Whose Are You? And You? And You?

Matthew 22: 15-22 

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial taxa a to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied. 

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s,a and to God what is God’s.”

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

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Since today is a day that we are emphasizing the importance of having and reading and studying the Bible, whether it’s a Bible that belongs to us, or one that you pull out from the pew, I’m going to ask you to grab hold of a Bible, so that we can look together at what is going on with Jesus at this time that Matthew is reporting. Please turn in your Bibles to the New Testament, to the gospel according to Matthew, and then find chapter 21.  Either put your hand up or give me some sort of sign when you have it so I know when to go on.

OK. So if we look at the very start of chapter 21, what we see there is that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem. And the story at the very start of that chapter is the story of Palm Sunday, of his entrance into the city of Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, with the people shouting Hosanna.

And as soon as he gets there he starts stirring things up.  In verse 10, we read that the city is in turmoil over him. In verse 12 we see that he goes into the temple and immediately drives out all those selling and buying things there. He overturns the tables of the money changers and the people selling doves to be used as sacrifices.

Now, the temple in Jerusalem was huge. It was kind of like a mega mall. It was relatively new, having been rebuilt by Herod the Great beginning around 20 BCE. My study Bible says it was an enormous structure, and that it contained many precincts, including places to buy and sell animals for sacrifice, places for foreign visitors to exchange their money into the currency of the Temple, and offices for local and imperial authorities. Now, this will matter in a few minutes, so don’t forget that. And Jesus condemns those in the temple, calling them robbers. And of course he was making the chief priests and scribes angry with his behavior, both condemning and driving out all their business, and also healing the sick and the lame, doing what he did wherever he went. So they challenge him directly, and after he replies to them, he leaves and goes to Bethlehem to spend the night. He comes back to the city and enters the temple again the next day. This is verses 18-23. And the chief priests and elders begin again to try to challenge his authority. And for the rest of chapter 21 and into chapter 22 are the stories we have been talking about in worship these past few weeks. These stories are all part of the back and forth between Jesus and the leadership of the Temple.  In each of these stories he is challenging them directly.

So by the time we get to this story in the middle of chapter 22, the Pharisees, these leaders, are desperate to entrap Jesus, to snare him somehow. And all they think they have at this point are words in order to do so. So, they join forces, so to speak, with the Herodians, followers of Herod, men who are not of the Temple but of the government. For these two groups to come together is kind of crazy, but they join forces against a common opponent, this Jesus of Nazareth.

So now hopefully you have some broader context for where Jesus is and what time we are talking about in his life – this is the last week of his life, the days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, when all this is going on. We talk about this during the time of the church calendar called “ordinary time”, because these stories are important to understand who Jesus is and who he calls us to be – important enough to be addressed over the course of many weeks rather than being compressed into the time of Lent and Holy Week, when there is so much more to be focusing on.

OK, so these two groups come together to Jesus and try to entrap him by asking him a trick question, essentially. And this is the first of three trick questions they attempt to “get him” with.  But Jesus is not easily fooled, as we’ve learned before. And this story does not leave us or this group of temple and government leaders with any easy answer. As he often does, Jesus leaves us with as much a set of new questions as he does with any clear answers. Still, there is much for us to learn in his words today, as always.

The trick question for today is – “is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” They preface this question by buttering him up, so to speak – “we know you are genuine, and that you teach God’s way as it truly is. We know you don’t play favorites….”

And Jesus, after calling out their hypocrisy right at the get-go, tells them to bring him “the coin used for the tax”.   

So, at this point, I would like you to find a coin, in your pocket or your purse, and pull it out.  If you don’t have one, scooch over and look on with someone near you who does. It can be any coin, a penny, nickel, dime, or quarter.

Now, it may be that the light here isn’t good enough for you to see, or you may need a magnifying glass like I did when I looked at these coins yesterday, but take a look at the coins, and tell me what you see. Call it out. What’s on them?

So each of our usual coins look somewhat different – penny, nickel, dime, quarter – but each of them has a few things in common.

They each say United States of America.

They each have E Pluribus Unum on them. Who knows what that means? (from many, one)

They each say In God We Trust.

They each have the word Liberty imprinted on them.

And they each have the profile of a president on the front.

The coin that was brought to Jesus was not all that different from these. It was called a denarius, and it was a coin that was used to pay taxes to the Romans. It was not the kind of coin used in the temple. And so it was a violation of Jewish law to even have that penny in the temple. Those money changers we heard about earlier? Their role was to allow visitors to exchange their pennies for drachma, which was the temple currency.

