This morning’s passage takes place not long
after the cleansing of the Temple where Jesus created a ruckus and a half by
driving the moneychangers out of the Temple in Jerusalem. This act set Jesus in direct conflict with
the Pharisees, who were, essentially, the owners and operators of the Temple,
which meant that they set the terms by which worship took place and as they had
crafted the Jewish religion, all those moneychangers that Jesus had just said
were interlopers in the House of God, were necessary.
You might think with that sort of a negative
profile that Jesus might take it easy on specifically the Pharisees, but more
generally speaking all those who considered themselves to be children of
Abraham. He does not. Our parable puts that on vivid display as
Jesus not so delicately describes the Pharisees as tenants in a vineyard that
is not theirs doing everything they can to rebel against the actual owner,
including the murder of the owner’s son.
From our perspective on this side of the crucifixion we are able to
recognize that Jesus is foretelling his fate on the cross, and the Pharisees
culpability in what will be his death.
However, there are too many times where that
is where we stop in our understanding of this passage. I think that we need to go farther. I think that we need to recognize the
tendency that so many of us have in thinking of ourselves first,
and God only later, if at all. It is
with this in mind that I ask you this question, to whom do you belong? To whom do you pay your loyalties? Many people would answer that question by
saying they answer to no one but themselves: that they are the arbiters of
their lives; that they are the one in charge of all things relating to
self. How about you? The scripture reads this way.
Matthew 21:33-46
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who 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. 34 When
the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his
produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed
another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more
than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he
sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But
when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come,
let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him,
threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner
of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They
said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the
vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the
cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people that produces the fruits of
the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to
pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
45 When the
chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was
speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared
the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
“The Vineyard of God”
The other day I was out with a colleague for
lunch. We had a great conversation but I
have to admit, which means that the next time that I see him, I will have to
apologize, that there were a couple of minutes where I just flat out checked
out and started eaves dropping on a couple of gentlemen who were sitting not
too far away.
I actually didn’t notice them when they came
in, but the line that began to pull me in was, “I’m getting killed in the
market right now.” At which point the
other person began to light into the Fed, chairman Benanke,
President Obama, Tim Geitner, Greece, the EU, China,
the Middle East, the price of oil, the price of gold, the
falling value of the dollar.
The guy was all over the place, but
ultimately it boiled down to a couple of sentences that went a little something
like this: “I don’t care what you as a politician think. I don’t know what your constituents are
telling you to think. Just don’t mess
with my money! It’s my money, don’t you
try and take it from me.”
He really didn’t care how the economy had
gotten to the point that it is or how any of the policies (or lack of policies)
would affect the country right now let alone in the future. This guy only cared about himself and in
specific the coin that he was able to accumulate in his pocket. That was all he cared about. I sat there in my seat, took a bite of my
chicken sandwich and just let it all wash over me. I couldn’t help but feel sad for him, and not
for the reasons that you might think.
Have you ever met or known those sorts of
people? The sort of folks who live, if
not out and out say, “The only thing that lasts, the only thing that matters,
the only thing I care about is money.” Think
about those folks for a second and ask yourself this question, on a scale of
1-10, how would you rate the quality of their life? Not how much stuff they have, but the quality
of the relationships with their family, their friends? Who and what do they care about the
most? Are they really living a life that
is fulfilling? How often are we able to
realize in that situation that all is not well in paradise?
The thing that all of these individuals have
in common is that their priorities are completely out of whack. They, like the tenants in our passage this
morning, look at the creation that God has granted them and all they see are
the ways that the creation can satisfy their wants and needs. There is no consideration given to anyone
else other than themselves, let alone the God who gave them the opportunities
in the first place.
In the passage we hear how the master, how
God, had built a vineyard, a world, that would be able
to meet all of the needs (and many of the wants) that the tenants, that’s you
and me, could ever have. All God is
looking for is for us to recognize who we are and who God is and give of
ourselves to God as we should.
