Life Meets Ministry: Sermon: Caring for God's "vineyard"

Pentecost 17A/Lectionary 27

October 5, 2014

Matthew 21.33-46

In your bulletin you will find an insert with some words printed on there. I’d like to start this sermon by reading those words together with you.

I believe that God has created me

and all that exists.

He has given me and still preserves

my body and soul with all their powers.

He provides me with food and clothing,

home and family, daily work,

and all I need from day to day.

God also protects me in time of danger

and guards me from every evil.

All this he does out of fatherly and divine

goodness and mercy,

though I do not deserve it.

Therefore I surely ought to thank and praise,

serve and obey him.

This is most certainly true.

Anyone know where those words come from? Did anyone have to memorize them when you

were in confirmation class? They are from the Small Catechism, Luther’s explanation of the first article of the Creed. In other words, this is what Lutherans believe is meant when we declare those words each Sunday, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.”

I recently heard our new bishop speak, and he said he had memorized these words in confirmation class, and even all these years later, they remain the foundational words of his faith. When he doesn’t know what to say, it is these words, written on his heart from a young age, that come to his lips. I haven’t in the past made our confirmation students memorize parts of the catechism, but our bishop convinced me, and so we are asking them to memorize at least the Creed, if not the explanation to go with it. It would do you well to do the same!

I wanted to start with these words today because they shed an important light on Jesus’ parable about the wicked tenants. Like so many of Jesus’ parables, this one seems simple on the surface, but beneath the surface, it delivers a punch. The owner of the vineyard has hired tenants to steward and care for his vineyard in his absence. When it comes time for the harvest, the vineyard owner, in good faith, sends servants to collect the produce from the stewards of the vineyard. The stewards, or tenants, beat and kill the servants. Eventually he sends his own son, assuming that they will respect and listen to his son, but of course they don’t – they kill him, too. Traditionally this

parable is read as an allegory, in which the owner is God, the vineyard is the kingdom of God, the servants are the many prophets God has sent over the generations, the son is Jesus. When Jesus asks them the closing question, regarding what should be done with these wicked tenants, the Pharisees unknowingly condemn themselves to “a miserable death.” It’s all very simple – when we read it at arm’s length.

But looking not only at what happened, but why it happened, it is possible to see ourselves in the parable. In other words, what is the root of the evil tenants’ wickedness? What makes them do what they do? For all intents and purposes, they have cared well for the vineyard, which has been fruitful. The stewards have been responsible and careful and attentive in their duties.

So the root of their wickedness is not sloth or irresponsibility – rather, the fundamental cause of their evil is that they have forgotten who owns the vineyard. Though they have been appointed as stewards of the vineyard, they have come to think that it belongs to them.

And so I suppose it is understandable that they treat the son as they do when he arrives, for he is trying to take what they believe is rightfully theirs! It seems foolish for them to think that after killing off all those servants and the son as well, that the landlord would just throw up his hands and say, “Fine, you win! It’s yours!” More likely, they think that the owner is already dead, and the son has come to collect the inheritance, but they aren’t willing to give up what they believe to be theirs. If they kill the son, there is no one left to inherit it, and then the vineyard could truly be theirs!

Ownership is a slippery slope like that. While there is joy in ownership – home ownership, for example, or having a car to go places in, or even having children – that joy can quickly turn to pride, possessiveness, and entitlement. It is so easy to start giving ourselves more credit than is warranted or deserved, because, by gun, we worked hard for what we have and we will do with it what we want! We are not accountable to anyone else for what we do with what belongs to us!

How easy it is to forget that we are not the owners, that indeed, “God created me and all the exists.” I’ve heard it suggested that when we say those opening words of the creed, that we should add the word “owner”: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator and owner of heaven and earth.” Perhaps this would help us to remember that we are not, in the end, the owner of all that we have!

A study was released some years ago about what goes into the production of an acre of wheat. For one acre, you need: 4 million pounds of water, 6800 pounds of oxygen, 5200 pounds of carbon… it goes on, citing amounts of various minerals and chemicals, for a total of 4,012,504 pounds of chemicals, not to mention the right amount of sunshine at the right times. In the end, only about 5% of the produce of that one acre can be attributed to human effort – and even that planning, energy, and labor of the farmer, if we are to believe the words of Creed, come from God. “He has given me and still preserves my body and soul with all their powers. He provides me with food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.” Oh yes, God provides all of that as well. Even giving ourselves credit for 5% would be awfully generous.

So if we aren’t the owners, then how do we manage or steward what has been put in our care? I heard a joke this week – my apologies to anyone with Swiss heritage. After God had created the

Swiss Alps and meadows, with cows!

first Swiss, God asked him what he would like to have in his country. “I would like some mountains,” said the Swiss, and so God created the Alps. “I would also like some farmland,” said the Swiss, and voila, the beautiful meadows of Switzerland appeared. “And delicious cheese, and chocolate!” said the Swiss, and God filled the meadows with the best milk cows in the world. “Tell me, God,” said the Swiss, “is there anything I can do for you?” God said, “Sure. I’d like a glass of milk to drink from one of the cows.” “Certainly,” replied the Swiss, and handed God a glass of milk. “That will be four francs fifty.”

That’s what happens when we think of ourselves as the owners, you see: we think of what we are due, even from God. Like the tenants in the parable, when we think in terms of ownership, we think in terms of what we’re entitled to, not in terms of what we could return. We forget that part of the catechism that says God does all of this out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy though we do not deserve it, and that therefore we surely ought to thank and praise, serve and obey him. Or as Psalm 116 puts it, “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?”

Today at St. Martin we are doing a spiritual gifts inventory after worship. This is a chance to discover what gifts God has given each of us – in addition, of course, to “food and clothing, home and family, daily work, and all I need from day to day.” We’ll discover what particular gifts we each have – mercy, wisdom, music, discernment, the list goes on. What gifts has God given you to be a steward of, to use to bring joy to your life and to better this world? [I hope you will stay for this time of discernment and discovery – we did it last week at Bethlehem and people had a lot of fun.] If we consider these gifts also to be owned by God and given to us to steward, how might we use them to “thank, praise, serve and obey”?

We have been greatly blessed in this life by a God who loves us so much as to provide our basic needs, particular gifts to bring us joy, land, rain and sun for farming and food, and in addition, God’s own Son – by whom our sins are forgiven, death’s doors have been blown open, and we can know the persistent promise of God’s love and presence. All this God has provided out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, though we do not deserve it. May we learn to be stewards who manage these many gifts not with wickedness and entitlement, but with love and generosity.

As our closing prayer, I’d like to have us read once again Luther’s explanation of the first article of the creed.