Vicar’s Voice: A Fortune of Faith
The Inheritance That Endures
Most parents and grandparents want to leave something good behind for their children. We work, save, plan, maintain our homes, and try to make wise financial decisions. There is nothing wrong with providing for our families. Work and material blessings are gifts from God, and faithful stewardship includes using those gifts responsibly.
Yet our Lord warns us that earthly wealth can quietly become something more than a gift. In the parable of the rich fool, the man has accumulated enough that he believes his future is secure. Then God says, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you.” Jesus concludes by warning against laying up treasure for ourselves while failing to be “rich toward God.” That gives Christian parents and grandparents an important stewardship question: What kind of inheritance are we working hardest to leave our children?
We may spend decades building a financial inheritance. We save for retirement, maintain property, invest money, and perhaps hope to leave our children something substantial when we die. But every dollar we leave will eventually be spent. Every house will eventually belong to someone else. Investments rise and fall. Possessions wear out. Even the things carefully divided among our heirs will someday pass from their hands as well.
There is, however, another inheritance. Saint Peter describes what Christ gives His people as “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” Our greatest wealth, therefore, is not something accumulated during our earthly lives. It is what Christ has purchased for us through His death and resurrection: forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, resurrection of the body, and everlasting life.
This changes how Christians think about stewardship. Instead of asking only, “How much will my children inherit?” we should also ask, “What fortune of faith am I leaving them?” Let your children and grandchildren remember that you brought them to church. Let them remember seeing you open the Scriptures. Let them hear you pray. Teach them the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Tell them about their Baptism. Let them see you confess your sins and receive Christ’s forgiveness. Let them see you approach the altar to receive Christ’s Body and Blood. Most importantly, tell them again and again what Jesus Christ has done for sinners.
This is not because parents can manufacture faith in their children. Faith remains God’s gracious gift, created and sustained through His Word and Sacrament. That is why Christian parents place God’s Word before their children. As Deuteronomy teaches, God’s people are to teach His words diligently to their children and speak of them in their homes. Our children need more than an inheritance waiting for them someday. They need Christ proclaimed to them today.
This also means that stewardship is about much more than what appears on a contribution statement. Everything God places into our hands can serve our neighbor and confess our faith. Our homes can provide hospitality. Our income can support the preaching of the Gospel. Our time can serve the congregation. Our experience can encourage younger Christians. Our generosity can support the Church’s work long after our earthly lives have ended.
One day, someone else will possess everything we presently call ours. Our children may inherit our money, property, furniture, photographs, and treasured possessions. Those can certainly be blessings. But give them something greater. Give them the confession of faith that you received. A financial fortune may bless our children for a season. A fortune of faith points them to an inheritance that lasts forever.
~ Vicar Michael Usner
