WEBVTT 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:17.120 I greet you in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:18.079 Amen. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:23.920 Good morning again, Nativity, and it is good to be home. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:28.399 Quickly, the vineyard belongs to God. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.399 There is a question that's running through the readings today. 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:39.359 What are we going to do with what God has entrusted to us? 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:44.960 In the gospel, Jesus tells us about a landlord who plants a vineyard. 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:46.880 He puts a fence around it. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:48.719 He digs a wine press. 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:53.039 He builds a watchtower, and then he releases tenants. 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:55.759 Notice something. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:59.039 The tenants did not create the vineyard. 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:00.799 Bear that in mind, friends. 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:02.960 They did not plant it. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.359 They did not build it. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:08.879 They simply were entrusted with it. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.920 They were stewards and not owners. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:18.319 But somewhere along the line, along the way, they forgot the differences. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:26.959 When the harvest time had come, the landlord sent out his servants to collect the produce. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:33.280 The tenants beat one, killed one, stoned another. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:36.480 And finally the landlord said, I send my son. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.719 And they said, This is the heir. 00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:45.359 Come, let us kill him and get his inheritance. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:56.480 They had become so comfortable in somebody else's vineyard that they began acting like the vineyard belonged to them. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:00.640 And there is a word right there for us. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:13.680 God has given us gifts, God has given us relationships, God has given us opportunities, God has given us ministries and responsibilities. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:24.879 And sometimes, if we're not careful, we can be begin treating God's gifts as if they belong to us exclusively. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:28.479 Let's dig a little deeper. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:34.000 But Jesus reminds them the vineyard belongs to God. 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:41.439 In our reading from Exodus, it makes the same point, but in another way, very unique. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:52.479 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. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:54.800 Don't miss the order, friends. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:01.280 God did not deliver them before God gives them the commands. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.719 God does not say, Obey me, and I will rescue you. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:11.120 God says this, in fact, I've already delivered you. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:19.680 Now let me teach you who have been delivered and live as a people who have been delivered. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:22.319 That's grace. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:23.919 That's grace. 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:28.879 Obedience is not the price of God's love. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:33.599 Obedience is our response because of God's love. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.400 Psalm 19 picks up the same theme, friends. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:44.560 The law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:51.120 God commands are not merely restrictions, as some would have you to believe. 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:56.479 They are God's way of shaping his people to reflect his character. 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:10.560 And in Philippians, Paul begins listening, listing his resume. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:16.879 In Philippians, Paul, beginning of his listing of his resume, looks something like this. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:28.319 He has the right inheritance, he has the right religious credentials, he has the right training, he even has the right reputation. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:35.199 And if anybody has a reason to brag on their accomplishments, dear friends, it is Paul. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.199 But Paul, he looks at it differently. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:47.199 Paul discovered that his identity was not his resume. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:51.839 His identity was not in what he had accomplished. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.879 His identity was in Christ alone. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:00.240 And I believe that is where Paul and Jesus met in the vineyard. 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:07.279 The tenants wanted to possess what had already been entrusted to them. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:13.040 Paul learned to surrender everything because he had discovered something greater. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:14.160 What you asked? 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:16.160 Knowing Jesus Christ. 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:22.399 There's a German pastor and theologian by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:24.079 He helps us here. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:40.560 Bonhoeffer writes about the danger of what we would call cheap grace, wanting forgiveness without discipleship, grace without transformation, Christianity without truly following Christ. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.279 But authentic grace calls us somewhere. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.920 Grace is free, but grace is never trivial. 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:52.720 Grace calls us into the vineyard. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:56.240 Grace calls us into responsibility. 00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:59.279 Grace changes the way we live. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:06.959 The tenants wanted the benefits of the vineyard without acknowledging the authority of its owner. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.120 And we must be careful that we do not do the same or fall into their air. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:25.120 We can want God's blessings without God's direction, God's promises without God's commands, the harvest, but no responsibility. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:35.680 But Jesus says that the kingdom will be given to a people who produces the fruit of the kingdom. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:40.639 And then Jesus gives this image that holds everything together. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:47.519 The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:49.680 The cornerstone is Christ. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.800 A cornerstone is determined how everything else is aligned. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:02.959 And perhaps the question today is this what is our life built around? 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:06.800 Is it simply in Christ? 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:13.680 Or is our Christ, or is Christ the cornerstone around everything that is aligned in our life? 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:15.439 Or is it our careers? 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.480 Okay, better yet, or is it relationships? 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:19.920 Is it money? 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:21.519 Is it decisions? 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:23.519 Is it our ministries? 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:27.199 Or is it ambition or our plans? 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:32.879 Everything changes when Christ becomes the cornerstone. 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.240 That's what Paul said. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:38.720 He said it here in Philippians. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:40.720 I want to know Christ. 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:51.439 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. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:53.759 I want to know Christ. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.319 And then Paul says something beautiful. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:59.360 Christ Jesus has made me his own. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.000 Church, that's grace. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:07.360 Before we can reach for Christ, Christ already reached for us. 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.680 Before we can produce fruit, God already has planted a vineyard. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:17.360 Before we could accomplish anything, God has already loved each and every one of us. 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:21.759 So our response is not to earn God's love. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:27.360 Our response is to live faithfully because we already have received it. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.480 And that brings us to the question Jesus leaves before us this morning. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:35.840 What kind of fruit is our life producing? 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:39.679 Is there more love because we're here? 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:48.799 Is there more grace, more compassion, more justice, more hope? 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:58.399 Can somebody encounter you say that they encountered Jesus by the way you moved that day? 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:04.879 Because God did not place none of us into the vineyard to occupy space. 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.480 God placed us here to bear fruit. 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:16.879 Perhaps that's why the ending of Psalm 19 appointed this morning is such an appropriate prayer for each of us. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:23.360 Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable into your sight. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.399 Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:38.000 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. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:48.960 Because the vineyard belongs to God, the gifts belong to God, the harvest belongs to God, and Christ is the cornerstone. 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:55.679 So when God looks at the vineyard of our lives, may God find us faithful. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.919 May God find us producing fruit of the kingdom. 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:06.159 And may we remember that everything we have came from God. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:09.279 Everything we are belongs to God. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:15.759 Everything God has entrusted to us should be ultimately offered back to God. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.320 In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:21.600 Amen.