Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?

 "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

- Matthew 24:45-51

 In our current readings, Jesus is in Jerusalem.  He has made the Triumphal Entry, cleansed the temple, and been interrogated by various groups of the religious establishment.  As Jesus stepped out of the temple, He began a discourse about the time to come in Jerusalem (the destruction of the temple), and also the end of the age, His Second Coming.  See the readings from Saturday and Monday for the earlier parts of this discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued, "Now learn this parable from the fig tree:  When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.  So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near -- at the doors!  Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.  But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Then two men will be in the field:  one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding at the mill:  one will be taken and the other left.  Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.  Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

"Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.  Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.  But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  Jesus gives us the image of stewardship as the model for what we are to be about in His absence, as we await His return.  It gives us pause to think about what a good steward really is.  The Church here is in an image of a "household" and a steward would be the one who is "ruler" or manager over the household, making sure it's running smoothly, well-stocked with goods, and economically in good condition.  There are two senses in which Jesus gives what is a violation of the good conduct of the steward, but they both start with the thought that the Master is delayed.  So, the first thing we learn from Jesus' parable here is to emphasize remembrance:  we must remember that His Return will happen at a time we can't predict.  To keep a constant thought about this reality is a part of what it is to be a true disciple.  The failure to do so here in this example is to result in two ways of failing to be a good steward.  One of those is to beat one's fellow servants.  That would be a sense in which "stewardship" turns into brutality and self-aggrandizement, a failure to hold strongly in mind the concept of the Master's return and how the Master wishes His servants to behave toward one another.  It is a failure to keep in mind our essential equality and "belovedness" before the Master.  This behavior would be similar to the behavior expressed in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, an arrogance that usurps the place of the Master and acts with injustice, brutality, exploitation.   The second way to fail at stewardship is to be totally careless of all responsibility by "eating and drinking with drunkards" and therefore to fall down on the job, and forget what we are to be about.   That still seems to involve a kind of exploitation of assets of the house for personal indulgence, and so, while we each hold positions of stewardship in one way or another in our own lives, we also must conclude that He is especially speaking here to those who will be among the leadership of the Church, His chosen apostles, and those who will succeed them.  Once again, we're also given the promise that the Master will return on a day and an hour when He's not expected, and there most certainly will follow a "reward" appropriate to the behavior He's warned about.  If you think about it, we may still be awaiting His return to the world, but none of us can say when our lives will end, how many opportunities we will have (or with which people and situations), or at what point we will be meeting the Master.

"Stewardship" involves a good many things, but there is one thing we must always keep in mind that's clear from the parables Jesus teaches on this subject, and that is the nature of property ownership and our relationship to the Master.  Who "owns" the Church?   Does anyone own fellow servants?  The model that Jesus teaches here is one in which we are all fellow servants, and the true ownership of all the goods in this grand household doesn't rest with any of us, but with God.  It sets up the idea that whatever we do with our lives, in our jobs as servants to the Master, we must remember that the things we have in our lives, the people we have in our lives, and this great gift of the gospel (the good news of the kingdom) and of His Church, is not something that is "owned" by any of us.  We are all stewards.  The property is the Master's, and, as good stewards, it's our job to follow the will of the Master in the ways in which we conduct ourselves:  how we use the things put at our disposal or in our charge, and how we conduct ourselves with respect to our fellow servants.  One example of the ways in which this parable of stewardship is put to use has become an issue for the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, who has championed the idea that the world is a beautiful gift from God, and that it is our job as stewards to care for the world in a way that preserves its beauty and goodness.  This would especially extend to issues of pollution of natural resources, and of course their protection for future generations.  If we think about it, Jesus' encouragement here for all of us to be aware of His return at all times essentially is a way for us to remind ourselves what the conduct of a good life is like.  It gives us a heightened sense of awareness, of mindfulness (to use a commonly used term of spirituality today) of what we are always to be about.  When we keep in mind that ownership of everything is in God's hands, it may give us a sense of respect and of care that Christ Himself, the Master, suggests here.  In this sense, we're all stewards, and we must all practice care of the good, the beautiful gifts of God's grace, including how we relate to our fellow servants, and how we care not just for the world, but for this gospel.  Who owns it?  Whose good news is it?  Nobody owns this kingdom, which is a free gift of the Master, whose gift it is to give.  Let us be mindful of the things put into our hands:  our lives, our talents, our resources, a beautiful world filled with good things.  How about the distribution of the "good news" -- the gospel of the kingdom?  How do we steward our lives in remembrance of the Master?  What is just and what is not?  How do we live with this awareness and watchfulness, and not fall down on the job?  What good things are you given stewardship over?  How does the Master's love guide you in your life, to be a faithful and wise servant?