Pentecost 21

October 5, 2008
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Texts:  Matthew 21: 33-46
Other: Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3: 4b-14

  

   Let us pray every day, in the words of today's psalm, to let the words of our mouths & the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in God's sight, our strength & our redeemer.  Amen.

   We began today's lessons with the recitation of the Ten Commandments, the basic law which Moses brought down Mt. Sinai to the Hebrew people as they were doing time in the desert because of their lack of faith in God's ability to provide a place for them in the promised land.  Our psalmist celebrates the Mosaic law in Psalm 19 today, & the 1^st 4 which outline a holy & healthy relationship with God combined with the final 6 encouraging appropriate living with our neighbors are still good guidelines for us today.  Jesus summarized them into two great commandments:  love of God & love of neighbor as fully as we can. 

   In his epistle to the Philippians, Paul's iteration of his own qualifications for leadership includes his membership in the correct Hebrew family, tribe, & nation as well as his position as a Pharisee, a teacher of the law, & he declares that his righteousness under the law has been blameless. 

   Most of us would consider ourselves law-abiding citizens who endeavor to fulfill the 10 Commandments, at least as summarized by Jesus in the two greater ones, in our daily lives.  The law in itself is definitely a good thing.  We are horrified when we see the result of the looting & lawlessness made possible by a disaster such as Hurricane Ike.  We all wish everyone would be as courteous as we try to be at blinking lights which are still far too prevalent in our city post-storm.  Laws are necessary ways for us to order society—both secular & religious.

   Nonetheless, Paul tells us that his own impressive resume counts for nothing now that he knows Jesus as Christ, his Lord.  Paul says that the gift of Christ in his life far surpasses all that he knew prior to his conversion.  Christ Jesus interrupted Paul's life dramatically & "made me his own," as Paul tells it, & it has turned Paul's life around.  When Jesus the Christ reached out to Paul, calling him to reach beyond Israel to invite those who had not known the Mosaic law into fellowship with Christ, Paul found a richer, fuller life to which he pledged the rest of his life.

   I'm always brought up short when I read or hear one of Jesus' parables like today's to realize that his strongest criticism is for folks like you & me who are the stalwart members of society, those neighbors you may have gotten to know the first time after the storm as well as ourselves.  The chief priests & Pharisees realized he was speaking about them when he told of the wicked tenants who wanted to keep all the produce. The religious leaders of old had turned away the old prophets like Moses & Elijah who called them back again & again to lives of righteousness.  Kings & holy men in later Israel had sent Amos back to his flocks & dumped Jeremiah down a well because they reminded God's people in good times & in hard ones that their call was to love God fully & to care for others, especially those who were the least, the last, & the lost.  It is the religious leaders of Jesus' day whom Jesus says have been least faithful because they have rejected the son, the chosen one, the cornerstone, & because they have not produced God's fruits & committed them to others.  In today's world, good citizens & good religious people still get tripped up with majoring in minors & often miss the crux of what Jesus came & taught about.  We are called to be ever-vigilant not to fall into that trap.

   I was recently reminded of a story about old Cherokee teaching his grandson about life.  "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.  "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.  The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.  This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."  The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"  The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

      Now I know that I've jumped from vineyards to wolves, but I believe that we often feed the wolf inside us which tells us that someone else or God is at fault when life is not going as we would like it to go.  We excuse inappropriate behavior by saying that we just can't help ourselves.  That's true.  We can't help ourselves.  But neither can God help us when we're busy feeding the wolf of our trying to run our own show.  Surrender to God is really feeding the good wolf; then God can do something new in our lives.

      Jesus' parable is really about this very thing.  The landowner, the God-figure in this parable, sends slaves to collect his produce.  Notice that God doesn't just want part of the produce; God wants it all.  God wants all of our lives.  God wants us to give ourselves wholly to God's keeping.  Instead, we kill the messengers.  Usually, that means we blame God's servants or God Godself because we can't have life on our terms instead of on life's terms.  When we insist on living life on our own terms, running the show ourselves, we are feeding the bad wolf.  No wonder we're thrown out of the vineyard & it's given to those who will give God all the produce at the harvest time.  God expects us to give all to God.

      What do we get in return?  Only the Kingdom of God.  Only the joys of living as brothers & sisters of Jesus Christ in God's Kingdom.  Only the opportunity to experience God's reign even while we are here on earth, not just wait & hope for it in the next life.  What a deal! 

      This whole business of giving our all to God has particular relevance during this stewardship season.  Of course, we at Hope need each person & family to consider faithfully what you'll contribute to the continued ministry of this congregation.  We have no one endowing our church, so the only way we can do God's  vineyard work here in near northwest Houston is for each of us to make a serious commitment to our life together.  That includes our fulfilling our 2008 pledge as well as prayerfully considering what we can commit to for 2009.

      However, a stewardship campaign is at base an opportunity for each of us—or each family—to confront ourselves with how much of the bounty which God has entrusted to us we are going to make available for our faith family to use for community transformation & for outreach beyond our walls.  We need to give until it feels good in our souls.  Oh, & by the way, we're not just talking about giving out of our pocketbooks now.

      So what keeps us from giving all the produce to God?  Why do we continue to try to run the show ourselves?  Good question, you might say.  I would challenge you during this week to be aware of the times you have the opportunity to feed the bad wolf with your own self-will or feed the good wolf by letting go & letting God run your life.  Remember, though, that we know the outcome of the story.  The good wolf will persevere.  Christ is risen!  The victory has already been won for us.  Will we accept that new life which the good wolf offers?