No Way to Run a Business
David C. Myers
October 5, 2008
World Communion Sunday
Philippians 3:4b - 14
Matthew 21:33 - 43
Text: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is a wonderful thing to see." (Mt. 21:24b)
I need to share with you at the outset that this sermon has been a struggle. It is a struggle because it cuts to the very core values that I - and I suspect - you live by.
The lectionary people have placed this passage from Matthew right smack in the middle of one of the greatest economic crisis this country has experienced in some 80 years. The more I studied the passage, the more I realized that it is about the difference as defined by Isaiah, "God thoughts are not our thought, and God's ways are not our ways." I hate it when I hear those words - I know they pertain to me.
This morning's Gospel Lesson is the story about a businessman who would seem to be a good business person at first. He begins the business of his vineyard with careful preparation. He took great pride in his vineyard. Then when he was called out of town, he entrusted the vineyard to tenants or stewards; trustees might be the modern term. The analogy is so clear for Jesus' time. The vineyard owner is God, the tenants are the people of Israel, God's servants are the prophets, and God's son is Jesus. But how clear is this analogy to our time? And this is where my personal struggle rests. I am caught between two very different sets of values.
Let's look at the story. When it came time for the harvest, the vineyard owner sent his servants to the tenants to collect the proceeds from the harvest. The tenants of the vineyard rebel against the landlord, kill his slaves - and, inexplicably the vineyard owner puts up with their murderous plots. Two sets of servants are murdered. Then the landlord makes the worst business decision of his career - he sends his own son to collect the rent. And you know the rest of the story - you know, . . . about what happened to the landlord's son.
As we watch the Vineyard owner make business decisions and face the crisis of management, it is quite apparent that the landlord has no business running a business.
The frightening part is that this story is an allegory and it is quite clear that the landlord is God and at the time Jesus told the story the people of Israel are the disloyal, undermining, selfish tenants. But what is even more dismaying is that if we follow the allegory properly, now we are the tenants. And, really, we are - God has entrusted God's Creation to our care. We are the current caretakers, or trustees!
The interesting point of this story is that there is good evidence that the tenants were pretty good at taking care of the vineyard. Perhaps even too good. The harvest was all in order when the landlord sent his messengers to gather his fruit. There is not a shred of evidence that the tenants had done anything to harm the property.
The problem is simply that the tenants forget that they were tenants. The probably figured they had squatters rights and now what they wanted the fruits of their labor. They wanted all the credit. They had done the work; they felt that they deserved the reward of the harvest.
Which is precisely the point.
And this is where it gets close to home for us. We live by success. Success is the principal motivator in our life and our economy. And we have come to measure success by what we have, which is measured by our wealth.
Let me share some shocking information that came from Sojourner's Magazine in the September/October issue. Chuck Collins, the senior scholar for The Institute of Policy Studies writes:
Most of the wealth and income gains of the last 3 decades, economists tell us, have flowed up to the wealthiest 1% of households, those with more than $5 million in assets. And within that affluent group, most gains have gone to the tiptop of the wealth pyramid, the 100,000 households that comprise our richest one-tenth of 1%. Last year, 7,500 households in the U.S. actually had annual incomes of over $20 million.
Meanwhile, after several decades of unprecedented economic growth and wealth expansion, the U. S. poverty rate is virtually unchanged . . . The U.S. has entered, in effect, a second gilded age. We live in an epoch that mirrors the horrific inequalities of wealth and opportunity of a century ago. That was the last time that the wealthiest 1% of households owned more wealth than all the families in the bottom 95% combined."
("A Problem of Riches", Chuck Collins, Sojourners, September/October, 2008, pp. 24 - 26. Chuck Collins coordinates the Working Group on Extreme Inequality. His forthcoming book about privilege is called Born on Third Base.)
Now, I don't know about you, but these statistics are shocking to me. Over the last several years I have grown comfortable with the statistic that "if the world were a global village of 100 people, Americans would be 6 of them, and they control 50% of the world's wealth. But now I realize that it is really only 1% of those 6 or less the one tenth of one person, controlling 95% of half the world's wealth.
On the one hand those very few need to be commended for being very successful at what they do. In terms of our parable they are very successful tenants. But God comes for the harvest, presumably to do what God does - in the words of Mary's Magnificat, "He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy." (Luke 1:53 - 54)
It is easy to forget that we are also trustees of what God has entrusted to us. Things like the planet, water, the air we breathe, and friends, people of all races and nationalities. We forget that we are stewards of these gifts that we share with all people, from all nations. But our success seduces us into thinking that the fruits of our success have been earned and thus are ours. The frightening thing to me - as a preacher, is that this is the very core of our country's values.
