Pentecost 21, 10/05/2008

Sermon on Matthew 21:33-46, by Walter W. Harms

Matthew 21:33-46 [English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers] [Jesus said] 33" Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. 35 "The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said. 38 "But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 "Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41 "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." 42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: " 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43 "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. Paid the Rent Lately? Except for a few preachers who are still "kept" pastors who still live in parsonages, most of us who are pastors or profes sional church workers own or rent the place where we live. We expect to pay the mortgage or the rent on a very regular basis. Even if we have our "homes" paid for, we still have to come up with property taxes, utilities and repairs.

While this is true, all of us including professional church workers sort of feel or believe that what we have it ours. We can do with it as we please. We are accountable only to ourselves. Most of you who are hearing this today believe that what we have worked for or inherited is ours. We have little sense of owing anybody anything. As members of a church, we believe that our church membership entitles us to certain privile ges. Oh, sure, we have to give something to support the church, the pastor, missions and all the other stuff put in front of us. The question is what does the Lord God expect from us? What rent are we to pay him for being in the church, the kingdom of God? I know that may sound a little crass or weird perhaps, but in line with the parable, the story that Jesus told, there was some kind of rent due. So have you paid the rent lately? Do you know what the rent is? And surely you don't expect to stay in the church if you don't pay the rent God is expecting you to pay. So this is a pretty important question for you who are members of the church and for those of you who are guests today and perhaps are going to think about joining the church sometime in the future. In this parable J esus tells us pretty clearly. The vineyard belongs to the landowner. No doubt there. In terms of what kind of vineyard it is, according to standards at the time of Jesus, it sounds pretty good. There's a wall to provide protection against wild animals and wild people. There is a winepress in the vineyard so that the grapes can be properly processed. A rather good place to be employed. The landowner rents the place out to some farmers and goes away. He is an absentee landowner, no doubts there. This was very common at Jesus' time and many people resented the fact that they were only tenants and not the owners. Since this was a new vineyard, the landowner usually gave the renters 5-6 years before he went to collect the rent. This gave the vines time to mature, to be cultivated properly to produces a good harvest. < /span>If you have seen vineyards in any country, you have seen how severely the vines are trimmed-all to produce lots of fruit. The time comes for the landowner to collect his fruit. Actually all the fruit of the vineyard was his. Some landowners took all the fruit and the renters had to be content with whatever was left over and got none of the main harvest. From the rest of the parable it appears that this landowner wanted only his share of the crop at the harvest time. He sends servants to collect. The tenants beat them up, badly, and even killed some of them. A second wave of servants fared no better-same treatment and no fruit. Finally the owner decides his son should go with the hope that they would respect him and he, the owner, would get his share of the fruit. For some reason, simply unfathomable, on seeing the son and heir, the tenants decide that if they kill this son, they'll get the vineyard by default since the owner would have no one to deed this vineyard to, or they believed this son/heir was the owner and by killing him would not have to think about paying rent to anyone ever again. Whatever it was, they went through with their plan and killed the son/heir. It is pretty obvious to those who heard this parable that the landowner would "bring those wretches to a wretched end" and rent the vineyard to others who "will give him his share of the crop at harvest time." So rent was due. Have you paid the rent lately? Jesus tells this story to Pharisees a nd leaders of the spiritual establishment of his time. They rejected Jesus. In building their establishment, Jesus wasn't the right size or shape. They rejected him. Instead of being the prize stone, he was a reject. Of course, they had lots of good reasons to reject him. He was anti-establishment. He hadn't fit into the system. He was highly critical of the religious authorities. He operated outside of the seat of their place of authority, spending most of his time in northern Galilee. He didn't fit into, as far as they could determine, what they saw as the expected Messiah. They, of course, would later kill him and believe they had control of God's world. This Rock was different. If you dismissed him, you would surely stumble and fall and get very badly hurt. In fact, this Rock would crush the person on whom it fell, bringing that person to a "wretched end." It appears that this Jesus should be taken quite seriously, that whathe wants from us should be given to him. If he did it once, might not he do it again and give his Kingdom and his church to another. So, have you paid the rent lately? I believe that we in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church today are the new tenants of the vineyard of God's grace and truth. New tenants who think that they are working for themselves could face the same fate as the old ones. So any thought that it is we who "own" the church, even the local parish and its stuff should know that we owe something to God who owns it all. Here in Texas we have just experienced a force called Hurricane Ike. Placid