Stewards in the Vineyard

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The sign outside says that this sermon is about the “workers in the patch.”  I would encourage those of you who have not yet signed up for the Pumpkin Patch to check the sheet in the Narthex.  We can all be considered workers in the Patch, stewards of the vineyard, and citizens of the kingdom.  But I want to go back and start with our first lesson.

Exodus 20 – the Ten Commandments is somewhat familiar.  The Ten Commandments were the first laws – handed down from God on the Holy Mountain.  They are really about how to maintain a relationship - both with God and with people.  They can be divided into 2 groups - relationship with God and relationship with others.  

The first group (commandments 1 – 4) has to do with our relationship with God.  This covenant tells us our responsibility to God; we are to love God only; we are not to entertain other gods; we are not to idolize anything other than God; we are not to use his name improperly and we are to spend time with him every week.  

This laws about Sabbath and parents are actually a bridge between the laws describing our relationship with God and our relationship with others.  It’s the beginning of how we are to live our lives here on earth.  We take time to rest – to re-create – to commune (or communicate) with God so that we can begin the new week with renewed vim, vigor and direction.

The second bridge law is about relationship with your parents.  You are to honor your mother and father – they were co-creators with God in bringing you to life.  Without them, you would not exist — you would not be you.

The rest of the laws have to do with our relationship with each other here on earth.  You shall not murder, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor bear false witness, nor covet your neighbor’s possessions or their spouse.  

And it says the people witnessed the lightning and thunder and trumpet and smoke and they were afraid.  Well, here on the Texas Gulf Coast we know firsthand about the forces of nature that are very scary and the effect they can have on our lives.  No wonder the people told Moses – you speak to us – but don’t let God come anywhere near us.  And Moses told them, “Do not be afraid.”  

And then in our second lesson we see Paul talking about being a born and bred, card carrying, law abiding Jew, righteous under the law – and he goes on to say that he doesn’t want the kind of righteousness that comes from the law – but only that which comes from faith in Christ.

Those ten are only the beginning fo the laws that Jews had to follow.  Now, I admit that I have made fun of those 6 hundred 15 laws that a righteous Jew was supposed to follow.  When you think about it, a lot of those laws dealt with the same kinds of things that today’s laws deal with.  Would anyone here like to give a guess about how many laws there are in America today?  There are whole libraries dedicated to stating and explaining the laws that have been passed by the national and state legislatures.  The reason we have to have laws is because there are always people who are going to do things that end up hurting others – and without laws there would be chaos and anarchy.  

In a perfect world everyone would be kind and courteous to everyone else and we would need no laws.  Problem is we don’t live in a perfect world.  When I taught school, we usually ended up the year with many more rules than we started with – because each time a student would do something (that we had not anticipated) that injured someone or caused some kind of trouble or disruption, a new rule would have to be made.

So could you imagine living without laws?  Even traffic laws – something as simple as coming to a full stop and treating a non-operating traffic signal as if it were a stop sign – can be important if there is a power outage.    

And then we come to one of those gospel stories – it is a parable and it is an allegory.  There are many different layers and we are going to look at several.

 This is a story about stewardship.  This is a story about faithfulness.  This is a story about relationship.

A landowner planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.  

This allegory is telling the story of what is happening.  The landowner, of course, represents God, the vineyard is the kingdom of God and the tenants are the religious leaders of Israel.  The slaves are the prophets and the son is Jesus.  Jesus is telling the story of what has happened in the history of Israel and projecting it into the future concerning his own fate.  

The thing I find interesting as we examine this parable is the patience of God.  He sends his slaves to collect the portion of the harvest that belongs to him - their rent, so to speak.  When the tenants beat one, stone one and kill one, the landowner doesn’t immediately rush in and punish the them.  He sends more slaves to collect the tithe owed to him, and the tenants treat them the same as they had the first.  

So the landowner finally sends his son, the heir to the property.  And the tenants seem to think they can kill him and then the property will be theirs.  We see the patience on the part of the landowner, for he is willing to give the tenants a chance to do the right thing – not just one chance, but multiple chances.  Notice that Jesus leaves the parable there – he does not complete it.  He poses the question, allowing the religious leaders to draw their own conclusions.  They know -  

So if we are the new tenants of the vineyard that means we are the ones responsible for producing new fruit and presenting it to God.  How are we going to respond as the new tenant of the vineyard?   How are we going to be different from the original tenants?  It is now our turn to give back to God from what he has given to us.  

