Year A
October 2-8
October 5, 2014
Cross~Wind
Title: Can Christianity be as simple as being a good tenant?
Introduction
I did not
think that I had much experience with being a tenant, until I realized that
most United Methodist pastors spend much of their lives being tenants. The church
owns the home, but you are the one who lives there. Our Annual Conference
around this time of the year sends out a check list for a member of the
trustees and the pastor to fill out. Part of it is to be sure that the church
is being a good landowner, and part of it is to be sure that the clergy family
properly cares for the property. The conference has not always done this. Part
of the reason is that some congregations do not care properly for the home. Of course,
part of it is that some clergy families do not care properly for the home.
I came
across an article about landlord and tenant relationships in New York City that
I found interesting.
You can hear the rats rummaging through your cupboards. You wake up to
cockroaches crawling across your bed. The faucet leaks. The door sticks. Water
damage has left a hole in your ceiling with light peering through from the
apartment above. Several questionable characters have begun sleeping and
selling dope out of the unlocked basement below. The toilet? Well, let us just
say it is not pretty. The radiator turns all 600 square feet into a sauna in
the winter and the lackluster A/C unit strapped precariously inside your only
window ensures it stays just as toasty during summer. You have complained to
the owner. When he actually picks up your call -- which is about once every 2
to 3 years -- he simply chuckles and reminds you that "Hey, $3,500 a month
is a steal for a New York studio!"
He is right. You are stuck.
For many New York residents, living in a dangerous and disgusting
apartment is a tough reality. With housing so scarce and affordable rent almost
nonexistent, a good number of New Yorkers find themselves at the mercy of a
slumlord; a building owner who holds his tenants hostage with insanely cheap
rent yet in return refuses to protect their dignity or safety by maintaining
his facility according to even the most modest of living standards.
The problem has gotten so out of hand that the City of New York
launched a watch list for its worst landlords. A website allows angry,
rat-bitten tenants to lodge official complaints, and prospective renters to
search and see if the apartment of their dreams could end up a roach-infested
nightmare. The nastiest of slumlords not only find themselves facing fines from
the city but, worst of all, the scorn of other New Yorkers.
The Village Voice in New York
turned the tables in the debate over terrible landlords in an article in 2010.
The paper ran an article noting that for every bad owner there are equally evil
renters. There are those who always need an extension on the extension on the
extension of their rent. There is the party guy who cannot help but play his
music loud. There is the vandal who paints and puts holes in the walls and even
does a bit of remodeling without permission. Not to mention the disgusting dude
whose apartment is ripped from a reality television show about compulsive
hoarding. There are slumlords, it argues. However, just as prevalent are
slum-tenants.
One Los Angeles landlord posted a
rental opportunity on Craigslist. However, rather than selling others on the
benefits of being his tenant, he openly admitted how horrible he was. That, or
one of his disgruntled tenants decided to vent their frustrations in the form
of a phony ad. Either way, it is humorous:
We take great pride in our inability to
keep good tenants happy. Do you pay your rent on time every month? We will
reward you by increasing it to the maximum allowable limit every year like
clockwork. Love hot water for your morning shower? Who doesn't? Well, you won't
find those kinds of luxuries here. The water temperature is tepid at best. And
if your bathtub stops draining, you'll be billed for the repair, even though
that's illegal. Don't worry when the ceiling leaks on sunny days. Those are the
pipes above the ceiling that are leaking. All repairs will be made by
unlicensed handymen found in the Home Depot parking lot. Even though you see
air-conditioners in two other apartments, do not be fooled into thinking that
you, too, may enjoy electrically cooled rooms. Should you decide to install one
in your unit, you will find an eviction notice taped to your front door. We
also like to snoop around your apartment once a month under the guise of smoke
alarm checks. Enjoy the beautiful pool -- but only during the week. Here's the
schedule: Every Saturday at 10 a.m. the gardener uses his leaf blower to fill
the pool with leaves and debris. It remains this way until the pool cleaner
comes by on Monday. Perfect for kids that don't yet have health problems.
