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Next Sunday, October 29 will be Commitment Sunday. This will mark the culmination of our Season of Stewardship.

Previous weeks in October we have explored the biblical understanding of faithful stewardship.

First, faithful stewardship is Responsibility Taking. God creates us, blesses us, and then commissions us to be covenant partners with him to bring about the divine plan. Very simply, God works through human agency.

Consider your own family. God creates children and transforms them into able adults through the agency of their parents, and the faithful covenant community in which their lives are rooted. Parenthood is a stewardship responsibility. But parenthood does not stop at the front door of one’s home. Our covenant community shares the stewardship responsibility to support parents in the raising of their children.

Apply this same principle to all sorts and conditions of men, women and children. Consider the working poor. And to those living lives impaired by chronic illness, emotional disorder, lack of vocational opportunity, or simply loneliness. Their hope is in God. God’s hope is in his faithful stewards.

In Christ Jesus we are blessed and commissioned to take responsibility and to care.

Second, faithful stewardship is always limited by one’s Response Ability. If a person believes he can’t, he won’t; and he never will. Our challenge is to believe that God truly blesses us with all we need to take responsibility to fulfill the divine plan. An individual stands before the mass of human need and his courage fails. A covenant community of faithful stewards stands before the mass of human need, roles up its sleeve and goes to work.

The only limit is its Response Ability. We see Jesus’ own faith clearly expressed in his Response Ability, an ability that went all the way to his willingness to die on a cross for all of us who fail to believe the richness of God’s blessing. For many of us, our Response Ability is limited by money-blindness.

The tithe as a spiritual discipline opens our eyes to the power of God at work in our midst. When a person truly gives 10% of his income to raise the Response Ability of our covenant community, two things happen. First, he shifts his focus and trust away from his money and to the power of God. Second, he sees the power of God at work in those who believe.

The transformation from a money-blind consumer to a faithful steward requires commitment. It takes an intentional, purposeful resolve to live life in a new way. It calls for a choice freely made, in no way coerced, or forced in any way.

Next Sunday is Commitment Sunday. Resolve to join us next Sunday as we renew our commitment to God and to one another to live as faithful stewards in a spirit of gratitude and joy for the grace we have in Christ Jesus.