When Jesus asked them whose picture was on the coin – his exact words were “whose head, and whose title”, “whose image and inscription” – he was pointing out two things to them with that question. First, they had an idol in the temple by way of that coin. The picture of the emperor, Caesar, was an idol, and the inscription on the penny would have said “son of God”.  Caesar considered himself to be a divine emperor, a son of God. What an irony that they were saying this to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word made flesh.

The question they asked Jesus would have set him up if he had responded with the sort of yes or no, either one or the other reply they were expecting.   The tax in question was an imperial tax, which was used to support the Roman occupation of Israel. If he approved of the tax, it would have been offensive to Jews, and if he disapproved of it, that would have been treasonous.  That was the way this was a trick question, a setup for him.

So he replies, as he so often does, with a statement that leaves them amazed, wondering, pondering, but in no way settled. And that is what this statement does for us, as well.

“Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.”

Well, OK. But what belongs to Caesar? And what belongs to God?

When we look down at our own currency, our coins, and we see the words “In God We Trust”, what does that say about our coins, our financial holdings? Do they belong to the government, or do they belong to God? Or do they belong to us? Which is it? How much belongs to each? How shall we separate this out?

As people of faith, we say in one way or another every week in worship that we belong to God. So what does that mean with respect to this statement? Certainly we belong to God. We are imprinted with the image of God on us, just like the coins. All that we are, all that we have, all that we ever hope to be, belongs to God. So what about our coins and our currency? What does this mean about where our money goes, including the taxes we pay? Well, Jesus leaves that up to us to pray about and to consider as we go about our daily business as God’s people, understanding how he expects us to go about that business.

A pastor whose blog I follow told a story about going to a conference on sacrificial giving, and they had placed permanent markers at every row, every pew, where they were sitting. And at some point in the conference they were asked to take out a credit card that they frequently used, and to pass the marker down the row, so everyone could draw a cross on the front or back of the credit card. And he said that for months afterward, as long as that cross made with a Sharpie marker was visible, whenever he took out that credit card to make a payment, it changed him, little by little. It made him think differently about every purchase he was making, about whether it glorified God, whether it helped him to do God’s will.

What if we could take on the same habit, whenever we pulled out our cash or our credit card we could hear the words on the currency being spoken to us: “In God We Trust”. How would that change us? How can we see the imprint of God on us, and know that we belong to God, as well as everything we have? How can we become better stewards of all that we have? How can we see that imprint of God on everyone we meet as well, and recognize and treat one another as beloved children of God?

I was assigned a book to read for a retreat I attended recently. It is called “What it Means to Be Human”, by Michelle Bartel. She writes a great deal about being in the image of God. One section really grabbed hold of me. She says:

“No matter who you are reading this book right now, you are created in the image of God. Right Now. That person that you are right now reflects the image of God. You may be a geek in high school. You are created in the image of God. You may be mentally ill. You are created in the image of God. You may be the most popular boy or girl in your class. You are created in the image of God. You may have just sinned or been sinned against. You are created in the image of God. You may be physically disabled. You are created in the image of God. You may be a convict just let out of prison. You are created in the image of God. You may have just had an affair and cheated on your husband or wife. You are created in the image of God.

All of us bear the stamp, the fingerprints, the imprint of God. All of us are God’s beloved children. All of us. All that we are, all that we have, is of God.

Let us pray that we can live our lives in that certainty, trusting in God for everything and with everything we have.

Gracious God, it is a humbling thing to think that we carry your stamp, your imprint, your fingerprints upon us, that we are truly and completely yours. We ask for your help in knowing what you would have us do, in all that we do, with everyone we meet, with every step we take and decision we make, so that everything can be done to your glory, throughout our lives and throughout your world. All this we ask in the name of Christ, who has shown us what it means to live fully in and for you. Amen.

Ready for Whatever....

Philippians 4:1-9

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement

and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received

and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Matthew 22:1-14

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'

But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.

The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'

Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."

  

I have a bit of a confession to make here.

I have kind of an issue about clothing.

It’s probably something that started a long time ago with me.

You see, I grew up in a household with a mom for whom clothing and looking appropriate really mattered.

I mean, really.

She would “advise” my dad on what he should wear when they were going shopping, or to church, or out to see some friends. And by “advise”, I mean, she would pull the clothes he should wear out of the closet and lay them on the bed for him. She’d even make him change his hat if it didn’t match up properly with what he was wearing or where they were going.

She naturally dressed me when I was small, and there are, of course, lots of pictures of me all dolled up in a dress with petticoats, anklets, patent leather shoes and white gloves, ready to go to church. She couldn’t keep me in those clothes for long, though – I was what you would have called a tomboy back then, and spent as much of the week in what you would have called “playclothes” as I could possibly get away with. But of course I didn’t get to wear those to school. At least, not until high school.  Then I was asserting my independence, and would usually be found in a T shirt and a pair of bib overalls or painter pants. I liked to embroider little things on them, like daisies or peace signs, to make them more unique. My mom liked to grab them when I wasn’t around and take the iron to them, either pressing a crease down the front of them, or else pressing in that cool hammer loop that was always on them, so it wouldn’t stick out naturally like it was supposed to.

When I went away to college I relished in the freedom of not living at home, and of being able to wear whatever I wanted. Of course, paying for it myself at that point limited me somewhat.

But by my senior year, when I started to interview for engineering jobs, I was not only well educated in my chosen field, but I was also well versed in what was called back then, “Dress for Success”.

John Molloy was the guru of dressing for success back then, for both men and women, showing us what to do and not do to be seen as professionals, ready to move up the ladder of success to the executive ranks. And so I dutifully bought my dry-clean-only business suits with matching skirts and jackets, understated button down blouses, and just the right sort of floppy bow to wear.

Then the correct size heel on the black pumps, and the right hair style, makeup and briefcase, and I thought I was ready for the executive suite.

Of course, I learned over the years that I needed a lot more than the right clothes – I also needed the right tools, capabilities, and opportunities to move up the ranks, but the concern about dressing right for corporate life never really left me, even though at heart I have always preferred blue jeans to just about anything else.

And so this parable of the feast thrown by the king, and the one who was not properly clothed, really got me thinking over the past week. Is it true that the clothes really make the man or the woman? Did my mom really know what was best when she was picking out our clothes? What is Jesus trying to tell us in this part of the parable, as well as the rest of the story?

Let’s look back at this parable as a whole. 

The king is throwing a banquet, a wedding feast in honor of his son.

As was the tradition then, he sends out the invitations, and then, once he has slaughtered and roasted the meat for the feast, he sends servants around to call on those invited and tell them that the feast is ready, it’s time to come to the table and celebrate with him.

And once you have accepted the invitation, it’s really quite insulting and offensive to not come. It’s as if you were throwing a wedding reception today, and everyone shows up, and they’re in the social hall area eating snacks and having drinks while you and the caterers make the final preparations in the kitchen, and then when you invite them to sit down for dinner, they all suddenly pull out their smart phones,tell you they just got an important text from home or work, and they just have to leave. All of them.

Yeah, right.

And you are left with large quantities of a great meal, all ready to serve, not to mention the anticipation of a wonderful evening spent together in community, and the guests have opted out, and gone away.

In this case, some have made excuses, which are really all quite lame considering the circumstances, and others respond violently when the servants come to call them; they seize the servants, mistreat and kill them.

Well. The king is enraged by the murderers, and he sends troops out to destroy their cities.

This is probably a good time to point out that, in this parable, the king is, of course, God; and the son having the wedding banquet is Jesus, and the would-be guests who murder the servants are the Jewish religious establishment, the chief priests and elders, the same as the wicked tenants in the story of the vineyard we heard last week, in the parable just before this; the destruction of the city refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman troops in the year 70 CE; and the servants who bring in “the good and the bad” are early followers of Christ who work to bring everyone into the church.

In Luke’s retelling of this parable, the anger of the king is not translated into destruction, but turns directly toward grace, as he tells the servant to go find new people to invite. In Matthew’s version of the parable, that grace comes next, after the destruction. In either case, this is the point where the story becomes quite similar to the stories of the landowner and the tenants, or the vineyard owner and the hired help.

Grace is displayed as more and more people are invited, and even compelled to come to the table, to fill all the seats. And for the most part, they respond to this invitation, understanding their obligation to come ready to celebrate, to party along with the king.

