March 15, 2020 - Jesus Gives Us Love to Share - Mark 12:1-17

Jesus Gives Us Love to Share

Mark 12:1-17

Lent 3 – March 15, 2020

“Parable of the Tenants”

Do you remember the old Seinfeld episode where Elaine goes to use the bathroom, and while she’s in there, she realizes – too late! – that there is no toilet paper in her stall? She asks the woman in the stall next to hers if she can have some of her toilet paper, but the other woman refuses. “I don’t have a square to spare!” she says, then finishes up and leaves the room, leaving Elaine stranded. (If not, click play below!)

I don’t remember much of the rest of the episode, but at the end of it, Elaine has identified her nemesis and hears her announce that she has to use the restroom, so Elaine races to beat her into the bathroom and takes all of the toilet paper out of one of the stalls and occupies the other one – and when the other woman asks her for some toilet paper, Elaine gleefully says, “No, I’m afraid I don’t have a square to spare!” and she races out of the bathroom, both arms full of toilet paper rolls, having enacted her revenge.

It's a funny scene on TV – but we’ve been seeing some similar behavior lately all around us, haven’t we? Knowing that we may well be socially distancing for quite a while, fearing that what is currently voluntary may become mandatory, people have raced to buy up toilet paper to have a fully stocked house. People who maybe didn’t need it grabbed up some extra – feeling, perhaps, that they just can’t spare a square – and leaving others who genuinely need such a basic necessity, maybe because they can’t afford to buy more than what they need at any given time, desperately looking for the one store that may have some in stock so they won’t run out.
The same has been true of hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes and who knows what else. I’ve been seeing stories all over social media from all over the country with picture after picture of empty shelves. (I will say that in my shopping runs, though I have seen empty shelves, I’ve mostly seen patient and pleasant people, not panicked and persnickety ones.)

We all just want to make sure that we have enough to cover our families’ needs in this unprecedented time when so much is uncertain. But our fear of not having enough is actually kind of causing the scenario where there isn’t enough to go around because people are not leaving enough for those who are unfortunate enough to come behind them.

I think there is some resonance with the reading from the gospel today. It’s not a 1:1 equivalent, of course. To set the scene, Jesus is talking to the chief priests, elders, and scribes, in the temple in Jerusalem. In the timeline of the Bible, this is Holy Week already. Jesus had entered triumphantly to cheers and shouts of “Hosanna!”; he’s turned over the money changers’ tables; he’s already gotten into it with the religious leaders over his authority. So now he tells them a parable about a vineyard and a vineyard owner. (You may remember a story that starts almost exactly the same way, from Isaiah 5, which we read in Advent). Only in this parable, the vineyard owner carefully plants the vineyard, and puts a fence around it, digs the pit for the wine press, and builds the watchtower – and then he leases it to tenants (kind of like an ancient form of sharecroppers) and goes away to another country.

At the harvest time, he sends his slaves to go and get his share of the produce – but the tenants refuse. Each slave that comes is mistreated: beaten, insulted, killed, until finally the landlord sends his beloved son, mistakenly thinking that they will treat him with respect and give him the father’s due. (I have issues with this parable, because the whole system seems unfair: pitting the tenants against the slaves while the landowner stays far away from the fray; but that’s probably a discussion to have at Bible study!)

At any rate, the tenants see the heir and see their chance! Perhaps they thought that the son was coming because the father had died and so was coming to collect his inheritance – and the rule of the land back then was if there was no heir, the people residing on the land would become the owners. (There’s no way to know for sure, but might explain their thinking.) So they seize the son, kill him, and throw him out of the vineyard!

And Jesus asks (and answers) – “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

Now, this story has been used down through the centuries by Christians to denigrate the Jewish people, basically interpreting it to mean that the ancient Jews had screwed up their opportunity as God’s chosen people and God had taken that special relationship and given it to the Christians. This is a dangerous mis-interpretation of what is going on here! The underlying point is more about the ways that God calls God’s people (Jewish or Christian) to live in relationship with God and each other – and how we all seem to mess that up. We don’t want to give to God what belongs to God; we want to hoard and hold on to the blessings we have received, and to heck with everyone else, forgetting that all we have comes from God in the first place and that we are called to be stewards and managers, not owners.

This is something we all fall prey to. Especially in times like these, when the world as we know it is swirling in chaos and there is no way to predict the future with certainty, we are inclined to hold tightly to what we have and grasp for even more and let everyone else fend for themselves. It’s survival instinct.

Yet, as people of faith, we know that we are called to more. We know that we are called to be different! We proclaim that God has sent God’s beloved son, Jesus, into the world to reveal the depth of God’s love for us – Love that is willing to die for us! It is a love that is stronger than fear, than chaos, even than death. It is love that rises from the empty tomb, love that gives us hope even in such anxious times as this.

It is this love that calls us together as God’s people – even while we are socially distancing from the world! We are united even in our absence from one another, knowing that God loves us and blesses us and calls us to be blessings to the world. Right now, that looks like keeping to ourselves physically in order to slow the spread and to care for the most vulnerable in our church and communities – but that doesn’t mean that we don’t reach out to one another (in the congregation and in other relationships and even with strangers) in other ways. As we go through these weeks ahead, we will need each other even more – please check in on your friends and neighbors and family members, especially those who are more vulnerable. If you have more than you need – please don’t hesitate to spare a square! ;) If you are healthy and younger and feel comfortable going out in the world – maybe see if your older neighbor needs some groceries when you go. If you are financially able to help those who are financially vulnerable (working in one of the many fields that is going to take a hit during this pandemic), find ways that you can give – directly or through reputable social and charitable agencies. If you have extra food, consider donating to the food pantries – because people will be in need!

