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Greensboro, NC

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Greensboro, NC

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November 5, 2006 Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 25: 33-46
Is Your Mindset That of a Tenant or a Steward?

The biblical scholarship on the meaning of this parable is unusually consistent. There's not much debate that Jesus is really speaking about God as the landowner, the vineyard being the land of Israel and the tenants represent the Jewish religious authorities who are responsible for taking care of and modeling living in Covenant relationship with God. But the tenants act like they are the owners. First they reject the prophets God sends them reminding them what living under the reign of God looks like—justice for widows orphans and aliens, caring for one's neighbor as oneself. And then they reject his Son, killing him. Matthew even tells us “when the chief priest and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parable, they realized Jesus was speaking about them, and they wanted to arrest him—read silence him. Jesus threatened their power and their being in charge of determining what right relationship with God looked like.

So it's easy for us to hear this parable today, not only with some distance from First century Palestine , but also with a bit of a sense of superiority. Afterall, as the bible commentaries tell us, we folks sitting in church here today, we Christians are the new tenants in charge of God's vineyard. It is we who are the good stewards and know everything we have and everything we are comes from God, and give the landowner, God, the tithe back to God. We Christians are the new tenants.

But for this parable to have its intended effect on us, which is to help us see the world through God's eyes. To take the parable not personally but to heart, we need to hear it with new ears. We need to approach this parable not as the new replacement tenants but as the old tenants, the religious authorities of Jesus' day. We need to be the ones who get really angry when we realize the parable puts us in an unflattering light, because the Bible is the living word of God, not just a collection of stories. The living word of God is sharper than any two edge sword, piercing us out of our smugness and sense of complacency about who Jesus is talking about, and what Jesus would have us, here at First Moravian, do.

So here's a different translation:

Listen to another parable. There was the Chief Elder, Jesus Christ, who built a church on South Elam Avenue , paved a parking lot and built two fellowship halls. Then he leased it to the members of First Moravian Church Greensboro and left them in charge. When membership and worship attendance dropped by a third over five years, the Chief Elder sent members of another Christian denomination to worship God there. But the pastor, the chief religious authority of First Moravian, said: “I don't want to put a damper on letting other Christians use our Old Fellowship Hall on Sunday mornings, but you know, it's really going to inconvenience us. We'd have to gather to sing before Sunday school around one of the 3 pianos in the New Fellowship Hall. And the Good News SS class would either have meet in a different room, or enter their classroom by way of the basement and walk up two flights of stairs. And where would the choir practice? And how would they get to their choir robes? And while it's fine if 50 more people want to come and worship with us on Sunday morning and we have a parking problem for that reason. We don't have enough parking spaces for another worship service if it's not one I am leading.”

And the joint board listened to their pastor and sent word back: “Go build your own church building and worship Jesus Christ there. This is our property.”

Now when the Chief Elder comes what will he do to those tenants, and to their pastor? They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the church to other tenants who understand that the primary purpose of church property is to give people a place to worship God.”

Now I realize many of you are sitting out there thinking what is she talking about? And I confess it was with a sense fear and trembling when on Thursday the Holy Spirit hit me over the head with the connection between today's parable, chosen two months ago, and the purpose of the called Joint board meeting after church today, which is to discuss for the first time a request by Holy Cross Orthodox church to worship in the Old Fellowship Hall Saturday night and Sunday mornings. We haven't made any decisions yet.

So for a minute, put yourself in the shoes of one of our elected leaders on the joint board, or if you are an elder or trustee just be yourself and ask yourself this question: When I hear that another group wants to worship Jesus Christ here on Sunday mornings am I thrilled about this? Do I want to work hard so that more Christians can worship God here, or am I more concerned about how it will inconvenience us?

I confess my initial reaction was, this won't work. It's fine for other groups to come in and use our facilities when we aren't using them, but I'm less willing to share when I'll be inconvenienced. After all, this property does belong to First Moravian.

But does it?

But does it, really belong to us, or to God?

You can see, I can see, how easy it is for us to slip into automatically thinking, hey, we own this property. It's not God's. And the main purpose of this property is not for the worship of Jesus Christ, but for us to enjoy and to do our ministry here.

Never have I written a sermon and felt more personally convicted of realizing, hey, Jesus is talking about you, Margaret Leinbach, here.

And you know what? It doesn't feel very good.

We live in a culture, in a world where ownership is a sought after and hard one goal along with self-reliance and independence. We measure our success and the success of our children in life by how well we can achieve these goals. Ownership gives us freedom. Freedom to do things our way without being accountable to anyone else. It's my property to do with as I see fit. I've worked hard for it and it belongs to me. We get upset when others tell us what we can and can't do with our property.

But if Jesus' parable is true, is right, we are deluding ourselves, deceiving ourselves, when we think we are owners in this world, and not tenants who are merely passing through. Like the tenants in the parable, somewhere along the way many of us Christians misplaced the covenant we have with God and began to act like owners instead of tenants of what we've been entrusted with-- whether it's time, talents, financial resources, or the property at 304 South Elam Avenue . When we have an owner mindset it's hard to be generous, because you know we might not have enough for ourselves later on.

So, each of us must continually, every day, evry hour every minute make the decision will I deceive myself into thinking I am an owner, not a steward of God's creation merely passing through on our way to my true home? And we can keep on striving towards that illusion of control and freedom that the powers of this world tell us ownership gives. Or, we can embrace the good news of this parable? We are not in charge. God is! Can you remember how good that feels when someone else takes a responsibility you don't have to bear anymore? Once we realize we are tenants, stewards of God's creation and world, then that places us in a different kind of relationship with God and with one another. We feel gratitude not entitlement for what we have. With an owner mindset it's easy to take our lives and the blessings of God for granted, as something we have somehow earned by being good and working hard. With a tenant mindset we realize we didn't choose when or where to be born. Whether in this country or Iraq or North Korea or Darfur ? We had no control over whether we had two parents who loved us, provided for us and equipped us to grow up to be the persons we are today.

With a steward mindset, we realize how little we can control and who is not only really in charge, but who will ultimately prevail over evil and injustice, and to whom we are each accountable. With a steward mindset, as tenants, we relate to our brothers and sisters not as fellow competitors for scarce world resources, but as fellow tenants, tending to the world and it's riches on God's behalf, fulfilling God's commandment to us to love one another as our self; to treat others as we would like to be treated, as beloved children of God. As God's tenants we are expected to be the hands and feet of Christ here on earth, representing by what we do and say, God's interests, being as generous with each other as God is with us.

We are not owners, but stewards just passing through this life onto our true home in God.