Some Tenants Are Better Than Other Tenants
Preaching
The Parables Of Jesus And Their Flip Side
Cycles A, B, and C
Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants. I found that out when, as a lad, I worked up the road on a farm owned by Walter and Esther Hupman. My job was to help candle eggs gathered on their egg route and exercise their English saddle horses.
The Hupmans couldn't begin to do all the farming themselves so they always had tenants living in a little house next to their unusual round barn. For farming the land the Hupmans owned, the tenants got to live in the house and receive a certain percentage of the income from the harvest.
Sometimes this arrangement worked better than other times. When a family moved out of the tenant house and on to another job, it was my task to clean up the house, barn, and property in preparation for new tenants. Some left everything clean, orderly, and ready for the next occupants.
When others left, I had an ugly job of cleaning out the trash, repainting the walls, repairing the flooring and outside gates, and so on. Evidently they took no responsibility for that which they did not own. Sometimes I wondered whether, had they owned it, they would have kept it any better. Some tenants are just a lot better than other tenants.
Jesus also told a story recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke about lousy tenants. These worked a vineyard whose owner lived outside of the country. But when he sent servants to collect his portion of the earnings, the tenants "... beat one, killed another and stoned a third" (Matthew 21:35).
A second group of servants were also treated the same way. So the owner sent his son, thinking surely they would respect him. But Matthew says, "So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him" (Matthew 21:39).
Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants!
This parable told by Jesus is one of the very few which we ought to dissect and assign meanings to many of its parts. Usually we just concentrate on one main theme, but here we look at several parts:
-- Vineyard is the nation of Israel.
-- Owner of vineyard represents God.
-- Tenants represent religious leaders of the day.
-- Messengers represent the Old Testament prophets.
-- Son represents Jesus the Christ.
So when Jesus first told this story he certainly wanted to prepare his disciples for what was coming. The leaders of Judaism were God's chosen people and workers in God's vineyard. "The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight" (Isaiah 5:7).
But they did not listen to the message of the prophets. They would even kill God's son who came to establish God's kingdom. Jesus claimed the vineyard would be given over to the Christian church. At least that's the way it has been interpreted after Easter by us Christians.
The story tells us much about us humans. God gives us a lot of freedom. Notice these tenants could work this vineyard as they pleased. They had the freedom to be their own people and do it the way they best devised.
But also notice there did come a time when they were held accountable for their keeping of the owner's vineyard. This says to me that while we have the freedom to live our Christian lives as we wish, there is also a time when we must give an account of how well we have lived on God's behalf.
It also tells me that you and I are really privileged. We, in our country and culture, are given a rich vineyard in which to live and work. Jesus says this vineyard in which these tenants worked had a wine press, a wall around it, a watchtower in which to live, and all that was really needed to do their task and live well.
We also learn about us humans that we often want to take our own way even when we know God's way is quite different. Our bullheadedness to do what we want deliberately -- when God wants something quite different -- compares to those tenants who continued to fail to give the owner his share of the profits. But then some tenants are better than other tenants, aren't they?
The story also tells us some nice things to know about God. God is trusting. We are given the vineyard and are trusted to care for it without the owner looking over our shoulder. And God is very patient, sending messengers over and over even though they are badly treated. Finally, he sends his son, thinking, "They will respect my son" (Matthew 21:37b).
How good it is to know we have that kind of trusting and patient God when we lose confidence in ourselves and when we feel guilt for our behavior. God trusts us and God is patient with us. Like a wonderful, loving parent, God gives us lots of latitude to practice our discipleship, especially since the cross of Calvary is patient.
Let's now turn to the other side of this parable, for it has such a relevant message for us now. Jesus told the story and Matthew wrote it down to illustrate how the religious leaders had rejected God's prophets sent to them to warn them about their behavior as citizens of the kingdom, also preparing them for the fact he would be killed by the religious of the day.
There is another message we can consider. It's about the stewardship of the vineyard. We have been given a wonderful earth on which to live and the creator continues to send to us messengers who say we ought to conserve and nurture this vineyard for its owner's (God's) sake and for the sake of future dwellers here to come long after us. It's a stewardship of creation which is called for. And we who are tenants in this Eden given to us by God ought to take seriously our sacred responsibility to deal gently with the earth and all its natural resources.
