Right now, our fall emphasis on financial stewardship is going on. It got me to thinking about this article from 1999, which I first read a few years ago. It looks at the promise of God's abundance that runs all through the Bible vs. our natural inclination to worry about not having enough. It's long-ish, but such a powerful witness to the great goodness God offers to us everyday. We don't need to fear that we will not have enough, even in these times of economic roller-coasters. It is a call to share what we have, in trust, in faith; to put aside our slavery to money and all it represents, a slavery we enter into out of our fear.
If you have a chance, please go read it. It may change the way you think of money, possessions, stewardship. Just click on the title above to go straight to the article!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Reformation Sunday - October 26, 2008
In honor of the Reformation, a brief clip from Luther (2003): Luther preaching in Wittenburg quite a while before he posts the 95 Theses, unintentionally starting the whole thing off with a bang... this clip is a good summary of Luther's move from believing in a God of condemnation to a God of love
And now the sermon...
The Son Sets Us Free
John 8:31-36
Reformation Sunday – October 26, 2008
“Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.”
We've all heard it, most of us have probably said it – but somebody shoulda told the people Jesus was speaking to in the gospel today. From their history and world geography lessons, these Jews who believed in Jesus would've known about the Nile River, but they were blind to the fact that they were living in denial.
Because when Jesus is talking to them and says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” they come right back at him. “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?”
His listeners were in denial. Political denial, for 1 thing, for they certainly had been slaves – for generations in Egypt, and then during the exile to Babylon, and even now, as this conversation is going on, Roman forces occupy and rule their land; they cannot rule themselves. But more than that, they were in spiritual denial too, blind to the fact that they are enslaved to sin. They couldn't see the truth right in front of them, that they were captives to their sinful selves, the part of them that turns away from God, the part that declares independence from the one who gave them life.
No, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. And somebody oughta tell us - because we live in a state of denial too. If someone were to come along and tell you that you are a slave, what would your reaction be? My guess is that we would deny it right away. Perhaps we would say with the people in this story, “We have never been slaves to anyone!” We live in America, the land of the free. Liberty is one of our unalienable rights. Freedom is our birthright.
But despite all our talk about freedom in this great land of ours, I ask you today, when was the last time that you felt really and truly free? Really, take a minute and think about when you last felt free.
Can you answer that question quickly, or do you need even more time to think, to comb through recent & distant memory to find an example of freedom? We are all walking around enslaved to something, but the fact is, we are so used to it, it is so much a part of “normal” for us that we don't even recognize we are living in slavery until we stop to think about those times when we have felt free – and we suddenly realize that most of the time we don't. Every week in church, we confess our sin to God – we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves, but do any of us ever stop to think about what that means? Do we stop to consider what is holding us captive? Original sin, yes – the self-centeredness that makes us think we are God, that we are should be in control, but our specific sins too – our greed, our idolatries, our fears, our busy-ness that has spun out of control?
Martin Luther it seems, did not live in denial. He knew he was enslaved. He was captured by his fear of God, a God who he believed was angry and filled with wrath, ready to punish even the most minor sin, a God who needed to be appeased by human acts before God could or would forgive. Luther was a slave to his attempts to get right with God on his own, and to his knowledge that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to do enough or be repentant enough to earn God's forgiveness. Luther knew he was trapped, and he longed to be set free, wrestling for years trying to find a way out.
But finally, Luther rediscovered the truth of the gospel, a truth that had been muted for so many years - the truth that God's love and forgiveness cannot be earned, but come to us as a gift by grace through faith in Jesus! Even as Luther wrestled with the voices of his own fear and guilt, he was encouraged by his spiritual mentor to continue in Christ's word – to study the New Testament, to pray, to seek the face of Christ, the one who had lived and died for him. And there in the words of the gospels, in the witness of Paul's writings, like those we heard today from his letter to the church in Rome, the truth was revealed to Luther, and Christ is truth. As he studied the words written in the Bible, Luther came face to face with the Word, with a capital “W” - Christ himself. The beginning of the gospel of John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and lived among us...” (John 1:1, 14). And from this very personal Word, Luther learned the truth that even though he was a sinner, God loved him anyway, loved him with a love so deep and so strong that God sent the Son to set him free.
It was a truth so powerful that it changed the world. It sent Luther to pound his 95 Theses on the Wittenburg Door on October 31, 1517, when he saw the wrongs being done in the name of God and could no longer keep silent. It was the truth that compelled him to speak out, to dare to call for conversation and debate about the practice of selling indulgences, a practice that taught that God's love and forgiveness could be bought & sold, a practice that played on and profited from the fears of the people. It was the truth that sparked a revolution, as people were set free to search for God's truth in their own lives, to find God in the words of scripture translated into their own language, to learn to know God personally, as the God of love who longs to be in relationship with each of us.
This is the truth the Bible speaks to us today, the truth that will make us free. It is the truth that calls us to stop living in denial and face who we really are, to admit to God and to ourselves that we are sinners, and then reminds us that we accepted by God anyway, just as we are. It is the truth that assures us that we are justified – made right with God – not because of the things we do or the things we keep ourselves from doing, but because of God's grace, God's undeserved, unmerited love. It is the truth that the Son has come to set us free from our enslavement to sin – free from those things that keep us from God, free to be transformed by God's love into the people God created us to be.
God's word, both the words of scripture written down in the Bible, and Jesus, the Word incarnate, together invite us to step into freedom, to walk with Jesus in the way of discipleship. It calls us to live in the world as free people, no longer bound by fear or anger or regret, but people who live joyfully and boldly because we know we have been given a permanent place in the household. It encourages us to be courageous in confronting the wrongs we see in the world, speaking the truth to power, unafraid of the consequences. People of God, the Son has set us free – let us live in that freedom and share the Good News, so that all may be made free!
Amen.
And now the sermon...
The Son Sets Us Free
John 8:31-36
Reformation Sunday – October 26, 2008
“Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.”
We've all heard it, most of us have probably said it – but somebody shoulda told the people Jesus was speaking to in the gospel today. From their history and world geography lessons, these Jews who believed in Jesus would've known about the Nile River, but they were blind to the fact that they were living in denial.
Because when Jesus is talking to them and says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free,” they come right back at him. “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?”
