Stewards of the Grace of God

George Hunsberger

NetACT

August 2007

A visit to Nkhoma

• “It’s all AIDS.”

• Death as a fact of life

• The spirits of the dead and the gospel of Christ

• Village and urban worlds only a few steps away from each other

The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Doby Deborah Dortzbach & W. Meredith Long

• Telling personal stories of people infected with HIV/AIDS, drawn from around the globe

• Surfacing and engaging the assumptions and practices that inhibit Christian responses.

• Retelling biblical stories with an eye for what’s happening that’s like our situation

• Telling hopeful stories about initiatives arising in many places

Some important themes in the book

• Webs of care for the infected, the dying, the spouses, and the children

• The cultural messages and social support needed for behavioral change to happen

• The dynamics of power relationships and violence in the transmission of HIV/AIDS

• The interplay of two fundamental values:– The high value God gives to sexual purity– An even more basic value—the value of life

Should the church be involved in programs that supply

condoms as part of its strategy for preventing the spread of

AIDS?

Or programs that provide sterile needles for drug users?

The Steward:A Biblical Symbol Come of Age

by Douglas John Hall

• Not reduced to mean the “financial resources department” of the church

• But raised to be the image of the calling and mission of the whole people of God

• “Caring for the affairs of the house”– Of the earth– Of its inhabitants– Of life itself

Stewards of the grace of God

• 1 Peter 4:10—Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.

• Eph 3:2—For surely you have already heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given me for you.

• 1 Cor 4:1—Think of us this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries.

• 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19

• All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Stewards of the grace of God

God’s habit of extending grace

• CREATION: It rains on the just and the unjust.• COVENANT: I will never again destroy every

living creature as I have done.• PATIENCE: The Lord is not slow…, but is

patient with you, not wanting any to perish….• LAW: Moses commanded a certificate of

divorce because you were hard-hearted. From the beginning it was not so.

• RECONCILING: Not counting their trespasses against them.

• A PEOPLE OF GRACE ! !

Implications:• We will risk the same kinds of grace it is God’s habit to

extend. (Generous, patient, longsuffering—to a fault!)• We will support measures that may help prevent HIV

infection for at-risk groups, regardless of people’s chosen (or addicted, or entrapped) behaviors.

• We will refuse to be inhibited by the possibility that some may take our actions to mean license to do whatever they want.

• We will convey what we know of God’s vision for sexual intimacy and practice to encourage changed behaviors.

• We will be a community so shaped that it provides a supportive environment empowering those changed behaviors.

• We will exhibit what God’s grace looks like by the way we treat each other, and by the way we work together to care for the most vulnerable and injured.

• We will urge people on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.