Here are settings of the Sanctus and the Our Father that I wrote with Virginia R. Scott. (click to zoom)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Prayer Beads for Children and Adults
Prayer Beads
For a Vacation Bible School Project, we developed prayer beads for children to make and some prayers for children and adults to use with the beads. The Anglican Rosary seemed to be too many beads and so we simplified by using the week as a the basic "time" unit with days of the week and three prayer times of the day. (click on the graphic to zoom)
A Palm Sunday Story Sermon for Children
Palm Sunday
Story for Family Service
Once upon a time
in a village near the city of Jerusalem, the village of Bethphage; a little
donkey was born in the pasture. And that
donkey was called by his owner, Shorty, because he was so tiny when he was
born.
But the donkey’s
mom, called him Christopher. When
Christopher became old enough to talk to his mom, he asked her, "Why does
my owner call me Shorty, even now when I've grown to be a tall and strong
donkey?" Christopher's mom said,
"Well once you get a name, it sometimes just sticks and people won't let
you be anything else."
Christopher asked
his mom, "Then why do you call me Christopher?" His mom said, "Well, I'm not sure but I
just had this feeling that it was the right name for you."
Christopher
looked in the other pasture and he saw a beautiful big stallion prancing
around. He saw important Roman Generals
ride this beautiful horse. And
Christopher thought, "I wish that someone important would ride on my back
some day. And Christopher was a little
jealous of the stallion.
But one day
something exciting happened to Christopher.
Two visitors came to the farm where Christopher was kept. They called themselves disciples of Jesus, and they said there was
going to be a parade into the great city of Jerusalem. They also said that they needed a donkey to
carry their king. Christopher's owner
Farmer Jacob, said, "I've got two donkeys, that jennet over there and her
colt that I call "Shorty." If
Jesus needs the donkeys, take them.
Jesus is my friend, he healed my son, and I owe him everything I
have."
So the two
disciples took Christopher and his mom with them and they went to a place just
in front of the sheep gate in Jerusalem.
There was a large crowd gathered who had come to Jerusalem for the
Passover Holiday. After waiting for about
an hour, the crowd soon got excited.
Jesus arrived and it was time for the parade to start. The people put some robes on Christopher to
make a saddle for Jesus. Christopher had
never been ridden before, and he was nervous.
But Christopher's mom said, "Calm down, Jesus is the nicest man in
the world. You don't need to buck him
off."
Jesus climbed up
on the back of Christopher and the parade started. The people took some branches from some palm
trees and they began to wave and shout and scream, because their superstar was
there. They followed Jesus as he was
riding Christopher into the city of Jerusalem and Christopher trotted proudly
through the streets. This was the
happiest day of his life. At night, he
and his mom were tied up at the house of one of the disciples in
Jerusalem. Christopher's mom was proud
of him and she said, "Well now I know why I named you Christopher. "Christopher" means, "the one
who carries Christ." And today you
have carried Christ on your back, so today you have lived up to your
name." Christopher was so happy he
wanted hee haw with joy. But his
happiness didn't last too long.
He looked out on
the street and he saw another parade. In
the darkness he saw a tired and naked Jesus walking with soldiers. And the soldiers were forcing him to carry
this large wooden cross on his back. He
was bleeding and he was too weak to carry the cross, so at one place they
forced a man named Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. The people who were following the soldiers
were laughing and making fun of Jesus.
They were saying, "you're going to die Jesus. You were just pretending to be a king, but
you don't have any power, you're going to die Jesus."
Christopher ran
to his mom and said, "If I had known that this would happen to Jesus, I
would not have brought him to Jerusalem."
Christopher's mom
said, "It is a terrible, terrible thing, but we must trust God. Jesus is the best and nicest person who ever
lived and God will take care of him."
Well, Jesus went
on to die on the cross. And he was
buried in a grave. But the story
does not end here. Come back next week
and we will tell you the end of the story.
What happened to Jesus after he died and was put in the grave?