His listeners were in denial. Political denial, for 1 thing, for they certainly had been slaves – for generations in Egypt, and then during the exile to Babylon, and even now, as this conversation is going on, Roman forces occupy and rule their land; they cannot rule themselves. But more than that, they were in spiritual denial too, blind to the fact that they are enslaved to sin. They couldn't see the truth right in front of them, that they were captives to their sinful selves, the part of them that turns away from God, the part that declares independence from the one who gave them life.
No, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. And somebody oughta tell us - because we live in a state of denial too. If someone were to come along and tell you that you are a slave, what would your reaction be? My guess is that we would deny it right away. Perhaps we would say with the people in this story, “We have never been slaves to anyone!” We live in America, the land of the free. Liberty is one of our unalienable rights. Freedom is our birthright.
But despite all our talk about freedom in this great land of ours, I ask you today, when was the last time that you felt really and truly free? Really, take a minute and think about when you last felt free.
Can you answer that question quickly, or do you need even more time to think, to comb through recent & distant memory to find an example of freedom? We are all walking around enslaved to something, but the fact is, we are so used to it, it is so much a part of “normal” for us that we don't even recognize we are living in slavery until we stop to think about those times when we have felt free – and we suddenly realize that most of the time we don't. Every week in church, we confess our sin to God – we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves, but do any of us ever stop to think about what that means? Do we stop to consider what is holding us captive? Original sin, yes – the self-centeredness that makes us think we are God, that we are should be in control, but our specific sins too – our greed, our idolatries, our fears, our busy-ness that has spun out of control?
Martin Luther it seems, did not live in denial. He knew he was enslaved. He was captured by his fear of God, a God who he believed was angry and filled with wrath, ready to punish even the most minor sin, a God who needed to be appeased by human acts before God could or would forgive. Luther was a slave to his attempts to get right with God on his own, and to his knowledge that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to do enough or be repentant enough to earn God's forgiveness. Luther knew he was trapped, and he longed to be set free, wrestling for years trying to find a way out.
But finally, Luther rediscovered the truth of the gospel, a truth that had been muted for so many years - the truth that God's love and forgiveness cannot be earned, but come to us as a gift by grace through faith in Jesus! Even as Luther wrestled with the voices of his own fear and guilt, he was encouraged by his spiritual mentor to continue in Christ's word – to study the New Testament, to pray, to seek the face of Christ, the one who had lived and died for him. And there in the words of the gospels, in the witness of Paul's writings, like those we heard today from his letter to the church in Rome, the truth was revealed to Luther, and Christ is truth. As he studied the words written in the Bible, Luther came face to face with the Word, with a capital “W” - Christ himself. The beginning of the gospel of John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and lived among us...” (John 1:1, 14). And from this very personal Word, Luther learned the truth that even though he was a sinner, God loved him anyway, loved him with a love so deep and so strong that God sent the Son to set him free.
It was a truth so powerful that it changed the world. It sent Luther to pound his 95 Theses on the Wittenburg Door on October 31, 1517, when he saw the wrongs being done in the name of God and could no longer keep silent. It was the truth that compelled him to speak out, to dare to call for conversation and debate about the practice of selling indulgences, a practice that taught that God's love and forgiveness could be bought & sold, a practice that played on and profited from the fears of the people. It was the truth that sparked a revolution, as people were set free to search for God's truth in their own lives, to find God in the words of scripture translated into their own language, to learn to know God personally, as the God of love who longs to be in relationship with each of us.
This is the truth the Bible speaks to us today, the truth that will make us free. It is the truth that calls us to stop living in denial and face who we really are, to admit to God and to ourselves that we are sinners, and then reminds us that we accepted by God anyway, just as we are. It is the truth that assures us that we are justified – made right with God – not because of the things we do or the things we keep ourselves from doing, but because of God's grace, God's undeserved, unmerited love. It is the truth that the Son has come to set us free from our enslavement to sin – free from those things that keep us from God, free to be transformed by God's love into the people God created us to be.
God's word, both the words of scripture written down in the Bible, and Jesus, the Word incarnate, together invite us to step into freedom, to walk with Jesus in the way of discipleship. It calls us to live in the world as free people, no longer bound by fear or anger or regret, but people who live joyfully and boldly because we know we have been given a permanent place in the household. It encourages us to be courageous in confronting the wrongs we see in the world, speaking the truth to power, unafraid of the consequences. People of God, the Son has set us free – let us live in that freedom and share the Good News, so that all may be made free!
Amen.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
October 19, 2008 Mary Poppins meets the gospel?
If you've never seen Mary Poppins, or if it's been awhile, you may want to watch this clip. Of course, you can also just skip it!
Even the Future Belongs to God
Matthew 22:15-22
Pentecost + 23 – October 19, 2008
With all that's been going on in our world lately, with the stock markets doing the limbo – you know, “how low can you go?” - and the credit crunch and banks failing or threatening to fail, I keep thinking of a line from the movie Mary Poppins.And no, it's not SUPERCALIFRAGOLICIOUSEXPIALIDOCIOUS. Mary Poppins has basically tricked the father into taking Michael & Jane to the bank, his job, with him. Dear old Dad has given Michael a coin, which he wants to use to buy bread crumbs to feed to birds. But this won't do, it won't do at all. And so all of the uptight officers of the bank break into song to try & convince Michael to invest his money, to save it at the bank. And the president of the bank, an old curmudgeon of a man declares, “When stand the banks of England, England stands! When fall the banks of England, England falls!”
Certainly describes how many of us are feeling, doesn't it? But as I thought about the gospel for this morning, it dawned on me that it has more in common with this movie than I ever would have thought. Because in the movie, Mary Poppins has come floating into the lives of the Banks family with her trusty umbrella (& yes, that's really their last name). She's come to be the nanny to their children, but in her wake, Mary Poppins brings great change. Just the way she is in the world, the way she treats people and notices things others didn't brings great upheaval into this family's life together. She is not caught up in the frantic pace of their lives. She's not interested in achieving more, getting more, being more successful - she has a different perspective. She has great influence over Jane & Michael, filling them with joy & laughter, teaching them to look beneath the surface, to care for those who are less fortunate than they are. This causes such disruption in the household that the father nearly loses it! And this disruption overflows into the wider world when they are at the bank, when Michael's generosity, his desire to share his coin with the Bird Lady outside, inadvertently causes a run on the bank, gripping the bank's leaders with fear and desperation.
