20th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22
Matthew 21:33-46
Our Gifts
33* ¶ "Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country.
34* When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit;
35* and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.
36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them.
37* Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ’They will respect my son.’
38* But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ’This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’
39* And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
40* When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?"
41* They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
42* Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: ’The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43* Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it."
44*
45* When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.
46* But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet. RSV
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
A Quaker once posted a sign on one of the choicest fields of his farm. It states, "This land will be given to the first satisfied person who passes this way" .
He no sooner arrived back at his house than a man knocked at his door. Sir," he said, "I just saw your sign and I want you to know that I am a completely satisfied man. I have a devoted family, a successful business, financial security for the future and I am in excellent health."
The old Quaker looked his visitor over very carefully and then said "Pray tell me, friend, if thou art completely satisfied man, why dost thou want my land?"
The gospel lesson this morning about the parable of the renters and the landowner is at times a difficult parable to understand. However, I think it does have two distinct points.
The first point is that the kingdom of God belongs to those who believe in Jesus.
The second point of the parable is about in one sense being satisfied with what God has given us and using it to the best of our abilities.
A landowner built a vineyard and then hired servants, or renters, to run it. After it had produced a crop, he sent his servants to harvest the rewards of the vineyard. But the renters had different ideas. They wanted the crop for themselves, so they killed the servants.
The landowner sent more servants and the same thing happened. So he decided to send his son. But the renters even killed the son.
Then Jesus asks of question of the religious leaders who were listening. So what should the landowner do. The religious leaders said, the landowner should kill the renters and find new ones.
Then Jesus laid a bombshell on them he said:
43* Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it."
Jesus was telling the religious leaders that God had given them the nation of Israel, but they had not taken care of it very well. He sent his servant, the prophets, but they had been killed or not listened to. Then God sent his son, Jesus. And Jesus was telling them that he too would be killed. So then the kingdom of God would be given to others.
And those others would be the gentiles and those who believed that Jesus was the son of God.
The kingdom of God is given to those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the one who came from God to deliver us from death and give us salvation.
In one sense this parable speaks about repentance, turning to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation.
What does repentance mean ?
It is more then just leaving something behind !
It is more then just stopping sinning !
It is a turning from sin and a turning to Jesus
Repentance is a daily activity. Repentance is thinking about entering the waters of our Baptism daily, drowning the old self and allowing the new self with the grace of God to emerge from the water.
Maybe a good way to think about this is to look at Luther’s Prayer of repentance which we could all pray each day.
"Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My lord, fill it.
I am weak in faith; strengthen thou me. I am cold in love; warm and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbors.
I do not have a strong and firm faith; at time I doubt and am unable to trust Thee altogether. O Lord, help me.
In Thee I have sealed the treasure of all I have. I am poor,Thou art rich and didst come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; thou are upright. With me, there is an abundance of sin, in Thee is the fullness of righteousness.
Therefore I will remain with Thee whom I can receive, but to Whom I may not give." amen
Luther’s prayer shows us both points to this parable. He is asking for personal forgiveness and he is asking to be filled with love so that he might go out and serve his neighbor with love.
And I think the second point of this parable is that we are stewards of what God has given us and we need to use our gifts and talents to the best of our abilities.
With the fall harvest coming in the heartland, our thoughts could turn to the stewardship of our natural resources, and that would be fine.
However, I would like to just look at our unique self and what God has given us and how we use it.
I think about my own life and the gifts I have received and how while I was in the parish, I used all these gifts for his ministry. In a sense, all that I had done in life, all the training I had had, came to use for me while I was a parish pastor.
Let me explain:
In college, I became a drama major. I enjoyed it, but soon realized I was not as good as I needed to be to teach drama. But I enjoyed acting, I enjoyed being on stage. I enjoyed dressing up in a costume and pretending to be someone else.
So I switched to become an elementary education teacher. I enjoyed teaching. I enjoyed being creative with lesson plans, with different ways of teaching. I enjoyed being with six and seventh graders.
But then the Lord called, and I felt compelled to go to seminary and become a pastor. I enjoyed seminary, I enjoyed learning and expanding my faith and organizing my concepts of faith and believe into something I could share with others.
Then I was called to my first parish. I soon realized that all my training and experiences would be used and I was glad for them.
I actually enjoyed teaching confirmation. I liked sixth, seventh and eight graders. I was comfortable with them I knew how to teach them. I knew how to teach, period. After all, I had taught school for 3 years.
I enjoyed during Lent dressing up in costume to deliver a first person sermon. it was like being a drama major all over again.
I enjoyed preaching. I enjoyed writing sermons and using words to describe my faith and how I saw the gospel each week. I enjoyed telling stories as I remember my father would at the supper table about his life at work!
While I was in college during the summers off, I worked at a camp for handicapped children, so when a puppet ministry was offered to go around to churches with puppets who were handicapped and tell a story about disability, I jumped at it. Not only would I be able to draw on my own experiences of growing up with a disability, but I could draw on the experiences I saw at camp. So a group of women and I did a puppet ministry for several years dressing up as clowns and using these puppets to talk about disabilities.
And now that I cannot serve a parish any longer, I taught myself how to use computers, I learned HTML, and developed a web based ministry where I continue to share my ideas, and the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
God has given us gifts to use for His glory.
Are you using yours? Are you producing fruits?
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale
