Beloved, the teaching of the Scriptures on stewardship is consistent across both Testaments and across every tradition that draws from them. A steward is not the owner of what has been entrusted. A steward is the one who holds in care what belongs to God, to the community, and to the generation yet to come. The steward's measure is not what can be consumed now, but what can be faithfully passed on.
On the sixteenth day of this month, Louisiana's citizens are asked to render a decision on five proposed amendments to the Constitution of our State. Among them is one that asks whether to dissolve three trust funds — endowments built over decades from one-time settlements — for a purpose that, on the surface, is unimpeachable: better pay for our teachers. Teachers deserve better pay. That is not, and cannot be, in dispute among people of conscience.
What is being asked, however, is a stewardship question in the strict sense: shall the inheritance set aside by a prior generation — for the education of the generation that follows — be drawn down now? Shall the principal be spent, that the interest might no longer flow?
This is the verse to sit with. "An inheritance to his children's children." Not an inheritance to his children; an inheritance to his children's children. Two generations out. The stewardship of Scripture looks past the convenience of the present into the faith of the future.
The three funds at issue were created for precisely this purpose. One was built from a 1986 settlement with the federal government over mineral revenues off the Louisiana coast. One was built from a 1998 settlement with tobacco manufacturers. One was built from non-recurring state revenues in the early 2000s. In each case, Louisiana's voters — by constitutional amendment — placed the principal beyond ordinary reach, so that the interest might support the education of generations not yet born.
It is not the role of this pulpit to direct your vote. It is the role of this pulpit to ask you to consider your vote before God, as you would consider any matter of stewardship. Ask yourself, in prayer, these questions:
The final verse is the hardest. The love of God requires that we not close our hearts to the needs of those around us — including the very real need of Louisiana's teachers for a real and recurring raise. The question is not whether that need matters. It does. The question is whether we are meeting it faithfully or meeting it by consuming a portion that is not ours to consume.
We urge you to pray about this matter. We urge you to vote — for whatever decision, in whatever direction, your conscience, informed by Scripture and by careful consideration of what the amendment actually does, calls you to make. We urge you to remember that your vote is itself an act of stewardship, and that the franchise is one of the trusts you hold in your time.