It reminds me of the scene we have in Matthew's gospel today, for Jesus too, has come, uninvited into the world of the Pharisees and priests and elders of the people. He comes bringing a different way of looking at the world, a different way of being. He is not part of the system, not part of business as usual. He has come and he has changed everything. He's turned over the tables of the money changers at the temple the same day as this story, and he's been telling parable after parable that pretty much say that that business as usual is about to cease. The people in charge, the people who have been in control aren't going to be in control much longer. And they have had it! Enough with this Jesus already. So they make plans to entrap him, to trip him up with his own words. The Pharisees send their disciples, their students, to Jesus, along with some Herodians – people who sided with Herod, in effect supporting the occupation of Jerusalem & Judea by the Romans, people who the Pharisees had very little in common with. And after they butter him up, they ask him, “What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” It's a trick question, like asking someone if he's stopped beating his wife yet. There's no good answer; whatever you say can & will be used against you.
But Jesus is more clever than his questioners are. Presented with options A & B, he comes up with option C. Asking them to show him the coin used to pay the tax, a coin inscribed with Caesar's image and title, Jesus leaves them with a simple sounding answer: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are God's.” it sounds simple, but it's easier said than done.
Not because it's so hard to give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor. When it comes to that, we don't have much of a choice. We may not like paying our taxes, and we may disagree about how they should be used, but we can't easily avoid paying them.
Giving to God on the other hand is a much bigger struggle. God doesn't send us a tax bill, God doesn't send us a monthly statement stamped with how much we owe. Especially as we face the economic circumstances that surround us, as we wonder what will happen, we naturally start getting protective of what belongs to us. When we don't know how we're gonna pay the bills, if our job is going to be there when we go back to work on Monday, if our house ownership or ability to pay the rent is in question, it is the normal human response to hold tightly to what we have. It becomes harder and harder to consider giving any of it away. Even when we know in our heads that everything we have comes to us as a gift from God, that none of it belongs to us but is just on loan from God, that everything is God's from the beginning (you've heard me say that a time or two, right?), even when we believe that God will take care of us, it's a much harder thing to put that into practice. Believing something to be true and acting in a way that shows we believe it are 2 very different things. We struggle with trying to give even a portion back to God, whether it's through giving to the church or giving to a charity or directly to people who are in need, because we don't know what the future holds for us.
But even though we don't know what the future holds, we do know who holds the future. No matter what our circumstances are, we know that God holds the future. We know that God walks with us in whatever situation we are facing, helping us through each day. The God we follow is faithful. The God we follow is trustworthy! We sing with the Psalmist who says, “you, O LORD have made the heavens... The LORD is king! The one who made the world so firm that it cannot be moved...” We hear from Isaiah the words God spoke to Cyrus, “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” We celebrate with Isaiah that God used the events of history to bring God's chosen people back from exile, that God did not leave them in Babylon forever, abandoning them to their situation. We rejoice with Paul that the God we serve is “a living and true God” who raised Jesus from the dead! And we give thanks for this, not just because it means that we can look forward to life after death, but because it proves that there is no situation in this life so dark, so fearful, so final that God cannot intervene to save us! Even as we wonder what the future holds, we remember God holds the future, for the future is one of those things that belongs to God.
In Mary Poppins, despite the persuasiveness of all of the elders of the bank, little Michael refuses to be swayed by their greed and their fear. He longs to give his one coin away to the Bird Lady, to have the joy of giving and the joy of feeding the birds. And as I said, panic ensues. People hear him crying out “I want my money! Give me back my money!”, and it causes a run on the bank. Mr. Banks loses his job at the bank and all seems lost. And yet, at the end of the movie, we see that everyone has been transformed. Faced with financial turmoil, they are forced to rethink what really matters. They rediscover the importance of their families, the joy of the simple pleasures of life. They are set free from their captivity to money and all it represents.
Now real life is not a Disney movie, and I know that the financial struggles of our world are very real and impact us in very real ways. But I say to you this morning: trust God anyway! The future still belongs to God, and God calls each of us today to gave over our fears for the future, to hand them back to God, trusting that God can and will take care of us. And in this story God is inviting us, challenging us to live into that faith, to loosen that grip we have on our things and our money (and the grip it has on us!), to give a portion of what God has so generously given us back to God's work in the world. Not just so God's work can be done with the those in need around us, but so we can be set free from the fears that bind us, that hold us in chains. Give to God the things that belong to God, and be set free! Amen.
Even the Future Belongs to God
Matthew 22:15-22
Pentecost + 23 – October 19, 2008
With all that's been going on in our world lately, with the stock markets doing the limbo – you know, “how low can you go?” - and the credit crunch and banks failing or threatening to fail, I keep thinking of a line from the movie Mary Poppins.And no, it's not SUPERCALIFRAGOLICIOUSEXPIALIDOCIOUS. Mary Poppins has basically tricked the father into taking Michael & Jane to the bank, his job, with him. Dear old Dad has given Michael a coin, which he wants to use to buy bread crumbs to feed to birds. But this won't do, it won't do at all. And so all of the uptight officers of the bank break into song to try & convince Michael to invest his money, to save it at the bank. And the president of the bank, an old curmudgeon of a man declares, “When stand the banks of England, England stands! When fall the banks of England, England falls!”
Certainly describes how many of us are feeling, doesn't it? But as I thought about the gospel for this morning, it dawned on me that it has more in common with this movie than I ever would have thought. Because in the movie, Mary Poppins has come floating into the lives of the Banks family with her trusty umbrella (& yes, that's really their last name). She's come to be the nanny to their children, but in her wake, Mary Poppins brings great change. Just the way she is in the world, the way she treats people and notices things others didn't brings great upheaval into this family's life together. She is not caught up in the frantic pace of their lives. She's not interested in achieving more, getting more, being more successful - she has a different perspective. She has great influence over Jane & Michael, filling them with joy & laughter, teaching them to look beneath the surface, to care for those who are less fortunate than they are. This causes such disruption in the household that the father nearly loses it! And this disruption overflows into the wider world when they are at the bank, when Michael's generosity, his desire to share his coin with the Bird Lady outside, inadvertently causes a run on the bank, gripping the bank's leaders with fear and desperation.