This says so much more about the way we are to live our lives and conduct our affairs. How do we tend our vineyard?  God created this wonderful place for us to live and he filled it with all good things – all the things that combined with the knowledge and wisdom and willingness (or ability) to work – can be used to provide us with a really good life.  Are we careful with the things that God has given us?  Do we tend this vineyard and take care of those things which God has provided for us?  Do we give credit to God for those things which make our life worth living?  Do we have an attitude of gratitude for the things that God has placed in our lives?  That attitude of gratitude can be developed - each day, remember to name one thing for which you are grateful.  Today, I am grateful for the music that Paul provides for us.

So, if God give this earth for our use, what kinds of stewards are we of it and all those things that God has provided?  Do we give back to him from the first fruits of our bounty?  Do we honor that which God has given us?  Those are questions that each of us have to answer for ourselves.  

Just to recap - the law that Moses brought down from the mountain helped to define who the Israelites were – and Paul tells us that we can’t earn salvation simply by obeying the law – and Jesus tells us that we need to be good stewards regardless of the law…  So we follow the laws because we understand that 1) they teach us about relationship [with God and with others] - and 2) they bring order to our life and are for our good and our protection.    We also give God praise and thanksgiving for caring about us and giving us good things in this life, and we need to remember to give back to him from what he gives to us.  

Please pray with me:  Oh Lord God, we praise you for your love, for your gifts, and for your generosity.  Open our eyes to recognize these gifts on a daily basis.  Keep us mindful that it is you who have created this vineyard - this world - in which we live.  Help us to remain faithful stewards in all that we do and to give thanks for all that we have.  In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.  

Getting it right?

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From our Gospel lesson:  Which son did the will of his father?  The first said "no" but later went and did as his father asked.  The second son said "yes", but he never showed up.  And the Pharisees answered the first son…   This indicates to me that God truly cares more about what you do, than what you say you will do.

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Have you ever said that you would do something, and then somehow never got around to it?  I have, more than once.  And that's a little strange, because I usually pride myself on keeping my word, if I say I will do something.

But I have told someone that I would do something, and as the time approached, I just forgot, got busy doing something else and just absolutely let it slip my mind.  I have felt really bad about it, but once the moment is gone, it's really hard to make it up.  That may be something that all of us have done at one time or another.

But I've also done it intentionally - told someone I would do something - and as the time approached, began to feel really insecure about it, and decided that I was not the best person for the job – so I didn’t go.  A lot of us say, "Yes" because we don't want to hurt someone's feelings, or sometimes because it makes us feel important to think that someone believes we have the necessary skills and abilities to do a particular job.  

I am a people pleaser - there is something in my background that had convinced me at one time that I had to do everything I could to make people like me; that if I could just do the right thing, then they will like me.  I understand much more fully now that this is only partially true.  But even though I know it intellectually, believing it and living into it is sometimes very hard.  I know for a fact that God loves me, regardless of what I do or say.  I know that He loves me every bit as much as I love my children, even when they occasionally disappoint me.

I look at today's lesson from Philippians - "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  -  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..."  And I wonder how many of us can actually live up to this ideology.  

Quite often, when we regard others as better than ourselves it is from a low or inferior self-esteem - and we allow ourselves to be trampled by those stronger personalities that surround us.  This is not what Paul is talking about, being a footstool for those who would use us.  

But I've also been at the other end of the spectrum, too.  I've taken pride in something that I've done - and it usually happens after the fact.  I get through with something and think back, "Oh wow, I just did something really good!" . . .

When I am in the middle of a situation, I simply respond - I have been told that my instincts are impeccable - and at the end, I feel like I have done God's will.  I believe that it is God's will at work in me.  And then I have time to think about it later and that's when I get into trouble over pride.

The truth is, we are human, and we respond in human ways, and they may be all over the board.  There are times when our insecurities may kick in, or when our pride dominates, but there are also those times when we respond with the heart of Jesus -- and God smiles.

I had a parishioner at Redeemer make an announcement one day saying, "I've decided that I'm not ever going to sin again."  My thought was that this was an arrogant statement, because no matter how hard we try, we are human, and we are going to make mistakes, and we are going to get things wrong, and we are going to make assumptions that will turn out bad.

