What's The Bottom Line?
Sermon
CRITICAL DECISIONS IN FOLLOWING JESUS
Sermons ForPentecost (Last Third)
What are your thoughts when you first wake up in the morning? What am I going to wear today? Is the bathroom free? What's the weather like? Can I stay in bed just a little bit longer?
I am waking up earlier now that I'm on the other side of 50, the second side of life. My thoughts early in the morning are usually around the day's appointments. Let's see, Lois needs that article by 9. I could go to the hospital over the lunch hour. Confirmation is today. What meeting do I have tonight? Will Viv and I have dinner together? So goes my thinking early in the morning.
Seldom do I think about what life is all about or why am I doing all this, why am I here? Those deeper questions about the meaning of life come on rare occasions - usually when I have time to think or meditate, when I read a good book or take time to get away from my daily routine. Once in a great while when I get extremely frustrated, when everything seems to go awry, or no one seems to appreciate my efforts, I will sit back and ask myself, "Why am I doing this? What is it for?"
We all need to stop and ask the deeper questions once in a while, as individuals and as a church. Why am I here - why are we doing this - what's the bottom line?
In our text from Matthew we are encouraged to ask the question, when all is said and done, what's the bottom line. What is our ultimate purpose for living? What is God looking for? If we believe there is a God, what are God's expectations.
Yes, I am to believe in God - trust the promise, follow Jesus. But why? Yes, we are to obey the 10 commandments. But why? Yes, we are to pray, ask for forgiveness, love our neighbor. But why? Yes, we are called into community and we are to worship together, praise God together, be present to one another. But why? What's the bottom line, really? What is God looking for? What is the harvest that God, the landowner, is expecting to receive when the season is over?
The text in Matthew is a parable about a vineyard. The owner sends servants to collect the harvest from the tenants. But the servants are treated shamefully. Instead of fruit -beautiful and tasty grapes in abundance - there is violence and death. To help us understand this parable, it is good to be familiar with the first lesson for today from Isaiah 5, where we have another story of a vineyard.
Remember the setting in Isaiah. God chose a people, the Jews, and he said to them, "I want to bless you, and by you, through you, I want to bless the whole world. You are the instrument that I will use to restore - bring back into harmony what I have created in beauty and splendor." So God established a covenant with this special nation called the Hebrews. I will give you this and this and this. I will do this and this and this. So that you will be a blessing to the whole world, I will provide you with everything you will need. These are my expectations.
Every once in a while God has a review with Isreal to see how things are going. Are they still in focus? Do they understand what is expected, what the bottom line is? Isaiah 5 is one of those reviews. The audience listening to Jesus tell this parable was very familiar with the song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5. Here's how it starts.
"Let me sing for my beloved a love song." Doesn't that sound romantic? It makes you want to read on. God's love is set to music, a love song. It is because of God's love that we have this story. Remember this setting because as we move into the story, we may wonder where love fits in.
The lover, who is God, has planted a vineyard. Stories from nature that contain deep truths abound in the scriptures. This is one of the most compelling. To have the best harvest of grapes, to make sure the grapes are good, sweet, tasty and high quality, the lover who owns the vineyard pulls out all the stops. Notice what is done for the vineyard.
A very fertile hill is chosen, a hill with potential, a hill that has promise, a hill with rich soil. It is cultivated. It is cleared of stones. When I lived on a farm in western Minnesota I remember how every year we had to clear stones away. They kept coming up out of the soil. Those of you who know farming can appreciate what it means that the vineyard was cleared of stones.
The owner now goes to the nursery and looks for the best, choicest vines to plant. He doesn't care how much it will cost. He wants the best. Every effort is made to make sure that the grapes are top quality, sweet juicy grapes.
Fertile soil, good cultivation, stones cleared out, choice vines planted. How can you go wrong? But more is done to ensure the desired results. He builds a watch tower so all dangers can be detected ahead of time. There is protection from enemies. A wine vat is built close by to get ready for the harvest. The owner does everything to make a good harvest possible.