Even though God has given us great freedom to do as we please, we really have a tenant's responsibility not to use up, misuse, or overuse that which makes our lives so pleasant here. For the sake of the grandchildren and great grandchildren who come after us, let us care well for our fruitful vineyard. Sometimes I like to call it resource inheritance, meaning that which future generations will inherit because of our ecological and theological mindedness -- or lack of it.
It's just not true that it's our property and we can do with it as we please. We are tenants on this planet for a short while, and those who come after us must rely on our conservation for the resources they inherit for their lives. It's much like those tenant farmers on the Hupman farm. Some left the house, barn, and facilities much better than when they moved in. Others did not. Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants.
In a day when we have become painfully aware of child abuse and sexual abuse in the human world, we now must become aware of abuse of the non-human world, like water, oil, natural gas, and other resources. Just as Jesus said that the Good Samaritan's neighbor was the man beaten and in the ditch, so soil erosion and rape of the rain forest are also our neighbors and in need of our intervention on their behalf. They have been beaten up, misused, and almost eliminated.
God's servants have come with warning after warning for us to change our lifestyle and attitudes to a better stewardship of the vineyard given us. God is trusting us to do it.
Because I live near the former California home of the greatest conservationist of the nation, John Muir, I have taken an interest in reading his hand-written journals in Martinez, California.
Over 100 years ago this devout outdoorsman, who is called the father of our national parks, wrote that while it was good to argue for preserving and conserving the national resources so future generations would have enough, there is a "deeper ecology." We care for the creation simply because it is God's. What a great concept! It takes us far beyond preservation -- that our future relatives might have enough -- to a spiritual perspective of preserving what is not ours to waste, but what is God's.
If we take this story Jesus told of wicked tenants in a vineyard and turn it upside down, we soon see it speaks to us who often selfishly squander the limited resources of our vineyard. And the results one day might be as drastic as those tenants throwing out the owner's servants and killing the son!
We really can't say we haven't been warned. Ecological servants have been coming to us for a number of years now, sounding the clear alarm that we are soiling our own nest and fouling that which has in the past been lovely.
Yet we read in the Old Testament that God created it all and for a short time is putting us in charge. We have taken too far the biblical command to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28), and we have not taken our responsibilities seriously enough where we are told to "Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:29).
It's just not a pious option any longer if we are God's tenant. We must practice good family planning and population control, even with all the problems that presents. Right now the growth rate is two percent. That means the population will double in the next 35 years. In 56 years, it will triple, and in 117 years it will have increased ten times!
Andy Rooney, on 60 Minutes, said, "There are more people on the earth right now than ever lived and died here." If God would rewrite the Old Testament now, instead of "Be fruitful and multiply," God would say, "Enough already!" Our world cannot support this kind of growth. It is too fragile and limited in its resources.
As Americans we can no longer continue using up so much of the world's resources to support our lavish lifestyles. There are simpler ways of living which will consider the other inhabitants of this globe.
All the flip side of this parable has a lot to say to me about how I live out my tenancy on this earth beginning with such things as how high I eat on the food chain, how many cars and creature comforts I gather around me, whether I really make a concerted effort to recycle, the sprays I use, the electricity I consume. This list could go on and on.
I believe that the younger generation is probably better informed and motivated to live this way than we older ones who just never dreamed it was necessary. And we are often the ones who beat up the messengers sent to us by calling them hippies and flower children of no consequence.
Those of my lifetime have seen such wonderful scientific breakthroughs that we supposed all along God would work through scientists to solve our problems of resource depletion and pollution. But now we are learning that the scientific solutions often have a flip side which is negative and exacerbates, rather than solves, the problem.
A few years ago the green revolution quadrupled our production of food, especially in middle America. Now the creeks run foul with poisoned fish and the water has a head, foaming from all the chemicals which leach into it.
One of the marvelous things about the parables of Jesus is that in any age they have a way of raising the basic questions with which we ought to be struggling as Christians. This one about ungrateful tenants really packs a wallop for today.
On the flip side, it admonishes us to be good caretakers of creation. On the main side, it tells us God is patient and trusting, and that God gives us great freedom which brings great responsibility. Jesus first told it to warn the disciples that he and the kingdom would be rejected to the serious danger of those who did the rejecting.
Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants. I learned that at Hupman's farm when I had to clean up and repair after tenants moved out. I learned it again as I studied this parable of Jesus about a vineyard and how those appointed took care of it.
The Hupmans couldn't begin to do all the farming themselves so they always had tenants living in a little house next to their unusual round barn. For farming the land the Hupmans owned, the tenants got to live in the house and receive a certain percentage of the income from the harvest.
Sometimes this arrangement worked better than other times. When a family moved out of the tenant house and on to another job, it was my task to clean up the house, barn, and property in preparation for new tenants. Some left everything clean, orderly, and ready for the next occupants.
When others left, I had an ugly job of cleaning out the trash, repainting the walls, repairing the flooring and outside gates, and so on. Evidently they took no responsibility for that which they did not own. Sometimes I wondered whether, had they owned it, they would have kept it any better. Some tenants are just a lot better than other tenants.
Jesus also told a story recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke about lousy tenants. These worked a vineyard whose owner lived outside of the country. But when he sent servants to collect his portion of the earnings, the tenants "... beat one, killed another and stoned a third" (Matthew 21:35).
A second group of servants were also treated the same way. So the owner sent his son, thinking surely they would respect him. But Matthew says, "So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him" (Matthew 21:39).
Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants!
This parable told by Jesus is one of the very few which we ought to dissect and assign meanings to many of its parts. Usually we just concentrate on one main theme, but here we look at several parts:
-- Vineyard is the nation of Israel.
-- Owner of vineyard represents God.
-- Tenants represent religious leaders of the day.
-- Messengers represent the Old Testament prophets.
-- Son represents Jesus the Christ.
So when Jesus first told this story he certainly wanted to prepare his disciples for what was coming. The leaders of Judaism were God's chosen people and workers in God's vineyard. "The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight" (Isaiah 5:7).
But they did not listen to the message of the prophets. They would even kill God's son who came to establish God's kingdom. Jesus claimed the vineyard would be given over to the Christian church. At least that's the way it has been interpreted after Easter by us Christians.
The story tells us much about us humans. God gives us a lot of freedom. Notice these tenants could work this vineyard as they pleased. They had the freedom to be their own people and do it the way they best devised.
But also notice there did come a time when they were held accountable for their keeping of the owner's vineyard. This says to me that while we have the freedom to live our Christian lives as we wish, there is also a time when we must give an account of how well we have lived on God's behalf.
It also tells me that you and I are really privileged. We, in our country and culture, are given a rich vineyard in which to live and work. Jesus says this vineyard in which these tenants worked had a wine press, a wall around it, a watchtower in which to live, and all that was really needed to do their task and live well.
We also learn about us humans that we often want to take our own way even when we know God's way is quite different. Our bullheadedness to do what we want deliberately -- when God wants something quite different -- compares to those tenants who continued to fail to give the owner his share of the profits. But then some tenants are better than other tenants, aren't they?
The story also tells us some nice things to know about God. God is trusting. We are given the vineyard and are trusted to care for it without the owner looking over our shoulder. And God is very patient, sending messengers over and over even though they are badly treated. Finally, he sends his son, thinking, "They will respect my son" (Matthew 21:37b).
How good it is to know we have that kind of trusting and patient God when we lose confidence in ourselves and when we feel guilt for our behavior. God trusts us and God is patient with us. Like a wonderful, loving parent, God gives us lots of latitude to practice our discipleship, especially since the cross of Calvary is patient.
Let's now turn to the other side of this parable, for it has such a relevant message for us now. Jesus told the story and Matthew wrote it down to illustrate how the religious leaders had rejected God's prophets sent to them to warn them about their behavior as citizens of the kingdom, also preparing them for the fact he would be killed by the religious of the day.
There is another message we can consider. It's about the stewardship of the vineyard. We have been given a wonderful earth on which to live and the creator continues to send to us messengers who say we ought to conserve and nurture this vineyard for its owner's (God's) sake and for the sake of future dwellers here to come long after us. It's a stewardship of creation which is called for. And we who are tenants in this Eden given to us by God ought to take seriously our sacred responsibility to deal gently with the earth and all its natural resources.
