Nightmare on Email Street

As we quickly approach Halloween, most Americans really just want this ugly election year over. There has been so much mudslinging and dirty politics by both sides that more and more Americans will be looking for an alternative party in the future beyond current two current polarized ones.

This was the election for Hillary to win according to the Media. She had the momentum going into the home stretch but all the sudden, the FBI investigation in the last moments of the game opened back up again. Not only could this cost Hillary Clinton to lose the election, but even if she wins, it may haunt her whole presidency. All this happened right before Halloween weekend. For the Media, Democrats, even Republicans that wanted to see Hillary in the Whitehouse, for now, this is a horror movie for them.

Russia and the Cold War 2.0

There is a continuing escalation towards conflict and war between the United States and Russia. If we listen to our media, they will talk little of this conflict while suggesting that everything is black and white and the U.S. is all good and Russia is all evil. As long as we keep ourselves in the dark and only listen to our media which is basically propaganda for our government and big corporations who have too many ties to weapons manufacturing companies, we will continue to head towards the brink of a catastrophic war

Can we listen to both sides of this conflict and not just take one side over and against the other? The hard reality is Russia feels trapped and backed against a wall with NATO's new ballistic missile defense system in place as well NATO forces and military bases nudging up against Russia. We like to think Russia is the aggressor and yet it's not Russian tanks, planes, and soldiers moving up against our borders in America. We won't allow Russia into NATO because America wants to control all the smaller nations and it does not want to share with another superpower when it comes to our national interests and alliances.

We continue to fund merchants of death with billions of  dollars in military contracts while allowing these same corporations to lobby our politicians for even more money. The biggest contributors by super-pacs are the weapons of mass destruction sales industry. Can we be honest here? Which actions are more problematic? Russia doing military exercises in its own country or the United States sending troops half way around the world to do military exercises in Russia's back yard? Can we learn before it is too late that Russia is not the old Soviet Union nor is Russia even a communist country anymore.

The hard questions Americans need to start asking is why is the Obama administration ramping up a new arms race with Russia and why is our State Department calling for war with Syria? Unless we choose a different path and course of action soon, there may be no path at all for the future of both of our countries.

The Day the Revolution Began

N. T. Wright has become probably the most prolific biblical interpreter of the twenty first century. His refocusing the Scriptures back on their Jewish origins and their historical context of exile has been revolutionary to say the least. His earlier work is fast becoming a classic, Surprised by Hope, a game changer in the world of conflicting understandings of a new heaven and new earth and how it relates to the Christian life today. I am only half way through it but now his new work, The Day The Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus Crucifixion (Harper One, 2016) is going to be another challenging work in how we have short changed the meaning of Jesus death and its cosmic implications for today.

Wright decodes the popular notions of "going to heaven" and atonement theologies like "penal substitution" and places the whole biblical narrative in its larger historical context and global story. There have been so many abuses of the Christian story that its very common for people today to refer to God as committing cosmic child abuse when it comes to the sacrifice of God's son on the cross. Too often we have de-biblicized, de-judaized, and even paganized the biblical story to suit our personal current needs. What we actually find in the Bible is not some wrathful God trying to kill someone for a blood sacrifice. What we rather find is a covenant keeping God who takes the full force of sin upon himself..

N. T. Wright doesn't totally reject the popular notions many Christians have been taught about the Bible but he places the biblical story of Jesus in a larger story where its not just about sin but also about idolatry. It's not just about the church but its about God's cosmic kingdom. It's not just about heaven when we die but its about the new heaven and new earth and the story of bringing heaven to earth in the present! N. T. Wright is challenging Christians to go deeper and farther in their understanding of the cross of Christ that transform nothing less than the whole cosmic universe as God is reconciling all things to himself!

How to Study Science

I have  been concerned for some time now of not only the lack of discipleship among our young people but how young people are going to the colleges and universities and losing their faith over the supposed contradiction between what they were taught about Genesis and the earth being young and science which says the universe and earth are very old.

There is a great little discussion book by Josh Reeves and Steve Donaldson called A Little Book For New Scientists (IVP, 2016).  This book calls for both sides to more humility and for Christians to be more honest in dealing with science and the Scriptures. If science can interpret the facts wrong, so can Christians misinterpret the Bible. The opening chapters of Genesis have always been interpreted in a multiple of ways and its more a modern invention to take Genesis with such a strict literalism and suggesting at the same time that the Bible is giving a scientific explanation of the universe which it is not. The purpose of the Bible is to give us spiritual knowledge and to warn us against the many ways we fall into idolatry. If science can turn into scientology, so can harden views of Scripture turn into bibliolatry. There are extremes and pitfall on both sides of this discussion.

