Any halfway decent real-estate agent or commercial property manager could probably explain today\u2019s gospel parable from Matthew in two seconds flat. It is all about landlords and tenants after all. And there is an entire body of business law devoted to them and their all-too-numerous disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Jesus\u2019 telling, a vineyard owner contracts with tenants for the use of his land \u2013 and then promptly leaves town for another country. At harvest time, the same landowner sends his slaves or agents back to the vineyard to collect the rent \u2013 his share of the harvest in this case \u2013 from the tenants. But the tenants decide to take matters into their own hands. Apparently hoping to secure the property for themselves, they beat the first slave, kill a second and stone the third. Then they do it all over again, finally even killing off the landowner\u2019s son in the hope of somehow gaining his inheritance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are we to make of this graphic tale of greed and mayhem, violence and murder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the very least, the landowner in question, we might be tempted to think, ought to have done a more thorough background check before renting out his vineyard \u2013 the very source of his livelihood \u2013 to those scoundrels who end up murdering his slaves and son. Surely even in the ancient world people knew who was trustworthy or not. Word got around, after all, even before the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then the obvious question arises. Why did they do it? The tenants had to have been fairly bright guys. Or they would not have gone into agribusiness in the first place \u2013 then as now not an easy way to make a living. Did they really think they could get away with it \u2013 get away with murder? Well, apparently they did. Their greed got in the way of their common sense and reason. No doubt not the first time such a thing has ever happened \u2013 and not likely to be the last either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The point of the story seems so obvious to Jesus\u2019 hearers that they leap to it without a moment\u2019s hesitation. The landowner, they declare in moral outrage, \u201cwill put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants.\u201d The story must have also resonated with the early church community, for it is one of only a very few of Jesus\u2019 parables recounted in all three of the so-called Synoptic Gospels \u2013 Matthew, Mark and Luke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alas, the news these days is sadly still full of just such parables of greed and corruption. We know them too well. We are even now just exiting one of the worse financial crises in our history \u2013 by fairly common consensus the result in large measure of rampant materialism and greed. And millions of people have suffered the consequences. So, yes, some people clearly do still think they can get away with it. And some indeed do. The world has not changed all that much in the time since Jesus told his parable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We might conclude that it simply does not pay to be an absentee landlord. Better to stay home, lock the back door and mind the store. After all, there is no place like home. Surely, that is where one can feel safe and secure. Maybe so, but try telling that to someone whose mortgage is still upside-down or under water and is likely to remain so for some time to come. Let\u2019s face it. Even security at home is sometimes an illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parable, of course, is about us as much as it is about thieves \u2013 about us as much as it is about the \u201cchief priests and the Pharisees\u201d who come to recognize themselves in Jesus\u2019 words. The priests and Pharisees at least deserve begrudging credit, if not for their actions then for their insight into their own motivations. They want to arrest Jesus for his words and be rid of him. They knowingly seek to neutralize his potent message of God\u2019s righteousness and Kingdom. What they do not know \u2013 and what we sometimes forget \u2013 is that it cannot be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter where we live or what we have, we are all no more than tenants in God\u2019s Kingdom. Nothing ever truly belongs to us. In the final analysis, everything we have has been lent to us. Everything is borrowed for a time. As the old saying has it, we are living on borrowed time \u2013 quite literally. Like the priests and Pharisees of this narrative, we too might wish the world were different, that tenants were owners and servants, masters. But it is not so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey will respect my son,\u201d the landowner erroneously concludes as he decides to send his child as emissary after his slaves are beaten and killed. To paraphrase Doctor Phil, television\u2019s favorite pop psychologist, \u201cWhat was he thinking?\u201d If only the landowner had gone to his parish priest, he might have been set right. \u201cDo not send your son,\u201d he would have been told in no uncertain terms. \u201cCall the police and report the incident. Begin eviction proceedings. Get back home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All good advice to be sure, but it is doubtful the landowner would have followed even his beloved pastor\u2019s counsel. For the landowner\u2019s economy is not that of this world. And perhaps it is just as well. He knows something we tend to overlook, that in the end it is not a matter of land, property rights, wealth, possessions or ownership. For a follower of Christ, it is ultimately not even a question of life and death. It is only the Kingdom that matters, a kingdom most decidedly not of this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Kingdom of God,\u201d Jesus says in explanation of the story, \u201cwill be \u2026 given to a people that produces the fruits of the Kingdom.\u201d And the fruits of the kingdom of which Jesus speaks have nothing to do with grain or grapes, much less dollars and cents. If we miss that, we miss the point of Jesus\u2019 parable entirely. We miss the Kingdom at work in our lives. For, the Kingdom is, in fact, ours \u2013 but only to the extent that we give in turn to others of all that has been so generously given to us. In God\u2019s Kingdom, finally, that is the only way tenants become landlords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by Frank Heged\u00fcs<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Any halfway decent real-estate agent or commercial property manager could probably explain today\u2019s gospel parable from Matthew in two seconds flat. It is all about landlords and tenants after all. And there is an entire body of business law devoted to them and their all-too-numerous disputes. In Jesus\u2019 telling, a vineyard owner contracts with tenants…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,1953],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-512000","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-22a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":108,"label":"Proper 22A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3475810,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512000\/revisions\/3475810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}