But thank God, He is not up in heaven keeping score of how many times we do good versus how many times we miss the mark.  And I don't think it matters to him whether the last act in our life is a good one or a poor mistake.  I think God looks at the whole picture: Did we try to live our life in a Godly way?  Did we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and try to follow his example?          

It was for this reason that Jesus Christ died on the cross - because we can't always do the thing God asks us to do - because we can't always forgive, and we can't always reach out; because we are sometimes selfish, or conceited - because we are human.  For these reasons, Jesus Christ emptied himself and became obedient, even to the point of death; so that we might have life eternal.

The very powerful message in this Gospel message is the news that it is never too late to follow Jesus and become a missionary worker in the vineyard. God will embrace the son who turns and chooses in the end, no matter what they have been doing, to become a member of his community. 

Yes, there are people in our community who sin knowingly. We are human. We know we promise that we will strive for kingdom behavior and we know we will sometimes fail.  After all our baptismal covenant says that "when" we sin we will return.  When - not if.  Christians know we are not perfect. But we as Christians also rejoice when the sons and daughters of God who have been outside, who have led life saying "no" turn and join the other workers in the field. We, the church, exist for those who do not yet belong. We exist so that the vineyard is there ready for the latecomer and for the newcomer.

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  Author Saul Bellow wrote about a rabbi who lived in a small Jewish town in Russia. The rabbi had a secret. Every Friday morning the rabbi disappeared for several hours. The people of his congregation liked to tell people that during his absence from them their rabbi went up to heaven and talked to God. 

When a stranger moved into town and heard this explanation for the rabbi’s weekly departure, he was not convinced. So he decided to find out what was really going on. The next Friday morning, he hid by the rabbi’s house, waiting and watching. As usual, the rabbi got up and said his prayers. But unlike other mornings of the week, he then dressed in peasant clothes. He grabbed an ax and wandered off into the woods to cut some firewood. With the man watching from afar, the rabbi then hauled the wood to a shack on the outskirts of the village where an old woman and her sick son lived. He left them the wood, enough for a week, and then went quietly back home.

  After seeing what the rabbi did, the stranger decided to stay in the village and join the congregation. From then on, whenever he heard one of the villagers say, “On Friday morning our rabbi ascends all the way to heaven,” the newcomer quietly added, “If not higher.”

Philippians -

 

Wheat and weeds growing together.

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In our first lesson today, Jacob is on the way from Beer-Sheba to Haran to find a wife.  In the midst of this journey, he lays down to sleep and has a dream.  In this dream the Lord renews His Covenant with Jacob.  The promise had been given to his grandfather, Abraham, and to his father, Isaac during their lifetimes, but here God renews that covenant with Jacob.

One of the things that we learn from this is that inclusion in God’s kingdom is not automatic.  Just because your parents or grandparents were faithful believers doesn’t mean you get an automatic pass into heaven.  Each person has to affirm or renew his or her own covenant with God.

And if you believe in him, look at what God promises, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land…”  That is God’s promise – we never have to be alone… he will be with us – regardless of where we go – or what we do.  

Our second lesson tells us “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God…”  We are revealed as we accept the covenant of God’s promise in our own lives.

So we come to the gospel and find a parable – not unlike last week’s parable.  Like last week this parable is about the planting of seeds.  And once again Jesus has to explain the parable to his disciples.  As much as some people want to tell us that these are stories that the normal person could understand, that’s just not true.  If it were, Jesus wouldn’t have to keep explaining the parables.  Parables are about the Kingdom of Heaven and how it differs from the world around us.  Jesus has to explain the parables was because they didn’t make sense from the world view.  If you’ve ever raised a garden of vegetables, you know that one of the things you do is to get out there and weed – get rid of the crab grass and other undesirables that choke out the growing seeds.  And that’s exactly what the servants thought also – get out and pull those weeds – but the master says “no.”  And the wheat and tares grow up together.  So what does this mean?   The parable actually operates at three different levels.

First, we look at the wheat and the tares in the world around us and say, “Oh, I understand – this describes the world as it really is today -- there is really some bad stuff going on out there in the world today – but God’s going to allow it to exist and cleanse it at the end.”  Now I know that there are times when we want to say – “to heck with freewill – God take care of those crazy people – make them do right…”  But God is so much more gracious and loving and patient than we are.  We are all allowed to grow side by side and – unlike the rotten apple in the barrel, -- the good can influence the not so good and there is hope for all people.  We are all given every opportunity to come to God.