Now the author of the story brings us into the picture. "What did I leave out," God asks. Judge, I pray you - you be the judge - what more should I have done? Did I forget anything? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
The term wild grapes in the Hebrew language means very bitter grapes, grapes that rot your teeth, grapes that make you want to vomit, just terrible tasting grapes, repulsive - not just mediocre or inferior, but bitter. Not acceptable at all. Of no value to anyone.
What happened? What did I do wrong, God asks. Why did this happen? I worked so hard and I looked forward to those sweet tasting grapes. Why did the vineyard produce wild grapes?
The key to the whole story is found in verse 7 of Isaiah 5. Here is the application. The story of the vineyard is pretty clear. The application is very revealing. It is heavy. The vineyard is the house of Israel. The men and women of Judah are God's pleasant plantings. In other words, the chosen people of God are the recipients of all the good things God did in order to produce the fruit looked for. They were blessed to be a blessing.
What was God looking for from Israel? What was the bottom line? "God looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed. Righteousness, but behold, a cry." In the Matthew parable we have the same image of a vineyard. The owner is looking for a harvest, but instead, violence and bloodshed. The two stories are linked.
What God is looking for is justice and righteousness. The Hebrew words are mishpat and zedekah. They are constantly used together in the First Testament. In fact, these two concepts permeate all of scripture. They are what the kingdom of God is about. The meaning is there even when the words are not used. Everyone who is serious about the Bible must be very familiar with the Hebrew terms mishpat and zedekah. Without an understanding of these two concepts, you will never understand God nor God's expectations, not the God of the Bible.
Parents should be careful to send their children to a Sunday school or confirmation program that teaches their children about mishpat and zedekah. Without a clear understanding of these concepts, they will never know what their baptism signifies, what the bottom line is, what God expects from us, what God wants to happen in the world. They may know about all the things God has done for us. God dug it, cleared it of stones, planted a choice vine. Yes, God so loved the world that God gave his a Son. Yes, God gave us the scriptures, the sacraments, the Holy Spirit, the church.
But what good does it all do if the harvest produces wild grapes? What good is knowing all that God has done and promises, if we don't know what mishpat and zedekah (justice and righteousness) are. Make sure your children know what God is looking for - what the bottom line is. It is mishpat and zedekah. Did you notice what the text says will happen when these are not present? The owner said, "The kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruits of the kingdom."
What kind of grapes is God looking for? What do we know about these words mishpat and zedekah? What do they mean? One simple definition is that justice and righteousness means the right ordering of relationships and resources. God made this world to work. It works only in the right ordering of relationships and resources, when people learn to cooperate instead of compete, love instead of dominate.
It involves our relationship to God. It involves our relationship to the earth. It involves our relationship to one another. It involves our relationship to ourselves.
When any of these relationships and resources are broken, weakened, distorted, neglected, that's when injustice occurs. The world doesn't work. God calls us and redeems us, so that justice and righteousness might restore those relationships and resources. The kingdom is about healing and making whole that which has been broken. It is about mishpat and zedekah.
When mishpat and zedekah are absent God brings judgment. When there is no harvest of good grapes the kingdom is taken away and given to someone else. God's love abounds so that justice may happen, so that the world may work for everyone, not just a few.
In some religious circles today you might get the impression that the bottom line is emotional stability, having a good feeling inside of us, being at peace with God, knowing our sins are forgiven. Is that the end? No. The inner peace we experience is God's gift so that mishpat and zedekah can happen. Some religious groups stress correct doctrinal statements. Having right beliefs - pure teaching, correct liturgical forms
- good preaching from God's Word is stressed as central. All this is great, but that's not the bottom line. Justice is.
Is God saying to our church today, what more was there for me to do for you that I didn't do? I gave you a good beginning. By grace you have been saved. I gave you reformers, prophets, the catechism, great music. I gave you sound teachings and a strong emphasis on Bible study. I looked for mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. I expected to find a people who worked for the right ordering of relationships and resources so that all creation might be blessed.
We have a wonderful heritage of music. I love to hear our church college choirs. They are able to lift the soul in adoration and praise. We have a music director who can make singing come alive in our church. Our worship team has introduced us to an alternative style of worship. Many really like that. Others like the more traditional. God has gifted us with music in the church. I am delighted. Music really ministers to me. But I know that that's not the bottom line. The question is, does it help God's people do justice and righteousness?
