Year A

Philippians 3:4b-14 & Matthew 21:33-46

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Grateful Guests?

People come to faith in Jesus Christ in many ways. I was in my early teens when after a serious health issue where I almost died, I began to know that God was active in my life. In my mid thirty’s, I attended a Cursillo weekend, a three day retreat or a short course in Christianity that set me on fire to know more about God, Jesus, and this Holy Spirit that seemed to take hold of me. We each have our stories. For Paul, it was God acting in Christ that changed his perspective entirely on the way he regarded his life and all creation. Much the same way as a young teen, I began to regard my life as different. What was once central to Paul, his God-given religious identity as a Pharisee, plus a healthy dose of pride in his own achievements, he didn’t need or want any more.

Paul had fallen in love with God and he uses his personal testimony to authenticate and energize his call to action. He encourages the believers at Philippi to hold on to and live out core Christian values; values such as, love and generosity for God and neighbor. For Paul, the primary goal of faith was to know or experience Christ. This goal of faith to know Jesus has been the backbone of Christianity since its beginnings. Yet, today there are many people who don’t seem to want Jesus, the church, the Bible, regular worship, or any form of discipleship or service. Regular membership in all Christian denominations has been declining as more and more people leave these things of God in favor of some vague “spirit” that provides some vague benefit in their lives. This rejection of Jesus and the church in a growing apathy and indifference is what some call the “new atheism.”

Yet, this rejecting of God is not a new thing. At the very heart of the parable today in the gospel and the context from which Jesus is speaking to the people, is the idea of the people of Israel rejecting God. At the center of this parable of rejection of and deadly violence against the landowner’s son, as Matthew looks back along with the early Christian community is the reminder that at the very heart of faith is relationship with Jesus. The tenants seized and killed not a doctrine or idea but the landowner’s son. The gospel comes to us as a person and like the authorities in Jesus’ day, we do the rejecting. Therefore, this parable is especially concerned to raise the issue that the Lord will be rejected, not only by strangers, but by those of his own household, the church and especially by those in positions of leadership. We don’t have to look very far to know the gospel is under attack.

Leading us to ask, what is it that leads people to respond to God in this way? Is it because the way of God is so difficult to understand and follow? Possibly, last week in our gospel, Jesus entered Jerusalem with hails of Son of David and then began to cleanse the temple, driving out the moneychangers and the sellers of doves; driving out the things that we put before God in our lives. The leaders of the temple ask him by what authority he did these things because certainly God would bless not curse their way of life, and it was out of this situation that the parable we hear today arose. By this time it was clear that Jesus was going to die not as a criminal and not by worldly standards but by God’s standards. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.”

Yes, God’s ways are difficult to understand and follow yet what this parable gives us is hope because we are given a vivid picture of God’s care, of God’s generosity and God’s long patient pleading with God’s people, despite God’s people continually rejecting God’s ways, the coming of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus – the stone that the builders rejected. Jesus says, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Anyone who turns away from me and from my teachings, Jesus says will forfeit the abundant life that God has in store for those who live in faithful obedience. It will be given to those that produce the fruits of the kingdom.

The Rev. Winnie Varghese, Director of Community Outreach for Trinity Wall Street New York, writes the reflection today for the bulletin insert from the National Episcopal Office of Stewardship, titled ‘Living within a vision of God’s justice,’ the second in a series of stewardship reflections whose overall theme is Journey to Generosity. Each reflection is written by leaders, lay and clergy, in our church and each week they will reflect on the gospel for that day. Rev. Varghese writes “The virtues of the reign of God’s justice, the world as God intends it to be, are clear in the Hebrew Scriptures: the love and awe of God are illustrated by a just society. A just society has God at the center. A just society is marked by law that enshrine fairness toward one another; compassion and generosity to those who cannot fend for themselves; and right stewardship of the earth. These are clearly difficult values to apply in real living. As Christians, living as though the law of God is the law of our hearts is the work of our lives. We listen and bring the breadth of our experience to these texts, and we are convicted by them.”

Convicted to live within a vision of God’s justice means we are stewards of all that God has given to us and we are called by God to tend it. We are called by God to embrace a practice of gratitude for all that has been given and to leave what we have been given better than we found it. This includes our church. It is our responsibility to make sure this church will be here for all those generations who will find their way here. The bottom line is this: “it takes good stewards of the land, the vine, the natural resources, all of it, in order to actually get the fruit and ultimately the wine.” The key is “a whole lot of care.” It means we can no longer sit back and leave it to someone else. Through the generosity of the land owner, we have been given much more than we could have ever earned on our own. All, the land owner asks is that we take care of it by producing fruit to give away, in order to remember who we are: grateful guests.

The tenants killed the son, but he did not stay dead. On the third day he rose from the dead and to this day reminds us that as God’s guests we are welcome to all of it, as long as we remember that it is God’s and God gives to us to have and to hold until one day we go to meet the landowner. God is generous and God calls his people to know and experience Jesus. We need not be like the tenants in the parable, rejecting the word of the Lord. We are to press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. When we do, we can’t help but turn our lives around, much like Paul did when he fell in love with God. As the prophet Micah put it, “God has showed you what is good; to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” This may not be the way of the world but it is the way of God’s kingdom.

The insert in your worship bulletin today titled ‘Feasting on Gratitude’, begins a series of stewardship reflections from the national Episcopal office of stewardship. Each reflection is written by leaders, lay and clergy, in our church and each will reflect on the gospel for that day. Today’s reflection is written by the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, I just happen to know Bishop Rickel. He is a graduate of the seminary that I graduated from in Austin and before he became a bishop, he was rector of a church in Austin where I first met him. If you will take out the insert and turn to the back…Bishop Rickel writes….