The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
- 1 Corinthians 16: 13-24
- St. Matthew 21: 33-42
[Review of the parable as a reminder and warning to the Jews. But what does it mean for us?]
As we learned last year at this time, the landownder is God; he has leased us this land – our homes, jobs, income, time, even this church – to work for him. So the big question is; “having been leased all these things, how do we relate to God, His representatives, His prophets, and His Son? Moreover, how do we relate to the things he has leased us?”
I will answer the second question first (“how do we relate to the things he has leased us?”): we act as if we owned all these things he has loaned to us. I don’t want to dwell on this for too long, but think about how you feel when you write out your dues check to the church – do you feel as if you are giving something of your own to support an organization; or do you feel as if you are offering up a small bit – the “first fruits” – of something that could never really be yours in the first place?
The vinedressers in the story came to feel they owned all the things the landowner leased them, begrudging anything that challenged that feeling. The culture around us teaches us to do the same thing; [but] Christ is trying to teach us to do something different, to do something true. Whom do you trust?
Now for the first question – how do we relate to God? I have to be frank – the word that best describes our attitude towards God is ingratitude. Despite all the obvious blessings given to us here in America, only 56% in the USA give religion an important place in their lives. Here in New England, the number is much lower, and this finding is borne out by survey results describing our worship and prayer habits. I understand that the word “religion” means many things to many people – and that many of them are pejorative, but isn’t that just [in part] another indicator of how unwilling we are to make thanking God through prayer and worship a regular part of our routines? Forget national or regional statistics and look at our own lives: how many of us take a few seconds before and after each meal to Cross ourselves and thank God for it? How many of us take a bit of time out of our morning and evening routines to pray? How many of us make sure that we set aside every Sunday and Feast Day for worship?
The honest answer is that we do not do these things. We do not do these things because we have found other things that are more important to us. It is obvious that we are an ungrateful people. And is there anything uglier than ingratitude? When we see such an attitude in the actions of a child, doesn’t it break our hearts? Not because we want to be thanked, but because it points to something missing in the constitution of that child. It is a sign of selfishness, of something broken and spoilt, of something inhuman, graceless, and uncivilized.
God does not need our thanks. He does not need our gratitude. He does not need our offerings. But in order to become good, in order match ourselves and our actions to the perfection that is in Him, we must recognize and celebrate our true place in this world. And despite what our culture tells us, we are not at its [the world’s] center. God is. And turning our backs on Him means turning our backs on the Truth; [it means] removing the possibility of enjoying the fruits this world He has made us stewards of, and [it means] guaranteeing that the great accounting to come will not end in our favor.
But the story need not end this way. God has sent His Son to you here today. Repent of your former delusion, recognize your place in His creation, and then gratefully render Him all that He is due!