We are presently in the midst of a building program. The plans look wonderful. We will rejoice when we can move back into the sanctuary and listen to our pipe organ once again. There will be room for everyone. But what's the bottom line? If the new building does not help us produce justice and righteousness, the ordering of right relationships and resources, it is all for naught.
We have grown in numbers. These past three years our budget has increased. The cash flow is stable and healthy so that we have been able to enlarge our ministry - add staff - give more to benevolence. People are learning to tithe. Our offerings look good. But that's not the bottom line. The question is, has this growth enlarged our ministry of justice and righteousness? Grapes may all look alike, but some are wild, bitter, unacceptable to God.
Let me share with you two stories that I believe help us to understand mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. The first is about Oscar Romero. He was made Bishop in El Salvador because everyone thought he was conservative and would bring stability to the war-torn country. Soon after he was installed, a priest who was a close friend was killed because he helped the peasants start a cooperative. His friend was a special friend to the poor. Soon the killing of priests and innocent people got worse. Oscar Romero began to see the need for justice. He spoke out against the injustices to the poor. He defended the rights of those who were exploited. He wrote an open letter to U.S. President Jimmy Carter asking him to stop the flow of weapons to El Salvador which were only increasing the bloodshed. He asked soldiers in the El Salvadoran army to refuse to kill their fellow citizens. The Bishop knew what mishpat and zedekah were about. Soon after he took this stand for the poor, Bishop Romero was assassinated while leading the Mass. Oscar Romero discovered what the bottom line was. It was justice and righteousness, working for the reordering of relationships and resources.
The second story is from the Bible. Jesus didn't want people to miss what he meant when he said, "Seek first the kingdom and God's justice" (mishpat and zedekah) so he told them that one day there will be a final judgment. "God will gather all nations. God will say to those on the right, 'Come, blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me, in prison and you visited me, a stranger and you welcomed me. As you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto me.' "
In telling this story, Jesus helped his listeners to know what the bottom line is. Each Sunday we gather beneath the cross of Jesus we are reminded that the bottom line is about love, love that is willing to sacrifice in order to bring about mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. Amen.
I am waking up earlier now that I'm on the other side of 50, the second side of life. My thoughts early in the morning are usually around the day's appointments. Let's see, Lois needs that article by 9. I could go to the hospital over the lunch hour. Confirmation is today. What meeting do I have tonight? Will Viv and I have dinner together? So goes my thinking early in the morning.
Seldom do I think about what life is all about or why am I doing all this, why am I here? Those deeper questions about the meaning of life come on rare occasions - usually when I have time to think or meditate, when I read a good book or take time to get away from my daily routine. Once in a great while when I get extremely frustrated, when everything seems to go awry, or no one seems to appreciate my efforts, I will sit back and ask myself, "Why am I doing this? What is it for?"
We all need to stop and ask the deeper questions once in a while, as individuals and as a church. Why am I here - why are we doing this - what's the bottom line?
In our text from Matthew we are encouraged to ask the question, when all is said and done, what's the bottom line. What is our ultimate purpose for living? What is God looking for? If we believe there is a God, what are God's expectations.
Yes, I am to believe in God - trust the promise, follow Jesus. But why? Yes, we are to obey the 10 commandments. But why? Yes, we are to pray, ask for forgiveness, love our neighbor. But why? Yes, we are called into community and we are to worship together, praise God together, be present to one another. But why? What's the bottom line, really? What is God looking for? What is the harvest that God, the landowner, is expecting to receive when the season is over?
The text in Matthew is a parable about a vineyard. The owner sends servants to collect the harvest from the tenants. But the servants are treated shamefully. Instead of fruit -beautiful and tasty grapes in abundance - there is violence and death. To help us understand this parable, it is good to be familiar with the first lesson for today from Isaiah 5, where we have another story of a vineyard.
Remember the setting in Isaiah. God chose a people, the Jews, and he said to them, "I want to bless you, and by you, through you, I want to bless the whole world. You are the instrument that I will use to restore - bring back into harmony what I have created in beauty and splendor." So God established a covenant with this special nation called the Hebrews. I will give you this and this and this. I will do this and this and this. So that you will be a blessing to the whole world, I will provide you with everything you will need. These are my expectations.