Science and Christian interpretations of origins need to be a mutual dialogue with each other and not in fierce polemical debate. A much healthier and wiser approach is to view nature and scripture as complementary and not polarized against each other. The whole history of science was done by devout Christians seeking all truth as God's truth. Can we do any less?

Urban Legends of the New Testament

David Croteau is an excellent New Testament scholar who teaches at Columbia International University. His new book deals with fifty common misperceptions people have in their understanding of the New Testament Scriptures.  He deals with issues like there was no room for Jesus in the Inn (it was a common quest house which has a section for the animals). There were three kings from the orient misunderstood because there are three specific gifts mentioned. He deals with more complex issues like the issue of judging, the myth of the eye of the needle was a small gate in Jerusalem, and issues like the tithe. Overall, Dr. Croteau does a wonderful job decoding the Bible from many contemporary mistakes and putting the gospels and the rest of the New Testament back in its original context and historical setting.

Is the U.S. Currently Bombing 7 Countries?

Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential nominee, charged the major-party hopefuls with failing to tell Americans how they’d tackle challenges including foreign conflicts.

Stein, speaking at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, said of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump a couple of nights before the last 2016 presidential debate: "They are very busy talking about grabbing women’s genitalia so that they don’t have to reveal that they cannot tell you what are we going to do about this crashing economy, what are we going to do about the climate that is barreling down on us, this catastrophe of the climate."

Stein drew our curiosity when she went on: "They don’t have a solution to the expanding wars except more wars. We are already bombing seven countries and now we do appear to be engaging in this war crime in Yemen where we have been partnering with the Saudis in this war crime for the past year. They do not want to talk about that."
Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, has sided with Yemen’s government against Houthi rebels in a continuing war.

For this fact check, we wondered if the U.S. is bombing seven countries.
That at least has been so: In September 2014, PunditFact rated True a bombed-countries claim by Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker. Lizza referred to President George W. Bush and his successor, Barack Obama, in a tweet that said: "Countries bombed: Obama 7, Bush 4."
At the time, the U.S. on Obama’s watch had bombed Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

When we asked Stein for her backup information, spokeswoman Meleiza Figueroa pointed out various web posts including a September 2014 CNN news story stating that Obama had ordered air strikes in seven countries through the bulk of his eight years in the office.
Mindful that Stein spoke in the present tense, we checked on if the U.S. has lately been bombing seven countries.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit news service based at City University London, maintains a running list of U.S. military actions in a number of countries. The bureau annotates each incident with links to press reports.

When we looked, the bureau’s accounts by country indicated the latest U.S drone strike in Pakistan occurred in May 2016; the latest strike in Somalia was in September 2016; and the latest U.S. strikes in Yemen and Afghanistan were in October 2016.
Separately, we noticed, the Department of Defense said in an Oct. 11, 2016, web post that countries including the U.S. battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have conducted 15,634 air strikes to date -- 10,129 in Iraq, 5,505 in Syria -- with the U.S. conducting 6,868 in Iraq and 5,227 in Syria. In a Sept. 30, 2016, post, the U.S. Air Force said attacks from the air have affected ISIL’s "ability to fight and conduct operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan."

Too, in August 2016, the New York Times reported the U.S. had "stepped up a new bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Libya, conducting its first armed drone flights from Jordan to strike militant targets" in Libya’s coastal city of Sirte.

That news story quoted Obama saying during a news conference that the airstrikes were critical to helping Libya’s fragile United Nations-backed government to drive Islamic State militants out of Sirte, which the group has controlled since June 2015. Obama promised the air campaign would continue as long as necessary to make sure that the extremist group "does not get a stronghold in Libya," the newspaper said.

Our ruling
Stein said: "We’re already bombing seven countries."
We identified seven countries lately bombed by the U.S.: Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Libya.
We rate the claim true.

---

Politifact article by W. Gardner Selby Oct. 21, 2016

Unlocking the Parable of the Wheat and Tares

"Don’t get mad, get even." How many times have we tried the revenge approach and find we were the losers in the end? The lie we are told today is “revenge is sweet.” The problem is it turns quickly into a bitter pill.

