Let’s look at two things this week, being a steward and living the law of Consecration. Both topics are unusual in today’s society.
The concept of being a steward is a rarity in today’s society. The steward is a person placed in charge of the welfare of something, be it a family, a school, a ship, or even an arm of the government. The steward’s responsibilities include overseeing the welfare of all that is under their responsibility to make sure everyone’s needs are met. This is the simplistic description of the word. In religious circles the steward is often the person “whose duty is to dispense the provisions of the gospel, to preach its doctrines and administer its ordinances.” In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord is also including land cultivation and care in the definition.
In my pondering I decided to look up the word consecrate. It was often described using the word sacred, which interestingly, is described by using the word consecrate. Both words, consecrate and sacred, have to do with setting something apart and revering it as special, separated from that which is common or vulgar. They usually refer to dedicating something to God or at least elevating it above the casual use or service of other things. Even in the Websters 1828 dictionary the word consecrate is listed as “seldom used, unless in poetry.” Small wonder that we are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the word and what it means in today’s society some 200 years later.
Now that I have given you an overview of the two concepts in question this week, let’s look at each separately.
Stewardship
We live in a selfish society. Those who contribute more than is absolutely required are often viewed as either naive or chasing a promotion. The idea that someone is willing to go above and beyond in their contributing to their employer’s interests because they believe in what their employer stands for is almost unheard of. Usually there is no direct monetary compensation for such sacrifices, so in the end people just do what is required of them and little more.
Anciently, the steward was responsible for seeing to it that what they had been charged with doing flourished under their hand. For example, the steward of a household was praised and revered by the owner of the house if the management of their property prospered under the hand of the person placed as its steward. This is what the owner hoped would happen. The steward was responsible for such things as paying the bills, maintaining the repair and upkeep of the property, buying the food for the family and making sure all the accounts for the household were properly kept and accounted for.
A wise steward is what God wants us to be. In today’s lingo we refer to our stewardships, our areas of responsibility in God’s earthly kingdom, as our callings. Each of us are called to perform specific responsibilities, whether that is to teach, clean, keep books, update records, or minister to someone else. The responsibilities of the steward is called or referred to as that person’s stewardship.
The stewardship of the Young Women’s President is to oversee the staffing of her organization, the teaching of the young women under her charge, and to oversee the organizational budget and needs of the individual young women. She attends meetings, prays for and about those within her organization, and does all in her power to improve everyone’s experience while they are associated with her as her time as the Young Women’s President. That is no small calling/stewardship. She is required to seek and obtain the needed revelation for her organization. She is set apart by the Bishopric to perform this service in her ward or branch. She may have only one or two young women to worry about or she may have a few dozen. The skills needed to bring the Spirit into all that goes on within her responsibilities increases with the size of her group.
I’ve used the Young Women’s organization as my example for just a few of the things a steward has to deal with in the church. Yes, she could just do the bare minimum to keep her organization afloat by handling the staffing and budget and by attending the required meetings. But that isn’t where the rewards are found. If she really wants to feel like she has served God in her calling, much of her sense of satisfaction and her personal gratitude comes from her experiences with the young women themselves, and with her service to and with the other leaders. My point here is that her calling doesn’t become fulfilling unless there is sacrifice and service that is above and beyond what is needed for everything to stay functioning. This mindset is counter to almost everything we see in the world’s workforce.
Just as a household steward is hired or appointed to oversee the functioning of the household, so too are we called in the church to oversee our little corner of God’s kingdom. But if the household steward doesn’t look for ways to improve upon what he/she has been given by the master, then where does the injunction to be a wise steward fit in? This is where you think of the parable of the talents. The master expects those who have been given responsibilities to go out and improve upon them. This is what it means to be a wise steward. I can’t be a wise steward over my responsibilities if I run them into the ground. I certainly can’t be a wise steward if I only fill my time as steward over those responsibilities maintaining the status quo. God wants us to look out for each other and do our best to improve each other’s experiences as long as we are in a position to make things better for them.
Being a steward requires the use of the gift of the Holy Ghost, for we are dealing with people, God’s children, even if we are just doing some accounting work in the Clerk’s office each Sunday. In the end everything we do is about our service to other people. God expects us to use the gift of His Spirit to teach us how to improve upon the experience of all we come into contact with.
Important points
Stewardships are not ownership. The callings we have in the church don’t belong to us. This point is something that might be easy to miss when reading in the Doctrine and Covenants about the law of Consecration where the people give or donate their land to the church then are given a stewardship over whatever the Bishop deems is needed for the wants of that family. The family may be given more than what was given to the church or it may be less. The point is that once the gift is given it no longer belongs to that person. So when a stewardship is assigned to the person they are now on the Lord’s errand, for that farm they are talking about in the Doctrine and Covenants belongs to God’s church, His earthly kingdom. He is the owner, the person living and working on the farm is God’s steward or servant over that part of His kingdom. This concept completely changes the dynamics of how the Saints are to view what they do in all that happens within the auspices of the Church.
