Newsletter September

LCMS Stewardship Ministry: (September) Work and Keep

Genesis chapters one and two are among the most familiar passages in Scripture. We know them as the Creation Account. In chapter one, God speaks creation into being with His powerful word: “Let there be…and there was.” Chapter two narrows the focus, telling how Adam was formed from the dust (adamah) and given life through the breath of God. Because of these accounts, we often categorize the chapters simply as stories of creation.

Yet, if we stop there, we miss a deeper truth. These chapters do not only describe how God made the world; they also reveal the role God gave to humanity. Alongside the beauty of creation, God established the office of steward. Humanity, created in God’s image and formed from the earth, was given a unique purpose: to care for and manage creation. This is the very reason man was made—to be steward of what belongs to the Lord.

Genesis 2:15 makes this calling clear: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” The steward’s task has two parts. First, he is to work. Stewardship involves labor—tending to God’s creation. Before sin entered the world, this labor was not a burden but a joy. Imagine farming in Eden: harvest without plowing, planting, weeding, or toil. The garden itself, made perfect by God, provided abundantly for all living things. Work was active and purposeful, never frustrating.

The second part of the steward’s calling was to keep the garden. This word implies more than simply caring; it also means guarding and defending. The garden, holy because it was created by God, was to be protected from anything unholy. Here the steward’s role takes on a priestly dimension. Later in the Old Testament, priests would guard the tabernacle and temple, even risking their lives to preserve holiness. In Eden, Adam was to do the same—defend the garden and place God’s holiness before his own life.

But Adam failed. His downfall was not neglecting the harvest but failing to defend the garden from the serpent’s deceit. Because of that failure, human labor became burdensome and marked by struggle. Stewardship, however, was never revoked. Humanity remains in the office of steward, though fallen. This explains why stewardship remains difficult for us. We often forget that nothing is truly ours. Everything belongs to God, entrusted to us for His glory and the good of others.

This calling can feel daunting, even impossible. On our own, it would crush us. But God provides. Through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, we are redeemed and restored as stewards. The Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel and empowers us to live out this vocation. Now we are not only stewards of creation but also of grace, called to work and to keep in Christ’s name.

This remains the task of the church and of every Christian. We labor faithfully, knowing that in the Lord, our work is never in vain.