Luke 20:9-19

Evicted
Sermon preached Feb. 28, 2016
Opening
I saw a New Yorker cartoon this week where one person said to another, My desire to be
well-informed is in conflict with my desire to stay sane.
That about gets it, doesnt it?
Well, heres the good news - even and especially when the world seems just crazy, God is
at work, God is unstoppable in his will to save and heal the world. In the end, God wins.
And right now, God calls us on his mission to save and heal the world.
Saw an amazing video this week about a church called Dope Church:
(https://vimeo.com/116162716)
I thought that sounds like the perfect church for me. But its for people with addictions.
Ever weekend they set up the church in a seedy motel south of Seattle that is known for
drug and sex trafficking in order to rescue them and bring them to the hope that is in
Jesus Christ.
The hotel is right on a major route for drug and sex trafficking. They set up Dope Church
there because its the dark places of the world that need the light of Christ the most. They
go there every weekend and rent a room and stay there and do cookouts and have stuff
like facepainting for the children - there are families living at this motel - pray with
people who are caught up in the sex industry - people who are hostile to church are
amazed because theyve never had church folk come to them and love on them. One man
said three months ago I was here smoking on a crack pipe and had weapons in my hand,
getting high in the street, now Im here singing to God, holding the Bible, and I cant
believe this, Jesus loves me, he saved me, this is the best dope you can get, its free. Only
God can change your life like this.
Dope church.
Thats what can happen when people are open to God and let God touch and heal broken
people through them.
God is going to get his mission done, with or without us.
So the good news here is that God is unstoppable in his will to save and heal the world.
The word of challenge here, is that God is unstoppable in his will to save and heal the
world - and will accomplish his will, with us or without us.
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Now, its an amazing thing that God chooses to do his will through us. I mean, do you
ever look at yourself and think, Me? I sometimes think, surely God, you could have
done better than me, calling me to serve you. But then I go to meetings of clergy and
dont feel so bad. Kidding!
But heres how it works
With Israel - through one of their prophets God told them, I didnt choose you
because you were a great people, a large and powerful nation - I chose you
because you were weak and little and that way people would know that what good
they see in you, comes from me.
With us - listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians:
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to
worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is
weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in
the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that
no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you
are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, Let the one who boasts,
boast in the Lord.
There is an amazing expansiveness to Gods grace. You know how some beautiful,
successful people try to surround themselves only with other beautiful, successful people?
Or even cliques in high school and communities - do we have any of those in Franklin
County - you have to be one of the right people, meet certain standards. And I suppose
someone might think that a God of glory and beauty might choose only the best and
brightest, most successful and capable people to be part of this kingdom. But just the
opposite, it seems.
God invites everyone to get in the game, so to speak, to be part of what hes doing in the
world. He gives us the heart and the gifts to do it.
All God needs is our faithful willingness
The great baseball manager Leo Durocher was once asked who was the all-time
favorite player he had coached. Lots of people were shocked when he named
Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes was a little known pinch hitter, not a really big name
player. Durocher was asked, "What was so special about Dusty Rhodes?" He
replied, "In a tight game when I looked down the bench for a pinch hitter, some
players would avert their gaze and refuse to look in my direction. But Dusty
Rhodes would look me right in the eye, smile, and tap on his bat." He was always
available.
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But the flip side is, if you and I, if a church community, consistently refuse to get in the
game and be open to Gods will to save and bless and heal the world, if we harden our
hearts to the needs around us, then eventually God will find someone else to do his will.
Our obstinance will not defeat God, but it will put us on the sideline.
Parable
Thats what the parable is about.
At this point in Luke, Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and hes cleared
the temple - overturned the tables of the merchants and the moneychangers who were
clogging up the part of the temple known as the Court of the Gentiles and effectively
preventing the Gentiles from coming into the temple to worship and encounter God. And
as Jesus drove out the merchants and moneychangers he quoted a verse where God says I
intended my temple to be a house of prayer for all peoples - all kinds of people - but you
have made it into a den of robbers.
The temple was there so all kinds of people, every kind of people, could encounter the
one true God. The leaders of the people of Israel, were supposed to open the way for this
and lead the nation to fulfil its God-given mission to be an evangelizing people who point
the whole world to God.
So Jesus clears the temple - and scholars say that was the act that provoked the religious
leaders to plot to have him killed - and then as icing on the cake he tells the parable.
Some parables are cryptic, hard to understand. This one is pretty straightforward. Jesus
compares the nation of Israel to a vineyard, and that was a metaphor all his hearers knew drawn straight from the Hebrew bible. And the owner of the vineyard is God, who
entrusts the vineyard to tenant farmers - and theyre the leaders of Israel. The owner goes
away but he still expects the vineyard to produce fruit for him - that is, that the nation of
Israel fulfill Gods purpose to be a source of Gods love for the world - but they dont they want the goodies of the vineyard all to themselves - so the owner sends servants to
collect his fruit and they treat them shamefully and send them away empty handed.
But the owner - God - doesnt give up. And in that culture, an honor-shame culture - the
owner was supposed to become enraged and have to avenge his honor and punish the
tenants for insulting him. But this owner - God - tries again and again to get the tenants
to come to their senses and as a last resort does something astounding and vulnerable sends his very own Son as personal emissary hoping theyll respect his Son - but they
think if they kill the Son theyll be able to get the whole vineyard for themselves (the way
the law worked back then, you could own someone elses land through adverse
possession by showing the owner didnt collect his share of the crops) - so they kill the
Son.

And the religious leaders heard this parable and knew exactly what Jesus was saying, and
it sealed his fate. But he was just telling them the truth - you dont bear fruit and God
will find someone else to do his will for him and youll be evicted.
