We have a very diverse parish. We not only grew up in different towns, but even different countries. We grew up in different religions. We grew up in different families. How we grew up depended upon not just our birth parents, but the whole environment in which we were raised. Though we are all human beings by nature and hold many things in common because of that, we were raised differently. Our family culture formed us first and most deeply. It defined what is "home" for us.

When we talk about "steward" in the Biblical sense of the word, we are talking about household managers. They were commissioned to govern over the way of life (nomos) that the master of the house established for his household. They were responsible for maintaining that way of life within that household. A steward was considered either faithful or faithless depending upon how he upheld the pattern of household life which the master established.

We were all born into a world which, because of Adam's fall, is lawless and, by default, we follow its patterns. But when we were born into Christ's Kingdom—the birth "from above" through Baptism—we were brought into a new family—a new culture—that we might learn through a living daily experience a new pattern of thought and action.

Christ says, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one is coming toward the Father except through Me." Christ is the Logos who fulfills the Nomos established by the Father. He kept His Father's pattern and now He commissions us to keep His pattern. The "law" (nomos) of God is the "law" of love, which is none other than the "law" of Christ. Or to put it another way: the way of life of God is the way of life defined by love, which is none other than Christ's way of life. As Christ says, "If you keep my commissions, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commissions and remain in His love."

So what is the pattern of love? What is the pattern of "law"-lessness? Our faithfulness as true stewards of the Household of God is tested according to which pattern we manage our lives on a daily basis.

Simply put they are this:

THE LAW OF LOVE (The culture of Christ's restored humanity)

• Self-denial
• Self-sacrifice
• Self-submission

LAWLESSNESS (The culture of fallen humanity)

• Self-indulgence
• Self-preservation
• Self-governance

These are the patterns which are woven through the whole of human history. These are the patterns by which the trajectory of our eternal existence is set as well. They are the very definition of good and evil; to discern between them takes only a moment to learn, but a lifetime to master.

Next we will compare at these patterns played out in the temptation of Eve & Adam and the temptation of Jesus.