Yes,
landlord-tenant relationships can be difficult.
The tenant
is a steward of property that belongs to someone else. Ideally, they will care
for the interests of each other. It would be mutually beneficial for them to do
so.
Human life
is like being a tenant of this time and place in which God has placed us. God
is the landlord, but more than that, a partner, in caring for this time and
place. It just might be that human life and Christian life boils down to a
simple question: Why kind of tenant have we become?
Jesus told
a story in Matthew 21:33-46 about this relationship.
Going deeper [this is my study of the text, but I do not
share it like this]
Matthew 21:33-46 is the parable of
the vineyard. The source is Mark.
Jesus invites the people to listen
to another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a
vineyard. The vineyard image is prevalent in the Old Testament. It likely
refers to Isaiah 5:1-7. The landowner put a fence around it. He dug a wine
press in it. He built a watchtower. Then, he leased it to tenants and went to
another country. When the time of harvest came, he sent his slaves to the
tenants to collect his produce. However, the tenants seized his slaves. They
beat one. They killed another. They stoned another. He sent other slaves, more
than the first. They treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to
them, thinking they will respect his son. However, when the tenants saw the son,
they discussed among each other that he is the heir. If they kill him, they
will receive his inheritance. Therefore, they seized him. They threw him out of
the vineyard. Then, they killed him.
C. H. Dodd suggests that the
parable reflects the disturbed conditions, partly due to economic causes, which
existed in Palestine during the half century which preceded the revolt of 66
AD. There were absentee landlords in Galilee in Jesus’ day, and there were
peasants who were unhappy with their lot.
The tenants acted resolutely to take possession of the vineyard by
getting rid of the only heir. The story
ends with a crime. The story is disturbing and tragic. One can compare it to
the unjust steward in Luke 16:1-7.
Jesus then asks the people what the
owner of the vineyard will do to the tenants when he comes. They respond that
he will put such wretches to a miserable death. Then, he will lease the
vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.
Jesus then refers to Psalm 118:22,
which refers to the stone that the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone,
and this was the doing of the Lord, and amazing in our eyes. The conclusion is
that God will take the kingdom of God away from you (Israel) and give it to a
people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone
will be broken to pieces. It will crush anyone on whom it falls.
We then learn that when the chief
priests and the Pharisees heard the parables of Jesus, they realized he was
speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him. However, they feared the
crowds, since many regarded him as a prophet.
Recent scholars have argued that
this parable is a Jewish prophetic attack on the behavior of certain Jewish
leaders. Matthew clearly contextualizes this parable within Jesus’ string of
conflicts with Jewish authorities: the “chief priests,” “scribes” and
“Pharisees,” in the surrounding chapters (21:1–24:2). This conflict should not
reveal any personal hatred for the Jewish leaders, much less hatred for Judaism
itself. Indeed, this level of polemic was common in the Jewish prophetic
tradition (e.g., Jeremiah 7; Micah 3), a tradition of which Jesus understood
himself to be a part. Thus, the parable can illuminate the prophetic critique
of authority — especially religious and political authority — so central to the
biblical witness.
In Matthew’s version, the vineyard
is Israel, and the tenants represent the Jews or the Jewish leaders. The
“slaves” sent by God were the prophets, who were continually rejected or murdered.
Finally, God sent his “son,” interpreted as Jesus, as the last opportunity for
compliance with the contract. The tenants, or the Jews, killed him, too, and
thus incurred the landowner’s, or God’s, wrath. Then the vineyard, or Israel,
would be given over to “other tenants,” who are often interpreted as Christians
or the church. These new tenants will be more honest in providing the fruits of
the harvest. Schweizer simply notes that God will take God’s kingdom from
Israel and give it to a people that produce proper fruits. The Christian listener knows that God has
vindicated his Son by raising him from the dead, but the allegorist parable
does not provide for that vindication, except indirectly in the quotation form
Psalm 118:22-23 about the rejected cornerstone.
