Stewardship is one of those concepts that is so powerful, and so…tentacular…that it is hard to conceive of an aspect of life that Stewardship doesn’t touch on. I love the Lord of the Rings and every time I read through LOTR, I am drawn to different characters. But a character that has always fascinated me has been Faramir, Steward of Gondor.
He is odd, if for no other reason than that the Ring seems to have no power over him, or at least the Ring’s power is not a power that he cannot resist. Faramir wishes for Gondor to be free and glorious, but he is unwilling to use the Ring to do so. Indeed, the Captain has a wonderful monologue, which seems to explain why the Ring cannot subjugate him:
For myself,' said Faramir, 'I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.
Indeed, Faramir makes it plain that he would rather that Gondor fell than that Gondor would sink to the tools and methods of Mordor. These words sound very poetic and beautiful and right – and so they are! But as wondrous as they are, they are the more remarkable when we consider what it would mean for Faramir to say such a thing! Indeed, those words sound seditious, treasonous, blasphemous, even. Imagine: were Denethor to hear these words would he be proud of his second son? Or would he call him a son of a wizard, all the more?!
What Captain Faramir says sounds really good until we take it out of mythological fiction and put it into our world. And that’s the power of myth! Mythic characters can tell truths that often people in the real world can’t. But Faramir being a myth doesn’t make the truth he speaks any less true! Perhaps, because Faramir is a myth, his words are more true, in the sense of having broader scope of truth-speaking, because they can speak to all contexts.
Sometimes people say things like this, in real life, and when they do, people tend to not like them. Michael Sattler, the early Anabaptist leader said that he would not fight in a war, but were he forced to fight he would fight with the Turks against the Christians, because the Turk is a true-Turk, whereas so much of European Christendom was filled with false-Christians.
This doesn’t mean that Sattler thought that the Turks knew the truth! But that the Turks were not hypocritical about their beliefs, whereas the leaders of Europe were, largely, false-Christians. His point was that while Islam was false – Muslims were true to it; Christianity is true – “Christians” are false to it.
Sattler’s statement is close to Faramir’s: Sattler would rather see Europe fall and the Crescent rise over the Cathedrals of the North, than see false-Christianity reign and rule over the Mediterranean.
Again, these words sound stale. What if I were to say, the world would be better if Isis took over the world and Sharia replaced the US Constitution, than for the Gospel of Christ to be perverted into some bastardized amalgam of Americanism, Consumerism, Hedonism, and Jesusism.
How uncomfortable does that make you? The only way that it doesn’t make you uncomfortable is if your mindset is that of a Steward.
The Steward says, “this is not mine, therefore I must keep it for my sovereign the way He wants it kept.”
The Steward says, “I will not use methods my Master would revile, even if that is the only way I can conceive to achieve my Master’s aims.”
The Stewards says, “I’d rather see my Stewardship fail than to fail in my Stewardship.”
While I don’t think that the Black Flag of ISIS is going to be unfurled over Capitol Hill, Western Christendom is under threat from a Post-Christian culture. If the Church in America chooses to fight Agnosticism, Atheism, and Relativism by marrying Christ to an Nationalistic, Humanistic, Consumeristic, Hedonistic monstrosity, then I’d rather see every church in America shut its doors! Christ is too wonderful to be turned into a flag-waving, gun-toting, sex-crazed, celestial-vending-machine! I would rather see the Mordor of Post-Christianity conquer America – at least then the enemy would be apparent. So long as the Church seeks to be like the world to conquer the world the Church is no better than the world! Let us be good Stewards.