Sermon for Oct. 5
Sermon
St. Luke Lutheran Church – Sept. 21, 2008
19th Sunday after Pentecost – Lectionary 25 – Year A
Primary Text: Jonah 3:10-4:11, Matthew 20:1-16
Last Sunday throughout the nation 33 pastors affiliated with the group “Alliance Defense Fund” stood up in the pulpit and informed their congregations who they should vote for. They felt that they needed to tell people who God favors and God’s thoughts in regards to the election. I see two things wrong with this, firstly and most simply, it is against IRS laws, a religious non-profit organization cannot directly endorse a specific candidate. Secondly, and more importantly to me, by endorsing a candidate through the pulpit they are using human terms to define who is a “good” Christian. They are telling their congregations how to think, and I disagree with that. I don’t think that anyone, pastors or any leaders, should tell people what to think. They can help inform and discuss different sides with others, but by telling someone how to think, I feel that you go against the God’s gift of free will.
Does this mean that as Christians we should not be political? No, Jesus was most definitely political and to live our lives as Children of God means that we too should be political. To not be political means that we have removed ourselves from the world that God made for us. Then how should the church talk to us about politics? In the Document “Called to be a Public Church: 2008 ELCA Voting and Civic Participation Guide,” Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, states:
“The ELCA social statement, The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective … commits us to “work with and on behalf of the poor, the powerless, and those who suffer, using [this church’s] power and influence with political and economic decision-making bodies to develop and advocate policies that seek to advance justice, peace and the care of creation. … The electoral process is one way in which we live out our affirmation of baptism to “serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus,” and “to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”
In our readings today, we see two similar stories, the first from Isaiah. Isaiah tells of a song, where the beloved, which represents God, plants a vineyard and gives all the care to it that it needs, but instead of producing the good grapes that are expected it produces wild grapes, which can also be translated as stinking or worthless things. Isaiah then says that because of this growing wild grapes instead of good grapes, the vineyard, Israel, will be destroyed and be made a waste. This text comes from the beginning part of Isaiah, which takes place before Israel’s exile into Babylon. Isaiah uses this story to warn Israel of the coming exile and destruction.
We see the same set-up again in Jesus’ Parable of the Wicked Tenants. But while Isaiah gives us simply that good grapes were expected and wild grapes came, Jesus changes the story from one of all the people failing to one where there are specific people within the story. There are other differences. We do not know whether the grapes that grew were good or wild grapes. Since it is not mentioned I feel we can think that they were in fact good grapes. But when God comes to claim the harvest, which God has planted and worked to protect before giving care over to the tenants, the tenants instead claim the crop as their own and throw away or kill all of the owners messengers, slaves and even Son. They claim that by doing so they will get the son’s “inheritance,” understood as the kingdom of heaven.
By changing the focus of the story from the grapes going bad to the attempt of the leadership to claim responsibility for the welfare of the vineyard, Jesus changes this from a critique of the nation as a whole to a critique of the leadership.
I do not see this parable speaking only to governmental leaders on the national scale, I think that Jesus’ warning to not claim what God has given us as our own and to try and take personal responsibility for what God has done in our life speaks to each and everyone of us. By doing this we take what God has given us, use it to our own advantage, and so reject Christ, the Son. We do this in many ways. When we do not take care of God’s creation, through misuse of the environment and ecology, we reject God’s instructions for us to be stewards of creation. In relationships, where instead of seeing Christ in the other we seek to use the relationship to our own advantage to get what we want. In times of ministry, where we take our own insecurities and reservations as more important than the needs and concerns of those we minister to. We reject Christ in times of injustice, when we become more concerned of our own rights instead of being concerned about those who are oppressed.
In the parable, Christ compares himself to the son who was rejected and thrown out of the vineyard. He answers his parable by stating that “the Stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone.” A cornerstone is the first stone placed in a masonry foundation, and it determines the position of the entire structure, as all other stones are set in reference to it. God takes that which was rejected and builds with it. So the same occurs now, while we reject God builds. Through our own actions we can only reject, but when God works in us we are built up. When we align ourselves to the cornerstone that is Christ, we cannot fall. It is in us that God produces the fruits of the kingdom and we are so given the kingdom of heaven.
At the beginning of this sermon, I told you that you should never be told how to think about anything. There is something that you need to know though, and something that I want you to think about as you prepare for the coming election. How are you aligning yourself? Is it on the words of someone else? Or is it on God working through you? Is it on someone else’s single issue or is it on God’s concern for all. Is it on your own concern about getting what you want or is it on what has been rejected, Christ the cornerstone?
