They were grateful for us to point them in the right direction. We both marveled at this story of the cross being placed atop this mountain out of gratitude to God, and at how difficult it was to actually find this famous landmark without any map or signs or even a clear path leading the way to the cross today.
This morning, we wrap up our focus on stewardship for the past few weeks to embrace our identity and purpose as stewards and then think about what it means to live a steward’s lifestyle every day.  Our scripture readings today give us some insight into what we are called to do as Christians to live out our faith daily:  to obey God’s commandments, to bear fruit, to abide in Jesus’ love and love one another, to live out our baptism and baptize/make disciples.  As our family was finally discovering this surprisingly hard-to-find cross and then sharing the way to the cross with others in Canada, spreading the word to make it easier for other folks to find this significant site, it struck me that this journey is a good description of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  In an increasingly secular world where it is difficult at times to be a person of faith, to see the cross’s significance in our lives and then live it out, we persevere.  We strive to learn and grow more deeply in understanding what Jesus has done for us on the cross and then to share our journey to the cross with others – to recognize and give thanks for the gift of sacrificial love given to us freely on the cross by Jesus and then share what we’ve received.  This is the heart of Christian stewardship:  gratitude, joy, generosity, bearing fruit in abundance, sharing freely what we have first received from Christ all because of what God has done for us first in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.  If we have an opportunity to keep someone from wandering or floundering needlessly not knowing the way to the cross as we literally experienced on our hike on Mount Royal – why wouldn’t we share the resources we have to lead people to deeper faith and trust in Christ?  Why wouldn’t we strive to make the way to Christ easier for others?
In our gospel passage for today, Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Jesus shows us love in action by laying down his life for us on the cross; and through his death we receive abundant, eternal life.  Stewardship is our grateful response to this amazing gift that we can never truly, fully repay.  Stewardship is showing care and concern for our neighbors – whom Jesus calls our friends. Stewardship is following Jesus’ command to love one another just as he has loved us.  
For the first week of our stewardship campaign, we focused on the steward’s identity – we are God’s children, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, our second reading from 1 John reminds and encourages us today.  Everything we have comes from God just as parents provide for their children.  We are the branches connected to Jesus the vine.  Last week, we talked about our purpose as God’s children;  we are created by God to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. It is our purpose to bear fruit, to do something fruitful with everything we’ve been given by God. Then we naturally begin to live the lifestyle of a steward, the more we practice gratitude and generosity, the more we see one another as friends in Christ to serve and love as we are able; to receive and give love as we do with our closest friends, to reflect on the particular gifts and talents we have and how we can use those gifts including our time and financial resources to benefit not just me, myself and I but the body of Christ (the church) and the wider world.  Our family’s hike to the cross was worth the journey; may our journey to the cross with Jesus and our sharing with others the gift of this journey help us discover again and again that there truly is no greater love.  Amen.