But there’s this one guy, and he catches the king’s attention - because he’s not dressed for the party, according to Jesus. And when the king asks him why, he is speechless. So, we are told that he is thrown out into the outer darkness, complete with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And that reconnects us back to my opening remarks, because there was always much weeping and gnashing of teeth when my dad or I did not dress in a manner suitable to my mom.

But I digress.

But seriously, what is up with the need for proper clothing here? What is Jesus trying to tell us? What does this mean for us today?

Well, there are a number of theories about this. Some say that hosts at a wedding would typically hand out wedding robes or gowns for the guests at the door, and if this person wasn’t wearing it, it was a rejection much like those who bailed out on the invitation earlier in the story.

Some say that while the invitation to God’s table, to God’s kingdom, is free and un-earnable, that we are obliged to respond, and that obedience is expected from those who accept the invitation.

I see this as an issue of readiness.

When we heard about the workers being hired for the vineyard – some first thing in the morning, some later in the afternoon, and some at the very end of the day – we made an assumption, didn’t we, that all those who were hired were ready to do the work? It goes without saying that people came with the right tools and abilities – they were ready, willing, and able.

So the question here that is raised by the man who comes not properly dressed, and not ready to say why, is this; Are we ready? When we are invited to the feast, will we come ready to party, to celebrate, to rejoice? When we are called to work in the vineyard, will we show up with our tools, eager to take part in God’s kingdom?

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul calls us to go past being called, to being chosen – to live in a new way, to be clothed in the way we have been transformed, to be clothed in Christ. To clothes ourselves in compassion, and kindness, and love.

In today’s reading from the end of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul gives us a similar charge, and although it’s not directly connected with how we are dressed, it has everything to do with how we display Christ to others through our everyday lives. He says:

• ·      Rejoice together, in community.
• ·      Let your gentleness be known by everyone.
• ·      Don’t worry about ANYTHING.
• ·      Bring EVERYTHING in prayer to God. With thanksgiving.
• ·      Think about WHATEVER is true.
• o   WHATEVER is honorable.
• o   WHATEVER is pure, is pleasing.
• o   WHATEVER is commendable.
• o   If there is ANY excellence.
• o   If there is ANYTHING worthy of praise,  then come on people – think about these things!  Focus on these things!  Dress yourself in these things!

And keep on doing these things that you have learned and heard and seen in me – because I have tried, above all, to clothe myself in Christ, and so you can see that in me, and then you can show that to others. And then, the God of peace will be with you, and the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus..

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us put on the clothing of Christ, and let us always be ready to rejoice, to glorify God, to celebrate the resurrection and the new life that we have received, to share it with others, to be ready for whatever, freely serving our Lord and Savior through loving kindness to others, because we have been loved by Christ.

Amen.

The Friday Five - for RevGalBlogPals

1. How do you sign off in your emails, professional and personally? For example, you say “Blessings”, “Take Care”, “Remember, the Devil is watching you” (o.k. just kidding on that one.) Let us know and why…

Blessings or Grace and Peace, usually....

2. If you were an animal TODAY, what is it and why?

Cat. Lying in the sunshine....

3. If you get snarky, what triggers it? If you don’t get snarky, please, what is the secret?

Excessive whining or gossiping. Blah Blah Blah.....

4. Look up from your computer/tablet/phone screen. What is the first favorite thing your eyes land on. Describe it. (For example, I just did this, and my eyes landed on a little angel made out of multicolored wires whose head and wings are quite askew because of being chewed upon by my puppy. That aside, I love it because it was a gift from two little girls who came often to my office in my last call to play with all the tshotke on my table. They wanted to add to it.)

A painting hung on my wall, purchased while on a cruise long ago... A Peter Max of bright, bold flowers in a vase.

5. Do you have a favorite pair of socks? Tell us about them!

Black socks, blue toes and heels, and graphics of bicycles all over them. Wearing them today, in fact!

Gains and Losses

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:

circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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.For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 21:33-46

"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. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance." So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 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."

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'?

 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.

The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

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Many times when we hear personal testimonies given, we hear people talking about the bad paths they were on, and how faith in Christ enabled them to get off their destructive path and turn their life around.

But this is not what the apostle Paul is saying when he begins our passage for today with a bit of autobiography.

No, he is giving us a list of achievements. Because the truth was, he was an overachiever. He was an exemplary Jew in every way. He was born into it – “a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews.”

He was a purebred.

He was raised into it, starting with his circumcision on the eighth day.