Being an identical twin has its advantages and setbacks. One of the things I disliked as young kid was my identical twin brother and I always got identical presents. If they were different, we might fight over them. All gifts were the same in every way. One of the problems this created was distinguishing his toys and things from mine.

I remember we had identical looking piggy banks. One day my twin brother told me he had accidently broke my piggy bank. I was mad and how did he know it was mine he broke and not his. The more I thought about it, the madder I got. We lived in a two story house with a concrete backyard. I thought, “I’ll show him” and I tossed his piggy bank out the two story window and watch it shatter into a million pieces.

Later that day my brother apologized to me and told me how bad he felt for breaking my piggy bank. He told me I could have his. At that point, I felt so bad, I did not have the courage to tell him I had destroyed his. He eventually found out.

Jesus parable of the wheat and tares is a very misunderstood parable. We hear things like this parable is about Christians and false Christians----Not so! It is about the world and not the church. There is a spiritual pattern in this parable we can apply to the church but Jesus plainly says the field is the world and not the church.

Others have suggested the parable is about weeding out tares from the wheat---Not so! This parable is not about us judging who is going to heaven and who is not. Some think this parable is about how tares can become wheat before Jesus returns----Not so! This parable is about evil in the world and not evangelism.

Jesus spoke powerful spiritual truths through parables. The parable of the wheat and tares is essentially about God shining in the life of the believer who produces good fruit for God’s kingdom.  Listen to the reading of God’s Word,

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owners came and said to him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in the field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, “An enemy has done this.” The servant said to him, “Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them together in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:24-30)

A Tale of Two Sowers

What we find in this parable is both good and evil in the world and the underlying question is which are you? The good sower is Jesus who plants God’s word in our hearts to produce good fruit. There is an evil enemy sower named Satan who plants bad seed to destroy the works of God. Jesus goes on to explain this parable in verses 36-43. God’s desire for each of us is to have his word and Spirit planted so deep within us that it produces positive spiritual fruit.

Are you walking in fear and exhaustion, despair and death or are you walking in faith and love and joy and life in Christ? When we apply Jesus words to our own lives, his seed grows spiritual power and life in us. Are we praying honestly, seeking God fervently, singing songs worshipfully, obeying Jesus faithfully or are we just going through the motions?

Nobody wants to ask this difficult question today, “Am I a real follower of Jesus or a planting of the Devil?” The problem for many people today is they don’t even believe there is a Devil, and if there is, they are certainly not following the evil one. We think real evil people are crooks or lawyers or politicians----never us.

In Jesus day, all Jews were viewed as God’s chosen people. Despite all the immorality, idolatry and even taking revenge on one’s neighbor like this parable illustrates, they thought they were born into God’s kingdom by simply being in the line of Abraham. Some might think this is strange but don’t we do the same thing today? How many people think if you are born in America today that this qualifies you automatically as a Christian!

This is exactly why we need to hear the parable again. Am I wheat or a tare? Am I doing God’s work to please myself or God? Am I surrendering my loyalties and priorities to Christ or something else? Is my life producing Christ’s fruit and righteousness or am I simply following the lusts of my flesh?

How many times do we run into people who claim they are Christians who demonstrate no spiritual fruit or spiritual power in their lives? Can that person be me?

Let Them Grow Together

Jesus focus is to cultivate wheat and not weed out tares. I know there are some of you who say, “I have sown good seed in my home, where did the tares come from?” Jesus answer is it is a work of Satan. Our focus is to cultivate the fruit of God’s Spirit and God’s patience within us. If we think it’s our job to go into the weeding business, this may actually show you are a weed. Don’t do it Jesus says!

When Jesus tells a story or a parable, what we often miss is the question behind Jesus words. The question behind this parable is “Why doesn’t God do something about evil?” The whole gospel story is God has! Jesus death, resurrection and ascension decisively dealt with evil. When will evil be destroyed? It will at the end-time great judgment when all wrongs are righted.

Scripture tells us that our fight is not against tares but the enemy Satan (Ephesians chapter 6). It is not my job or your job or anybody else to judge whether you are a Christian or not---that is God’s job. Jesus says, “Let them grow together.” There is a judgment beyond our judgment and God’s judgment is the only one that counts in the end.

Be extremely glad that God is your judge and not your neighbor. I had a friend who had such low self-esteem that he was scared and terrified of God. He felt he never measures up and always fell short of God’s grace in his mind. No matter how hard he tied, it was never enough! One day he discovered he didn’t have to earn God’s love but that he already had it. Jesus parables have a way of sneaking up on us and changing everything.

