Posted on 11/15/2004 8:20:10 AM PST by Salvation
According to a study by the John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, the Netherlands ranked highest in terms of all private philanthropy and volunteering, with Sweden second in both categories.
The United States ranks first in the giving of cash and other property gifts, with Israel running second.
October 24, Wednesday Second Week on Stewardship
”A hired hand, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.” (John 10:12)
We’re all used to being consumers.
We go to the mall and somebody provides the services. We go to the stores we like . . . and we don’t go to a store we don’t like. The staff is there to wait on us, and that’s the way business is run.
But when it comes to this earth, we’re not consumers. Everything belongs to God, and we are stewards of this earth. This is something that we’re part of. We come from the earth.
God created the earth and said, “It is good.” God said, “You are my daughters and you are my sons.” This is our family earth, and we must not treat it like consumers, for someone else to worry about, and just take what we want from it.
Picture God saying: “This is mine. This is our earth. These people around the world are our family, our brothers and sisters. They are my children. They are your brothers and sisters.”
The Scripture talks about shepherd and hired hand, but I could substitute steward and consumer. with the Spirit of God within me, I become a caretaker of the earth and all the people in it.
If I remember that, I will see it all as God sees it. My earth. My people.
Do I act as a steward – or as a consumer?
Emma and Sidney Whittemore were among the elite of New York society, their lives full of travel, partying and shopping . . . until the couple was stirred by the words of an inner-city evangelist.
Seeing others’ lives mired in poverty, alcoholism and abuse was a shockingly far cry from their own wealthy comfortable lifestyle. But the two became determined to make a difference.
What particularly troubled Emma were the young girls working the streets as prostitutes.
On October 25, 1890, Emma opened the first Door of Hope, which provided housing for young women.
By the time of her death in 1931, there were 97 homes like this in seven countries.
October 25, Thursday Second Week on Stewardship
”That is because the hired hand works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.” (John 10:12)
The Detroit Red Wings had a terrific rivalry with the Toronto Maple Leafs, especially back in the early days when the National Hockey League only had six teams. Red Wing great Ted Lindsey once remarked, “We’d play Toronto for nothing. They don’t have to pay us for playing hockey.”
Think of all the things we do that are not for pay. We hold the door for someone. We parent. We go to Mass. We visit the sick. We care for the sick. We work around the house. We throw a party.
These things we do for no pay are the measure of a great life. They are what the Lord holds precious.
Interesting. We need to think that whatever brings in the most money is the most important and most valuable, and requires the greatest skill. Like the work of a heart surgeon of business mogul. We consider some actions valuable because of the money connected with them.
But that measure means absolutely nothing in real terms. If we erase the concept of money entirely from the picture and then look at valuable deeds which we do that you can’t put a price on – well, the whole picture shifts.
We can begin to appreciate that great works are within reach of all of us. It doesn’t matter whether I am a child, or an elderly person, or a teenager, or educated, or rich.
Good works that are not done for pay are the most important, valuable things that anyone could do.
And they are within my reach.
Almsgiving is slightly different from stewardship.
Stewardship recognizes that everything (including personal possessions) belongs to God. This belief is expressed by returning a fixed percentage of one’s income, off the top, to God. Giving it "off the top” is a way of acknowledging that the rest of what I have really belongs to God as well.
Almsgiving might also be called “partial stewardship.” It is specifically directed to the poor. The world “alms: means “pity, mercy.” In a way, it doesn’t require as great an act of faith as stewardship (the belief that everything belongs to God.) The sight of a poor person can be very moving, and is in itself a motivation to help, which is very, very good. But it doesn’t necessarily include the conviction that the rest also belongs to God.
October 26, Friday Second Week on Stewardship
”I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16)
As part of our Christian heritage, we believe that God is intimately connected to the earth and to us.
The Psalms say, “The earth is the Lord’s and all who dwell in it.” Jesus taught that whatever we do for the littlest one, we do for him.
These things we do for no pay are the measure of a great life. They are what the Lord holds precious.
Everyone is called upon to be a shepherd to this earth and to all the people in it. The earth is no “rental.” The people on this earth are no strangers. They are my sisters and my brothers. The earth is God’s and all who dwell in it. And I, like God whose Spirit is within me, am to care for the earth and all its people.
All creation is the Lord’s, including all the people of the world, including me. I am part of this wondrous creation, placed here by God to continue his shepherding work.
If I look at this earth with a shepherd’s eye, it will look different, and I will act differently.
Like the great steward I’m expected to be.
How much free time does a person actually have?
According to a University of Maryland study on Americans’ use of time, the average person has 38.7 hours of free time a week. This compares to 40 years ago when the average American had 33.0 hours of free time.
The project defined “free time” as time not spent working, sleeping, eating, doing housework of taking care of children.