St. Luke Lutheran Church – Sept. 21, 2008
19th Sunday after Pentecost – Lectionary 25 – Year A
Primary Text: Jonah 3:10-4:11, Matthew 20:1-16
Last Sunday throughout the nation 33 pastors affiliated with the group “Alliance Defense Fund” stood up in the pulpit and informed their congregations who they should vote for. They felt that they needed to tell people who God favors and God’s thoughts in regards to the election. I see two things wrong with this, firstly and most simply, it is against IRS laws, a religious non-profit organization cannot directly endorse a specific candidate. Secondly, and more importantly to me, by endorsing a candidate through the pulpit they are using human terms to define who is a “good” Christian. They are telling their congregations how to think, and I disagree with that. I don’t think that anyone, pastors or any leaders, should tell people what to think. They can help inform and discuss different sides with others, but by telling someone how to think, I feel that you go against the God’s gift of free will.
Does this mean that as Christians we should not be political? No, Jesus was most definitely political and to live our lives as Children of God means that we too should be political. To not be political means that we have removed ourselves from the world that God made for us. Then how should the church talk to us about politics? In the Document “Called to be a Public Church: 2008 ELCA Voting and Civic Participation Guide,” Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, states:
“The ELCA social statement, The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective … commits us to “work with and on behalf of the poor, the powerless, and those who suffer, using [this church’s] power and influence with political and economic decision-making bodies to develop and advocate policies that seek to advance justice, peace and the care of creation. … The electoral process is one way in which we live out our affirmation of baptism to “serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus,” and “to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.”
In our readings today, we see two similar stories, the first from Isaiah. Isaiah tells of a song, where the beloved, which represents God, plants a vineyard and gives all the care to it that it needs, but instead of producing the good grapes that are expected it produces wild grapes, which can also be translated as stinking or worthless things. Isaiah then says that because of this growing wild grapes instead of good grapes, the vineyard, Israel, will be destroyed and be made a waste. This text comes from the beginning part of Isaiah, which takes place before Israel’s exile into Babylon. Isaiah uses this story to warn Israel of the coming exile and destruction.
We see the same set-up again in Jesus’ Parable of the Wicked Tenants. But while Isaiah gives us simply that good grapes were expected and wild grapes came, Jesus changes the story from one of all the people failing to one where there are specific people within the story. There are other differences. We do not know whether the grapes that grew were good or wild grapes. Since it is not mentioned I feel we can think that they were in fact good grapes. But when God comes to claim the harvest, which God has planted and worked to protect before giving care over to the tenants, the tenants instead claim the crop as their own and throw away or kill all of the owners messengers, slaves and even Son. They claim that by doing so they will get the son’s “inheritance,” understood as the kingdom of heaven.
By changing the focus of the story from the grapes going bad to the attempt of the leadership to claim responsibility for the welfare of the vineyard, Jesus changes this from a critique of the nation as a whole to a critique of the leadership.
I do not see this parable speaking only to governmental leaders on the national scale, I think that Jesus’ warning to not claim what God has given us as our own and to try and take personal responsibility for what God has done in our life speaks to each and everyone of us. By doing this we take what God has given us, use it to our own advantage, and so reject Christ, the Son. We do this in many ways. When we do not take care of God’s creation, through misuse of the environment and ecology, we reject God’s instructions for us to be stewards of creation. In relationships, where instead of seeing Christ in the other we seek to use the relationship to our own advantage to get what we want. In times of ministry, where we take our own insecurities and reservations as more important than the needs and concerns of those we minister to. We reject Christ in times of injustice, when we become more concerned of our own rights instead of being concerned about those who are oppressed.
In the parable, Christ compares himself to the son who was rejected and thrown out of the vineyard. He answers his parable by stating that “the Stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone.” A cornerstone is the first stone placed in a masonry foundation, and it determines the position of the entire structure, as all other stones are set in reference to it. God takes that which was rejected and builds with it. So the same occurs now, while we reject God builds. Through our own actions we can only reject, but when God works in us we are built up. When we align ourselves to the cornerstone that is Christ, we cannot fall. It is in us that God produces the fruits of the kingdom and we are so given the kingdom of heaven.
At the beginning of this sermon, I told you that you should never be told how to think about anything. There is something that you need to know though, and something that I want you to think about as you prepare for the coming election. How are you aligning yourself? Is it on the words of someone else? Or is it on God working through you? Is it on someone else’s single issue or is it on God’s concern for all. Is it on your own concern about getting what you want or is it on what has been rejected, Christ the cornerstone?
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