Sunday Sermon - Oct. 4

 October 4, 2020

18^th Sunday after Pentecost

 

Isaiah 5:1-7

Psalm 80

Philippians 3:4b-14

Matthew 21:33-46

 Please pray with me,

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen. 

Woah…just another great parable from Matthew’s gospel again, right? 

And with those zingers at the end…

Jesus says, have you never read in the scriptures?

And therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people what produces the fruits of the kingdom. 

Tough stuff…

But there must be good news somewhere, right? 

It may be tough to find in the gospel lesson and maybe because when we hear this, we don’t think Jesus is talking to us or about us. 

You see, we are still in the thick of all these conversations where the chief priests and Pharisees and people in the temple with religious education and authority are wondering where Jesus gets this authority he is preaching and teaching with. 

Maybe we hear this passage and think, he is addressing a certain group of people at a certain time so they hear a certain message. 

That is most certainly true. 

Yes, Jesus is addressing the people around him and specifically pointing out those in his midst, the teachers and leaders in the temple who had become so focused on the laws of the faith that they had forgotten about living the faith. 

It seems that that religious leaders of Jesus’ time were more focused on following the law than being shaped by the law to show and share God’s love with others. 

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time were doing what they thought was good, and just and right.  But in their following of the law…they lost sight of why they were doing it.  And in terms of today’s parable with the terrible tenants, they may have even forgotten that they, too, were tenants of God’s kingdom.  That they, too, were stewards of God’s creation, God’s temple and God’s love, but they were acting in such a way that they seemed to think it all belonged to them. 

When you think you’re doing something right…and then someone calls you out on it…it doesn’t feel good. 

You wonder why it’s not right…it’s the way we’ve always done it. 

We don’t want to change…we know from our life experiences – what we have been taught and what we have personally experienced is true….and we will move forward based on that gained knowledge and experience. 

So that chief priests and Pharisees are like…wait, what?  We’re the tenants who are not giving the produce to the landowner…and we think that we own the land now, so we’ll kill the heir so that it will be ours forever…wait…what? 

They are caught.  Between doing what they have known to have been good and right and true….and that is no longer the case. 

Maybe they are struggling to fully come to terms with who this Jesus is and what he is teaching. 

Maybe they are struggling with Jesus’ teaching, struggling to be open to a new or different way of experiencing God’s love and how they are called to be faithful stewards. 

In their mind, they probably thought they were fine stewards of God’s creation, God’s kingdom, God’s temple and God’s salvation. 

Yet, here comes Jesus…like he always does….breaking into the old…and breaking open a new way to feel, see and experience God’s love for all of God’s people. 

Leave it to Jesus…the savior of the world…to bring forth a new experience, new views, new teachings – yet all coming from the same God – the God of creation, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Moses and Miriam, the God of the laws found in the very scriptures the religious leaders had been prayerfully reading, studying and living out in their day to day lives. 

Just when you think you’re getting it just right, bam!  Jesus is like…but what about if you experienced God’s love and grace through a tax collector, the poor, the sick, the lame, or the outcast? 

Or, Jesus says, what if the tax collectors, prostitutes, the poor, the sick, the lame, and the outcast experienced God’s grace and then opened your eyes and your life to experience it? 

Woah…

Hard stuff.  But good stuff.  Amazing stuff.  Amazing grace. 

That’s the good news in this parable…the hard stuff but at the same time the amazing stuff.  That just as Jesus challenges the chief priests and the Pharisees, we too hear and heed a question and call. 

It’s one that we’ll talk about in our Bible study on Tuesday evening as we dig a little deeper into this text together.  But I want you to hear these two questions now:

What does it mean to you to be a faithful steward? 

AND

Will we have the courage to be faithful stewards, bearing fruit? 

These are tough questions that come as a call from Jesus. 

What does it mean to you to be a faithful steward? 

Let’s just remember for a moment that all that we have, and all that we are…it doesn’t belong to us.  It’s God’s.  All of it.  God’s. 

So, thinking about all that you have and all that you are, what does it mean to you to be a faithful steward of all that you have?

Each of us will answer differently. 

In just a moment we will hear how our young and young at heart are faithful stewards, we will hear how they share and show God’s love. 

We each respond out of God’s abundant grace and gifts differently. 

And that’s okay. 

Some days we will respond generously…giving abundantly out of what we have been gifted. 

Some days we will be less generous, we will worry about having enough and we will hold on a little more tightly to the abundance God has given us. 

Some days we will be faithful stewards, bearing fruit.  Showing grace. Working for justice.  Giving voice to the least among us.  Standing with those who have been exploited or abused.  Speaking words of love to words and actions of hate.  Renouncing evil and all it’s forces that we see around us. 

We will experience each day in a new way, because we are on a journey.  As Paul writes in the letter to the Philippians,

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. 

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

That, my friends, is the good news. 

That on this life long journey while we press forward, we know that we have already been claimed by Christ.  We know that Christ Jesus has made each of us his own. 

Called by Christ, Gathered in Grace… we press forward, joyfully serving in the vineyard here and now. 

How do you know you are claimed by Christ? 

Just look in the mirror…at the cross on your forehead.  The one you received at your baptism. 

In addition to chalk this morning, I was tempted to hand out sharpies so you could trace the sign of the cross on your forehead.  I decided against it.  Or the idea of a Snapchat filter that shows the cross on your forehead?  But remember dear ones, that you are named and claimed and called by Christ to work in the vineyard here and now.  To share and show God’s love here and now.  

You can do it. 

You are equipped with a cross on your forehead and abundant love and grace in your heart. 

Show and share that love with others in all that you say and do. 

And may the peace, which surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus and let all God’s people say, amen.