Sunday, October 5, 2008
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20, Psalm 19, Philippians 3:4b-14, Matthew 21:33-46
Has anyone here felt any anxiety about the economic stability of our country in the past couple of weeks? We are all wondering about things like – who will be our next president and what fuel prices and food prices will be like this winter.
We Americans are not the only ones facing major challenges. Global warming continues to escalate the power and frequency of hurricanes and cyclones which threatens the lives of millions of people around the world. The United Nations committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals, to cut global poverty in half by 2015…but the leading nations are slow to put up the promised money creating increased anxiety for the world’s poor.
At the Lambeth Conference our Anglican sisters and brothers from around the world pleaded with us to help them in their grinding poverty. This is a short list and I’m sure that each one of you can add to this list of the challenges we are experiencing in Berkshire County, this nation and in the world at this time.
How is God inviting us to live in the middle of these challenging times?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable which looks at the problems of the world from God’s perspective. Jesus talks about the loving care with which God created human beings and all life on this planet. God planted us all in this world like a farmer plants and cares for a vineyard, expecting a good harvest. But in the Gospel parable, the tenants took over the vineyard as if they were the owners. Out of greed, they killed God’s servants and even killed God’s Son.
Jesus pictures God crying out to the people of the earth, saying. “I created all of you in love to be a blessing to the world. I planted you in the vineyard of this world so that you could bear the good fruit of my kingdom by loving God and your neighbors as yourselves. But you have turned against me and against your neighbors. You live in self-centered ways, as if it were your world, your possessions. You have forgotten that you are only tenants in my vineyard. I expect good fruit from you. You will have to answer to me for the way you live.”
We might hear God saying, “I didn’t act with greed and irresponsibility to cause this financial collapse…you did. I didn’t create global warming that increased the destructive power of the hurricanes…you did. I didn’t create the gap between the rich and the poor…you did. I don’t create wars…look at my commandments! I tried to teach people not to steal what is not theirs and not to kill. But you speak and act with great violence toward each other. I put you on the earth to care for my world. Why are you refusing to practice my simple commandments: to love God and love all your neighbors as you love yourselves?”
In our second reading we heard from St Paul, who also lived in a time of great struggle and violence. The Roman government imposed heavy taxes on all in the Empire and the Roman armies of occupation constantly irritated the people whom they conquered. Many 1st century Christians, including St Paul, experienced material poverty and both verbal and physical persecution. In fact, Paul is writing this letter from prison. Paul and the people he writes to Philippi, Greece know what it means to live in difficult and threatening times. Paul offers himself as an example of how to live in troubled times.
Paul says, in the past, I used to boast about many things in my background. But I don’t focus on the past any more. Like a runner, I don’t waste time and energy looking back over my shoulder to the way things used to be. Instead, “forgetting what lies behind, and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul the businessman and scholar learned not to waste energy by holding on to the past. Paul knows that God put him on this earth to live according to God’s will and purpose. He knows that God expects him to produce the fruits of God’s kingdom in his character and in all his relationships. So the primary focus of Paul’s life was on the present and the future. He focused on living with awareness of Christ’s presence in each moment…and seeking to please God in all the interactions of his daily life. This is also the focus Christ calls each of us to develop during the challenging times we are experiencing.
Let me illustrate. Yesterday Christians around the world gave thanks for the life and example of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis also lived in difficult and violent times. He lived during the 12th and 13th Century Crusades when cities and nations were devastated by war and decadent public leaders. How did Francis live in the violent and troubled world of his time?
Francis gave away his middle class privileges and gave his life to following Christ and to serving the needs of others. He did not waste energy criticizing the violence, corruption and injustice of his time. Instead, Francis gave his life every day to being an instrument of God’s peace. He lived very simply so that he could care for others in need. His goals were clear: love God and love the neighbors around him, all of them, including the poor and the social outcasts of his time.
Francis even walked from Italy to the Holy Land to try and make peace with the most notorious global enemy of his time, the Muslim Sultan, who had captured and controlled Jerusalem.
Francis did not have a detailed plan or strategy to transform the decadent society in which he lived. Francis simply asked God to help him love God with his whole being, and love his neighbors, in practical ways, every day. Many people were attracted to the simple, loving, prayerful life-style of Francis. Out of his simple but totally focused life of prayerful love and service, the Franciscan Order emerged.
Within a few short years, God used the Franciscan movement to transform the Western World. Instead of living in the strict class divisions of the feudal age, Franciscans lived as equals. They were willing to live in poverty so they could share their resources with others in need. As St Paul said, “they pressed on toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” In their daily relationships they lived the fruits of God’s kingdom, in the midst of a violent and decadent society.
How did they manage to live this way? As St Paul said, Christ is the one who transforms our lives, by his powerful Spirit at work in us. Franciscans surrendered themselves to Christ day by day and followed the guidance of God’s word and Spirit in all the little tasks and relationships of their lives. And God worked through those simple lives to transform the social structures of their society.
Today, all of us are being invited by Christ and the Scripture to let go of focusing on the past, on how things used to be…and instead to focus on the present and on what lies ahead, focus on following Christ, on getting to know Christ better and depending on God’s Spirit to help us live with increasing love for God and our neighbors in all our daily decisions and relationships.
When our nation and world are struggling with so many profound problems this focus on increasing our love of God and neighbor each day might seem like a little insignificant thing. But through our surrender to Christ in our daily relationships, God wants to transform the world for good in our generation, just as he did on the time of Jesus and St Paul and St. Francis. Never underestimate the transforming power of God working through the daily lives of his people. (All we have to do is remember Rene’s life – to see what a difference one person can make in the lives of others.)
So this week…as you continue to live in our anxious and troubled world…what will be the focus of your life? As you begin each day, will you get sucked into the anxieties around you…or will you begin again each morning to give your life to following Christ, inviting the Spirit of Jesus to guide every area of your life? And through the day, will you keep asking Jesus to help you love God and your neighbor in all the decisions and relationships?
Lets’ close our eyes and be still with God for a few moments. First, be aware of Gods overflowing love for you and for our needy world…rest in the warmth of God’s love.
The God who loves us also expects us to bear good fruit. What little changes might God be inviting you to make in your life this week so that your love for God and your neighbor deepens and becomes more real?
O Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.