It reminds me of the scene we have in Matthew's gospel today, for Jesus too, has come, uninvited into the world of the Pharisees and priests and elders of the people. He comes bringing a different way of looking at the world, a different way of being. He is not part of the system, not part of business as usual. He has come and he has changed everything. He's turned over the tables of the money changers at the temple the same day as this story, and he's been telling parable after parable that pretty much say that that business as usual is about to cease. The people in charge, the people who have been in control aren't going to be in control much longer. And they have had it! Enough with this Jesus already. So they make plans to entrap him, to trip him up with his own words. The Pharisees send their disciples, their students, to Jesus, along with some Herodians – people who sided with Herod, in effect supporting the occupation of Jerusalem & Judea by the Romans, people who the Pharisees had very little in common with. And after they butter him up, they ask him, “What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” It's a trick question, like asking someone if he's stopped beating his wife yet. There's no good answer; whatever you say can & will be used against you.
But Jesus is more clever than his questioners are. Presented with options A & B, he comes up with option C. Asking them to show him the coin used to pay the tax, a coin inscribed with Caesar's image and title, Jesus leaves them with a simple sounding answer: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are God's.” it sounds simple, but it's easier said than done.
Not because it's so hard to give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor. When it comes to that, we don't have much of a choice. We may not like paying our taxes, and we may disagree about how they should be used, but we can't easily avoid paying them.
Giving to God on the other hand is a much bigger struggle. God doesn't send us a tax bill, God doesn't send us a monthly statement stamped with how much we owe. Especially as we face the economic circumstances that surround us, as we wonder what will happen, we naturally start getting protective of what belongs to us. When we don't know how we're gonna pay the bills, if our job is going to be there when we go back to work on Monday, if our house ownership or ability to pay the rent is in question, it is the normal human response to hold tightly to what we have. It becomes harder and harder to consider giving any of it away. Even when we know in our heads that everything we have comes to us as a gift from God, that none of it belongs to us but is just on loan from God, that everything is God's from the beginning (you've heard me say that a time or two, right?), even when we believe that God will take care of us, it's a much harder thing to put that into practice. Believing something to be true and acting in a way that shows we believe it are 2 very different things. We struggle with trying to give even a portion back to God, whether it's through giving to the church or giving to a charity or directly to people who are in need, because we don't know what the future holds for us.
But even though we don't know what the future holds, we do know who holds the future. No matter what our circumstances are, we know that God holds the future. We know that God walks with us in whatever situation we are facing, helping us through each day. The God we follow is faithful. The God we follow is trustworthy! We sing with the Psalmist who says, “you, O LORD have made the heavens... The LORD is king! The one who made the world so firm that it cannot be moved...” We hear from Isaiah the words God spoke to Cyrus, “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” We celebrate with Isaiah that God used the events of history to bring God's chosen people back from exile, that God did not leave them in Babylon forever, abandoning them to their situation. We rejoice with Paul that the God we serve is “a living and true God” who raised Jesus from the dead! And we give thanks for this, not just because it means that we can look forward to life after death, but because it proves that there is no situation in this life so dark, so fearful, so final that God cannot intervene to save us! Even as we wonder what the future holds, we remember God holds the future, for the future is one of those things that belongs to God.
In Mary Poppins, despite the persuasiveness of all of the elders of the bank, little Michael refuses to be swayed by their greed and their fear. He longs to give his one coin away to the Bird Lady, to have the joy of giving and the joy of feeding the birds. And as I said, panic ensues. People hear him crying out “I want my money! Give me back my money!”, and it causes a run on the bank. Mr. Banks loses his job at the bank and all seems lost. And yet, at the end of the movie, we see that everyone has been transformed. Faced with financial turmoil, they are forced to rethink what really matters. They rediscover the importance of their families, the joy of the simple pleasures of life. They are set free from their captivity to money and all it represents.
Now real life is not a Disney movie, and I know that the financial struggles of our world are very real and impact us in very real ways. But I say to you this morning: trust God anyway! The future still belongs to God, and God calls each of us today to gave over our fears for the future, to hand them back to God, trusting that God can and will take care of us. And in this story God is inviting us, challenging us to live into that faith, to loosen that grip we have on our things and our money (and the grip it has on us!), to give a portion of what God has so generously given us back to God's work in the world. Not just so God's work can be done with the those in need around us, but so we can be set free from the fears that bind us, that hold us in chains. Give to God the things that belong to God, and be set free! Amen.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wednesday, October 15 - Teresa of Avila
As the heading indicates, this sermon was prepared for and preached to the SW Nassau Conference of Lutheran pastors here at St. John's. Once a month we gather at one of our churches to worship together, check in with each other, and conduct the "business" of our conference - sharing information, learning from each other, and supporting each other. It is a blessing to be with them. And to hear them sing today (a capella - that means w/ out instruments!) was beautiful - breaking into harmony all over the place. God loves to hear us raise our voices in song! (and so do I!)
October 15 is the day the church commemorates Teresa of Avila, a teacher & renewer of the church. She was a Carmelite nun in the 1500s who sought to reform the Carmelite order. She wrote some books about prayer and connection with God, and co-founded (w/ St. John of the Cross) a new branch of the Carmelites. I did an internet search and found out some interesting things about her life, her faith, and her ministry. Happy reading, if you've gotten this far!
The Lord of hosts is with us!
Psalm 46
Commemoration of Teresa of Avila
SW Nassau Conference Worship
October 15, 2008
When I was in college, my roommate & I had one of those “How Are You Feeling Today?” posters. It had several cartoon faces on it, each depicting a different emotion, from the normal happy and sad to more intense emotions like enraged, ecstatic, hysterical. And I was wondering this morning, how are you feeling? If you had the poster in front of you, which one would you pick?
I suspect that if you have been watching the news or reading the paper at all lately, you might use feeling words like concerned, confused, overwhelmed, or maybe anxious, worried, frightened. For as the Psalmist says, the nations rage, and the kingdoms shake. I like how the NRSV puts it; it's what drew me to preach on this text: The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. And surely that is true for us, within our country and around the world. The nations are in an uproar. We fear that our kingdom may totter and fall. We can't escape the constant stream of news about the economic turmoil that is gripping the world. Banks failing, mortgage foreclosures, bailouts, the credit crunch, the rise and fall of the stock market – the state of our financial situation is on everybody's mind, and it's certainly been a prime topic of conversation whenever people gather. Is it gonna get worse before it gets better? How is this gonna affect me? How will it affect my church? Are we headed to The Great Depression 2.0, as Time magazine called it?