How did Israel get this way
You see, much of Israel turned away from Gods mission. By turning away from the
world around, turning inward and becoming defensive, even hostile, towards people not
of their tribe.
Perfectly understandable why. They were an occupied people - first the Greeks under
Alexander the Great and his successors, then a brief period of independence, then they
were conquered and occupied by the Roman Empire.
Hard to imagine what that would be like. Theres an excellent series on Amazon called
The Man In the High Tower, premise is that the Allies lost World War II and America is
occupied from the East Coast to the Rockies by the Nazis, and the West Coast is occupied
by the Empire of Japan. The fear, the humiliation, the powerlessness, the brutality you
suffer as an occupied people - the last thing you want to do, is think about how God could
use you and your nation to convert and bless your enemies.
But thats exactly what Jesus said were supposed to do.
Church vs. culture today
I wonder if were not susceptible to something similar
Many Christians feel like their country has been taken from them - that the nation they
knew that was in some way kind of Christian fifty years ago has changed drastically and
not for the better. And fifty years ago there was a rough kind of consensus that the
religion and morality of Protestant Christianity was part of the American identity. And if
you have some years on you, the change can be bewildering.
For instance, read an article on Wednesday about teenagers and social media that
made the point that many teens use social media to send nude pictures of
themselves to members of the opposite sex. Social media is destroying our
lives, one 16-year-old girl said. But then the girls friend shoots back, without
social media we would have no life.
The author learned that the main use teens make of their phones is to watch,
wield and circulate naked pictures of themselves. Boys are the winners in this
and use nude pictures of girls as a kind of currency, traded for drugs or liquor.
If girls refuse, they are routinely bullied and shamed. If you dont send them
nudes, they say youre a prude. said Cassy, a teenage girl from Florida.1
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A lot of Israelites, for understandable reasons, built metaphorical walls around themselves
and their nation to protect them from any further indignities. The temptation for the
church in America is similar - to withdraw, turn inward from a culture that seems baffling
and polluted, hunker down and look forward to heaven.
But God hasnt given up on the world and neither should we.
And if we dont
This is a hard word of Jesus. And Its important to understand that the parable is directed
at the leaders of Israel - not the people - God has not abandoned the people of Israel,
according to Paul in Romans especially, the Jewish people are still part of Gods plan but those in Jesus time who resisted Gods work in Jesus - youre outta here.
And the church, and we as individuals, are not exempt from this warning - God is going
to accomplish his mission - hopefully with us - but without us if need be.
Our challenge
We do a good job of being open and welcoming to guests who come to our worship
services. Its easy to come in here and find a warm welcome. But its hard to become
part of the community of the church.
Thats not something we do deliberately - keep outsiders, out. Its rather what we dont
do. We dont have groups and classes and activities that are easy for adults to become a
part of and make new friends. We dont do much at all to invite newish people to
become part of us - our church community - mainly because we dont have those
connection points in place. No young adult ministry. No older adult ministry. Only a
few Sunday School classes. One small group. Youth and children, yes, they have a way
into our community. Adults, no so much. How many of us have invited someone new
into our lives, our homes?
Being a Christian by definition means being part of a church community. You simply
cant go it alone, its too hard. And a lot of the good stuff God does in us, happens in and
through the people. And if a church doesnt have a way for new people to connect so
God can do the good stuff hes purposed for them, God will send them someplace else.
And that has happened here.
But along with the warning of this parable, lets remember a great promise of our Lord.
Jesus said, the one who remains in me will bear much fruit. Meaning, if you want to be
part of what God is doing in the world and be a source of healing and blessing to others,
stay close to Christ - love him, follow him, obey him. And if we do, we WILL bear fruit its inevitable - you dont have to search out ways to do it or stay up at night wondering,
how do I find a way to be faithful to the Lord - he will put people in your path and bring
opportunities to mind, it will just happen, over and over again.
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For us, to be connected to Christ and part of what he is doing in the world - well, we have
to draw closer to one another and bring new people with us.
Closing
A true story, told by Craig Barnes whos now the president of Princeton Seminary. A
young family joined the church he served, years before. Mother and father and two young
boys. Pretty soon, it became clear that the family had - issues. The father came to see
Barnes and said of his wife, She drinks so much and I cant make her stop. He went on
to describe the horrible arguments, coming home to find her passed out on the couch
while she was supposed to be watching the boys, liquor bottles hidden around the house.
When Barnes inquired about treatment options, the husband threw up his hands and said,
Dont think I havent tried!
Then she passed out while smoking and almost burned the house down. That got her into
a residential treatment facility but still the drinking continued. Finally, the husband
divorced his wife, and about that time Barnes left the church for another call and lost
touch with the family.
Twenty years later, one of the now-grown boys named Scott contacted Barnes and told
him the rest of the story. Shortly after the divorce the father lost his job and then the
house, all the while he was trying to care for the two young sons. The mother drank
herself into a vegetative state and ended up in a nursing home.
But the congregation rallied around them, providing meals and babysitting and financial
help and most of all friendship and prayers. The two boys were given starring roles in
Christmas pageants, found their best friends in youth group and went on mission trips.
Everyone knew the familys problems but there was never a word of judgment or pity.
Scott then told Barnes that he was in seminary and said it was because he had never been
able to get over the love of a congregation that kept showing up at his door year after year
in the midst of all that familys heartache. Now, he said, Its my turn.2
Endnotes
1. Virginia Heffernan, Lives of the Selfie Centered, in The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2016.
2. Craig Barnes, The Rest of the Story, in The Christian Century, May 1, 2013.