Instead, what do we do way too much of the
time? We look at the creation and begin
to think about us and us alone. We don’t
think about God. We don’t think about
our neighbor. We think about ourselves,
and only what we want.
What Jesus was saying through the parable to
the Pharisees, but absolutely to each of us is, “look around at the amazing
opportunity that God the Father has given to you. You did nothing to create this or earn this:
it has been given to you. Now give back
to God first and all of the needs that you have (not necessarily the wants but
definitely the needs), will be met. Give
back to God first and you will continue to be cared for. If not, if you selfishly put yourself first,
then in due time, in God’s time, God will come and take away that which you
think is yours, but which was really never yours in the first place.”
Jesus is longing for us to see the creation
as what it is: a gift from God. And if
it is a gift from God then we should set our priorities in such a way that this
truth is exhibited. We should order our
lives so that we give back to God first.
Our world,
or at the very least our Western and American culture, have walked away from
acknowledging to whom we belong. We
have walked away from lives that exhibit God as the creator of all that we know,
to existences that show to everyone that we think that we are the master of our
own universes. The Pharisees lived that
way. Those guys who were having lunch
lived that way. Those stereotypical
people whom we know have lived that way.
Too often we live that way. Too often
the church lives that way. We put
ourselves at the top of the priority list acting as if we were responsible for
anything that we know. We’re not! These lives that we have been granted are
gifts from the Creator of all, gifts from God, and our lives should reflect
such a reality.
As individuals, we need to ask the question,
first and foremost, “am I serving as God would have me serve?” If you can answer that question with a yes,
then you’re on the right path.
As families, we need to ask the question
first and foremost, “who are we living our lives
for? For ourselves,
or for God?” If we can begin to answer
that question by saying God, then our lives will become so much more
fulfilling.
As a community of faith, as a church, we need
to ask the question first and foremost, “what is
setting our priorities?” Our wants? Our fears? Or God,
the God who loved us so much that he was willing to send His only son to die
for our sake? If we can answer the
question of what is setting our priorities by looking to God, then the needs
that we have will be met, and beyond that many of our wants as well.
But we’ve got to have our priorities in the
correct place. We’ve got to have God at
the heart of our lives. I have been
consistently amazed at the people whom I have met who are the most content,
because in each and every case, those people have set God at the heart of their
lives. They have recognized that they
have been given the opportunity to live in the vineyard of God, and their lives
reflect that sentiment. They put God at
the heart of their lives, and they are blessed with lives that are truly
fulfilled, truly happy. They might not
be living lives that are easy by the standard of the world, but they are living
lives that recognized how blessed they truly are.
Here at the church, the month of October is
wonderfully busy. We had the Blessing of
the Animals yesterday, World Communion and Commission Fair today, workday next
Saturday, a baptism and the Crop Walk, Big Day of Serving mission trip, Stewardship
Sunday, before it wraps up with All Saints Sunday. We’re busy.
When you head into the Fellowship Hall after worship, you will be able
to experience some of that reality. But
if the focus is not on bringing the glory to God, then all of it will be for
naught, because all of it will be leading us to something other than the
Almighty. We have to resist and as the
case may be fight against those inclinations.
We need to find and create different ways of reminding ourselves from
whom we have received the blessing of each day.
Maybe for you, that’s taking a few minutes to pray when you wake
up. Maybe it’s making sure that what you
listen to, watch, and read are of God as opposed to being of the world. Maybe it’s taking the opportunity at the end
of every day to jot down a list of the things that you are grateful for on that
particular day. Maybe it’s just
listening. Whatever it may be for you,
sharpen your focus so that your priority is where it needs to be.
Each of us have been
blessed to live in this creation, to live in the vineyard of the Lord. We have everything that we could ever need if
we are willing to live lives that recognize how much God has blessed us. Live your life with God as the central
priority and you will begin to behold how blessed we truly are.
After Sermon Prayer
God, You have
blessed us! Help us to live lives that
reflect this reality. Help us to live
lives with You as our first priority. It is in Jesus’ name that we do pray. Amen.