God gave me a what???

I remember a few years ago riding down a busy Bardstown Rd. in the Highlands on a Saturday night. I had a car full of friends going to the movies at the Mid City Mall. We were in a rush to get there, as usual. The driver in the car in front of me was driving very slowly and being very indecisive about what lane to be in. He or she was on their cellphone and it seemed that they wanted to turn but not sure which direction or what street to turn on. I got totally frustrated and laid on my horn. I also used words of anger that no preacher should even know, much less use. The car finally turned off and got out of MY way. As we got closer to Mid City Mall I got a phone call from another couple who was supposed to meet us for the movie. That part of Bardstown Rd. is always confusing to me. So, I was trying to decide if I should park at the bank across from the shopping center, or which entrance into the mall I should turn into; all of this while talking to my friends on the phone and trying to ask the others in my car if we want to go to the 7 o'clock showing or wait for the 7:30 offering, and do we want them to buy our tickets for us now. Well you can probably guess that I was the one who was frustrating the drivers behind me now. Yes, I got honked at. Yes, I was called the same names that I had just called someone else. Yes, my passengers laughed at the irony of the event and at me!

I don't know about you but I am often harsher in judging someone else than I am me. The readings from Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew today tell us to look at our own house and our own behavior. Jesus uses a parable about the tenants of a new vineyard to describe our responsibility to be good stewards of what (and who) we are to care for. Isaiah uses a vineyard as an image to illustrate a similar point. Jesus has the tenants in the vineyard abusing and even killing the servants that the vineyard owner sends to check on the tenants caring for his crop of grapes. After sending two troops of servants to look at the tenants' work, and after the tenants mistreat both sets of servants, the landowner sends his own son to ask the tenants for an accounting. Him too they killed using the insane logic that if the son is dead then the vineyard owner will repay the tenants by giving them the son's share of the master's inheritance. Stupid!

Of course, we know that both Isaiah and Jesus were talking to the religious authorities of their day. I'm sure that the scribes, Pharisees, priests and Sadducees knew that Jesus had them right in His cross
hairs when He spoke this parable. They got it! They knew very well that Jesus thought that they were not taking care of the faithful in the way that the Father intended. Such indictments against them would eventually make those religious leaders indignant enough as to have Jesus crucified. So we understand the parable.

Or do we? The easiest way to get out of our responsibility is to think it is always on the shoulders of someone else. Like; Jesus was talking to people 2000 years ago only; or the Republicans and Democrats in Washington or Frankfort need to fix our government; or lawyers need to fix the prison and court system; or abortion is something that only women who are able to be pregnant should decide.

As disciples of Jesus we too are called to care for every sister and brother made in the image and likeness of God. We are God's stewards now. We can not shirk our responsibility for the wrongs of the world. God has given it (and all those in it) to us to care for as He would care for them and it. It is tempting to put personal and financial gain, politics, pride, apathy, and many other things before God's will. His will is tough but always the right thing. Besides, none of those things have a chance to really love us, forgive us, and then save us for eternity.

God has given us a vineyard. God's vineyard needs our care!

peace,
Fr. Chuck