Saint George's Anglican Church

                                                              The Third Sunday in Advent, 2009

                                  “Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

                                                                           (1 Corinthians 4.2)

                                 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

Al ready we find ourselves at the Third Sunday in Advent, and we wonder how this can be possible! In any event it has happened, and once again the Lord sets before us what is necessary in order that we may be ready for Christ’s return. Two weeks ago, it was Love: “Owe no man anything but to love one another,” wrote St. Paul. Last week, it was Hope: “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Well, what do we need along with Love and Hope? We need faith – faithfulness. Therefore today, the Epistle reminds us that, “it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.”

But hold on – does that really apply to me? What is steward? According to the dictionary, a steward is someone who is “entrusted with the management of property, finances, or other affairs not his own”. For example, the supervisor of an apartment building is a steward for the owner. He or she collects the rent, maintains the security of the building, and oversees the various repair men who are called. The building does not belong to the supervisor, and it is not up to him or her to make changes to the building, or to the way it is run. The supervisor does not decide the amount of rent to be paid, either; he or she simply collects it. The most important thing about a supervisor, manager or steward, then, is that they be found faithful. And that is exactly St. Paul’s point in speaking about Christian ministers -- the ministers of Christ.

“Phew! That was close!” you may be thinking. “Thank goodness he doesn’t mean me!” “I’m not a Minister, I’m just a member who sits in the pews.” Well, on the one hand, St. Paul is speaking of ordained Christian Ministers; but, on the other hand, he includes us all in what he is saying. Afterall, if you consider yourself to be a ‘member’, what are you a member of? A member of the Church, yes, but also a member of Christ. When you were baptized, the Lord adopted you as His own child and grafted you into His Body, the Church. Invisibly, but truly, we have been joined to Christ Jesus: He now lives in you, and you live in Him. That’s why we say that we are members of Christ.  And with this membership (by His Love and in His Love), comes the call to be faithful.

Why is faithfulness – a quality that we all admire and support – so difficult to find? Well, it is not flashy – it is not self-promoting. Faithfulness is personified in the little lady who has worked as the baker in the Tim Horton’s on Mountain Road (across from the Salvation Army Thrift store) since it opened some 30 years ago. Quietly and faithfully, she goes to work in the wee hours of the morning, every day, doing what needs to be done.

And that raises another reason why it is hard to find faithfulness: being faithful requires a commitment that goes beyond our feelings. For example, “a for better, for worse; for richer or poorer; in sickness and in health” kind of committment  -- one that is not discouraged by the demands and monotony of the daily grind. The thing is, this kind of faithfulness  is both demanding and costly – it involves personal sacrifice. And, whenever we are called to make a sacrifice, the enemy rears it’s ugly head and tries to make us fear and doubt what we know is good and true and right and holy. So, when st. Paul said, “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful”, he was raising a very serious point.  

 In the Gospel today, we are presented with the person of St. John the Baptist – the cousin of the Lord Jesus and the steward of Christ – the messenger chosen by God to prepare the way of the Lord. It is important to note where this faithful steward is at this particular time. What does St. Matthew tells us? “Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto Him, ‘Art Thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” He asked this, not because he had begun to doubt Jesus, but for the sake of his disciples. He wanted them to hear Jesus’ answer first-hand so that their faith might be strengthened. 

But the point I would like to emphasize is John’s faithfulness. Where is he? In jail. In fact, he would be beheaded for the sake of Christ. So, what does faithfulness look like, and why is it difficult to find? Because it embraces suffering, rather than running from it. Of course, that is what Jesus did for us: He embraced the Suffering and Death of the Cross for us. In God’s faithful Love, He stretched out His arms and was nailed to the Cross, dying so that we might live.

Archbishop Michael Ramsey, of the Church of England in the last century, made an important observation about the Christian life, and the nature of faithfulness. He wrote, “Besides being the events which brought Christianity to birth, the Death and Resurrection (of Christ) are the events which characterize the nature of Christianity. It is a Gospel of life through death, of losing life so as to find it. Thus, the Christian’s act of allegiance to the risen Lord Jesus was, and still is, an act of acceptance of the way of the Cross….The act of faith in the Christian God is an act which sees the sacrifice of self right down to the point of death and destruction, and then says: ‘This, and only this, is the sovereign power of God. In the imagery of the Apocalypse, the Lamb (self-sacrifice) and the Throne (Sovereignty) go together.”

I had not thought about that before: the togetherness of the Lamb and the Throne in the Book of Revelation. Jesus is represented by the Lamb, for He is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. He became like a sacrificial lamb for us; and yet, in Heaven, he now sits at the right hand of God in the place of authority. So, it is true enough, that through Christ, the sacrifices of faithfulness which we all are called to make have an eternal purpose. Although beyond our sight and understanding now, the work of faithfulness has been joined forever to God’s power and victory. As St. Paul wrote, “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.”

“Stick with it,” Paul is telling u. “Be faithful, for one day all will be revealed and we will see God’s good reasons for our present sufferings.” “Remember, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful”.