Our American Carpatho-Russian Diocese is in the midst of a year of Stewardship Education. Our Diocesan Stewardship Commission has been working hard to provide resources throughout the diocese for such education. The aim is to help bring our diocese to a better understanding of Christian Stewardship as a way of life. In fact, that is the theme under which our Diocesan Stewardship Commission is working: STEWARDSHIP: A WAY OF LIFE.

The mission statement of the Stewardship Commission is this:

 Orthodox Christian Stewardship is a Christ-centered lifestyle, which acknowledges accountability, reverence, and responsibility before God. Orthodox Christian Stewardship is a call to all of the faithful to share willingly and cheerfully the gifts that God has bestowed on them including sharing these gifts for God’s work in His Church.

 Stewardship, our caring for all that God has given us, is related to all aspects of life. The Orthodox Christian life is not divided into compartments that we neatly separate from on another. Our practice of our faith is not limited to going to church, praying or reading the Scriptures or Church Fathers. All we do, all the time, is practice our Christian faith. And so it is that the idea of Christian Unity has something to do with stewardship.

 The seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of St. John the Theologian is the prayer that Christ prayed right before He was arrested and went to Cross. This reading from the Theologian is part of the first of the Gospel readings for the Service of the Twelve Gospels, served on Holy and Great Thursday. That reading includes nearly five chapters from the Gospel. This portion of Christ’s “High Priestly” prayer is the concluding chapter of that reading.

One desire dominated this concluding part of Christ’s prayer. The desire was that we, his disciples, be one as He and the Father are one.

When we read this unity prayer we think that Jesus is seeking for all Christians simply not to fight among ourselves. In some respects that is true. But what He wants for us is so much more than that! What Jesus wants is for all Christians to be one as He is with Father. Unity is more than absence of conflict. Christian unity is a total, unreserved total communion, that is, a total sharing, of everything with one another.

Listen closely to what Jesus prays to the Father. In the tenth verse of chapter seventeen, Christ prays, “All that is Mine is yours and all that is yours is Mine.” While the Orthodox Study Bible translates this verse as “All Mine are Yours and Yours are Mine” with reference to his Apostles, an equally acceptable translation is “All things that are Mine are yours – and all things that are yours are Mine.” After all, Christ is praying for unity. This might mean a unity in the family, a unity in the local parish church, or, as most take it, a unity of all those who profess Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Blessed St. Augustine in his Tractates on the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 10, interprets this to mean that every creature is subject only to God. And that because each creature was created and sanctified by Him. Blessed Augustine goes on: “…and for the same reason, everything also that is theirs must of necessity be His also to whom they themselves belong.” Now this is unity from God’s perspective – a total sharing of everything, because everything issues from God and belongs to Him.

In our society we have a very different concept of sharing. Our concept of sharing is if I have $100 and you have a need I give you $ 10 and pray others will give as well. Or my compassion might even cause me to give you $50 and I keep $50. I think most of us would feel pretty good about ourselves if we did that. As good as that might be that is not the unity that Christ prayed we would have. Christ prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. That unity is described in these terms: “All that is Mine is yours and all that is yours is Mine.”

When our daughters were small we taught them to share. When Becky was 5 and Beth was three, one had two pieces of candy. We would say to them (as probably all parents have said): “Now share .... “All that is yours is Mine and all that is Mine is yours.”  Sharing (Christian Stewardship) can be learned at any age.

Here is the truth about sharing with God. It’s not that Christ has two pieces of candy. He gives me one and He keeps one. No, we both get two pieces of candy. We both have it all. We all have it together. All that God has becomes yours and mine. We never fully realize what sharing with God is until all that I have and am becomes His. That’s sharing. It’s a whole lot more than simply coming to church. It’s a whole lot more than putting a few bucks in the offering plate.

Man was created in the image and likeness of God. But that was turned upside down when Adam sinned. We now choose for ourselves rather than to choose as one made in God’s likeness. Take this little test. When a group picture is taken, what’s the first face you look at to make sure the picture is acceptable? When a new phone book comes out, what number do you check first? These are symptoms of a preoccupation with self.

Christ became human, died and rose again to free us from the tyranny of self. Before we could ever hope to live in unity with others something has to be done about that. Until that matter is dealt with in our lives we will be frustrated about the lack of attention others give us. We will be offended by the lack of appreciation we receive from others. This is where our relational problems originate. Our biggest problem, my biggest problem, is not one’s spouse; it’s not the church; it’s not your boss. It is the selfishness in my own heart.

We live in a highly individualistic society. The percentage of people who volunteer in a political campaign-stuffing envelopes, making phone calls, going door to door- is today about ½ what it was in the late 1960’s. The percentage of active membership in local clubs and organizations, like PTA is ½ what it was in the 1970’s. People are visiting one another less frequently. Having friends over is happening less frequently. However, interaction with an electronic machine and not a person is skyrocketing.

In short, every objective measurement of participation in community is declining. Why? Some blame TV. Others blame dual career families. There are probably a number of factors involved. The point is there are forces in our society which are pulling people apart and isolating them. This makes it more difficult to come together in community. Those forces affect Christians as well as non-Christians.

But for sure, unity in community is hard. The more people come together, the more problems seem to result. Perhaps that is another reason why communities are so hard to form. People are afraid of the problems. They don’t want to take on the problems of a community. You’ve heard it before: “I’ve go my own problems.” It’s like the group of porcupines that the famous philosopher, Schopenhauer, once used to illustrate a point. A group of porcupines were marooned in the middle of a frozen field during a terrible blizzard. There was no way they could escape the biting wind. They could not borrow into the frozen ground. As they huddled together to keep warm their sharp quills began to pinch and hurt. The closer they moved together the more the pain increased. Some of the animals could not bear the pain and drew apart to sleep. In the morning those who had drawn apart had frozen to death.

The Holy Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church worked tirelessly for the unity of the Church. They accomplished their goals. Yet today, 1500 years after, the Christian community is divided into thousands of different groups. What is to be done to fulfill the unity prayer of Christ?  We can’t even get all of our Orthodox brothers and sisters together in unity!

Christian Unity on its grandest scale begins with each of us as individuals. We must demonstrate to the world that we are one in Christ. We must show that we are willing to live in that sharing relationship with Christ. We must see that all we have is not ours – it has been shared with us by Christ and through Him. How we accept that truth in real life shows how willing we are to share what we have with others. “All that is Mine is yours and all that is yours is Mine.” He has given us all He has. May we ever give Him all we have.

Fr. Frederick Watson, Chair
Diocesan Stewardship Commission
7/20/2010