Barth stresses that such rejection shows the danger of overestimating
human judgment in such matters. Divine judgment will always transcend human
judgment.[1]
This parable has also had a role to
play in the anti-Semitism of the church. The standard allegorical
interpretation also presents ethical problems for Christians interested in
their continued relationship with Judaism. In short, it has generated and
supported the central anti-Jewish opinions of Christian history. Through
allegorical interpretation, the parable becomes a small, violent version of
Christian “salvation history.”
Application
Reviewing this story in the life of
the church today does not have the purpose of saying how bad Judaism was as a
tenant and how wonderful the church has been. Reading this story today is a
reminder that we need to learn to be good tenants of what God has given us. God
has expectations for those who have responsibilities within the kingdom.
This is a parable about
stewardship. You know, managing God's stuff on God's behalf. There are two
central aspects of stewardship.
First, a central aspect of
stewardship is what we are entrusted
with.
As tenants, we have each been
entrusted with two things: the gospel of Jesus Christ and our personal, worldly
goods. Both come from God. Both are to be used in service to God. The gospel is
the message that despite humankind's universal rebellion against God's
authority, God desires a reconciled relationship with us. God has pursued us
through the sending of his Son and made reconciliation possible through that
same Son's sacrificial death on the cross. Because of the cross, the entire
world is now welcome to enter the vineyard and labor under God's love.
God has not only blessed us through
that message, but has made us the dispensers of it. Paul's command for Timothy
to "guard the good deposit" of sound, life-giving teaching applies
not only to teachers of the faith but to all those who've been granted the gift
of faith (2 Timothy 1:14).
We must also recognize that all
things -- the clothes on our backs, the dollars in our wallets and even the
rented ceilings above our heads belong to God and are on loan to us from God.
The Psalmist reminds us "the earth
is the Lord's and everything in it" (Psalm 24:1, NIV) God owns
everything. It has simply been leased to us. "We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of
the world" (1 Timothy 6:7). We are renters of everything and owners of
nothing.
Second, a central aspect of
stewardship is what we do with what
we have.
However, as we see in the parable,
it takes more than simply knowing how blessed you are and who the owner is to
be considered faithful. The bad tenants in Jesus' parable understood all that.
No, a good tenant, a solid steward does something with the gospel and his
goods. He produces a crop. He makes sure that both leave the vineyard in a way
that brings blessing to the world at large.
Here are some questions to ponder.
When was the last time you invited
someone to church with you?
How long has it been since you last
read the Scriptures with your children?
Have you yet matured to the place
where you can pray for a coworker or serve here, in the ministry?
Is there growth in knowledge of
your faith?
If called upon, could you even
begin to defend your faith?
What kind of crop are you producing
with the gospel?
Likewise, how are you doing at
managing your goods? Whether it is much or little, are you seeking to grow what
God has given you? Would Dave Ramsey -- the passionate, Christian financial
guru -- be applauding you or feeling sorry for you?
Here is one. Is there anyone out
there who could tell a story of being blessed by your generous sharing of goods
at a time when their own vineyard felt empty and bare? When was the last time
some of your stuff -- correction, God's stuff -- blessed anyone other than you
and yours?
Are we producing a crop? Be honest.
What do we have to show for the vineyard we are in? If we were to write
honestly posting about ourselves, as tenants in God's kingdom -- workers in his
vineyard -- what would we say? Would we admit that we are at times incredibly
ungrateful? Terribly unfruitful? Would we confess that we tend to live as if
everything we have been lent by God is actually ours to keep? No matter what
you would write, the good news is this: Because of the work of Christ, he would
still be glad to have you as his. Even if you refuse to pay your rent on time.
Conclusion
Could Christianity
be as simple as learning to be a good tenant? The first step might be that we
need to realize that we are tenants. Everything we have is on loan from God. God
has entrusted us with the precious gospel message. God has entrusted us with
material possessions. We are tenants. It might be that being a disciple of
Jesus Christ to transform the world is that simple.
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