When I show my hawk I get some interesting questions. One day at a middle school in the Valley a young lady asked a question. Indicating the handsome young High School apprentice I had with me she asked, “Does the hawk come with the boy?” You could have fried an egg on Adrian’s face! There is another question that is always asked: “What does it take to get into this myself?” It is an honest question, because the commitment is relatively demanding, and for the sake of all concerned, one should not launch into this sport without a relatively good idea of what it takes. My apprentice, for example, chose falconry over High School football, quite a sacrifice for the son of a coach! Most of the people who ask about becoming falconers do not actually commit to it. They see that falconry is very absorbing. You schedule your day around the hawk. You drive with one eye on the road and one on the horizon, you decorate your house with pictures of birds of prey and thaw bird food in the family fridge. And if you’re a preacher you get known for your hawk sermons!

This is Jesus’ concern in today’s Gospel lesson. Following Jesus has become “the in thing” in Galilee, and everybody’s doing it. This seems great, but Jesus sees a problem. He has not come just to amaze the crowds with His teaching, nor to live His life and ministry in Galilee alone. He will be heading to Jerusalem to die for their sins –will they still love Him then? And so He makes it clear from the beginning: The family is less important than following Christ. Even one’s own self-determination is less important than following Christ. But Jesus doesn’t shove anyone into it. “Consider well the cost,” He says, “like a man building a house or a king going into battle.” The Christian life, says Jesus, may give you all in the long run, but in the short run it costs you all.

The Christian life is not just a hobby, it is a way of life. Unlike stamp collecting or playing chess, following Christ is more like building a house or waging war or learning falconry. It requires investment, a lot of information, and daily attention. It will come to form how you see the world and what is important to you, how you spend your time and your money, why you choose the friends you do, and how you do your job. Even waging war or building a house or learning falconry leave a little time to oneself, but in the Christian life, EVERYTHING in your life will ultimately be transformed by the dominion of heaven. Your dominion is the “stuff” of stewardship, your stewardship is the process that transforms your dominion into an extension of God’s.

So, what does that mean for us? First of all, though it seems to come later, the Kingdom really arrived first. A Baha’i missionary I knew said that most Christians measure up rather well by Baha’i standards. They believe that God will use the Baha’i standard to measure all humanity, even before people become adherents to the faith. In the same way, even before St. Christopher’s existed God had a mission for us to accomplish. By the Holy Spirit He gave us that mission and equipped us for it, and in the end He will hold us accountable to it.

Secondly, He’s after the whole tamale! Yes, I have falconry art up in my house, but we have other things up, too: We have stuff from the Central African Republic where Karisse was born and raised, and we have stuff from Ecuador. And we have some of Karisse’s lace and dolls and other such things. In the same way we often think about the stewardship of our dominion as a part-time job. We think: Pledge comes first—that is a ministry—but then the rest is mine! And God is thinking: their tithes are the part of their money I assign to the needs of the church so they can accomplish their mission, and their personal expenses are My way of equipping them personally for ministry. We think: I’ll give an hour volunteering at the Soup Kitchen on Thursdays, but Saturday mornings are for golf with my business buddies. And God is thinking: Thursdays with the homeless, Saturdays with the godless—I don’t see any difference. In the church we say: Outreach dollars are important, but we have to pay the light bill. And God is thinking that without the lights the good people of St. Christopher’s can’t do ministry. Light bills are PART OF OUTREACH! We think: Contemporary music is important because God loves our kids, but solemn worship is what I need. And God is thinking: Young or old, rich or poor, male or female, I love them all! Each one brings Me a gift of loving worship. I gave each one different ways to come to Me because My heart is too big for any one way.

Finally, the way we think is the way we act. In Ecuador share-cropping was common. Landless farmers would work another’s land and split the proceeds with the owner. They lived in their own house, used their own tools, and raised their own choice in crops. They had an eye for quick profit and had little concern for the land, after all, they could always move on. If a landowner did not share-crop his land he hired a “mayordomo,” or land steward. This person’s house and tools were provided by the landowner. He grew the landowner’s choice in crops. He had charge of the other employees, he even handled payroll. He had a long-term trust relationship with the landowner, and a long-term concern for the land. We often think of our lives with God as share-cropping: “You let me do what I want with my life, God, and I’ll split the results with you: I get my body (and all that goes with it,) and You get my soul.” We compartmentalize our spiritual life away from our economic, social and physical lives, and we often slip into a less-than-eternal perspective of what is good. But when we think of ourselves as “mayordomos,” or life-stewards, we build a long-term relationship of trust with the Owner, we recognize that the “house” we live in and the “tools” we have are provided by the Owner. We use our influence to accomplish His purpose for the land over which we have been given dominion, and we do not loose sight of the eternal nature of our lives.

One time a landowner in Ecuador pointed out a very nice pond. “I built that,” he said. Now I knew that the landowner probably couldn’t even drive a bulldozer! He told his mayordomo, who assigned the task to a worker who knew how to drive a bulldozer. But the landowner had given the order and provided the tools, so he had done it. In the same way, our heavenly Landowner has given us orders and the tools to accomplish the job. As heavenly mayordomos we use our dominion to accomplish the work of God in the world. As a parish we know what has been assigned to us, it’s on the banners in the parish hall. The question is, what part of the job is yours?

Fr. Paul Moore+