October 27, Saturday Second Week on Stewardship
When Jesus heard about the illness of his friend, Lazarus, he responded, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. (John 11: 4)
You may wonder why John makes such a point of the timing in this story. When Jesus is informed of his friend’s illness, he waits two more days before traveling to see him. And when Jesus arrives, the bystanders make a point of mentioning that Lazarus has been dead four days.
There was a popular Jewish belief at the time that the soul lingered in the vicinity of the body for three days after death. The person was dead, but the soul was around the body.
This was just a popular belief, but John wanted to be sure that everyone realized that Lazarus was dead as dead could be…and Jesus had the power to bring him back to life.
Jesus can pull life out of anything. That’s the lesson of this Gospel, and if I believe that, then I never need to lose my hope.
If I put my faith in God, I can respond to situations – even sin and violence – God’s way and know that God can pull life out of anything.
When a cardinal is elected Pope, he earns a promotion but his pay is reduced to zero.
The Pope does not receive a penny in pay, nor does he have a bank account.
According to a Vatican spokesman, Vatican organizations provide for the Pope’s daily needs, and donations he receives are given for the needs of the Church
October 28, Sunday, Third Week on Stewardship
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made with genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair…Then Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, “Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days wages and given to the poor?” (John 12: 3-5)
Imagine.
Mary spent 300 days’ wages on Jesus.
Such largesse.
And it meant so much to Jesus because he knew how much it meant to her. She had the spunk to do something like that. Jesus loved her very much…and she loved him.
Judas missed it. He missed the whole thing. He didn’t understand.
He put a price tag on it.
At a press conference following his gold medal win at the 2006 winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, U. S. sppedskater Joe Cheek said that he had been blessed with the support of many to compete in two Olympics…and wanted to give something back.
And since “the best way I can say thanks is to try to help somebody else.” Cheek said he would donate to Right to Play the $25,000 bonus the U. S. Olympic Committee pays gold medal winners.
His inspiration for the gesture: Johan Olav Koss.
Born October 29, 1968, Koss had been Norwegian Junior Speedskating Champion, World All-Round Champion, and had taken a gold and a silver medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville.
In 1995, in the final year of his career, Koss took three gold medals at the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer. He donated his own Olympic money to a humanitarian charity called “Olympic Aid” which assisted children in disadvantaged parts of the world. He challenged his fellow athletes to do the same.
Today the charity is called , and helps children in nearly 20 countries. Koss serves as its CEO.
Cheek’s donation aided Sudanese children who were refugees in Chad.
October 29, Monday, Third Week on Stewardship
”Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12: 24)
We live in an expansionist culture”
• Our Gross National Product is supposed to expand each year
• If we have a business, our earnings for this quarter must expand from the same quarter last year.
• If we have money, it is supposed to be invested and grow.
There is nothing wrong with all this. It is part of the culture we live in. But if we get too caught up in that kind of expectation for expansion, we have a different perspective of life…at least different from the one Jesus was talking about.
Jesus taled about life as being a process of forming good seed, of challenging oneself to “die” to old ways in order to give rise to a great harvest after death.
The expansion comes after we die.
That gives me a different perspective on what I should be doing with my life now.
How would I like to spend the years before I die?
When I pray the Our Father slowly, I have a very simple and good perspective on life. It is God’s kingdoms that I am trying to bring about. It is God’s will that I am trying to do. I am asking for my daily bread, not millions of dollars.
How would I like to spend the years before I die?
The first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize was a wealthy Swiss businessman who founded the International Committee of the Red Cross.
While on a business tour of battlefields in northern Italy in 1859, Jean Henri Dunant was moved by war’s devastating effect on both the soldiers and the civilians. He felt compelled to write a book which urged the creation of a multi-nation relief effort that would care for those wounded in wartime.
The following year, Dunant and several influential military leaders and doctors met in Geneva to discuss the plan. On October 29, 1863, th4e International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.
When Dunant received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 for his work with the Red Cross, he was living simply and was too ill to travel to pick up his award. He later bequeathed the money to charity. He died October 30, 1910.
October 30, Tuesday, Third Week on Stewardship
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” (John 12: 25-26)
What Jesus isn’t saying here is that a good Christian is someone who doesn’t love this life.
But there is a difference between clutching life to oneself and learning to let go of our selfishness so that we can go out and truly enjoy life.
That’s the way Jesus lived, that’s the way Jesus died.
We were never meant to be a single candle, preserving the flame all to ourselves, as though we were the center of the universe. By itself, that one candle is not going to give much light.
We are made to be part of a grand family called the human race. We are fulfilled and we grow when we come in contact with and reach toward and receive the love of other people.
I was made to go outward, to be giving and loving, and not to go inward, to be greedy, grasping, selfish, alone and isolated.
The flame of my candle is meant to join the flame of other people’s lives. It’s how I truly become “rich.”
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