When Jesus says, “Give to God the things that are God’s”, he’s not talking just about your church offering. He’s talking about our whole lives (We are made in the image of God, just as the denarius had the image of the emperor on it) lived in ways that honor God and love our neighbor. This is what people of faith can offer back to God in the days to come: our patience, our generosity, our very best selves given to each other to see us all through until we get to the other side of this.

We do this as people who remember how much we have already been given from the God who loves us and promises to be with us always. May we draw strength from this faith and from each other, and may share this love and hope with a world that is filled with anxiety and fear. Amen.

September 1, 2019 - God's Command Blesses Community - Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11

God’s Command Blesses Community

Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 7-11

Pentecost + 12 – September 1, 2019

“Sabbath for Community”

"Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. ² And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed."

·     Can you even imagine?

·     This is what God commands to the ancient Israelites as they are preparing to enter the promised land and settle into life as a community of God’s chosen people

·     A community in which every 7 years, debts are forgiven!

o  Which is pretty awesome if you are the one who owes a neighbor money

o  Not so exciting perhaps, if you are the one who has lent someone else some $, and they haven’t finished paying you back and now all of a sudden, God expects you to just forgive that debt, as if it never existed?!?

·     And I can only imagine that there were people like me among that group of people – who read, “every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community…” and wonder what that means for people who aren’t members of the community.

o  Like, what are the loopholes here God? Because it’s not exactly fair for me to loan someone else money and for them to not have to pay it back just because 7 years go by

§  (And the next few verses, that we don’t include here, in fact say that foreigners aren’t part of this deal – they still have to pay what they owe…)

Because this is how our minds work, don’t they? Or most of us anyway

·     Good at keeping score, keeping track of who owes me what (money or favors or time or an apology or whatever)

·     And I mean, really God, this isn’t exactly a good model for a thriving economy, is it? It’s not practical or realistic to expect people to just forgive debt owed to them

·     Can you imagine if we actually did this? What kind of shambles and chaos might ensue?

o  How many people would just pay the bare minimum due over the course of the 1^st 6 years, knowing that come year 7, the slate would be wiped clean?

o  No one would ever loan anyone any $ - which the 2^nd part of our reading addresses. God understands how the human heart works – and so God warns against that kind of thinking – “Do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.” (vs. 7-8)

·     What a ridiculous directive this seems to be, this idea of the sabbatical year (it’s a year that is also one in which slaves are to be set free, and the land is to lie fallow), the 7^th year of sabbath rest, not just for individuals, but for the whole community

·     It’s a resetting of the clock, a chance for people to be back on level ground financially, rather than trying to dig out of a hole

And yet, as hard as it is to imagine actually living this out, it’s also inspiring to envision

·     Because God’s command for the people of ancient days to forgive one another the debt that is owed turns out to be a blessing for all

·     It first of all relies on a sense of trust in God – that there is enough for everyone, that there will be enough for everyone, that God will take care of me and mine and so I don’t have to go into battle over every little thing that is owed to me

·     It’s an active faith that empowers us to do this

·     And seeing God’s generosity leads to greater generosity

·     We are stronger together when we seek the community’s good over just our own individual circumstances

o  This is perhaps the “eternal kernel”, as my internship supervisor used to say – not that we are to forgive debts every 7 years (though that might be an interesting experiment) – but that we are to treat each other in ways that lead to greater freedom and liberation, rather than captivity to what we owe

·     I think about the news about debt of all kinds in America, but esp. student loan debt; those #s are pretty staggering –

o  And I think about how owing the kind of $ that many younger (and middle-aged) adults owe (myself included, and we didn’t have that much student loan debt compared to many!) – and how being in that kind of debt hampers and hinders so many other potential choices in life

§  What people may choose to do for a career or where they can afford to live or not live,

§  How it ties their hands so that it is harder to be generous

·     And it sparks my imagination to think about what could possibly happen if debts were forgiven in this biblical way

o  What new things this kind of open-handed generosity might unleash, what paying it forward might result

o  How delightful to live in a society where we helped our neighbors without an eye for when and what we might be repaid in return

§  An open hand, rather than a begrudging spirit!

·     It’s a Wonderful Life

o  The comparison between Mr. Potter and George Bailey

o  Mr. Potter – a warped, frustrated old man who is concerned, not about the needs of the people in his town, but about his own selfish gain, grasping for more and more

o  Vs. George Bailey, who never has an over-abundance of money, but just enough to support himself and his family –

o  But for all of his money and prestige and power, Mr. Potter is never happy, never knows the joys of connection and relationship

o  And though it takes George a dark night of the soul and the help of his guardian angel to see it, George is the one who really had a wonderful life – because he was generous and loving and kind to his friends and neighbors; helping everyone to have enough

§  And in the end, he is blessed in return

§  That glorious scene at the end, in the moment of George’s own desperation when he is about to be arrested because of the missing $8000 dollars Uncle Billy lost at Potter’s bank

·     And friends and neighbors come streaming in and literally pour their money out in front of him to meet his need – not begrudgingly, but with open hands and open hearts because of the relationship and love and care they have for one another – and the joy they have in being able to return George’s generosity of spirit

·     It give a small taste, I think, of what God envisions with the sabbatical year of forgiveness of debts – of a community that realizes what it owes to each other, a community wanting what is best for each other, and realizing that they are stronger together when everyone has enough

·     This is the gift, the blessing of a sabbath for community

·     Imagine what God might do in and through us if we were emboldened to be generous and lavish and prodigal in the ways we treat one another and the world! What amazing things might we see set free among us?

·     Let’s look for ways to live this out as we move into this week.

Amen