O.P.P.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and His only Son Jesus Christ, Amen.

        One of the top ten maxims my father would say to us kids whenever we broke or damaged something or even allowed harm to befall his property was, “You kids have no respect for other people’s property!” To be sure, he mostly experienced his property being harmed because, after all, everything in the house and on the land was owned by him.

        He was the bread-winner, the rightful owner, and the master of his domain. He could very easily be considered the term Jesus used in his parable of Matthew 21:33-46, the ????????????. This Greek word is the combination of two words, ?????, which means house and ????????, one who has legal control and authority over persons, such as subjects or slaves, a lord, or master. The second word is where we get our English word for despot.

        Although it may have seemed to us kids that our father was at times a tyrannical ruler, we had no doubts that he was the master of the house. Everything we had, we had because of him. Nothing belonged to us, not even our clothes or our toys. It is true that we were given gifts, sustenance and shelter, but if any mismanagement was witnessed, we would hear about it and sometimes be punished for it.

        We quickly learned not to waste food. If we did so, we would hear a lecture about starving children in Third World countries. If we tore our clothes or lost our mittens, we would hear about the time and energy required to make clothing.

        We were free to use any tool for work as long as we maintained the tool and used it for the purpose for which it was designed and woe to you, if you did not put things back where they belonged. We were also expected to treat other people’s possessions with the same respect as we did our own.

        Our Old Testament reading and our Gospel reading for this Sunday have a common thread; the vineyard. Both Scripture readings deal with an ????????????, or master of the house. In Isaiah, we read a poem written for the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus speaks a parable with a lesson for the chief priests and the Pharisees.

        In both readings, the master of the vineyard is the same. God, the Creator of all things, the owner of all things, is the master of the vineyard. In the poem and the parable, God does what a true master would do. God prepares the fertile land, clears it of stones, and plants the vineyard with choice vines.

        He builds a fence around the vineyard to protect it from those who would take his fruit from him, be it animal or human. He builds a watchtower so that his harvest can be protected when the season is complete. He even builds a winepress in order to reap the best possible produce of his crop.

        In both instances, God does not get what he expected. The first vineyard produces rotten stinking grapes that are not of the seed he planted and are of no use to anyone. In the second vineyard, those whom God assigned to look after his harvest, scheme to keep it for themselves.

        God created the cosmos, our world and everything in it, including us. Like the master of the vineyard, he prepared everything so as to produce good fruit. Sin entered into this creation through the work of our adversary, Satan.

        Through our sin, evil has become a part of us. This evil has twisted us into a harvest of stinking grapes. We no longer are the sweet palatable fruit of God. Instead, we are bitter and of no use to him. We were his pleasant planting in the vineyard of the Lord of hosts. But instead of justice, we produce bloodshed. And instead of righteousness, we produce grief. It is his right as master of the vineyard to cast us away to be trampled under the hooves of animals and to be burned in the fiery furnace.

        What are we to do? We cannot change what we are. We cannot turn the bitter to the sweet. By our own works we cannot be justified and righteous in the presence of our creator. God knows this, but as creator of all, he has the power to re-create.

        He did this by sending his one and only son into the vineyard, surely we would listen to him. Instead, in our sin filled bitterness, we sought to take the blessings of the Lord of hosts from his son for ourselves and for our personal glorification. Instead of believing in Jesus Christ and believing in the one who sent him, our Father in heaven, we foolishly think that we can gain our inheritance by rejecting our only true salvation.

        Yes, when we reject Christ, we reject God and put ourselves over Him. Every day we sin and every day we kill the son of our Master. Every day we continue to produce stinking, rotting fruit, the fruit of our avarice and lust, the fruit of covetousness and hate. In our killing, we are being killed all the day long.

        God knows this. We kill with every sin and we die with every sin, but that is not the end of us. God does not want us to be cast away from his presence. God wants us to bear good fruit, the fruit of his spirit. God loves his creation. He loves us so much that he sent his son to be killed on the cross; a cross, hewn and lifted up by our sin. Jesus Christ, the only innocent, died for all of our sins.

        From Christ’s resurrection from the grave, we too were lifted up; not on the cross of our sins but in the love and mercy of His sacrifice. We now walk in the newness of life. We now bear the fruit of the Spirit because we are in the vine that is Christ Jesus.

        We became his through our baptism. We are now inheritors of his kingdom. We have been re-created through the death and resurrection of Christ and our labors now produce good fruit. We are saved. But this is not the end for us. While we live on this earth, in his creation, we are to tend to the harvest.

        We are to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are to spread the Word, the Gospel of our Lord. We are to respect the property of the master of the vineyard, to care and nurture his creation.

        This does not solely pertain to the earth and its resources. Yes, it is true that to be good stewards of his gifts and blessings is righteous in his sight, but our fellow human beings are also our responsibility. We are charged with the care of our brothers and sisters. We are tenant farmers.

        Our current culture is a more secular and pluralist culture, meaning, the latest generation believes more than one belief system will achieve the same goal of eternal life. Yet this same group experiences about twice as much doubt in their faith as any of the other generation.

        A research agency called the Barna Group who has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors for over 30 years shares this data:

• Men are more likely than women to experience doubt.
• Those who have been through college and encountered an array of ideas, philosophies and worldviews are twice as likely to experience doubt.
• Among those who either currently or previously experienced spiritual doubt, the most common response for about half of them was to leave their church or worship gatherings, even among practicing Christians and regular churchgoers.
• Three in 10 adults stopped reading the Bible and praying, while another quarter quit talking with friends or family about spirituality, God or religion.
• Surprisingly, only 18 percent of spiritual doubters turned to their pastor or spiritual leader for answers. [1]

        It is true that this world has many temptations and many obstacles over which to stumble. The world is changing in significant ways, such as remarkable access to the world and worldviews via technology, alienation from various institutions, and skepticism toward external sources of authority, including Christianity and the Bible.

        As tenant farmers, we may encounter difficulties, for after all, we are not perfect; we still err toward sin. Weeds of false teaching and self love can still choke the young in spiritual faith. We all have doubts about our faith from time to time. Where we fall down in our service to our neighbor is when we shut our hearts and minds out of our own fear.

        How do we tend to his vineyard? We cultivate the land with the Word. Through reading, discernment and the teaching of the Scriptures, we enrich the soil for the hearing of Christ’s redemption. The Holy Spirit waters this soil through baptism. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the light of the world who gives us the means to grow in him.

        In the Water, the Word, and the Body & Blood, we can have comfort in that our righteousness comes from faith in Christ, that we may know him and the power of his resurrection. Equipped with this faith, we can be sure to serve our Master in His vineyard, so that through the Holy Spirit, his harvest may be full.

Amen

[1] Barna Group https://www.barna.com/research/two-thirds-christians-face-doubt/