He was not only a Pharisee, but he was part of an small sect of Pharisees, an elite group who were faithful and sincere upholders of the law. 

He excelled in all things Jewish.

His zeal for the law was clearly identified by the efficiency and effectiveness he showed in his persecution of the Followers of the Way, the early church.

So even though Paul changed his ways from persecution of the church to building up the church, he clearly understands that his past history, his former self, was not a story of wild living that was saved by turning to Jesus, but was rather a testimony of righteous living, of numerous accomplishments, successes and gains, which became as nothing because of Christ. All these credits were transferred

to the debit side of the account for him.

And he makes it clear that it’s not that his former life was not filled with things of value; it’s that the value of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord surpasses all that, surpasses everything.

He gives up all things for the sake of Christ, and regards all the former things as rubbish, as sewer trash, as excrement – the meaning of this Greek word in current day terms is not something I would share from the pulpit, but the King James Version comes the closest to doing it justice when they say

“I do count them as dung, that I may win Christ.”

Paul now understands that the righteousness he sought after in his former life, is nothing compared to the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith in Christ.

It’s important for us to realize that Paul is writing these words from prison. The things he has given up are strikingly clear to him as he writes these words. He lives from day to day, on the run when he is free, trying to stay one step ahead of those who would keep him from proclaiming the word - those who were his colleagues, his peers, in his former life.

To me, this makes his words all the more earnest and even poignant as I listen to him speak them in my mind’s way of hearing him.

“I want to know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the sharing of his sufferings, by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Even as he acknowledges that righteousness comes from faith, he shares his desire to know Christ, to gain Christ, to be found in Christ, to make the resurrection goal his own goal. And he says he presses on to make that his own, because “Jesus has made me his own”.

So, forgetting what lies behind, all those successes of his past life, and straining forward to what lies ahead, he presses on toward the goal, for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

This is the goal of his life.

Let us contrast this with the goals that the tenants seem to have in our parable of the vineyard. The landowner has leased the vineyard to these tenants, and has left the country.

The common expectation would be that the tenants would live there and would work the land.

According to our story, the landowner has rights to at least part of the produce, and so he sends slaves to harvest and collect the portion that is his.

But the tenants seem to have forgotten that they do not possess the fruit of this land, nor the vines on which they grow.

Their goal is to have it all.

So they beat one slave, kill another and stone the third.

We might expect the landowner to retaliate, or at least to send the authorities, to seek justice, but instead he sends more slaves, and they too are mistreated in a similar way.

And so then, almost unexplainably, the landowner sends his son, alone and basically vulnerable, trusting that the tenants “will respect him.” After all, this is his son, his heir.

But the tenants, who are still striving for the goal of having the vineyard for themselves, seize the landowners’ son, throw him out of the vineyard and kill him.

Now Jesus uses this parable to show the Pharisees that he is talking about them. But there are numerous other messages in this parable, and some of them are closely connected to the same themes we have heard coming from Paul.

What do we gain by living in Christ? What matters in this life? Is it our heritage, or our education, or our socioeconomic standing, or the things we earn, or possess?

Is it the badge of honor we gain from our accomplishments, our holdings? Is it the size of our house, or the acres of land we possess, or the fruit of that land?

No.

First of all, this parable reminds us that God is the vinegrower. The world and all that is in it belongs to God, not to us. We are stewards of the earth. The fruit of the vine, that which we produce, all of it belongs to God. None of it belongs to us.

And so hanging onto it, stealing it, fighting and killing for it, makes no sense. This is Paul’s point. All those gains mean nothing, compared to the prize of knowing Jesus Christ.

So, where is the good news in this?

I see the good news in two places: first, that it doesn’t matter what our achievements or accomplishments or collections are – because our favor in the eyes of God has nothing to do with that. It cannot be earned. And so thanks be to God, we can do nothing to make God love us more, and we can do nothing to make God love us less.

And the second piece of good news in this is that we are the branches, we are the fruit of the vine – our vocations, our acts of kindness, our generosity, all these fruits of the Spirit combine across the whole body of Christ to produce the new wine, to fill the new wineskins, to serve in the world as the body and blood of Christ.

As so as we approach the table to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, invited here by Jesus, we can commit once again to being good stewards of all the abundance God has provided for us, and to know that we are invited to this table, just like all those who come to this table all around the world, not because we’ve earned it, but because grace has been freely given to each and every one of us.

Thanks be to God! Amen.