Now the elections are looming, and the political scene is reaching a frenzied pace. With the wars we have been engaged in for years seeming like they may never come to an end and fears about the economy, we worry about our potential leaders, fearful that more disaster will follow if we vote the wrong one in, whoever you think that may be.
Add to all of this the stress of daily living, just getting through the daily routine, of caring for aging parents, of coping with loved ones who are sick, the highs & lows of ministry. It's no wonder to me if we feel anxious or overwhelmed or just downright frightened, because truly, the world is in an uproar.
Today we remember Teresa of Avila, a teacher and renewer of the church, and she too lived in a time of turmoil. The world around her was changing about as rapidly as ours is. Just a few decades before she was born, Columbus in 1492 sailed the ocean blue to the “new” world, which we remembered earlier this week. Just a few years after she was born, Luther went over to the Wittenburg Door and pounded those 95 Theses into the wall, and the Reformation and Counter-Reformation were off & running, turning over the religious systems of their day. Teresa lived in Spain during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, lucky her! And as she sought to reform the practices of the Carmelite order, to return to the life of poverty, simplicity, and contemplation they had vowed to undertake, trying to set up a new convent that would practice that way of life, Teresa faced opposition from her sisters and religious superiors, who put her name before the Inquisition, although the charges were eventually dropped. Teresa knew what it was to live in a time of upheaval.
And from the Psalm, we know that the Psalmist did too. We don't know the exact circumstances surrounding the writing of this song; scholars are divided on what category to even put it in! But clearly, the psalmist was acquainted with trouble. Natural and political disasters seem near at hand – the earth may move, the mountains shake, the waters rage and foam. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. The people of Israel were living in unsure & uncertain times, just as we do today.
And yet, the theme that runs under and through this whole psalm is one of trust, trust in God. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear...” We will not fear, though the earth changes, though the mountains shake, though the waters rage & foam. We will not fear, though the world around us is in turmoil, though the kingdoms shake. Why? Because “the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” The Psalm sings not of a God who is far off, who watches from on high while the world is crumbling around the people, but of a God who is here, present, who longs to help. This is the God who has the power to speak and make the earth melt away. This is the God “who makes wars to cease in all the world, who breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.” This is the God who rules over heaven and earth, who stands firm even when the earth is shaking, even when the kingdoms are tottering.
And Teresa, despite all she went through in her life, wrote the words of the poem found on the front of the bulletin -
“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”
Let nothing frighten you – God alone is enough. Teresa echoes the call of the Psalmist today in verse 10: Be still and know that God is God. God is God, and we're not. And we don't have to be. Whatever is yet to come in the current political scene and financial crisis, whatever is happening in our churches, in our lives, whatever it is that may have us in an uproar lately, God is God. The same God who was with the Israelites in the midst of the trouble that surrounded them, the same God Teresa of Avila found to be enough in all of the circumstances of her life– this is the same God who promises to be with us today. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear, for our trust and our hope is not in money or financial institutions or political leaders. Our trust and our hope is in God, who is with us: The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Be still then this morning, if only for a little while. Be still – an emotion that wasn't on that feelings poster as I recall, and if it had been, we probably wouldn't point to it very often. We don't know how to be “still” very well. But today, be still. Hear God's voice and be renewed. Be still and know, remember that God is God, and God is with us. Amen.
October 15 is the day the church commemorates Teresa of Avila, a teacher & renewer of the church. She was a Carmelite nun in the 1500s who sought to reform the Carmelite order. She wrote some books about prayer and connection with God, and co-founded (w/ St. John of the Cross) a new branch of the Carmelites. I did an internet search and found out some interesting things about her life, her faith, and her ministry. Happy reading, if you've gotten this far!The Lord of hosts is with us!
Psalm 46
Commemoration of Teresa of Avila
SW Nassau Conference Worship
October 15, 2008
When I was in college, my roommate & I had one of those “How Are You Feeling Today?” posters. It had several cartoon faces on it, each depicting a different emotion, from the normal happy and sad to more intense emotions like enraged, ecstatic, hysterical. And I was wondering this morning, how are you feeling? If you had the poster in front of you, which one would you pick?
I suspect that if you have been watching the news or reading the paper at all lately, you might use feeling words like concerned, confused, overwhelmed, or maybe anxious, worried, frightened. For as the Psalmist says, the nations rage, and the kingdoms shake. I like how the NRSV puts it; it's what drew me to preach on this text: The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. And surely that is true for us, within our country and around the world. The nations are in an uproar. We fear that our kingdom may totter and fall. We can't escape the constant stream of news about the economic turmoil that is gripping the world. Banks failing, mortgage foreclosures, bailouts, the credit crunch, the rise and fall of the stock market – the state of our financial situation is on everybody's mind, and it's certainly been a prime topic of conversation whenever people gather. Is it gonna get worse before it gets better? How is this gonna affect me? How will it affect my church? Are we headed to The Great Depression 2.0, as Time magazine called it?
Now the elections are looming, and the political scene is reaching a frenzied pace. With the wars we have been engaged in for years seeming like they may never come to an end and fears about the economy, we worry about our potential leaders, fearful that more disaster will follow if we vote the wrong one in, whoever you think that may be.
Add to all of this the stress of daily living, just getting through the daily routine, of caring for aging parents, of coping with loved ones who are sick, the highs & lows of ministry. It's no wonder to me if we feel anxious or overwhelmed or just downright frightened, because truly, the world is in an uproar.
Today we remember Teresa of Avila, a teacher and renewer of the church, and she too lived in a time of turmoil. The world around her was changing about as rapidly as ours is. Just a few decades before she was born, Columbus in 1492 sailed the ocean blue to the “new” world, which we remembered earlier this week. Just a few years after she was born, Luther went over to the Wittenburg Door and pounded those 95 Theses into the wall, and the Reformation and Counter-Reformation were off & running, turning over the religious systems of their day. Teresa lived in Spain during the time of the Spanish Inquisition, lucky her! And as she sought to reform the practices of the Carmelite order, to return to the life of poverty, simplicity, and contemplation they had vowed to undertake, trying to set up a new convent that would practice that way of life, Teresa faced opposition from her sisters and religious superiors, who put her name before the Inquisition, although the charges were eventually dropped. Teresa knew what it was to live in a time of upheaval.