Second, we find this might even come closer to home.  Let’s narrow our world view and look around the church today.  There are those people who act honorably in serving God and in trying to be productive Christians.  Then there are those who you wonder why they are there – and some people want to judge them…

But who is it, do you suppose, who desperately needs to hear the Word of God – is it those who have a firm belief and are committed to Jesus – or is  it those who are searching for meaning in their life;  those who are lost and looking for a way out of their pain, or their grief, or their confusion.  In Matthew 9, Jesus tells us, “But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  The church is not a hotel (or club) for saints – we are not all perfect.  

The church is intended as a hospital or rehab for sinners.  Jesus does not turn people away regardless of who they are or what they are doing with their life.  He allows them to grow side by side without judgment.  Judgment belongs to him alone, and that doesn’t come until the end of the age – until death.  We don’t know enough, and we can’t see into the heart of anyone other than ourselves in order to pass judgment.

The problem is that when we are divided against each other, we always see ourselves as the wheat and the others as the tares.  Whether its Jews or Christians against Muslims, or the Catholics against the Protestants, or the conservatives against the liberals in today’s church.  We always see ourselves as the wheat.  But Jesus does NOT tell us to go root out the evil among us – he says let them grow together – let the tares grow along side of the wheat -- and at the end of the age, the angels will sort it out.  That’s not our job.

Actually, we do each have to stand before our God at the end and account for ourselves – our actions as well as our beliefs.  And this is the third way we can look at this parable.   We come even closer to home when we consider this lesson – and look at what is inside each of us.  

Whether you want to admit it or not, there is both good and evil inside each of us.  Not everything we do comes from God.  Many of us react poorly in certain circumstances – or sometimes we can’t get past various hurts – or preconceived notions – to be as gracious as we should be at all times.  And even within us, God allows the good and the bad to grow together – not willing to condemn our whole person because of a few flaws – and that (people of God) is grace – amazing grace – that we are allowed to grow and mature in God’s love and in our interaction with the world around us.  We are allowed to come to our own understanding of who God is and what that means to each of us.  We are allowed to grow and change – we are given every opportunity – we are not judged until we have completed this life.

There is a children’s song that talks about this:  

“God’s still workin’ on me,  To make me what I oughta be.  

It took him just a week to make the moon and stars, 

The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars

How loving and patient he must be,  

‘cause he’s still workin’ on me.

It may be a children’s song, but it’s true of all of us at any and every point in our lives.  God is still working on us.  And he allows each and every one of us to grow and his promise is that he will be with us – through thick and thin – through good and bad – uphill and down -- he will not withhold his presence from us.  Even when we are not walking with God, he is still walking with us – for better or worse – for richer or poorer – in sickness and in health – God will never leave us.  

Finding Our Own Path

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A number of years ago a science fiction movie came out called "2001," based on a novel of the same name by Arthur Clarke.  In this movie there is a computer whose name is Hal.  Hal talks and reasons and eventually decided to take over from his human operator.  Even before that book, Robert Heinlein wrote a novel called “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”  In this novel a super computer was put together to connect all the colonies of the moon.

Parts and links had been added until the computer finally grew intricate enough to become self aware – and it developed a sense of humor.  As a joke it printed a check to pay a worker his normal salary plus 10 million dollars.  This meant the technician (Manny) had to come fix the computer.  Fixing the computer in this case meant sitting down and talking to it - reasoning with it.  Max, the computer, was trying to learn what made a joke funny and the difference between when a joke was funny always and when it would only be funny once.

You see, I’m still convinced that Jesus is telling jokes – you know, two cowboys walked into a bar,.. Two people died and went to heaven…  Two men went into the temple to pray…. And every time, he attacks the current value system with his punch line.  What makes a joke funny?  It’s turning the table upside down.  It's the unexpected that makes a joke funny.  I also am convinced that we don't really know what's going on until we understand something about the culture during the time of Jesus.  So, with that in mind – let’s look at this joke – sorry - parable.

Two men went to the temple to pray – a Pharisee and a tax collector.  Unfortunately, we have been preconditioned to see the Pharisee as the evil person and the tax collector as the good person.  But that is not the way a Jew in Jesus' time would have understood this.

We have to understand – both men are Jews – only Jews were allowed inside the temple.  The Pharisee and the tax collector are about as far apart on the social ladder as you can get in the Jewish world.

The Pharisee is the leader who is looked up to – the perfect example of what it means to revere and follow their God whom they call Adonai.  They are the teachers of religion and the law.  They spend their whole life studying the scriptures and discussing the things of God.  They pray, they tithe, they fast – and they did this so as to cover the sins of the ordinary people - so that the Jewish people (as a whole) would be found acceptable before their God.  The Pharisees, along with the priests and Sadducees were the ones who stood in the gap to mediate between God and man – they were the heroes of the faith.

The tax collector on the other hand is seen as a traitor – the lowest of the low.  The tax collector had to be rich enough to buy his position.  They have consorted with the occupying forces and have gone over to the enemy.  They collect the taxes from their own people for the Romans, and most of them collected more than is owed to the governors.  If they could collect more, they got to keep the difference.  Some of them got even richer that way, and they were all despised by their fellow Jews.

So the listening crowd would be thinking “yea Pharisees!” - “boo tax collectors!”  And the Pharisee stands up and prays a typical formula prayer.  “God, I thank you that I am not like other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”  Yep, he’s saying, “Hey God, look at me - I’m better than all these low-lifes."

Then he recites a list of all the things that he does – he fasts twice a week – that’s more often than is required by the law or tradition.  He gives a tithe of all his income, not just the required portions. In other words, he goes the extra mile – he does more than he is required to do.  This is no more than is expected by the people hearing the story, but he is also boastful, prideful and to make sure God understands, he compares himself to someone he considers less worthy.

Then we see the tax collector – he doesn’t even approach God closely…  He stands apart – far off – and he doesn’t really know how to pray.  He doesn’t dare to lift his eyes to heaven, but beats his breast as he prays.  This prayer is a simple plea for God to have mercy on him – and Jesus says, “and he went home justified rather than the other.”  This was a man who knew his sin, and who was humble before God.

How much of this is human nature – this need to compare ourselves to others?  People do it all the time.  It seems to bear out of our need to have something visible to measure ourselves against – so that we can know how well we are doing.  This is something that we learn early because it’s fostered by our school system.

There is a particular mark that is considered good enough – and if you don’t attain that mark, then you have to repeat that grade until you do.

The minute we attach grades to our learning process and reward those who make better grades, we foster a competitive nature in children.  When we evaluate schools and grade the school according to how well their students do on standardized tests, then we foster competition between institutions – just as if it were a football game.

I have a friend, call her June, who has come to me for counsel from time to time. She was estranged from her spouse and they were rather at odds with each other about any number of things.  She did not respect him because his behavior did not inspire respect.  She would say things like, ‘well, at least I don’t do so-in-so like Jim does.’ and various other statements along the same vein.  My question to her was why are you comparing yourself to someone you don’t respect?

That’s exactly what the Pharisee was doing.  Do people do that (compare themselves to others) because they are insecure and it is the only way they can feel good about themselves?  Most often it doesn’t work – it gives a false sense or illusion about who and what we are.  It is born out of pride – and from any angle – positive or negative - pride is destructive.

One preacher said don’t go out of here glad you aren’t like the Pharisee, because if you do, you’ve just become the Pharisee.  And don’t go out glad you are like the tax collector – same problem, you’ve just compared yourself to someone else – and that is borne out of pride - a desire to be better than someone else.

Each and every one of us has a path to follow – one designed by God.  And each path is as individual as we are – no two are alike.  Our path is tailored for us by God.  We can choose to walk in our own path, or we can try other paths - but other paths will never fit as well.

When I started my journey with the Lord, I had no idea where he would take me.  But I walked out in faith and I told God that I would step through any door he opened.  The flip side of that is – if the door doesn’t open, I can’t force it, and I can't regret it; it is not intended for me.  I am simply called to move on to find the door God does want me to take.  No comparisons – just walking out in faith, to do the job He wants me to do and to be the person He wants me to be.

I would encourage each of you to take a look at the path that God has placed before you and without regret or gloating to fulfill that responsibility.  And without comparing yourself to others, past, present or future, just step out in faith, to be the best person you can be.  That is all God asks of any of us.  Where is God leading you today?

Pray with me:  Lord, increase my faith.  Open my eyes to see the road before me and to walk the path you have chosen for me.  Keep me mindful that I am unique in your eyes and you have created me for your delight.  Remind me that I never have to live up to someone else's idea of who I should be, and I do not have to comparing myself to anyone else.  You alone, Lord, know what it is that you have planned - help me to walk into that your plan for my life.

Amen.