Every once in a while God has a review with Isreal to see how things are going. Are they still in focus? Do they understand what is expected, what the bottom line is? Isaiah 5 is one of those reviews. The audience listening to Jesus tell this parable was very familiar with the song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5. Here's how it starts.
"Let me sing for my beloved a love song." Doesn't that sound romantic? It makes you want to read on. God's love is set to music, a love song. It is because of God's love that we have this story. Remember this setting because as we move into the story, we may wonder where love fits in.
The lover, who is God, has planted a vineyard. Stories from nature that contain deep truths abound in the scriptures. This is one of the most compelling. To have the best harvest of grapes, to make sure the grapes are good, sweet, tasty and high quality, the lover who owns the vineyard pulls out all the stops. Notice what is done for the vineyard.
A very fertile hill is chosen, a hill with potential, a hill that has promise, a hill with rich soil. It is cultivated. It is cleared of stones. When I lived on a farm in western Minnesota I remember how every year we had to clear stones away. They kept coming up out of the soil. Those of you who know farming can appreciate what it means that the vineyard was cleared of stones.
The owner now goes to the nursery and looks for the best, choicest vines to plant. He doesn't care how much it will cost. He wants the best. Every effort is made to make sure that the grapes are top quality, sweet juicy grapes.
Fertile soil, good cultivation, stones cleared out, choice vines planted. How can you go wrong? But more is done to ensure the desired results. He builds a watch tower so all dangers can be detected ahead of time. There is protection from enemies. A wine vat is built close by to get ready for the harvest. The owner does everything to make a good harvest possible.
Now the author of the story brings us into the picture. "What did I leave out," God asks. Judge, I pray you - you be the judge - what more should I have done? Did I forget anything? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
The term wild grapes in the Hebrew language means very bitter grapes, grapes that rot your teeth, grapes that make you want to vomit, just terrible tasting grapes, repulsive - not just mediocre or inferior, but bitter. Not acceptable at all. Of no value to anyone.
What happened? What did I do wrong, God asks. Why did this happen? I worked so hard and I looked forward to those sweet tasting grapes. Why did the vineyard produce wild grapes?
The key to the whole story is found in verse 7 of Isaiah 5. Here is the application. The story of the vineyard is pretty clear. The application is very revealing. It is heavy. The vineyard is the house of Israel. The men and women of Judah are God's pleasant plantings. In other words, the chosen people of God are the recipients of all the good things God did in order to produce the fruit looked for. They were blessed to be a blessing.
What was God looking for from Israel? What was the bottom line? "God looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed. Righteousness, but behold, a cry." In the Matthew parable we have the same image of a vineyard. The owner is looking for a harvest, but instead, violence and bloodshed. The two stories are linked.
What God is looking for is justice and righteousness. The Hebrew words are mishpat and zedekah. They are constantly used together in the First Testament. In fact, these two concepts permeate all of scripture. They are what the kingdom of God is about. The meaning is there even when the words are not used. Everyone who is serious about the Bible must be very familiar with the Hebrew terms mishpat and zedekah. Without an understanding of these two concepts, you will never understand God nor God's expectations, not the God of the Bible.
Parents should be careful to send their children to a Sunday school or confirmation program that teaches their children about mishpat and zedekah. Without a clear understanding of these concepts, they will never know what their baptism signifies, what the bottom line is, what God expects from us, what God wants to happen in the world. They may know about all the things God has done for us. God dug it, cleared it of stones, planted a choice vine. Yes, God so loved the world that God gave his a Son. Yes, God gave us the scriptures, the sacraments, the Holy Spirit, the church.
But what good does it all do if the harvest produces wild grapes? What good is knowing all that God has done and promises, if we don't know what mishpat and zedekah (justice and righteousness) are. Make sure your children know what God is looking for - what the bottom line is. It is mishpat and zedekah. Did you notice what the text says will happen when these are not present? The owner said, "The kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people producing the fruits of the kingdom."