And from the Psalm, we know that the Psalmist did too. We don't know the exact circumstances surrounding the writing of this song; scholars are divided on what category to even put it in! But clearly, the psalmist was acquainted with trouble. Natural and political disasters seem near at hand – the earth may move, the mountains shake, the waters rage and foam. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. The people of Israel were living in unsure & uncertain times, just as we do today.
And yet, the theme that runs under and through this whole psalm is one of trust, trust in God. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear...” We will not fear, though the earth changes, though the mountains shake, though the waters rage & foam. We will not fear, though the world around us is in turmoil, though the kingdoms shake. Why? Because “the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” The Psalm sings not of a God who is far off, who watches from on high while the world is crumbling around the people, but of a God who is here, present, who longs to help. This is the God who has the power to speak and make the earth melt away. This is the God “who makes wars to cease in all the world, who breaks the bow, and shatters the spear, and burns the shields with fire.” This is the God who rules over heaven and earth, who stands firm even when the earth is shaking, even when the kingdoms are tottering.
And Teresa, despite all she went through in her life, wrote the words of the poem found on the front of the bulletin -
“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”
Let nothing frighten you – God alone is enough. Teresa echoes the call of the Psalmist today in verse 10: Be still and know that God is God. God is God, and we're not. And we don't have to be. Whatever is yet to come in the current political scene and financial crisis, whatever is happening in our churches, in our lives, whatever it is that may have us in an uproar lately, God is God. The same God who was with the Israelites in the midst of the trouble that surrounded them, the same God Teresa of Avila found to be enough in all of the circumstances of her life– this is the same God who promises to be with us today. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear, for our trust and our hope is not in money or financial institutions or political leaders. Our trust and our hope is in God, who is with us: The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Be still then this morning, if only for a little while. Be still – an emotion that wasn't on that feelings poster as I recall, and if it had been, we probably wouldn't point to it very often. We don't know how to be “still” very well. But today, be still. Hear God's voice and be renewed. Be still and know, remember that God is God, and God is with us. Amen.
Monday, October 13, 2008
October 12, 2008
The King Invites Everyone!
Matthew 22:1-14
Pentecost + 22 – October 12, 2008
Have you ever had a party and nobody came? It happened to Andy & I once when we were living in Michigan. We wanted to have a 4th of July cookout for our out-of-town friends, but it turned out, no one could make the trip. It's a sad thing, isn't it, when you try to have a party and no one shows?
Jesus tells us a story today about a king who had a party but no guests. Now Andy & I knew enough in advance that no one could come for our party, so we just called the whole thing off. We hadn't put any time or money into buying hamburgers & hot dogs & veggie burgers. We hadn't made tons of potato salad or bought any drinks; Andy hadn't fired up the grill. So canceling the party was really no big deal. But the king...he was another story.Because the king had been planning this party for months! It was his son's wedding party, after all, the royal wedding reception. The wedding of a prince requires a big, lavish party. You know what kind of time & effort it can take to plan a wedding, not to mention money. Now think Prince Charles marries Princess Diana, think the grand wedding ball from any Disney princess movie. It was that kind of a big deal. The guest list had been pored over so just the right people would be invited. The invitations had been sent out, responses received. The menu was planned, the food bought, the castle cleaned and decorated. This was a massive undertaking, a party months in the making!
And now the day has arrived. The king's kitchen is filled to the rafters with the best food you can imagine! The best appetizers, the best wine, the best steaks – the whole full-course meal, from soup to nuts. And it's almost ready, so he sends out his servants to call in the invited guests, which seems weird to us, but that was the custom of the time.
But the guests wouldn't come! So the king, who really wants this party to be a wonderful celebration, sends out another set of slaves to tell the guests that dinner's ready, food like you wouldn't believe! Come to the banquet! “Celebrate good times, come on!” A classic party song, right? But the guests ignore the 2nd summons too – one going off to the farm, another to his business, and the rest of 'em – they do the unthinkable! They kill the messengers! This isn't just being rude – it's outright revolt. This is the king's party remember. Refusing to come was bad enough, but then killing his slaves? That's a slap in the face, a rejection of the king's authority.
No wonder the king sends the troops after them. It's what kings do when they've got rebellion brewing. But it makes this a hard parable, because we like to match all of the characters up & make them stand for someone else. And obviously the king equals God in this scenario, but the king's reaction makes us wonder what that says about God. But the king's behavior doesn't match what Jesus reveals to us about God. Even when Jesus was killed, God didn't come seeking revenge. So I think sometimes there are parts of parable that are just good story-telling & we can leave it at that.
Now, this story may have been directed at those religious leaders: the chief priests and elders and Pharisees we've been hearing about the past few weeks, but we can see ourselves in this story too, can't we? Because certainly there are times when we do not come to the banquet God has invited us to. Even though God promises it's gonna be the biggest and best party ever, we can still find excuses not to come. We're too busy with all of our conflicting commitments on Sunday morning, or maybe we haven't had a day off all week and just want to sleep in, take it easy. Maybe we're staging a little rebellion of our own against God, so we refuse to come when we're called. Then there are those times when we show up, but we don't come in our party clothes, like the man at the end of the parable, who didn't put on a wedding robe. We're there in body, but not in spirit, and so we refuse to dress the part. We come to a wedding dressed like we're going to a funeral! We're party-poopers, and it's not about out clothes. It's about our inner attitude. We come wearing disrespect instead of gratitude, pride instead of humility, resentment instead of joy! We're lucky we got invited to the party at all, but we act like we're doing the king a favor by being there!
