Who Is In Charge?
Posted on Oct 05, 2014 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen
Jesus has been on a roll lately in this Gospel of Matthew and he has been using parables to try and teach not only his disciples, but also those religious leaders who have been challenging him. So, today, once again, he asks the Pharisees to listen to another parable. We call this the parable of the “Wicked Tenants.” This landlord had made expensive improvements to his land, so that he would be able to live off that land. But, for some reason he was preparing to leave the country, so, he entered into a lease with some tenants to take care of the vineyard in his absence. But when the harvest was in, which would have been the time he would have collected on his lease, the landlord sent representatives to collect his share of the produce. After all, it was his land, his improvements, his vines that the harvest would be gathered from, and he had a lease agreement with the tenants. But, the tenants felt differently. They had worked the vineyards. They were the ones who sweated through those hot days, tending to the vines, and bringing the harvest in, what right did this landowner have to their harvest? He wasn’t in charge, they were, and so even when he sent his own son to collect what was rightfully his, they rejected his son, and killed him.
This parable speaks to the heart of the issues we have been wrestling with the past several weeks and that is “Who really is in charge of our lives?”
If we think about what Jesus is saying, the very first thing Jesus implies in this parable, is that God has created a very valuable, and rich world and since he cannot care for it by himself, he has entrusted us to be the stewards of his creation. Wow, that is awesome! We get to be the ones who care for his creation, we get to tend the creation and we are the ones who get to bring in the harvest and enjoy most of the harvest. But, in return for this trust, God does expect that we return a portion of those harvests to him not for him personally, but so that more of his creation might experience the joy and richness of the harvest. Not a bad deal for those who are the tenants, that is you and me. All God asks of us is that we be good stewards with what is rightfully his.
But for some reason, we humans, become possessive very easily, even with those things and people that do not really belong to us. For example, when we talk about the church, specific ally Salem, we love to say things like, “Well this is MY church,” or “This is our church!” But that is not true. This church is not ours. WE have only been called to care for it and make it strong, so that it might be a light to all who are in need of it. We so often fail to see that the church, Salem, is Christ’s church. It is the very body of Christ. We resist change because we like our church the way it is, but Christ wants us to be constantly changing, not for change sake, but for Christ’s sake, so that the world might know this place is the very body of Christ.
We also tend to think very lives are own, but the truth is, we belong to Christ. How do I know that, well, because we are baptized. And in the very act of baptism we proclaim that in those waters of baptism, we are publically claimed by Christ. In those waters, we are baptized not only into Christ life, but also his death, which means that we have been granted the gift of eternal life.
As people of the Christian faith, we profess that we are called to being good news to the poor, free the oppressed, and give sight to the blind, but too, often we are too busy with our own lives to see that our lives belong to Christ and that it is our duty and our joy that we should first do these things for Christ’s sake.
WE have been called to be good stewards, but all too often we view stewardship as a burden instead of a joyful response to all that God has done.
And it is not just with the church that we become possessive, we also can be possessive with tour relationships with our families. So often, we can begin to take for granted the love that others have for us. Love is never a matter of meeting halfway; it is always a matter of going the extra mile. And when love is truly the motivator, the extra mile is never a burden. There is always a need to be worthy of trust if a relationship is going to be strong.
In our professional life, so often we cease to seek ways to benefit our clients, or customers, or employees, or patients, or students, or parishioners and view the bottom line of profit as more important than service.
In all our lives, the one who does truly own us, the one who is truly in charge of our lives, God, has expectations. The commandments of scripture are a reminder that God has expectations for the chosen, chosen not for privilege but for service, for witness. a harvest is expected.
All, too, often, like those wicked tenants, we want to reject God’s ways as old and inappropriate today, and we want to pretend that we are in charge. When we try to be in charge, it speaks of privilege, our misuse of freedom, or our arrogance. When we try to be in charge, all, too, often we become an exclusive community who seeks its own needs and not the needs of others.
When we proclaim Christ as our Messiah with our lips, we are truly freed to live in such a way that we do not need to be in charge. WE have been granted a great freedom that was bought with a price. WE re challenged today to remember who is in charge and to use our freedom in ways that benefit not only ourselves and our loved ones but in ways that will benefit others, particularly those who live at the margins of our society, those with no voice.
So, who is in charge of your life? Is it the sports and activities that have taken over your life so that you have not room for God? Is it your career that demands so much of your life that you can’t even find time to experience the joy of your family and friends. Is it love of wealth that has enticed you so, that you see no reason so share that wealth, that is a blessing from God, with others?
There is a warning in the parable. When we refuse to recognize the one who is ultimately in charge, we are held accountable. If we profess Christi s our Messiah, then we are accountable for what we do with our faith. Even though we speak of the patience of God, there is that point where we are accountable.
Last week, we announced that we would launch a new Stewardship financial campaign, but for that campaign to be successful, we need all hands on deck. The congregations, Christ’s church, needs you to step up. We have said with our lips that this community is important to us. What we do with this campaign will determine how we can proceed with following Christ’s call for our lives. We have an opportunity to state with our actions tomorrow evening that Christ is in charge of our lives, by making time to be here for 90 minutes to see how each of us might volunteer to work on this campaign. Ultimately, this campaign is not about money, it is about how we will better serve our Lord in the future and I pray that tomorrow, all of you will show up here to be a part of this.
We have a loving, merciful Lord that is truly in charge of our lives and I pray that this week our actions, not our words will say, Jesus is my Lord. Amen.