Paonia United Methodist Church
October 9, 2002
Rev. John Nadasi
Matthew 21:33-46
The parallels are clear.
The Pharisees knew he was talking about them.
They had been given a vineyard to work in.
Overtime, they claimed the vineyard as their own,
No longer open to the outsider, but instead, a closed fraternity of “holy” people.
Other prophets were beaten, maimed, and murdered
so that the assumed authority of the Pharisees would not be challenged.
When the fruit of their Kingdom brings anger, rejection, judgment, and resentment,
It is clear that they had missed their call to tend God’s vineyard,
And were tending the vineyard of their own sin.
Therefore, their commission was taken away from them.
Pause
Folks, a lot has changed in the last 2000 years.
The world is certainly a different place.
We have cars, cell phones, the internet, mass transportation, health care, etc.
Our world looks nothing like Jerusalem 33 ad.
But the funny thing is this…
We as people…
What motivates us, drives us, and sometimes consumes us
Has not changed all that much.
The pitfalls are quite similar.
When we start out on our Christian journey
it is easy to see that the gifts and opportunities we are given are from God.
For those of us who can remember who we were before we came to know Christ,
The transition is a fairly obvious one.
For those who came to know Christ at a young age,
I suspect that transition is a bit more obscure.
And the danger is this…
God comes into our lives,
Changes us, creates a new heart in us,
Cleans up some of the mess we made,
And, all of a sudden, we look around and say,
“Darn, I’m good. Look at me… what I have done.”
And, then we forget the owner.
We come to think of the vineyard as something we own.
The church, our jobs, our money, our possessions, and yes, even our bodies.
People of God… none of this stuff is ours.
We are merely stewards in the vineyard…
Not the owners.
I’ll tell you what…
I have to be completely honest with you for a moment…
There are a lot of things that I love about Paonia…
The water, the people, the mountains, the view, and yes, even this church.
But, one of the most rewarding parts of living here is not having to live in a church parsonage.
Now, before I offend anyone, let me tell you, I am going somewhere with this…
So, stay with me.
For those of you who have not had the experience of living in a church parsonage,
It is an interesting experience.
You are not allowed to make improvements without several committee meetings,
Paint the yellow walls,
Change the carpet sister Mildred donated in the fifties,
Or remove anything from the bright orange kitchen.
Furthermore, you are to make no repairs without a vote from the trustees.
If a major appliance goes out,
You’re stuck.
I went 9 months without an oven before.
Roaches, ants, water problems, you name it…
And no power to do anything about it.
And, these repairs can take months to happen, if at all.
Needless to say,
I don’t miss living in a parsonage.
Now, I said I was going somewhere with this.
Folks, living in a church parsonage is a microcosm of the Christian life…
With one key difference.
Like the parsonage,
Your life is not your own,
You are dealt certain cards to play with,
And that is what you have.
Some people get a dealt a good hand,
Some people get carpet from the fifties.
You make the best of what you have to work with.
Either way,
What you have is never your own.
It is borrowed, and you are only the tenant there to manage it as best
As possible before giving it back.
But there is a key difference, and the key difference is this…
theoretically, the function of a parsonage is that,
It allows the pastor to be concerned about other things rather than the house
They live in and the finances and maintenance that goes with it.
Believe it or not,
This is exactly what God had in mind when he created the vineyard.
God desires to order our lives,
To make it manageable, even prosperous if we will trust him.
If we put him first,
These other things take on a far different perspective.
God gives us a certain order to our lives if we are willing to be obedient,
Faithful stewards of the gifts he has given us.
When we recognize that what we have is not ours in the first place,
It frees us from having to constantly try and control and
worry about everything,
It allows God to be God…
The master of the vineyard.
And instead of providing a run down house,
God did everything correctly to build the perfect parsonage.
The colors matched, the appliances worked.
Smoke didn’t come pouring out of the wall switches.
Eden.
The problem came when the tenants came in and trashed the place,
Thinking that it was theirs.
I do believe that the Pharisees, at least in the beginning,
Were motivated by their love of God.
But, somewhere along the way, they lost sight of putting him first,
And instead began to serve themselves.
It’s the same sin that got Lucifer thrown from heaven,
Isn’t it?
It’s the same sin that the Pharisees committed,
And it is the same issue we struggle with to this very day.
You see, people forgot that the parsonage was exactly that…
A parsonage.
Still, God fixed it up and they trashed it over and over again
There is a definition I once heard that has always stuck with me.
It actually changed my life.
It’s the definition for insanity.
What is the definition of insanity?
Trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result each time.
And, I had to ask myself,
If this is the definition of insanity,
Is God insane?
And, then it occurred to me, perhaps divine inspiration,
And, this one has really stuck with me…
How closely love and insanity exist together.
The only difference being with love…
Trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result each time.
I think that it is that kind of love
That has allowed God to continue to wait for us to get our acts together,
To quit trashing what is his and remember that the stuff down here,
Our possessions, our money, our property,
And yes, even our bodies do not even belong to us.
All these are gifts given to us to be stewards of.
I talked to you about stewardship two weeks ago.
If you have forgotten what I said, let me remind you…
Stewardship is simply the wise management of God’s resources.
Psalm 24 says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.”
And as Christians, we are called to manage those resources.
So, stewardship is as much about living as it is about giving.
When we joined the Church we promised God that we would be loyal
to The United Methodist Church, and uphold it by our prayers,
our presence, our gifts, and our service....
And the better we are at being good stewards by our prayers,
our presence, our gifts and our service...the more possible it is for us to be able to
reach the world with what is our primary stewardship--the most valued
treasure of all--something we possess through the gift of faith—
that is the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ
People of God,
That is what God is asking of us
To be good tenants.
He has been waiting since the beginning of time
To see it happen.
Now that call has been passed to us.
How will you respond?
