Proper 22A, with a mention of St. Francis

How would Jesus' parable of the vineyard be told today. I gave it a 21st century twist in this sermon I gave in 2011. We were also celebrating the feast of St. Francis that Sunday, so toward the end I relate it to Francis' love of animals and constant praise of God.

Proper 22 A

Transcribed from a sermon by

The Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

October 2, 2011

I’d like to tell the parable that Jesus gave us today in the manor that it might be told in the 21^st century. Let’s image that Bill Gates has discovered an area that is very poor and a town that has absolutely nothing. He goes there and builds a factory, he drills wells, he builds houses for the people who will work in the factory, he plants a large garden so the people can be well fed, plants fruit trees for the future and sets everything up for this town to thrive. The people of the town are so thankful, so appreciative of what they have been given.

Then Mr. Gates picks out a few of the more intelligent or sophisticated of the people and tells them they will be the managers who will oversee what happens. They are to send him a certain percentage of whatever is make so he can reinvest it other places and they are to see to it that everyone has a good life. Then he goes off to another country in another part of the world to help them out.

At first the people are extremely thankful to Mr. Gates for having done this and helping them out, so when it comes time for them to add up how much money they made that year they have no trouble sending the percentage that was expected back to Mr. Gates. They have more than enough now, with enough food and housing and so forth.

A few years down the road the managers realize that they haven’t heard back from Mr. Gates. There is no way for Mr. Gates to know how much money they are making, so they begin to wonder why are we sending him his whole percentage. They can send him less and he would never know. So each year the managers send a little bit of a smaller percentage of what they have made. They take what they aren’t sending and keep it for themselves. The managers begin to enjoy a few extra privleges. They build new houses that are a little bigger than the other houses, and they feel they need even more extra money to take care of them.

This goes on for a few years and then comes the rumor. The rumor is, I think they read it on the internet, the rumor is that Mr. Gates has died. Well, they think, if Mr. Gates has died then this is no longer his factory. It’s ours, right, so we don’t need to send him anything. We can just enjoy it. And the mangers discover that they need more and more. They believe they work harder than everybody else so they need to have more than everybody else. Some of the people are starting to be a little poor, but that is their choice that they don’t have as much because they don’t work as hard.

Well after a few more years, Bill Gates says, “How come I haven’t gotten any money from that one town? It’s been several years now. I’m going to send one of my chief aids to go and figure out what is going on.”

Well this chief aid of Bill Gates is a little smarter than the one’s in Jesus’ parable and he goes there but doesn’t tell them who he is. He just tries to figure out what is going on. Then he says, “This isn’t right. This isn’t yours. This was given to you to use, to take care of. And you shouldn’t be treating some people as less than.” Now some of the people hear and try to work for change and some people don’t things to change. The representative goes back to Mr. Gates and says “I’m really concerned. I’m hoping they will change their ways, but there is no guarantee.”

A few more years go by and there Mr. Gates is still not getting his share of the profits, so finally he sends his son. When they find out it is Bill Gates’ son they think, “Well if Bill Gates is truly dead, and if we kill the son it will be ours. We’ll inherit it.”

What do you think of those people? Those people were given a great gift. They were given the gift of a new life. They were given such an opportunity but they forgot it was a gift. They forgot it didn’t belong to them.

What would happen to such a people? What will happen to us, because after all everything, everything we have, is a gift from God. The sunshine isn’t ours. The rain isn’t ours. The seeds that are planted and grow up to make food aren’t ours. Our bodies were created by God and are a gift from God. Our intellectual capacity is a gift from God. We didn’t make ourselves smart. We didn’t make ourselves talented. Our hands with these wonderful opposable thumbs which mean we are able to create all this amazing technology - are a gift from God. We didn’t will and decide that we would have all of that. It is all a gift.

The Old Testament reading today is the Ten Commandments. It is always good to remember what those basic commandments are. The very first one is “I am the Lord who brought you out of slavery in Egypt you will have no other God before me.” The very first commandment is a reminder that God gives us everything. Our freedom, our lives, all of it. We are supposed to keep God as number one. That’s the foundation. That’s the first commandment. No if ands or buts. No I am number one except when there is a good football game on. Not I am number one but make as much money as you can. Not I am number one and if you make me number one then I will give you something. It’s not a deal. It’s not an exchange. I am number one period, end of that first commandment.

And when we make God number one, when we appreciate and realize that God is the source of everything, how can we not live a life of thankfulness and praise? All the time. And that is St. Francis. St. Francis praised and loved God all the time. No matter what. He chose poverty because he knew that everything he had was God’s anyway and he gave away all. And he wrote some of the words we have been singing in some of the songs about praising God.

One of the last things he wrote was a wonderful ode to God, the poem of praise which is hymn 406. So if you look in the hymnal for hymn 406 you’ll recognize, I think, the words.

Most high omnipotent good Lord

To thee be ceaseless praise outpoured.

And blessing without measure.

From thee alone all creatures came

No one is worthy thee to name

My lord be praised by brother sun

Who through the skies his course doth run

And it goes on that everything in creation should praise God. It is a joyous hymn of praise, a poem of praise, and you would expect that someone who could write that sort of praise for God was probably feeling pretty good at the time. But the truth is that this was written near the end of Francis’ life. The last few years of his life he was in excruciating pain constantly. His feet were in so much pain he couldn’t walk, so when he wrote this he was in great physical pain. He was also in emotional and spiritual pain because the order that he had founded based on the idea that they would own nothing was now under the control of some of his followers and was starting to buy property, which he was against. He could see that his order, although still doing good work, was not living up to the deepest commitment that he had. The absolute poverty of Francis was too much for even the Franciscans. He was in anguish about that. Imagine being in constant pain and seeing your life work going in a different direction than you’d intended it  to go and being able to write such wonderful praise to God. That was St. Francis.

We bless animals around the time of St. Francis’ feasts day because it is said that he loved animals. There’s a story of him with a wolf and there are stories he so needed to preach the love of God that if there were no people around to hear it he would preach to the birds.

I have sometimes tried to imagine what Francis might have said to the birds and I imagine that Francis said to the birds, “You beautiful creatures of God. Creatures created by the loving God. Sing God’s praise all the time.”

And I imagine that if Francis was here today and saw the wonderful creatures we have here. These great dogs who are being so very, very good, he would say, “Animals, you are beloved creatures of God. Created to praise him. Praise and serve God with every breath, with every pant, with every bark. Sing God’s praise.”

And I think that Francis might say to us two legged creatures  who are gathered here today, “You wonderful creations of God, you blessed of God, know that God loves you and praise God with every breath.”

Amen.