The Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 28, 2025

Last week, I offered a lengthy sermon and reflection on a lengthy set of readings. This week, I think I went the opposite way. See what you think…

Freedom is not the absence of responsibility; it’s the opportunity to respond faithfully. In the Galatians reading for this Sunday, Paul insists that Christian freedom is not license to do whatever we want, but an invitation to live by the Spirit. The question for stewardship, then, becomes: how are we using our freedom?

In many congregations, stewardship can be misunderstood as simply an obligation — something to fulfill because we “have to.” But Paul reframes this: through love, become servants to one another. This is the radical turn of Christian stewardship. We are free, but that freedom finds its highest purpose in self-giving love. In other words, we are stewards not because we are compelled by guilt or pressure, but because—in response to God’s grace and driven by the Holy Spirit—we are compelled by love.

This same tension between freedom and responsibility plays out in the Gospel text. Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem and calls followers along the way. But his call is not easy. One wants to bury a parent, and another wants to say goodbye at home. Jesus’ words seem harsh, but they echo the urgency of the Spirit-led life: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” It is not that Jesus denies grief or family—it is that discipleship, like stewardship, is a call to radical availability. There is no “convenient time” to follow Jesus. There’s only now.

Likewise, in the story from 2 Kings, on multiple occasions, Elijah tells Elisha to stay behind. But Elisha continues to follow Elijah, even as Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha follows because “the Lord lives.”

Truth be told, I don’t like talking about stewardship as money only. Because there is a need for us to use our gifts and talents to further the coming of God here… today… now. There is always a tension of asking for money – are we as a church just preying on people who are captive audiences in our pews? But preaching on true stewardship – doing what we need to follow Jesus – means that there is always an urgency. Do we take Jesus’ urgency of following seriously? Or are we staying that the urgency is less now or different in some way?

This is the great tension of generosity and stewardship. We can’t say yes to every ask. We can’t say yes to every event that we are invited to. We can’t say yes to everything we are invited to volunteer for.

But we can’t say no to everything either. At some point, our faith compels us to step forward and say yes. And if it’s meaningful, then often it’s at a time when it’s not convenient or requires some semblance of sacrifice.

Stewardship, then, is about choosing what we hold on to and what we let go of. It’s about orienting our time, resources, energy, and lives around what the Spirit is doing. And stewardship becomes a task of determining when what we are doing works or brings rewards and glorification to God and when it doesn’t. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is not a checklist, but a portrait of what a life aligned with God’s purposes looks like. These are the qualities of good stewardship—not only for individuals but for whole communities.

In a culture that often defines freedom as “you do you,” Paul offers a different vision: freedom is for mutuality. It is for love. It is for fruitfulness. In a world of endless distractions and demands, the Spirit calls us to lives of purposeful, Spirit-led generosity. Stewardship becomes not a seasonal task, but a lifelong orientation of saying yes to God, even in times when it’s not convenient, doesn’t make us happy, or even hurts us for a time.