Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46
Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46
A main biblical message is about convincing humanity that we are stewards for the gift of life that we did nothing to receive. And everyone has received something different in the conditions of their births, their natural gifts and the opportunities afforded each person by their nurturing or challenging and even unjust environments.
Jesus, specified the stewardship role by adding, "to whom much is given, much is required." This counters the usurping practices of the strong and wealthy, who often live as though, "if I have much, then I have the right to take more, and in fact, as much as I can."
How can we be convinced about our stewardship roles? First by being humble enough to recognize that we have only temporal duration in life. We came into this life within the pre-conditions of Vast Plenitude. We will leave this life from the conditions of Vast Plenitude, and in contrast our lives are pretty small and short-lived. Yet we have come to believe that the Vast Plenitude of God is one who wants a friendly and persuasive relationship with us such that this Friendly God allowed for a series of versions of "ownership manuals" for best human practices.
These "ownership manuals" for best human practices come in the form of a covenantal contractual relationship with God. The most famous "ownership manual" for human living came to us in what we call the 10 Commandments.
The 10 Commandments as an "ownership manual" for human living sets forth some principles for best practices.
The first four best practices concern our relationship with God. Worship God as the one and only truly worshipful Being. Worship is the way in which we acknowledge God's ownership of our lives. This acknowledgement is the beginning of everything else we do. How do we worship God? By ridding ourselves of any competing gods and idols. Nothing else in life is bigger or better than God, so don't try to disprove that. How do we worship God? By giving God Sabbath time. A Sabbath would be one seventh of our time. God has made prayer so portable to our lives that we can easily give one seventh of our time as intentional prayerful connection. And there is also a warning about authentic worship. Don't use God's name in vain; that is, do not presume to speak for God when one's life does not agree with the divine values of love and justice. Not taking the Lord's name in vain, has less to do with cussing and swearing; it has more to do with avoiding hypocrisy.
If we get our covenantal practice with God correct, then the aspects of loving our neighbors follow. Take care of one's parents, the previous generation. Honor one's own family vows. Respect the physical lives of others; do no harm. Tell the truth and respect property rights. But then there is that last one which is difficult. Don't covet. Learn to tame and surf one's life desire in ways that honors our respect for God and each other.
Desire is sometimes hard to tame. Even when we don't act out on it, we still have it within ourselves as a conflicting force. So even when we appear to clean up our exterior presentation, we have to deal with the interior force that manifests itself in all kinds of hassling ways: jealousy, lust, pride, wishing ill for our enemies, anger, rage, accusation, depression and more.
Taming desire is perhaps the most profound tasks which calls for us to know and recognize God as the Holy Spirit force to help us reorganize our inner energies.
The parable of Jesus relates the devastating results of failure at stewardship. Because we cannot see the God as the Owner of the universe and our lives, we can fall into that famous legal fallacy, "Possession is nine-tenth of the law." Because I can't see the owner of the world, and because the owner seems to be an absentee-landlord, I can begin to pretend that I own my life and everything in it. When I am in such alienation, I will of course, ignore or kill any agent of the owner who might come to try to reestablish the recognition of the true owner of life.
The story of Jesus is the story of God's loving agent who came to coax people to the true nature of the Divine ownership of life and the human stewardship role.
One can say that the majority of willful problems in our world today comes because too many people are alienated from the covenant of life, "loving God with all our lives and loving our neighbors as ourselves."
The good news for us today is that Jesus gives us a way and the power to be restored into a right relationship with the Owner of life, and from that right relationship, we can go forth to make the loving of our neighbors the blessing of this world. Amen.
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