waters in which we frolicked and swam with ease and delight turned into a monster that wiped the land on which it had no business clear and returned the land to its pristine order before man was there. So we may frolic with ease and delight in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, believing that since God's undeserved forgiveness and kindness cannot be earned or deserved that we are free from any obligation of any kind. We may forget that the Owner wants his share of the fruit. So have you paid the rent lately? The tenants believed that they did not owe anything to the landowner. So our lives may become wrapped up in ourselves, believing finally that the church is only a hobby. It may become something to which we volunteer20our time and association. It may well not be the cornerstone around which our lives revolve and which holds us together or we are lost out to sea even before the tsunami of our unbelief tears us from our resorts and we come to a "wretched end." You see sin is not primarily doing bad things. Sin is an attitude of selfishness that has no need for God. And surely if we do not need God, then we won't be paying any rent. In fact, God can get in the way, becomes a nuisance that we want to be rid of so we can do what we want with what we have worked so hard for and which God always seems to want more and more, and more than we think we can afford. The first tenants thought only of themselves. They sealed their own destruction. While knowing the Landowner, they did not think he was important and as a result, they got into all kinds of things which ought not to be done. Thinks like beating, killing, stoning. We can become like them. We can keep others out by deciding that there is only one way to do worship and that is the way it always has been done, but, of course, it has not always been done that way. We can be so middle class and class conscious that we do not even know how to deal with persons who do not live as we do and do not have the means we have. I often wonder if the decline of the mainline churches is because we have sealed ourselves off from the reality of what is going on out there in the world. Or perhaps more importantly, that we have forgotten that one of the best fruits we can produce is bringing those who do not know the landowner into the vineyard. St. Paul tells us that he wanted to preach in Rome "in order that I (he) might obtain some fruit among you even as among the rest of he Gentiles (Romans 1:13). So, have you paid the rent lately? We don't often talk about the rent that we owe to the Landowner. Being in the kingdom of God, the vineyard here in the parable refers to our privileges and to our responsibilities as God's tenants. At this moment in our history we have plenty of opportunities to give to people, for our rent is not paid to the Landowner, God, but to his reps, for as much as you do it to the least of these you are doing it to me. Earthquakes, floods, fires, foreclosures, hurricanes and personal catastrophes surround us. The rent is paid to those who need our help. A sure way to get over selfishness and self-centered ways of living is to give. Do we think the recipients of our largesse are not grateful enough? Are they moochers? Are they persons who have squandered their "inheritance" on riotous living in the far country? Perhaps they speak another language, have different customs, or even worship before idols. The admonition of our Lord to feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the sick and diseased, as well as those in jail is without a doubt the rent that is required. All of us without exception, I would believe, have ample opportunity to pay this kind of rent. So, have you paid the rent lately? Perhaps by looking into your closets stuffed with clothes you will know if you have. But why pay attention20to this parable? Why pay any rent at all? I could say: to avoid a wretched end, but who considers that in this day and time? I will say because we have been chosen to live in a wonderful place called the church. We are surrounded by people who care for us and for whom we care. We have the assurance that although we are poor farmers God will not criticize us for our lack of skill. In fact, the only reason we are in this place, the kingdom of God, the church, the communion of saints is because a gracious God has placed us here. Here we have received mercy on mercy. Here we have received forgiveness and reconciliation with the Landowner again and again because of his love for us before we were even conceived. He purposefully sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, our Master and Savior to enter the created, when he was and is the uncreated to suffer the consequences of our selfishness, our rebellion, our totally misguided belief that we own the ranch when we are only cowhands. Without any merit or worthiness on our part (that's always a shock) and not by our own reason or strength have we come to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and come to him, but his blessed and eternal Holy Spirit has placed us in the vineyard to work until the night comes when no man can work. Some of you will recall that part of the General Prayer which was used every Sunday in the church which speaks to our paying the rent. It goes like this: "Receive, O God, our bodies and souls and all our talents, together with the offering we bring before Thee, for Thou hast purchased us to be Thine own,=2 0that we may live unto Thee." That's the way it really is. We are all his. Our offerings beyond that which are placed in the offering plates are the rent we give. Is my offering showing who is the owner of my life or is it just something I have to do? So go from here today to answer the question. Have you paid the rent lately? There is forgiveness that "Thou mayest be feared." But you the tenants are required as God's servants to give him the rent. Check our your checkbook to see if you've paid the rent.

Amen

retired pastor Walter W. Harms
Austin, TX U. S. A.

E-Mail: waltpast@aol.com

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