The astonishing thing about this parable is that the king doesn't decide to call off the party when the original guests bail out. A party is no party without any guests, and the king is gonna have this party – and so he sends out his slaves a third time. But this time when they go out with the invitation to “Celebrate good times, come on!”, they're singing to all of the people on the street. He sends them to the place where the main roads empty out through the town gate & into the surrounding countryside. He tells them to invite everyone they find to the wedding banquet! Everyone! The homeless, the unemployed, the sick, the diseased! Everyone they find – whether they look like they're good enough to come to the king's party or not. The king is inviting everyone to come – good or bad, rich or poor, man or woman, toddler or senior citizen. Every single person they find gets an invitation to come to the best, most amazing party they have ever imagined. Once they get the invitation, they hurry home, clean up, put on their finest clothes, and race off to be a part of this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime event! And when they get there, it's beyond their wildest dreams! And so the wedding hall was filled with guests – cue the band and let the celebration begin!! What's really amazing is that God invites each of us to be a part of the best party ever. Good & bad, rich & poor, old & young – everyone is welcome to come to the wedding banquet. It's a feast like Isaiah describes – filled with rich food and well-aged wines, when death's power will be destroyed and God will wipe away every tear from all faces. Can you imagine?! And we have a standing invitation! Every week, as we gather at this communion table, we receive a foretaste of the feast that is to come – although the food will be a lot better than a little wafer and a sip of wine. This is the pre-party, & God calls us to be here with bells on to celebrate what God has done for us and for all people!
There was a comedian, the late Mitch Hedberg, who had this great bit about busy restaurants. You sit there and wait for your party to be called, and the host says, “Dufresne, party of 2, Dufresne party of 2.” And when no one comes up, the host moves on to the next group on the list: “Bush, party of 3, Bush party of 3.” But what's going on here? What happened to the Dufresnes? How can anybody eat at a time like this? People are missing! The party of 3 is now the Bush Search party of 3. You can eat when you've found the Dufresnes!
That's our call this morning, because we're not just the guests. We're the slaves from the parable too, and God is sending us out to invite more people to come to this banquet we share, because people are missing! The wedding hall isn't filled! There is still room for more people to join us at the party. God's party is too good to keep to ourselves. Go therefore and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet. What a party it'll be when everybody's finally here!
Amen.
Monday, October 6, 2008
October 5, 2008
Giving to God
Matthew 21:33-46
Pentecost + 21 – October 5, 2008
“Listen to another parable,” Jesus says. Once upon a time, there was a landowner. He took some of his land and planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it to protect it. He dug a wine press for when harvest time came, and he built a watchtower. Then he leased the land to tenants, and left the vineyard in their hands: to water and to weed, to prune and to protect, to help and to harvest. And those tenants by all accounts took their work seriously. They worked hard. They cared for the vineyard as if it was their own – which was a good thing, until the harvest time came and the vineyard's owner sent along some of his servants to pick up the crop. Because by that time, the tenants had forgotten that they were tenants. They had gotten greedy! They wanted to keep all of the grapes for themselves. And not just the grapes – they wanted to take over the land too! So when the 1st round of slaves came, they refused to hand over the harvest. Instead, they beat one, and killed another, and stoned another! Fair warning to the true owner that the tenants weren't going down without a fight. But the owner, not to be daunted, sends off a second group of slaves, more than the first time. But the tenants attacked them too. Finally, the owner sends his son, hoping they'll respect him. But in the son, the tenants see their chance to rid of the heir and gain the land once and for all, so they grab him and they murder him. All because they forgot that they were not the owners; they forgot whose vineyard it really was.
Now this story was directed at the chief priests and the elders and the Pharisees who had been giving Jesus such a hard time. They were like the tenants, who had been entrusted with God's vineyard – the people of Israel. They had worked hard to tend the vineyard; they had cared for it as if it was their own! But somewhere along the line, they forgot that they were hired hands. Their job was to guide and direct people to God, but they ended up pointing people towards themselves as the leaders. They stopped giving to God what belongs to God.
If Jesus were to tell this parable today, he might compare the chief priests & Pharisees to the financial leaders of our time, who seemingly followed the voice of greed for easy money, forgetting that they were not the owners of the resources they were risking, who misused the trust and responsibility that was given to them. And we might find ourselves chiming in with Jesus' audience when he asked, “When the owner comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “Destroy them all,” they replied, “and lease the vineyard (or the stock market) to people who will give the owner the fruits at harvest time.” And we may feel a bit gleeful, rejoicing that those wicked tenants will get their comeuppance.
Until we realize that this story is directed at us too. For we have all been put in charge of a part of God's vineyard. God planted it and fenced it in, prepared for the harvest, and built a watchtower, and then handed it over to us to take care of, fully expecting to get a good harvest at harvest time. That vineyard is our whole life – our relationships, our time, our possessions. And we value everything we have, we treat our lives as if they belong to us. But the problem is, we all have a strong tendency, overpowering sometimes, to act as if that's true – to act as if our lives and our time and our things belong solely to us, & when we do that, we forget that God is the true owner of everything we have. We are tenants, stewards, managers – given wonderful opportunities by God to produce great harvests of bountiful fruit.
My question for all of us this morning is: Are we using those opportunities? Are we giving God the harvest that God is due as the rightful owner of the vineyard? Or are we withholding the harvest because we think it should belong to us? What parts of our lives are we resisting handing over? Is it our money? Our gifts for serving? Time spent with God each day? Before we point fingers at the tenants in the gospel, we would do well to look at ourselves, because this story is about us – and the way we live shows what we really believe about God & God's place in our lives.
This parable gives us a good chance to step back and look at the vineyard of our lives and to consider what kind of a harvest we have been giving back to God. But the story isn't just about us. It is also a powerful story about the patience and graciousness of the vineyard's owner. For we see in this story that God, the landowner, cares deeply for the vineyard. The landowner surveys the land, prepares the soil, chooses the best vines, and carefully plants the vineyard. He puts up a fence for protection, builds a wine press in anticipation of a good harvest, so that the harvest will be put to use, and builds a watchtower in the midst of it. This is not just some absentee landlord who leaves the place in disrepair and then expects somehow to get a good return on his investment down the road. The landowner gives it the best chance possible – and then hands it over to humans to take care of.
And when those humans in the parable resist and rebel against the landowner, refusing to give him what rightfully belongs to him, beating and killing his representatives in the process, the landowner doesn't do what you or I would do. After the 1st round, I would've come with police & lawyers to get my harvest & evict the tenants & send them to jail. But the landowner gives them another chance, and then another – in the end, sending his son, hoping against hope that this time they'll listen.
God does expect a harvest from the vineyards that are our lives. But for every time that we resist, God offers us another chance, and another, and another, even to the point of sending the Son. God sent Jesus, and Jesus came, even seeing what happened to the servants, the prophets, who had gone before him. He knew the reception he would get & he came anyway, came so that we would hear God's call in a new voice, in a new way. He came to show us what it means to give everything back to the owner – even to the point of giving his life.
We fear doing that; we worry that giving everything we have to God will leave us with nothing. But when Jesus gave it all, God vindicated him. The stone that was rejected becomes the cornerstone. Jesus gave his life & in return, God raised him from the dead and gave him new life! God does not ask for everything so that we'll be left with nothing. God takes what we offer, and multiplies it in ways we can never imagine, giving us something new, even better than what we had before! Paul put it this way in his letter to the Phillippian church: “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:7-8) Knowing Jesus makes up for everything else he once held dear; knowing Jesus changes everything. This parable is a call to give our lives to God. So let's not hold back from giving God the harvest God is expecting. Give yourself away to God, and find your true self, true life, the harvest God wants for us to have. Amen.
Matthew 21:33-46
Pentecost + 21 – October 5, 2008
“Listen to another parable,” Jesus says. Once upon a time, there was a landowner. He took some of his land and planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it to protect it. He dug a wine press for when harvest time came, and he built a watchtower. Then he leased the land to tenants, and left the vineyard in their hands: to water and to weed, to prune and to protect, to help and to harvest. And those tenants by all accounts took their work seriously. They worked hard. They cared for the vineyard as if it was their own – which was a good thing, until the harvest time came and the vineyard's owner sent along some of his servants to pick up the crop. Because by that time, the tenants had forgotten that they were tenants. They had gotten greedy! They wanted to keep all of the grapes for themselves. And not just the grapes – they wanted to take over the land too! So when the 1st round of slaves came, they refused to hand over the harvest. Instead, they beat one, and killed another, and stoned another! Fair warning to the true owner that the tenants weren't going down without a fight. But the owner, not to be daunted, sends off a second group of slaves, more than the first time. But the tenants attacked them too. Finally, the owner sends his son, hoping they'll respect him. But in the son, the tenants see their chance to rid of the heir and gain the land once and for all, so they grab him and they murder him. All because they forgot that they were not the owners; they forgot whose vineyard it really was.
Now this story was directed at the chief priests and the elders and the Pharisees who had been giving Jesus such a hard time. They were like the tenants, who had been entrusted with God's vineyard – the people of Israel. They had worked hard to tend the vineyard; they had cared for it as if it was their own! But somewhere along the line, they forgot that they were hired hands. Their job was to guide and direct people to God, but they ended up pointing people towards themselves as the leaders. They stopped giving to God what belongs to God.
If Jesus were to tell this parable today, he might compare the chief priests & Pharisees to the financial leaders of our time, who seemingly followed the voice of greed for easy money, forgetting that they were not the owners of the resources they were risking, who misused the trust and responsibility that was given to them. And we might find ourselves chiming in with Jesus' audience when he asked, “When the owner comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “Destroy them all,” they replied, “and lease the vineyard (or the stock market) to people who will give the owner the fruits at harvest time.” And we may feel a bit gleeful, rejoicing that those wicked tenants will get their comeuppance.
Until we realize that this story is directed at us too. For we have all been put in charge of a part of God's vineyard. God planted it and fenced it in, prepared for the harvest, and built a watchtower, and then handed it over to us to take care of, fully expecting to get a good harvest at harvest time. That vineyard is our whole life – our relationships, our time, our possessions. And we value everything we have, we treat our lives as if they belong to us. But the problem is, we all have a strong tendency, overpowering sometimes, to act as if that's true – to act as if our lives and our time and our things belong solely to us, & when we do that, we forget that God is the true owner of everything we have. We are tenants, stewards, managers – given wonderful opportunities by God to produce great harvests of bountiful fruit.
My question for all of us this morning is: Are we using those opportunities? Are we giving God the harvest that God is due as the rightful owner of the vineyard? Or are we withholding the harvest because we think it should belong to us? What parts of our lives are we resisting handing over? Is it our money? Our gifts for serving? Time spent with God each day? Before we point fingers at the tenants in the gospel, we would do well to look at ourselves, because this story is about us – and the way we live shows what we really believe about God & God's place in our lives.
This parable gives us a good chance to step back and look at the vineyard of our lives and to consider what kind of a harvest we have been giving back to God. But the story isn't just about us. It is also a powerful story about the patience and graciousness of the vineyard's owner. For we see in this story that God, the landowner, cares deeply for the vineyard. The landowner surveys the land, prepares the soil, chooses the best vines, and carefully plants the vineyard. He puts up a fence for protection, builds a wine press in anticipation of a good harvest, so that the harvest will be put to use, and builds a watchtower in the midst of it. This is not just some absentee landlord who leaves the place in disrepair and then expects somehow to get a good return on his investment down the road. The landowner gives it the best chance possible – and then hands it over to humans to take care of.
And when those humans in the parable resist and rebel against the landowner, refusing to give him what rightfully belongs to him, beating and killing his representatives in the process, the landowner doesn't do what you or I would do. After the 1st round, I would've come with police & lawyers to get my harvest & evict the tenants & send them to jail. But the landowner gives them another chance, and then another – in the end, sending his son, hoping against hope that this time they'll listen.
God does expect a harvest from the vineyards that are our lives. But for every time that we resist, God offers us another chance, and another, and another, even to the point of sending the Son. God sent Jesus, and Jesus came, even seeing what happened to the servants, the prophets, who had gone before him. He knew the reception he would get & he came anyway, came so that we would hear God's call in a new voice, in a new way. He came to show us what it means to give everything back to the owner – even to the point of giving his life.
We fear doing that; we worry that giving everything we have to God will leave us with nothing. But when Jesus gave it all, God vindicated him. The stone that was rejected becomes the cornerstone. Jesus gave his life & in return, God raised him from the dead and gave him new life! God does not ask for everything so that we'll be left with nothing. God takes what we offer, and multiplies it in ways we can never imagine, giving us something new, even better than what we had before! Paul put it this way in his letter to the Phillippian church: “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Phil. 3:7-8) Knowing Jesus makes up for everything else he once held dear; knowing Jesus changes everything. This parable is a call to give our lives to God. So let's not hold back from giving God the harvest God is expecting. Give yourself away to God, and find your true self, true life, the harvest God wants for us to have. Amen.
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