We are his stewards

 

In this parable (Matthew 21:33-46) the Pharisees were indignant at the thought that they might not be considered to be as good as they thought they were, elite and “they were entitled” by birth and dismissed anything that might challenge their place in Jewish society. How about us; do we sometimes think that we are entitled…just because we were born into a certain social strata? Let’s face it, as citizens of this great country we sometimes take our blessings for granted and live as though we “have a right to” and have somehow earned these blessings?

 It troubles me to see and hear the ongoing division in our country over resurrected hurts and even evils that have festered and continue to be perpetrated on people of color and those without voice. While we can’t undo the wrongs of the past and letting go of the past does not mean we bury it or forget it; we can’t. But by remembering its lessons we can grow going forward. However, can we do this mindfully, civilly in honest discourse with the ultimate endpoint, to change?  Too often the purpose of one cause or another is drowned out in self-serving noise and visual distractions that cause us to focus on unpleasant theatrics and unlawful demonstrations and not on solutions. Shouldn’t we first take stock of what we have, give thanks, and start from there? We are mere temporary resident tenants who are blessed to have been entrusted as stewards of the Master’s property and are expected to return it better than the way we found it.

And what about our churches, and here I refer to the practice of our faith and not the institutions? We act at times as though our religious practices are our own possessions to which we are solely entitled.  Like the tenants who lease the land, we are too busy tending to our own agendas and goals that we forget that the landowner is going to hold us accountable for what we have done with his land.  Rather than serving as stewards of God’s vineyard in the world we have sometimes behave as though the church is our private club.   

The kingdom of God does not work like a marketplace.  What we do in His kingdom does not exist to serve our own agendas.  But rather it exists to serve something much greater than ourselves.  Tending to His vineyard has nothing to do with yield.  We have no idea what that yield is or will be. Love like a fertile verdant garden, takes what we have and returns it more beautiful than before.  

In Matthew, Jesus describes the violent way the tenant farmers treated the servants and the landowner’s own son.  He then asks them how they think the landowner will treat the tenant farmer.  Thoroughly entrenched in their world’s ideology of violence and retribution, the Pharisees say that the landowner will bring those retches to a miserable end.  Jesus knows that this is not quite the whole story and tells them, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone.”  In other words, God is not about to give up.  No matter what violent acts are perpetuated against Jesus, the Father will see that the rejected stone becomes the cornerstone. 

The kingdom is not ours.  The kingdom belongs to God.  We who live in the kingdom must reside on God’s terms and not ours.  We are just stewards.  This good news is worth sharing!