Oct. 2, 2011 16th Sunday of Pentecost

Matthew 21:33-46

   33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

   35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

   38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

   40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

   41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

   42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

   “‘The stone the builders rejected 

   has become the cornerstone; 

the Lord has done this, 

   and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

   43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

   45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

“The Parable of the Wicked Tenants - A Wake up Call to  God’s Love”

The setting of the parable of the wicked tenants is the “running oral controversy” Jesus is having with the religious leaders of his day.  For Jesus the vineyard is Israel and the rebellious tenants are its leaders, who are trying to “seize the inheritance” for themselves.  They are cast out and the vineyard is given to other tenants, who will give God the fruits in their season.  These other tenants are the tax collectors and harlots who will enter the kingdom ahead of the religious leaders.

When asked, “what should the owner do with these tenants?”, they give the right answer.  The right answer that is, for them.  Not the right answer for God. For God is not satisfied with  judgment, ever.  Not even with them.  God does not delight in judgment, ever!  This is not God’s nature and it is not God’s liking.  Judgment is always second to mercy and its purpose is only and always to prepare the way for love and grace to flow, full and free.  This is why Jesus tells this parable - to try wake the people up to Gods love, not Gods judgment.

We need this shock therapy to wake us up and remind us of our role in Gods Kingdom.  We are not owners.  We are tenants, stewards, servants, who are to ”give God the fruits in their seasons.”  This means we are not to “set our minds on earthly things”, but on “heavenly things”.  This is a real struggle for all of us.  It means we have to let go of trying to have it all, and be a servant to the least and the lowly.  It means we have to carry our faith into our daily lives in ways which make a difference even for those who do not  know the One we follow and are not interested in our religious beliefs.  It means we have to walk the walk, at all costs!

“Produce The Proper Fruits”

The Kingdom of God will always belong to someone, yet it is owned by no one.

We are tenants, not owners.  And the bottom line for a tenant is the crop produced.

Jesus is saying to the leaders of his day that “ the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a people who will produce the proper fruits” because:

They were adding to the burdens of the people rather then lifting their burdens.

They were more interested in being religious then in being merciful.

They were quick to cast the first stone as they judged others but could not

see the sins of their ways.

We, the Church, stand with the tenants.  We are to produce proper fruits.  If we don’t, we too will have it taken away from us. This is not a threat.  This is part of Gods promise!  God expects much from us because God has done much for us.  We are blessed so we can be a blessing.

The fruit God is looking for in our lives is that we love one another as God loves us.

This does not mean sweet sentimentalism but strong compassion.

It means “That inner disposition to go with others where they  hurt, where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and  broken.” (Nouwen)  It means to give up judging others, to stop measuring our meaning and value with the yardstick of others,  and thus to become free to be with them and allow God to be the judge. “Love does not insist on its own way.”

Sept. 25, 2011 15th of Pentecost

Matthew 21:23-32

    23 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

   24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

   They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

   27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

   Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

  28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

   30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

   31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

   “The first,” they answered.

   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

 “Changed Into His Likeness”

“It is not easy to ‘change our minds and believe’ something we don’t want to believe.

We do it slowly, cautiously, reluctantly, if we do it at all.  Most of the time we try not do it at all.”

All too often even our religious beliefs help us to not change our minds and believe something new and different.  To not get “a new heart and a new spirit.”  Ezek. 18:31

Going to church is meant to be a change agent in our lives.  So we can  “be of the same mind as was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”

Phil. 2:5-7

We are not to just live in the past and stay locked in our old paradigms.  We are to be ‘guided in the way of salvation’ and say yes to what is yet to be.  This also means we will have to say no to some of what has been.

For the fact is, “the absolutes of yesterday become the obsoletes of today.”

There is only one absolute - “God is love!”  Everything else is relative and up for grabs.

To say yes to love is to say yes to change as a way of life; change into His likeness!

“No = Yes”

The parable of the two sons is a biting parable which confronts the people of Jesus day - and us, who are trying to be religious, moral, good, and God fearing  - with the disturbing truth that it is not enough to just talk the talk.  It is necessary to walk the walk.  That means we may have to do something we don’t want to do, something we are not inclined to do, something we even say no to, then have a change our heart, and go do it.

It is better to say no and mean it then to say yes and not mean it.  In fact, we cannot say “yes” without  also saying “no”.  No is an important little word which establishes our identity, gives us dignity, and opens the door to our choosing to say yes.

To say “yes” to God is to never be free again to go our own way and do our own thing without a second thought as to what this means to others.  It is to live out our words in how we handle our money, our time, our gifts, our energy.  It is to be deeply aware that what God asks of us is not easy, yet it is full of grace and love, which makes it more then worth while.

Sept. 19, 2011 14th of Pentecost

Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

   3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

   “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

   7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

   “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

   8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

   9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

   13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

   16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

“Gods generosity far exceeds Gods fairness”

God is more generous than we want God to be.

God is more generous than we want to be.

God is so generous it seems unfair to us.

To complain about the pay is to miss the joy of having labored long and hard in the Kingdom.  It is to miss the emptiness of “ standing idle in the market place.”

God calls us, invites us, urges, to get involved in Gods Kingdom on earth.  There is something God needs doing that no one can do like you.

Riddle:  “What do you have that nobody else has?”

Answer:  “You!”

Your slant on things;

your way of doing things;

your creative thoughts;

your twist on things.  

