Things have been going very well here in Haiti. We had our first report cards since the earthquake yesterday and most of the students are doing very well. We had an educational psychologist from Canada volunteer his time to speak with the students. He was here for a month evaluating and working with kids. They really loved him and he was able to help quite a few of them, as well as giving us a lot of good advice for how to help him. He especially emphasized what I have felt since I got here, that we as teachers are really pastors to these kids. No matter what else goes on, what other roles I fill while I am here, I feel my primary ministry is to the students. Getting to know them, meeting them where they're at, and sharing God's love with them is the greatest thing that I do in Haiti.
I did, however, get a marvelous opportunity to share what God has laid on my heart. Last Sunday I was asked to preach at St. James Episcopal Church in Petionville, not far from the school. I got to put on my suit for the first time since I've been here and speak from God's word. As much as I love teaching math and science, or anything for that matter, nothing compares to teaching the Bible. I enjoyed it tremendously. I was invited back so I may get more opportunities like this in the future. I decided to share my sermon with all of you, in the hopes that it would mean something to you as well. What's going on in Haiti right now serves as a reminder of the tasks that we have been given by Christ, to seek the redemption of souls and to minister to the needs and hurts of all humans. We need to be reminded, and challenged, to see that we are living up to our responsibilities.
Thank you, again, to everyone who is praying for me! Don't let anyone forget Haiti!
Luke 20:9-19 (English Standard Version)
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
9 And he began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 10When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. 12 And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 13Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' 14But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' 15And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "Surely not!" 17But he looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written:
"'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone'?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."
19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
In most of Europe during the days of the Renaissance, one could not be a businessman in the city without being a member of a guild. Those who were not guild members would be forever employees of another, never their own masters. Now in the city of Venice, in Italy, there lived a guild master. He was a stoneworker and master of the stoneworker's guild. But he was no ordinary stoneworker. He was a sculptor of renown. Under his hands a block of stone could be transformed into anything from an ornate column to a magnificent statue. He was a craftsman without peer.
Now this guild master had a son. The day his son took his first steps he placed his lightest hammer and smallest chisel into the boy's hands. As the boy grew, the guild master would take his son into the workshop and he would teach the boy his trade and from a young age the boy's skill was noted. As a youth he had more experience sculpting than many masters in the city. He worked with his father daily, had the benefit of the finest tools and the best instructors in Italy. The guild master was proud of his son, sure that he would one day be the finest stoneworker in Venice.
But as the son grew older he became less interested in his father's work. As often happens, he became more irresponsible as an adult than he was as a child. He avoided the workshop and spent his time with his friends, seeking amusement and entertainment. Every day without fail his father would seek him out and ask him about his sculpting, offering lessons and work. But each time the boy would turn down his father and go out carausing. His father often warned him that if he did not apply himself, he would never become the great sculptor that he could be. But the boy ignored the warnings. In time even his friends became concerned. "If you do not work, how will you pass the test to become a member of the guild," they asked. But he would mock them and reply, "I have sculpted since I was a child! And, besides, my father is the Guild Master. How can I not pass?" So the boy continued in his irresponsible ways.
But not forever. The day came when he was called before the stoneworkers' guild to be tested for membership. As he went into the workroom, for the first time in so long, his hands trembled as he took up the tools. He remembered being able to create works of art but his hands could not remember their skill. He tried as hard as he could but the work that he did was unimpressive, far beneath the requirements of the guild.
When the boy came out before the leaders of the guild to show them his work, he stood ashamed before his father. The Guild Master looked down at his son with great sorrow in his eyes and said, "My son, how I have longed for you to become a great artist, to carry on the legacy that I have begun. I have seen your talent and you have been given every advantage that could be given. But you have chosen to squander your talent, your advantages, and your time. And now you have disappointed your father and done dishonor to his name. You will not be given membership in the guild; you will not be your own master. Because you wasted what you were given and did not fulfill your responsibility, you will serve another until you have learned from your mistakes."
Just as that father stood over his son and cried over how much he longed to see his son succeed, so Christ stood over Jerusalem and wept over it, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem", he said, "The city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wing, and you would not." Then, though it pains him to say it, he passes judgement on them. "See, your house is left to you desolate. I say to you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'" The time had passed for second chances. Like the tenants in the parable, they had been given chance after chance. But there always comes a last chance.
God was not speaking to pagans or those outside of the faith. He is speaking to those who had every advantage, His people. For generation after generation the faith had been handed down to them. They had God's Word, they heard God's Voice, they saw His miracles. He entrusted them with a task and they failed Him. He gave them many gifts and they squandered them.
These are the Pharisees that Jesus is telling the parable to. They squandered their time on politics, competing with each other and with foreigners for influence over the people, on pride, going out of their way to convince everyone that they were holier and more spiritual than they really were, and on foolish disputations and arguments on fine points of theology. He tells this parable at them! We are even told that they get it, know that He's talking about them, and are furious. He is pointing the finger at them and saying, "You were given a responsibility! You were given every advantage! You were given countless warnings! And now you've failed and you will be punished." And like a father, he grieves...
They had a responsibility as servants, an enormous responsibility, the same responsibility that we have. "God is not willing that any should perish." It's that simple and that huge. As joint heirs with Christ, we are also colaborers with Him. We are partakers in His responsibility, His mission. The redemption of a lost world is the task He has given us, to work alongside of Him in His mission. That's a pretty enormous task!
And what have we been given? What advantages do we benefit from? God's Word, the Holy Spirit, the promise that He will never leave us or forsake us, Omnipotent God with us every moment. The fellowship of believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ, a body to bear us up when we are weak and encourage us when we think we are alone. The weapons of the Spirit, the armor of God, the keys to the Kingdom, the promise that even the gates of hell will not prevail against us!
How terrible would it be if one day we stood before God like the tenants, who had failed in their responsibility, and like the guild master's son, who had squandered all that had been given to him and failed to follow in his father's work, and in that day He condemned us like He did them. How awful! How unimaginable!
But this is not that day! If anything this day is one of those warnings. This passage is to us like these messengers, calling us to give an account of our Master's property, to give to Him our fruit. Let us not disappoint Him!
Let us not, like the tenants, forget that we serve not ourselves but another. Let us not, like the Pharisees, have wasted our time and gifts on things which are important in this world but utterly insignificant in the Kingdom. Let us not, like the guild master's son, be distracted by the pleasures of this world and our own agenda. Let us rather have fruit to show for our work, fruit which we gladly give as tribute to Him. Let us be known as those who are about His mission, who do His work.
And May God Strengthen Us To The Task.
