What Happens When We Reject God - Matthew 21 - Proper 22A

What Happens When We Reject God

Tony E Dillon-Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 21:33-46, Psalm 19, Isaiah 5:1-7

Opening Prayer

I love the verses of Psalm 19 because it reminds me that my words and thoughts have to be acceptable in God’s sight. Therefore, I intend to share with you that which I feel is acceptable before our Creator. I may screw up once in a while, but I will let the Lord guide me to where I need to be and what I need to say.

People often want to think that because they have a thought - that it must be true and must be what others think. Do we know anyone like that?

Yet that is another example of our ego projecting rather than letting God happen. That is determining that our words are source of truth and we confuse truth with want. This is a measure of church because we know people here, in church, that think because they do things or come to church more often that they somehow deserve more. 

Thank you for attending, but that isn’t the point of church. Pure attendance and listening to the word is nice is missing something. It misses what Jesus wants us to do - to be truly welcoming and graceful not just in the walls of a sanctuary but in all the areas of our life. 

That is why being a Christian is a life style and “way” of living because the “way” of Jesus requires us to do things, to speak with humility and to act with grace in our hearts.

When we fail we go astray we have prayers like these psalms to help us find our path back to God. "Whatever gains I have come to regard the as loss because of Christ.” (Philippians 3:7) Whatever I get from my work in this life and in my actions, I have nothing without God as my guide. Whatever money I have, house, car or job …these are nothing without the living presence in our breath and soul.

This parable of the wicked tenants as it is often called is a warning to leaders about how we care for our flocks and the people around us.  It is also a warning to us as regular, normal folk in how we manage our relationships and how we care for others in our community.  This is our Earth and the only one we have.  This is our life and the only one we have. The question is whether we are doing things to lift God’s presence here or not. 

We can build wonderful places and work wonder in gardens. 

In our recent trip to Europe, I saw magnificent structures and I saw the horror of war destruction left to remind us the true cost of destructive behavior. The St Nikolai Memorial was a giant cathedral (rather a ghost of one) that is burnt out facade of its former glory. It is left as a reminder of the cost of war and as a memorial to all those who perished due to the war as well Nazi crimes. I felt compelled to kneel and pray in what would have been the steps to the chancel of an ornate sanctuary but instead looks directly into the sky with only fragments of the original shell left along with its tall burnt out steeple behind me.

Visiting the memorials in Berlin as well as Neungamme, outside of Hamburg, furthered that reminder. That hate when left unfettered, unabated results in the destruction of targeted people but also includes those who inflict the hate and violence. You could feel the weight of guilt as well as the agony and horror of violent hate.

It fits well with this text too because when we lie, when we hate, or we forget to do God’s work, that is when we forget God and reject God. That is when we follow our ego instead, and that can leave behind destruction Because hate can turn violent (as it often does) because people reject reason and reject God.  

This violence carries with it a heavy penalty that may be visible like the burn marks on what was left of that church or the slabs of concrete where thousands were forced to live and forced to work under extreme horror and left to die of starvation or disease - if not outright murdered.  This violence leaves scars, and also ones that are not visible - the ones inside and the ones full of regret and suffering.

When we don’t take care of God’s world with God as our God, this can be the result. When we don’t care for our neighbor as ourselves, we let evil result. When we don’t check our ego and instead let God’s love be our love, then that is not God’s love. 

However if we check the ego, and we let God be the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts, then we let God be with us and in our world. 

Reject hate, reject lies, reject violence, and stand up for Justice. Let God guide you and show you. Then we can be so much more than our struggles or our earthly hunger. 

Let that love (God’s love) be all that you need.

That Beloved is …

Thanks Be to God.