To turn this loose is to try something which has never been tried before.  Make what you can of that!

  “Is God Fair?” 

No!  God is not fair.  God is generous!

None of us deserve God’s love; all of us are loved by God.  The good, the bad, the indifferent.  This parable drives home the truth of the old hymn, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.”  All have sinned and fall short.   All enter by grace alone!

The challenge for we who enter Kingdom work early is that God’s generosity (grace) can easily seem unfair when we are not included.  We are included but when we work so hard we subtly and not so subtly begin to think that we deserve it.  That is the great danger of being religious!  

What we need to remember is that no matter how religious we are, no matter how long we have labored in God’s Kingdom it is “By grace we are saved through faith.  It is not a work...lest anyone should boast.”

 “The Unfairness Of Grace”

Jesus is lucky there were no unions around in his day.  He would have been in big trouble.  Even though the master in this parable did no wrong.  He acted with generosity toward the late comers, and fairness toward the rest.  This was his right and privilege.

There is something inherently unfair about grace.  It doesn’t try to be just, but merciful; fair, but forgiving, equal, but special, uniform but unique.  Our God is a God of grace!

We can never predict what God will do and we can never limit who God will do it with.

It is a privilege to be hired at the first hour.  These are the lucky ones who know the joy of living in the kingdom.  Idleness is not a blessing.

Norman Cousins in “The Anatomy Of An Illness”, says there are two things necessary for longevity of life:  creativity and meaningful  involvement with others.

We who have never known what it is to be without a God we call Father (Mother); who have never known what it is to not  be forgiven, loved, cared for;  who have never known what it is to be “lost in a haunted woods,  children afraid of the night who have never been happy or good.” (Auden)  We are the lucky ones.  And we dare not forget it nor resist God’s graciousness towards the less fortunate.

Sept. 11, 2011 13th of Pentecost

Matthew 18: 21-35

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

   22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

   23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

   26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

   28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

   29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

   30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

   32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

   35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

 “The Echo of Forgiveness”  

Forgiveness is at the heart of the Christian faith.  Without it there is no faith.

Forgiveness does not seek to cover up the wrong; it is not soft, blind or unconcerned about evil; nor is it soft on justice.  Forgiveness never looses sight of the person behind the act; the person who is in need of help.

The limit to forgiveness is the degree to which we have been forgiven.  And that is much!

Only the person who receives forgiveness can pass it on;

only the person who passes on forgiveness really receives it.

Forgiveness begins with being forgiven.

Forgiveness is an echo.  It does not originate with us and it does not end with us.

We forgive as we have been forgiven.

”My Rights And God’s Mercy”

To live with mercy as the heart beat of our lives means that what is loving, forgiving, merciful, and thus life giving, comes before just being right.

“If there is anything which keeps us out of the Kingdom of Heaven, it is our own goodness and rightness which forgets how much mercy we have received, and refuses to pass it on.”

“Principles, as important as they are, are never as important as people.  To stand on principle when people are hurting is a gross sin in the Kingdom of Heaven!”

“It really doesn’t make much difference, if any, if we play bingo in church.  That really isn’t much of a concern in the Kingdom of Heaven.  What is of great concern, is whether or not our lives are being lived out in a style where mercy is integral to our living.  Where we live not  to ourselves and we die not  to ourselves, but  to the Lord who has forgiven us much!”

“To Be Forgiven Is To Be Forgiving”

                                             

Forgiveness is not an option in the Kingdom of Heaven...it is a requirement.  We cannot choose if we are going to forgive or who we are going to forgive or not forgive...we are to forgive as we have been forgiven!

There also is to be no limit on our being forgiving, for there is no limit on God’s forgiving us. And once we give it, we are not to take it back any more then we are to withhold it to get our pound of flesh. 

Forgiveness - showing mercy - is at the center of everything God is about, even justice and judgment  and it is to be at the center of our lives too.

“When somebody you’ve wronged forgives you, you’re spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience.

When you forgive somebody who has wronged you, you’re spared the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride.

For both parties, forgiveness means the freedom again to be at peace inside their own skins and to be glad in each others presence.” 

Frederick Buechner “Listening To Your Life”, p. 305

                                                                                       

Forgiveness is something we all need and we all need to give, for without it there can be no meaningful relationship in our lives and with it nothing can stop us from creating a new future out of pasts failures and unfairness.  It is, as Lewis Smedes says in his book “Forgive And Forget”, “...love’s revolution against life’s unfairness”

 for  “When we forgive we ride the crest of love’s cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God.”  and then anything can happen!

 Forgiveness makes “done things undone.”  There is no revenge to be had; no grudge to be satisfied; no left over wrong to be righted.  That has all been forgiven and when something is forgiven it is undone!  That’s how powerful forgiveness is, if we only dared believe it and live it.

To be forgiven and forgiving is to live believing that we can have a common future even with our enemies and even with those who have treated us unfairly.  It is to live believing in forgiveness, which is “...love’s revolution against life’s unfairness.”  Lewis Smedes “To Forgive and Forget”

                                                     

“Forgiveness is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk.  If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator.”  Lewis Smedes“ To Forgive and Forget” p. xii 

Forgiveness opens up new possibilities and  offers health and wholeness - salvation if you please - to me and to the one who hurt me.  For “when we forgive we ride the crest of love’s cosmic wave; we walk in stride with God.  And we heal the hurt we never deserved.” Lewis Smedes“ To Forgive and Forget”, p.152