The Rev. Dr. Antwon Lewis- Stewards Not Owners

I greet you in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Good morning again, Nativity, and it is good to be home.

Quickly, the vineyard belongs to God.

There is a question that's running through the readings today.

What are we going to do with what God has entrusted to us?

In the gospel, Jesus tells us about a landlord who plants a vineyard.

He puts a fence around it.

He digs a wine press.

He builds a watchtower, and then he releases tenants.

Notice something.

The tenants did not create the vineyard.

Bear that in mind, friends.

They did not plant it.

They did not build it.

They simply were entrusted with it.

They were stewards and not owners.

But somewhere along the line, along the way, they forgot the differences.

When the harvest time had come, the landlord sent out his servants to collect the produce.

The tenants beat one, killed one, stoned another.

And finally the landlord said, I send my son.

And they said, This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.

They had become so comfortable in somebody else's vineyard that they began acting like the vineyard belonged to them.

And there is a word right there for us.

God has given us gifts, God has given us relationships, God has given us opportunities, God has given us ministries and responsibilities.

And sometimes, if we're not careful, we can be begin treating God's gifts as if they belong to us exclusively.

Let's dig a little deeper.

But Jesus reminds them the vineyard belongs to God.

In our reading from Exodus, it makes the same point, but in another way, very unique.

Before God gives Israel the command, God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Don't miss the order, friends.

God did not deliver them before God gives them the commands.

God does not say, Obey me, and I will rescue you.

God says this, in fact, I've already delivered you.

Now let me teach you who have been delivered and live as a people who have been delivered.

That's grace.

That's grace.

Obedience is not the price of God's love.

Obedience is our response because of God's love.

Psalm 19 picks up the same theme, friends.

The law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul.

God commands are not merely restrictions, as some would have you to believe.

They are God's way of shaping his people to reflect his character.

And in Philippians, Paul begins listening, listing his resume.

In Philippians, Paul, beginning of his listing of his resume, looks something like this.

He has the right inheritance, he has the right religious credentials, he has the right training, he even has the right reputation.

And if anybody has a reason to brag on their accomplishments, dear friends, it is Paul.

But Paul, he looks at it differently.

Paul discovered that his identity was not his resume.

His identity was not in what he had accomplished.

His identity was in Christ alone.

And I believe that is where Paul and Jesus met in the vineyard.

The tenants wanted to possess what had already been entrusted to them.

Paul learned to surrender everything because he had discovered something greater.

What you asked?

Knowing Jesus Christ.

There's a German pastor and theologian by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

He helps us here.

Bonhoeffer writes about the danger of what we would call cheap grace, wanting forgiveness without discipleship, grace without transformation, Christianity without truly following Christ.

But authentic grace calls us somewhere.

Grace is free, but grace is never trivial.

Grace calls us into the vineyard.

Grace calls us into responsibility.

Grace changes the way we live.

The tenants wanted the benefits of the vineyard without acknowledging the authority of its owner.

And we must be careful that we do not do the same or fall into their air.

We can want God's blessings without God's direction, God's promises without God's commands, the harvest, but no responsibility.

But Jesus says that the kingdom will be given to a people who produces the fruit of the kingdom.

And then Jesus gives this image that holds everything together.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The cornerstone is Christ.

A cornerstone is determined how everything else is aligned.

And perhaps the question today is this what is our life built around?

Is it simply in Christ?

Or is our Christ, or is Christ the cornerstone around everything that is aligned in our life?

Or is it our careers?

Okay, better yet, or is it relationships?

Is it money?

Is it decisions?

Is it our ministries?

Or is it ambition or our plans?

Everything changes when Christ becomes the cornerstone.

That's what Paul said.

He said it here in Philippians.

I want to know Christ.

Not simply know about Christ, not simply attend a church where Christ's name is mentioned, not simply carry the label that I am a Christian.

I want to know Christ.

And then Paul says something beautiful.

Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Church, that's grace.

Before we can reach for Christ, Christ already reached for us.

Before we can produce fruit, God already has planted a vineyard.

Before we could accomplish anything, God has already loved each and every one of us.

So our response is not to earn God's love.

Our response is to live faithfully because we already have received it.

And that brings us to the question Jesus leaves before us this morning.

What kind of fruit is our life producing?

Is there more love because we're here?

Is there more grace, more compassion, more justice, more hope?

Can somebody encounter you say that they encountered Jesus by the way you moved that day?

Because God did not place none of us into the vineyard to occupy space.

God placed us here to bear fruit.

Perhaps that's why the ending of Psalm 19 appointed this morning is such an appropriate prayer for each of us.

Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable into your sight.

Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

So better yet, you and I probably would say something like, Lord, take my words, take my gifts, take my life, and use them for your glory.

Because the vineyard belongs to God, the gifts belong to God, the harvest belongs to God, and Christ is the cornerstone.

So when God looks at the vineyard of our lives, may God find us faithful.

May God find us producing fruit of the kingdom.

And may we remember that everything we have came from God.

Everything we are belongs to God.

Everything God has entrusted to us should be ultimately offered back to God.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.