What was the
donkey's name? Christopher. What does Christopher mean? It means "The one who carries
Christ." In a way, every Christian
could be called Christopher. Because you
and I are asked to carry the presence of Christ into this world by being loving and kind. Amen.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
God, an Unrequited Party Giver and Generous Haberdasher
Lectionary Link
17 Pentecost, Cycle A
Proper 23, October 9, 2011
Today’s
installment of the parables of Jesus provides us with some very interesting
images. What if God threw a party and
nobody came? What would that tell you
about God and what would that tell you about those who were invited?
The other
part of a tag on to the parable is an image of a “wedding crasher” of
sorts. And the issue of the wedding crasher
seems to be a trivial matter of clothing, so we need more cultural information
regarding wedding customs of the time to truly understand the significance of
the “wedding crasher with the wrong attire.”
What is you
favorite image of the end of everything?
Some people look to apocalyptic images of a battle of Armageddon where
there is a fierce war and the bad guys are defeated.
I much prefer
the image of a party, a great marriage feast as the image of what the end of
life is all about. The end of life is a
big party hosted by God and all are invited, unless they by their own choice
excommunicate themselves from the party.
In the first
parable, Jesus tells about a king who is having a wedding banquet for his child
and he invites the A-list, and they don’t show up. How rude it is for them to treat the king in
such a way. And this is an ironic tale
because in a kingdom, this would not happen.
You could not say no to the king without consequences. What
does the king do? He tells his servants
to go and invite others, those who were not on the A-list and compel them to
come.
What insights
are evoked for us by this parable? This
parable speaks to me that the heart of God is all about a hospitable God who
wants to bring heaven and earth together and who also wants to bring the people
of this earth together in this great feast of hospitality. So God is the great Host of our world, a host
who wants us to celebrate our relationships with God and with the people of the
world.
But God has
big problem; it is the same problem that parents have. God is not like an earthly king who could
force people to do what he wanted. God is a hospitable God who has the profound
experience of being unrequited. A parent
often has the experience of being unrequited.
Parents desire the very best for their children, but sometimes children
do not know how to appreciate or even perceive what is best for them. And it really hurts when things are given and
offered with good intention, but rejected because of ignorance or
willfulness. So parents are often cast
in the role of being people who are enforcers or persuaders of their children,
in the hopes that they can get their children to choose good things for their
lives.
The parable
presents God in the role of an unrequited king giving a party, and the people
whom he invites do not come. The king of
the parable is more like a parent who wants the freedom of one’s children. Why
won’t they come? What have I done to
them to make them ignore such an invitation?
Do they not know how important this invitation is in that it is the
wedding of my son who will be their next king?
But in his unrequited feelings, the king honors the right of those
invited, not to attend. What does he
do? He simply invites the “B” list, and
the “C” list until his party is full.
The “A” list and the “B” list and the “C” list are only human bias
regarding who we often think is or should be favored guests of God. If you are Jewish, then you think it is the
Jews, and Baptists think they are favored guests, or Muslims, just as Roman
Catholics and Lutherans do, but we Episcopalians, think that we are natural
guests because we know how to party so well.
The parable
of Jesus tells us about God. God is a
hospitable God who invites all to communion.
Invites, not forces. And yet God
experiences rejection because people are ignorant of the importance of this
feast of feasts, this communion of communions that God desires with everyone. Even though God must face rejection and be an
unrequited party giver, God does not stop inviting. God cannot but be hospitable. That is God’s nature. So the invitation to the feast is always
open. This invitation to communion with
God and each other is always open.
Now what
about the tagged on parable of the party crasher? In the second parable a guest gets
unceremoniously bounced from the wedding for not having the right wedding
attire. From our perspective this seems
rather unfair. But what is the issue
here?
In the time
of Jesus, a king who gave a wedding party would also be one who provided the
wedding attire for each of his guests.
This was the custom for a king or someone of means. Obviously the guests did not have the means
to dress lavishly for such an important event and so the wealthy host would
provide the wedding garments as a sort of social leveler. It would give the appearance that everyone
was equal at the feast since they were all dressed because of the largesse of
the host who was pleased that they had come to share in the joy of honoring the bride and the groom.
So when one
of the wedding guests decides to do his own thing, retains his own clothes and
rejects the wedding garment of the host, it is a matter of offense to the
host. It is motivated by wanting to
stand out from the crowd based upon the pride of one’s own appearance.