There really is a disconnect between the values of our faith and the values of our culture. Or have I been reading the Bible the wrong way?
We get so hooked by all the claims of the world and our culture that says you get what you earn, and you deserve what you get. It is easy to forget that we are tenants, trustees, stewards of God's creation. And who we are and what we do - if we are faithful tenants - is not done for our glory, but for God's.
Well, at least that is our faith perspective. But it is not so from our culture. The world makes some pretty serious demands on our self-worth. It starts in school when how good we are is determined by our grades how successful we are at getting good grades.
How our self-worth is determined is carried on to our work, when our worth is determined by how much we earn, or what profession we are in. And in this culture, when people lose a job - it's not just the income that is lost, but one's identity and one's self-esteem as well. Let's face it, so often in this culture we are defined by what we do, not who we are. And seldom can we imagine our lives in any other way.
This story of the wicked tenants shows us tenants caught up in the world's values. Quite naturally, they were responding to the claim of culture. They had done the work, therefore they deserved the reward. They couldn't imagine their lives in any other way. The tenants were out for their own gain, their own self interest - it was the culture they lived in.
And how easy it is for us to get caught in this same trap.
The Epistle writer Paul tells about his own transformation in today's reading - incidentally, written from jail. He writes that all the things he used to "count as gain are now losses because of Christ." (3:7) And Paul was on top of the world, at least according to human standards. Remember who he was in his life as Saul - a Pharisee par excellance, respected, honored, wealthy. He lays it out.
Since I exist in this same culture as you, I want to see how I stack up against Paul, so Henry/Carol is going to read Paul's words, and I will tell you my own story - with a little help from this paper bag). "If anyone has reason to be confident in the flesh," wrote Paul, "I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, (hmmm, I beat him there I was circumcised on my third day according to my mother); a member of the people of Israel, (a Christian all my life, baptized at 5 months) of the tribe of Benjamin, (always have been a Protestant) a Hebrew born of Hebrews; (and even better, a Methodist - a United Methodist) as to law, a Pharisee; (and look at me now - a minister in one of the wealthiest suburbs in the entire world) as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless (why they even trusted me to be the Treasurer of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church). Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ." (Dave takes paper bag he has been blowing up and bursts it) And he might have added, "I had it all, or I sure thought I did, then Jesus found me, and now I'm in jail." When Paul was converted, his priorities were turned around.
And that underlines the meaning of today's Gospel story. The problem with the tenants in the vineyard was not that they were successful. In fact they were very successful!
So successful, I suspect that they didn't even know they were being selfish! A successful harvest was their goal; and keeping the "fruits of their labor" was fair.
Yes, they were good and successful tenants in bringing the vineyard to a full harvest. But, like every hard working American, they wanted all the reward. They had no concept that the Vineyard was entrusted to them and that the harvest belonged to God and all of God's people. They forgot Who the Creator was and more importantly what their relationship was to the Creator!
So God's sends His Son. God doesn't destroy the tenants, but instead sends His Son. And the message that the Son brings is a message not to be snuffed out - even when the tenants kill him.
It's no way to run a business.
Faith maybe, but not a business.
Resurrection, renewal, forgiveness and grace - these are God's last words. They are words for a people who have set aside their sights on careers and wealth at the cost of relationships, sharing, and love.
The judgment of grace is hard for the world to hear. At the conclusion of the story, Jesus quotes the Psalmist, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." (Psalm 118:22f)
But the society that seduces us also rejects this cornerstone. Our sinful broken lives lead us to turn away from God and from one another. We never care enough. We never love enough. We never set our priorities to reflect that which really matters in life. We're just too darn busy being successful.
I don't have answers. I don't have a magic solution to this incredible inequity. But I do know that I, in my own relative wealth compared to most of the rest of the world - even the rest of this country, when I don't glibly go on trying to be a successful preacher practicing our culture's values that I do so well, sometimes I am very aware that I am more like the tenants in this story. And that makes me very uneasy. I know sharing my wealth means from a "success" standard will mean I have less.
I take comfort only that there may be a better standard, a better set of values than those I practice best.
In the words of John's epistle, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
However, this text does not end with that admission of sin. John goes on to say, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The landlord sent servants one after another. When they were killed, God sent His Son, born into our broken and battered world, born in a world where a lucky few work all their lives to be successful, and born to die for those who would kill Him. But death was not the final word.
Hear again the words of pardon, assurance and grace as you prepare to receive the symbols of grace - the bread and wine, Christ's Body and Blood.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness."
By God's grace - and nothing else, certainly not anything you can earn or do - by God's grace "you are accepted and forgiven."