PILGRIM AND STEWARD

PILGRIM AND STEWARD
From the sermon “Joseph and the Famine: Pilgrimage and Stewardship”
Genesis 47:13-27

Some 25 years ago, in 1990, I went on a sabbatical in Canada. After I had pastored my first church for 14 years, I spent six months studying at Regent College in Vancouver.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Vancouver is a beautiful city, one of the few places in the world where you can go up the mountain in the morning to ski in the snow, and then go down to the beach in the afternoon to bathe in the sun and swim in the sea.

I enjoyed my studies, sitting at the feet of famous professors, and revelling in their knowledge and wisdom. From time to time, I was tempted to stay and study more.

No wonder, some students from Asia, like me, stayed on for years when they had originally planned to go there for months. A few never went back, because they fell in love with the place, or else fell in love with a Canadian-well, you know what I mean.

My sabbatical was six months, and when it was up, I moved on. At the end of my stay in Vancouver, I even wrote a song to the tune of “This World is Not My Home.” I titled it “Vancouver’s not My Home.”

Vancouver’s not my home, I’m just a-passing through
My destination lies somewhere across the blue
Beyond the ocean waves my spirit often soars
To the lands and my folks on those Far Eastern shores
O Lord, you know I didn’t come to stay
To buy myself a home that overlooks the bay
To speculate on land or drive a flashy Merce
No, my heart’s set on home, that’s for better, for worse!

Vancouver, B.C. is a lotusland, I’m told
Wherever you may turn, there’s beauty to behold
The mountains and the sea, the cherry blossom trees
How they beckon me stay in this haven of ease
But Lord, you know I didn’t come to stay
And though I like it here, I must be on my way
So farewell, Whistler Mountain, farewell, skis and snow
It’s been fun knowing you but I really must go!

Now Regent College here is such an oasis
I even find the time for Greek exegesis
I’m learning all the stuff I never knew before
From Ward Gasque, Gordon Fee, J.I. Packer and more
But Lord, you know I didn’t come to stay
To linger on to do my PhD some day
My folks are calling me afar from yonder shore
And I can’t feel at home in Vancouver no more!

Well, that’s looking at life as a pilgrimage. We come, we stay a while, and we move on. But some people don’t like this idea. They call it “a pie in the sky when I die” philosophy. They prefer something “on the ground when they are around.”

That’s why we need to balance our understanding of pilgrimage with the idea of stewardship.

Pilgrimage tells us that we are not going to be here forever. Stewardship tells us that while we are here we must make full use of the resources and opportunities available to us.

That is what Joseph did. He knew Egypt was not his home. Remember how he asked for his bones after his death to be preserved and brought back to Canaan, similar to a request made by his father, Jacob. See Genesis 50:24-26. Yes, even though he knew Egypt was not his home, while he was there, he did everything he could to make his contribution to the country and the people.

He was no escapist, running away from problems, waiting for the pie in the sky when he died. Instead, he dealt with a severe crisis, a seven-year famine, when he was around. Joseph is a great example of someone who was, at one and the same time, a true pilgrim and a good steward.

I should add that, if you study the history of the world, you will find that the people who had contributed most to the welfare of humankind (the abolition of slavery, the building of hospitals and schools, legislation to improve working conditions, the fight against racial discrimination) are people who believed in life as temporal, the world as passing away, and a God who would judge us for what we have done in this life.