What kind of grapes is God looking for? What do we know about these words mishpat and zedekah? What do they mean? One simple definition is that justice and righteousness means the right ordering of relationships and resources. God made this world to work. It works only in the right ordering of relationships and resources, when people learn to cooperate instead of compete, love instead of dominate.
It involves our relationship to God. It involves our relationship to the earth. It involves our relationship to one another. It involves our relationship to ourselves.
When any of these relationships and resources are broken, weakened, distorted, neglected, that's when injustice occurs. The world doesn't work. God calls us and redeems us, so that justice and righteousness might restore those relationships and resources. The kingdom is about healing and making whole that which has been broken. It is about mishpat and zedekah.
When mishpat and zedekah are absent God brings judgment. When there is no harvest of good grapes the kingdom is taken away and given to someone else. God's love abounds so that justice may happen, so that the world may work for everyone, not just a few.
In some religious circles today you might get the impression that the bottom line is emotional stability, having a good feeling inside of us, being at peace with God, knowing our sins are forgiven. Is that the end? No. The inner peace we experience is God's gift so that mishpat and zedekah can happen. Some religious groups stress correct doctrinal statements. Having right beliefs - pure teaching, correct liturgical forms
- good preaching from God's Word is stressed as central. All this is great, but that's not the bottom line. Justice is.
Is God saying to our church today, what more was there for me to do for you that I didn't do? I gave you a good beginning. By grace you have been saved. I gave you reformers, prophets, the catechism, great music. I gave you sound teachings and a strong emphasis on Bible study. I looked for mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. I expected to find a people who worked for the right ordering of relationships and resources so that all creation might be blessed.
We have a wonderful heritage of music. I love to hear our church college choirs. They are able to lift the soul in adoration and praise. We have a music director who can make singing come alive in our church. Our worship team has introduced us to an alternative style of worship. Many really like that. Others like the more traditional. God has gifted us with music in the church. I am delighted. Music really ministers to me. But I know that that's not the bottom line. The question is, does it help God's people do justice and righteousness?
We are presently in the midst of a building program. The plans look wonderful. We will rejoice when we can move back into the sanctuary and listen to our pipe organ once again. There will be room for everyone. But what's the bottom line? If the new building does not help us produce justice and righteousness, the ordering of right relationships and resources, it is all for naught.
We have grown in numbers. These past three years our budget has increased. The cash flow is stable and healthy so that we have been able to enlarge our ministry - add staff - give more to benevolence. People are learning to tithe. Our offerings look good. But that's not the bottom line. The question is, has this growth enlarged our ministry of justice and righteousness? Grapes may all look alike, but some are wild, bitter, unacceptable to God.
Let me share with you two stories that I believe help us to understand mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. The first is about Oscar Romero. He was made Bishop in El Salvador because everyone thought he was conservative and would bring stability to the war-torn country. Soon after he was installed, a priest who was a close friend was killed because he helped the peasants start a cooperative. His friend was a special friend to the poor. Soon the killing of priests and innocent people got worse. Oscar Romero began to see the need for justice. He spoke out against the injustices to the poor. He defended the rights of those who were exploited. He wrote an open letter to U.S. President Jimmy Carter asking him to stop the flow of weapons to El Salvador which were only increasing the bloodshed. He asked soldiers in the El Salvadoran army to refuse to kill their fellow citizens. The Bishop knew what mishpat and zedekah were about. Soon after he took this stand for the poor, Bishop Romero was assassinated while leading the Mass. Oscar Romero discovered what the bottom line was. It was justice and righteousness, working for the reordering of relationships and resources.
The second story is from the Bible. Jesus didn't want people to miss what he meant when he said, "Seek first the kingdom and God's justice" (mishpat and zedekah) so he told them that one day there will be a final judgment. "God will gather all nations. God will say to those on the right, 'Come, blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me, in prison and you visited me, a stranger and you welcomed me. As you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto me.' "
In telling this story, Jesus helped his listeners to know what the bottom line is. Each Sunday we gather beneath the cross of Jesus we are reminded that the bottom line is about love, love that is willing to sacrifice in order to bring about mishpat and zedekah, justice and righteousness. Amen.