In this is an
important understanding about God’s grace.
Because of the redemptive grace of God in Christ, we are clothed in the
righteousness of Christ and that is the great equalizer amongst us all. No matter what we have done in our lives, at
anytime in our lives, we still need God’s grace to make it appear as though we
are presentable to God. And that is how
God grace works; we are not invited to communion of God because we are better
than anyone else. We are invited to
communion with God, because God dresses us with a grace that has been provided
by God and not because of something of our own doing or worth or even brilliance
or heroism.
If we want to
do our own thing, and think that God should be more impressed with us because
we’re doing our own thing, then we have fallen into pride in thinking that we
attain the pleasure of God’s hospitality because of our own doing.
So what can
we learn in these parables? First God is
a hospitable God who has offered us the invitation to communion with God and
with each other. And we do well and are
wise to accept this marvelous invitation.
Secondly, in accepting the invitation, it does not mean we are on the
“A” list and others are not. It means
that with everyone else who is invited we allow ourselves to be attired with
God’s grace and not of our own accomplishments. The party is a celebration of the largesse of the generosity of God’s loving
heart.
Today, let us
accept the invitation to communion with God.
That communion involves receiving God’s grace which cleans us up and
makes us acceptable in a way not of our own doing. This Holy Communion today is but an advance
party to the big One. And so God says to
us now, “Y’all come to the party and get used to my abundant hospitality!” Amen.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Labyrinth Prayer Beads
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Blessing of the Animals Liturgy
Each year we do an outdoor service for the Blessing of the Animals on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. We ask each person to make a vow to be a good steward of creation and for the pets that he or she presents for a blessing.
Here is the liturgy that we use:
St. John the Divine Episcopal Church
17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Family Service with Holy Eucharist
& Blessing of the Animals
October 2, 2011: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Gathering Songs:
Here is the liturgy that we use:
St. John the Divine Episcopal Church
17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
Family Service with Holy Eucharist
& Blessing of the Animals
October 2, 2011: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Gathering Songs:
Morning Has Broken, If I Were a Butterfly, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace, All Things Bright and Beautiful
Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People: And blessed be God’s Kingdom now and forever. Amen.
Liturgist: Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.
And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.
Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Song: Morning Has Broken
1-Morning has broken like the first morning; blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them springing fresh from the word.
2-Sweet the rain’s new fall sunlit from heaven, like the first dewfall on the first grass. Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden, sprung in completeness where his feet pass.
3-Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning born of the one light Eden saw play! Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s re-creation of the new day!
Liturgist: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Liturgist: Let us pray
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Litany of Praise: Chant: Alleluia
O God, you are Great! Alleluia
O God, you have made us! Alleluia
O God, you have made yourself known to us! Alleluia
O God, you have provided us with us a Savior! Alleluia
O God, you have given us a Christian family! Alleluia
O God, you have forgiven our sins! Alleluia
O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead! Alleluia
Liturgist: A reading from the Book of Exodus
Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Liturgist: The Word of the Lord
People: Thanks be to God
Let us read together from Psalm 8
You give him mastery over the works of your hands; *you put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, * even the wild beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, * and whatsoever walks in the paths of the sea.
Birthdays:
Anniversaries:
Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)
Litanist:
For our animal friends and pets, past and present. Thanks be to God!
For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!
For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!
For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!
For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!
For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!
For work and for play. Thanks be to God!
For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!
For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!
For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.
Thanks be to God!
Liturgist: The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew
People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
Jesus said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.' So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time."
Liturgist: The Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.
Lesson – Fr. Cooke:
Collect for the Feast of St. Francis
Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfect joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Vow to Creation
Celebrant: Will you cherish the beauty of the Good Earth that God has entrusted to you, and will you do all in your power to preserve the beauty for own age and for the people of the future?
Response: I will with God’s help.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Word of God that issued from God’s mouth and created all things and God’s Spirit moved over the deep and made creation happen; you have called creation good, and we celebrate the goodness of creation which you have given to us to enjoy and tend; Bless the Good Earth and its fruits, and us as we commit ourselves to stewardship, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Vow to our Animal friends
Celebrant: Will you promise to love, enjoy, and care for all God’s creatures, and especially for the pet whom you present for a blessing?