Even though God has given us great freedom to do as we please, we really have a tenant's responsibility not to use up, misuse, or overuse that which makes our lives so pleasant here. For the sake of the grandchildren and great grandchildren who come after us, let us care well for our fruitful vineyard. Sometimes I like to call it resource inheritance, meaning that which future generations will inherit because of our ecological and theological mindedness -- or lack of it.
It's just not true that it's our property and we can do with it as we please. We are tenants on this planet for a short while, and those who come after us must rely on our conservation for the resources they inherit for their lives. It's much like those tenant farmers on the Hupman farm. Some left the house, barn, and facilities much better than when they moved in. Others did not. Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants.
In a day when we have become painfully aware of child abuse and sexual abuse in the human world, we now must become aware of abuse of the non-human world, like water, oil, natural gas, and other resources. Just as Jesus said that the Good Samaritan's neighbor was the man beaten and in the ditch, so soil erosion and rape of the rain forest are also our neighbors and in need of our intervention on their behalf. They have been beaten up, misused, and almost eliminated.
God's servants have come with warning after warning for us to change our lifestyle and attitudes to a better stewardship of the vineyard given us. God is trusting us to do it.
Because I live near the former California home of the greatest conservationist of the nation, John Muir, I have taken an interest in reading his hand-written journals in Martinez, California.
Over 100 years ago this devout outdoorsman, who is called the father of our national parks, wrote that while it was good to argue for preserving and conserving the national resources so future generations would have enough, there is a "deeper ecology." We care for the creation simply because it is God's. What a great concept! It takes us far beyond preservation -- that our future relatives might have enough -- to a spiritual perspective of preserving what is not ours to waste, but what is God's.
If we take this story Jesus told of wicked tenants in a vineyard and turn it upside down, we soon see it speaks to us who often selfishly squander the limited resources of our vineyard. And the results one day might be as drastic as those tenants throwing out the owner's servants and killing the son!
We really can't say we haven't been warned. Ecological servants have been coming to us for a number of years now, sounding the clear alarm that we are soiling our own nest and fouling that which has in the past been lovely.
Yet we read in the Old Testament that God created it all and for a short time is putting us in charge. We have taken too far the biblical command to "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28), and we have not taken our responsibilities seriously enough where we are told to "Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:29).
It's just not a pious option any longer if we are God's tenant. We must practice good family planning and population control, even with all the problems that presents. Right now the growth rate is two percent. That means the population will double in the next 35 years. In 56 years, it will triple, and in 117 years it will have increased ten times!
Andy Rooney, on 60 Minutes, said, "There are more people on the earth right now than ever lived and died here." If God would rewrite the Old Testament now, instead of "Be fruitful and multiply," God would say, "Enough already!" Our world cannot support this kind of growth. It is too fragile and limited in its resources.
As Americans we can no longer continue using up so much of the world's resources to support our lavish lifestyles. There are simpler ways of living which will consider the other inhabitants of this globe.
All the flip side of this parable has a lot to say to me about how I live out my tenancy on this earth beginning with such things as how high I eat on the food chain, how many cars and creature comforts I gather around me, whether I really make a concerted effort to recycle, the sprays I use, the electricity I consume. This list could go on and on.
I believe that the younger generation is probably better informed and motivated to live this way than we older ones who just never dreamed it was necessary. And we are often the ones who beat up the messengers sent to us by calling them hippies and flower children of no consequence.
Those of my lifetime have seen such wonderful scientific breakthroughs that we supposed all along God would work through scientists to solve our problems of resource depletion and pollution. But now we are learning that the scientific solutions often have a flip side which is negative and exacerbates, rather than solves, the problem.
A few years ago the green revolution quadrupled our production of food, especially in middle America. Now the creeks run foul with poisoned fish and the water has a head, foaming from all the chemicals which leach into it.
One of the marvelous things about the parables of Jesus is that in any age they have a way of raising the basic questions with which we ought to be struggling as Christians. This one about ungrateful tenants really packs a wallop for today.
On the flip side, it admonishes us to be good caretakers of creation. On the main side, it tells us God is patient and trusting, and that God gives us great freedom which brings great responsibility. Jesus first told it to warn the disciples that he and the kingdom would be rejected to the serious danger of those who did the rejecting.
Some tenants are a lot better than other tenants. I learned that at Hupman's farm when I had to clean up and repair after tenants moved out. I learned it again as I studied this parable of Jesus about a vineyard and how those appointed took care of it.