The whole of God’s kingdom operates on the principle of stewards fulfilling their individual stewardships/responsibilities. God owns all of it, but we are assigned to improve upon whatever part of His kingdom we have been given charge to oversee. If that is only a ministering assignment then what are we doing to make sure those over whom we have been given charge are feeling God’s love and feeling needed in the ward or branch? Are we demonstrating God’s love to them as His assigned ministers to that person or family? Are we running our calling/stewardship into the ground, trying to maintain the status quo, or are we, as in the parable of the talents, trying to improve and multiply whatever it is we have been given charge over by the Lord?
I encourage you to take some time and contemplate how you view the idea of being a steward, one who is designated by God to perform a specific set of tasks in His kingdom. Do you take your obligations to our master casually or do you seek with all your heart to improve upon what you have been given oversight to answer for?
Consecration
Consecration is a concept word. To consecrate something requires that that thing be treated differently from all other things like it. When we use the priesthood to dedicate our home we are consecrating it, setting it apart from the rest of the world as something sacred and special. After its dedication it is now a sacred place. That which is common, vulgar, or profane have no place in our home. This is the mindset of what it means to consecrate something.
The Law of Consecration is the act of giving something that belongs to us to God. If I have acquired a small nest egg over the years and I want to place it into the hands of God and His servants (stewards) then I can donate whatever is in that nest egg to the Lord’s church. I no longer own what I have donated, for it now belongs to God and His church.
In the Doctrine and Covenants the Law of Consecration required the deeding of land and possessions to the Lord’s servants then receiving responsibility to oversee the improvement of a portion assigned to the family. In the case of Doctrine and Covenants families, this was almost universally more than they had given the church. Their assigned lands and possessions were theirs to use and improve upon as long as they were faithful members of the church.
We don’t practice that part of the Law of Consecration today, but that doesn’t mean we don’t still practice this law. We still go to the temples and make covenants to keep and live this law. So how are we supposed to live the law if we don’t give all that we have to the Church?
Giving everything to the Lord’s church as the only way to live this law is sort of all-or-nothing thinking. Just because we aren’t being asked to deed over all that we possess to the church, why can’t we still give of ourselves to the furtherance of God’s work on the earth. We can donate our time, talents, energies, resources, and everything with which God has blessed us to move His work forward. Nothing has changed, just how the law is lived.
Examples of living the law
The ward needs help with a neighborhood cleanup. What can I do to make sure that happens in the best way possible? Do I volunteer to be one of those out helping our neighborhood get cleaned up? Can I donate tools for others to use? Can I help with passing out fliers or advertising the event? Do I support my Bishop and others by speaking of the event in a supportive and uplifting way? What ways can I contribute besides financially? Do they need my ideas, time, abilities, resources?
I have been called to be a minister to others. How am I demonstrating that their needs are more important to me than my own convenience? What am I willing to sacrifice for the welfare of the poor and needy around me? Do they just need someone to spend some time with them? Perhaps they need help taking out their garbage to the street once a week then retrieving their garbage container back into the garage. Perhaps they need a little help each week in their garden because of mobility problems. What if their family has a member who is struggling with an addiction or is going through a rebellious phase. How can I support them and give of my time, talents, and whatever God has blessed me with to assist them however I can?
In the early days of the church the members were asked to actually give to the church all they possessed. That was a physical manifestation of living the Law of Consecration. Today we are being asked to live this law spiritually. I’m not talking about the Holy Ghost when I say spiritually. I’m referring to the spirit or essence, the meaning of the law. Are we willing to give our all to the cause even while maintaining control and possession over what we have been blessed with? This is even more difficult to do than the early Saints had to demonstrate. Think of it like the ancient Jews being asked to move from the Mosaic Law to the Law of the Gospel by Christ. What was a physical law of performances was being replaced with a spiritual law of voluntary sacrifice.
For me to have in my possession a large house, a comfortable income, resources, perhaps a business with all its responsibilities and cares, and still use everything over which I have any say or influence for the furtherance of God’s work on the earth, is a big ask. I must not be in a position of worshipping my things. Those things must not become more important than the poor person down the street or the person in need or who is sick in the hospital or confined to bed at home. I must learn to see that I am really no different than those who actually gave all they had to the church then lived off what the church assigned to them.
I have made the same covenants the early Saints did, but I am required by the Lord to behave as though I have already donated all that I have to the church. God owns everything. Do I treat my current possessions as though I recognize that God is the actual owner and I am just managing them for Him? Am I being a good steward over His possessions, even though legally they still carry my name on the deeds? This is where people get lost. Some have difficulty in separating themselves from those things they own on paper and recognizing that whose name appears on the credit card bill or on a deed is immaterial, since God owns all of it anyway.
When we begin to recognize that despite what our accounting paperwork tells us, we are only in the service of our God, and we are just stewards over His properties and possessions, then and only then will we be able to stop feeling so stingy about serving others with all our possible resources. As long as we feel like we are the actual owners of what we possess, we will almost always have difficulty in being as generous as the Lord needs us to be to support the lonely, the orphaned, the sick, the poor, and anyone who has needs we can meet, if we are only willing to make a few sacrifices.
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Wonderful insights
Thank you