Response: I will, with God’s help.
Blessing:
Lord Jesus Christ, your friends, have brought to you these special friends: Bless we pray these delightful creatures, and grant that those who tend to their care will take delight in all of God’s creation, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Youth Liturgist: The Peace of the Lord be with you always.
People: And also with you.
Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering
Offertory Song: If I Were a Butterfly
1-If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings. And if I were a robin in a tree, I’d thank you Lord, that I could sing. And if I were a fish in the sea, I’d wiggle my tail and I’d giggle with glee, but I just thank you Father for making me ‘me.’
Chorus: For you gave ma a heart and you gave me a smile. You gave Jesus and you made me your child. And I just thank you, Father for making me, ‘me.’
2-If I were an elephant, I’d thank you, Lord, by raising my trunk. And if I were a kangaroo, you know I’d hop right up to you. And if I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord, for my find looks, but I just thank you Father, for making me, ‘me.’ Chorus
3-If I were a wiggly worm, I’d thank you, Lord that I could squirm. And If I were a Billy goat, I’d thank you, Lord for my strong throat. And if I were a fuzzy-wuzzy bear, I’d thank you, Lord, for my fuzzy-wuzzy hair, but I just thank you, Father, for making me ‘me.’ Chorus
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Prologue to the Eucharist
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”
All become members of a family by birth or adoption.
Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.
A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.
The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.
The Lord be with you
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.
It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.
Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we
Forever sing this hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might. Heav’n and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.
(Children may gather around the altar)
The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;
You have made us in your image
And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:
Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.
And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph
And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.
Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat
the bread and drink the wine, we can know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as
this food and drink that becomes a part of us.
The Prayer continues with these words
And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.
On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."
After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."
Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death, resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.
Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ. May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.
By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory
is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.
And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing, (Children may rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)
Our Father (Sung): West Indian Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.
Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.
And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.
As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.
Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.
But deliver us from evil: Hallowed by thy name.
Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.
Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.
Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.
Breaking of the Bread
Celebrant: Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People: Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia!
Words of Administration.
Communion Hymn: Prayer of St. Francis
1-Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring your love. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord, And where there’s doubt, true faith in you. Refrain
Refrain: Oh, Master, grant I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul.
2-Make me a channel of your peace. Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness only light, and where there’s sadness ever joy. Refrain
3-Make me a channel of your peace. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving to all men that we receive and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Post-Communion Prayer
Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;
We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.
And His Presence has been known to us.
We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the
bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,
As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Closing Song: All Things Bright & Beautiful
Refrain: All things bright & beautiful, all creatures great & small, all things wise & wonderful, the Lord God made them all.
1-Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, he made their glowing colors, he made their tiny wings. Refrain
2-The purple-headed mountain, the river running by, the sunset, and the morning that brightens up the sky. Refrain
3-He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well. Refrain
Dismissal:
Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.
People: Thanks be to God!
Announcements
Coming Events:
Whose life is it, anyway?
Lectionary Link
16 Pentecost, ap22, October 2, 2011
The parable that we’ve read from the Gospel
today poses this question: Whose life is
it, anyway?
And perhaps we answer, “It’s my life and I’m
going to do what I want.”
I am going to do what I want as long as I
don’t get resistance or opposition from someone or something greater than I am.
The parable hints at an impression of how
people often regard God. God is often
regarded as an “absentee landlord” of this world. Yes, God may be the creator of the world or
at least I know that the world was here before I came into it, and I expect
that it will survive after I leave it, so I know that I did not cause the world
to happen. Someone/something greater
than me caused things to be the way they were.
But God seems to be an absentee landlord of
the world in that God does not seem to wield a coercive presence. God does not seem to be an intervening God
who immediately punishes every misdeed as soon as it happens. And since God does not seem to be an
intervening
presence in the
world, it is easy to get used to treating God as the absentee landlord. So, what if I don’t pay my rent this
month! What’s the Landlord going to do
about it?
