The Steward's Reward

Isaiah 65:17-25

Today’s lesson is about God’s joyful promise to us. Our verses for today proclaim God’s promise is to obedient believers. Obedient believers obey God’s will by practicing authentic stewardship; caring for God’s gifts knowing they are on loan to us to build up the Kingdom of God.

Our scripture text takes us back to around the year 475 B.C. The women and men who lived in Jerusalem at this time were not to be envied. Two generations had passed since their ancestors, with much rejoicing, had left from Babylon to repopulate the city of David. Those days were exciting as well as frightening. Their prophets had spoken of how Yahweh would lead the people home from exile as all creation rejoiced (Isa. 40:1–11) and had spun visions of a glorious new Temple set within a sparkling city (Ezek. 40—48). These images must have danced in the heads of the returning Jews, yet other Jews chose to remain within the safe precincts of Babylon. Their unwillingness to return served as a reminder of the sorry state of the ruined city to which a remnant were returning. There was still a lot of distance between the vision and the reality!

That was a half a century ago, yet the brick-and-mortar Jerusalem was little changed. There was a restored Temple, but it was shabby when compared with the great edifice of Solomon, which had stood on the same spot before the Babylonian invasion. There were as yet no city walls, and tons of rubble remained where houses and markets had once been packed with crowds of people. You can hardly blame those who returned, who once had a new hope of new Jerusalem, for doubting the grand promises of yesteryear.

In this despairing situation, however, certain individuals began to raise their heads. Certain individuals began to sing the old songs of joy and hope, but in a new key. They came to realize that God’s ancient promises had been true all along, but in a far grander way than anyone had realized. Women and men had thought about the new Jerusalem in only tangible terms—the city of bricks and stones their ancestors had inhabited since the days of David. They began to understand that this was not quite right. The new Jerusalem that Yahweh had in mind far transcended the new Jerusalem of the merchants and traders and families who called the city of David home. Yes, that Jerusalem had been restored—somewhat, at least. But God’s eye was on another Jerusalem also—a Jerusalem not of bricks and mortar, but of the human heart.

Our reward as stewards, as is the reward for the returning, obedient exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, is the opportunity to have our hearts, minds and spirits re-created in order to live in God’s new creation caring for God’s gifts to us. As God is about to “create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight,” the people’s response in Isaiah 65 is pure joy. When all is said and done, in the end we as God’s stewards will experience joy ourselves and thus become stewards of joy. This joy from God is meant to be a blessing to us. We hear about it throughout the New Testament. Matthew writes of the wise men, “When they saw that the star had stopped (over Jesus’ birthplace), they were overwhelmed with joy” (Matthew 2:10). Joy is a gift from on high. Jesus tells his disciples, “I have said these things to you so that MY joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). The writer of 1 John confesses, “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:4). Even Paul expresses his gift of joy by writing: “Yes, you are our glory and joy!” (1 Thessalonians 2:20).

As often as we appeal to joy, we also know full well the reality that little in church life reflects the joy we proclaim. Those things Isaiah states as passing away – death, plunder, vain labor – still remain today. It seems perhaps as if we have misplaced our joy.

Isaiah reminds us today of God’s promise to obedient stewards and believers. We must be willing to recognize this in order to develop into a faithful steward. We must be willing to recognize that God owns everything because God is the creator of everything. To live in that knowledge is to live a life of joy. Where is the joy in your life?

On February 12, 1996, The Los Angeles Times reported that David Suna and John Tu sold 80 percent of their company, Kingston Technology Corp., the world’s largest manufacturer of computer memory products at the time, for $1.5 billion dollars. The two men decided to share their windfall with their employees. The average bonus payment their workers received was just over $75,000.00. Mr. Suna summarized their decision: “To share our success with everybody is the most joy we can have.” For Mr. Suna and Mr. Tu, their success was more than material in nature. The joy they experienced in sharing their success was their beautiful reward.

John 9 includes a story about Jesus healing a man born blind. After the man is healed, everyone the man encounters cross-examines him. Here is a man who has been healed of a life-long disability, yet all anybody wants to know is the gory details: When? How? Why? John’s account draws out not a single ounce of joy from those who should be jumping with delight at this man’s good fortune. Nobody – no neighbors, parents or religious authorities – offer any congratulations or joy for what has happened in the life of this man who once was blind but now he sees. Is this the story of the church today? Do we rejoice whenever we can? Have we lost our way?

In his book entitled Clowning in Rome, Henri Nouwen compares the Christian life with the clowns Nouwen encountered in Rome. Nouwen compares the clowns to the way that Christians are to be in the world. The clowns did not take themselves too seriously, yet they offered themselves to all those who watched as reminders of life’s joy and hilarity. Perhaps all of us can be stewards of the joy God offers us as reminders of life’s gift and blessedness.

We must all remember that, according to author C.S. Lewis, “Joy bursts in on our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.” How often do we try to manufacture scenarios in order to experience joy? How often do we simply allow the joy of the Lord to burst into our lives and into the life of this church?

This reminds me of a story of a pastor who was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago while on a short-term mission trip to this island. A certain woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around. The pastor recounted, “It was the most hideous face I had ever seen. The woman’s nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, ‘Can we sing “Count Your Many Blessings”?’” Overcome with emotion, the pastor left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, “I guess you’ll never be able to sing that song again.” “Yes I will,” the pastor replied, “but I’ll never sing it the same way ever again.” Joy had captured his heart.

God calls us to be stewards of His resources and by doing so we express the joy of our salvation found in Jesus Christ. We receive joy from becoming a part of God’s kingdom on earth. We receive joy when we build houses and inhabit them; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. We receive joy when we live and rejoice forever in what God is creating; a new Jerusalem where the sound of weeping and cries of distress will be no more. The Jerusalem of the new creation will be like a new Eden, its inhabitants blessed with long life, abundant food, and a joyful closeness in their relationship with God. Only through this communion between the divine and humanity can the community of the faithful offer to the world its unique gifts of joy, hope, and love that will not be broken until that day when, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw with the ox; but the serpent – its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.” (Isaiah 65:25) Amen.