And if we can get used to regarding God as
the absentee landlord of the world, then we can adopt the most famous legal
principle of folk law: Possession is
nine tenth of the law. If my life and
the things of my life are in my “apparent” possession then I can claim them as
my own.
And this is the state of affairs that
characterizes what we call the state of sin.
Sin is the state of living in alienation from God; living as though the
landlord of the world is perpetually absence and uninvolved in the world. And the result of this alienation from God is
that we live in alienation with the people and things of our lives.
So is God the absentee landlord of the
universe? And if not, why is it so easy
to regard God as absent? The short
answer is this: God is not a dictator
God. A dictator is a coercive presence
in his realm. God is not a coercive
presence in this world. God is a
persuasive Lure in this world, because unlike a dictator, God respects the
freedom of choice.
When God created the world, God included
something of godliness to be discovered within the created order. The discovery of godliness in the created
order has happened when people of faith and spirit have come upon the
obviousness of God in this world and declared it in various ways. Through the witness of Mosaic Law, the
obviousness of God was declared in the laws.
Moses came to the place of a right relationship with God and then
received, as it were, an ownership manual for the inhabitants of the
earth. We’ve read from the 10
commandments given to us in the Hebrew Scriptures. They are a part of understanding God’s
presence in this world as a revealed law.
They are insights for living and the very first commandment essentially
says, “Live your life knowing that God owns the world and our lives.” Do not have any other gods except the one
God. All of the other laws follow as
insights for living from knowing that God is the creator, owner and indeed the
landlord of the universe.
If God is the landlord of the universe what
happens when we don’t acknowledge this fact?
We lose touch with the true nature of life. We reject what is good and we can even become
expressive of the worst possibilities in human behavior.
The parable gives an indication of the ways
in which God as the loving landlord of the universe has sent messengers to
correct the rebellion of the tenants.
The rather startling suggestion of the early
church is this: Even if God were to send
the divine son to convince us about the reality of God’s ownership of the
world, many still living under alienation from God would still kill the divine
Son.
And isn’t that the point of the Gospel? God was found in human form in the person of
Jesus. And Jesus invited us to correct
our relationship with God, not because God is a power-hungry dictator, but
because it was and is obvious that humanity does not always know or choose to
live in winning ways. The Son of the
Landlord was killed, not because he was sent to collect over due rent, but to
help restore a broken relationship.
One of the things to note about this parable
is the answer that the listeners of Jesus gave to him. Jesus asked them, “What will the landlord do
to those who usurped his land and killed his son?” And they answered, “He will put those
wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will
give him the produce at the harvest time."
But what did Jesus himself say when he was dying upon the cross? He said, “Father, forgive them for they do
not know what they are doing.”
Ignorance lies within all of the great
problems of life today. And the chief
source of ignorance is forgetting or not knowing or caring that God is the
owner of the universe. Ignorance is the
cause of the great stewardship problem in our world today. The stewardship problem in our world stems
from forgetting that God is the creator and owner of the universe. If God is the owner of the universe, we are
to live and work for God.
God sent his Son to free us from our
ignorance regarding to whom our life belongs.
And Jesus, God’s Son said to love God with all of our hearts and to love
our neighbor as our self. This expresses
the perfection of stewardship.
Now God may seem at times to be an absentee
landlord, and we know that in cities absentee landlords can contribute to the
decline of neighborhoods.
But God is different from most human
landlords, because God cannot really be benefited by anything that we give to
God. God returns all of the rent to the tenants. God returns everything as future investment
in the world, for the people to come.
And that is the amazing discovery about stewardship, God doesn’t need
our money or our time; but our parish
and many needy people in our world do need our money and our time and our
talent.
Somehow we don’t seem to ever properly care
for each other until we learn to care for God properly who is over all but
gives and shares it all.
What God wants to hear from us today is the
prayer of stewardship. In this prayer,
we simply say, “All things belong to you, O God. Now give us wisdom to know how to use what
you have shared with us.”
Stewardship is knowing that all things belong
to God, but also knowing that God has returned it all to us so that we might
make this world better. Let us embrace
our roles as stewards of God’s good gifts to us today. Amen.
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