What we discover in this parable is not what young people like to say to older Christians, “Please don’t judge me” or what some older Christians have never completely understood, God’s kingdom is about radical grace and mercy and not your performance. God’s compassion and patience is always there waiting for us.

By Jesus living word taking shape in us, we no longer have to walk in fear. No more living in the shadows or worrying who is in or who is out in God’s kingdom. We no longer have to compete or strive against one another or look good. IN this parable we find a place to rest our weary souls in God’s protective loving arms and that is enough.

Let me end with these comforting and challenging words by Jesus our great Shepherd. John 10:9-16, 27-30 is where Jesus says,

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by my own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. . .

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I have given them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”

When God's Word Wounds

Elizabeth Newman has written an amazing book on St. Theresa's scriptural vision from her spiritual works. The title of her work is "Attending the Wounds on Christ's Body" (Cascade books, 2012). She charts Theresa's spiritual journey along her own discovery of the rich tapestry and sparkling gems within Theresa's spiritual and political world. Scripture both wounds and heals, nourishes and challenges. God has rich spiritual treasure and great spiritual abundance for us as God transforms us by his word into the likeness of his son Jesus. The liturgy, sacrament, and mystery are all wrapped together in Theresa's embodied mysticism.

Time is not linear or chronological for Theresa but shared time with the saints from all ages. IN Theresa's world, time is no longer fragmented by the Spirit's power and indwelling word but holistically discerned and lived out before others. To go on this spiritual journey with Theresa is to learn scriptural patterns and follow them wherever they lead. All time is God's time as the believer lives the sacrificial pattern of the cross out before a hurting world. God's presence is everywhere and fills everything whether one suffers or discovers the eternal pleasures of God with us. All of life is a grand communion with a cosmic God.

The Pursuing God

Joshua Ryan Butler has written a powerful and spiritually insightful book on what the gospel really means among its many distortions today. Here are several of his key ideas in his book:

1.  Distortion: Jesus stays at a distance to tell us how to get clean.
     Gospel:  Jesus gets dirty, in order to make us clean.

2.  Distortion: God can't stand to be in the presence of sinners.
     Gospel" Sin can't stand to be in the presence of God.

3.  Distortion: Lost means you need to go find God.
     Gospel: Lost means God's coming to find you.

4.  Distortion: Jesus emphasizes how to be good.
     Gospel: Jesus emphasizes the goodness of God.

5.  Distortion: Jesus bearing our punishment is an act of divine child abuse.
     Gospel: Jesus bearing our punishment is an act of divine love.

6.  Distortion: Sacrifice is how you clean yourself up so God can stand to be with you.
     Gospel: Sacrifice is how God cleans you up so you can stand to be with God.

7.  Distortion: Wrath contradicts God's love and is inappropriate for his character.
     Gospel: Wrath arises from God's love and deals honestly with our world.

Political Selective Amnesia

We will see more of these neoliberal policies, like Wall Street deregulation, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Hillary has always supported. She’s changed her tune a little bit, but Hillary has walked the walk. Look at the walk and not the talk. In fact, you know, Trump says very scary things—deporting immigrants, massive militarism and, you know, ignoring the climate. Well, Hillary, unfortunately, has a track record for doing all of those things.

Hillary has supported the deportations of immigrants, opposed the refugees—women and children coming from Honduras, whose refugee crisis she was very much responsible for by giving a thumbs-up to this corporate coup in Honduras that has created the violence from which those refugees are fleeing. She basically said, "No, bar the gates, send them back." You know, so we see these draconian things that Donald Trump is talking about, we actually see Hillary Clinton doing.

And it’s not only the militarism that Trump talks about, it’s Hillary’s massive record of militarism: the rush into Libya, which was really—you know, she was the prime mover behind that campaign, which the military advisers were largely against; her approval for the war in Iraq and so on; you know, her threat to bomb Iran; and, you know, she—and her demonization of Russia and China, and the pivot against China. We are rushing towards war with Hillary Clinton, who has a track record.

And on climate, you know, Trump talks terrible on climate, although in Ireland, I believe it is, he does believe in climate change: He’s trying to build a wall to protect one of his luxury golf courses in Ireland, because he’s worried about sea level rise from climate change, according to the papers that he’s filed for that permit. And on climate, Hillary Clinton established an office to promote fracking around the world, while secretary of state.

So, the terrible things that we expect from Donald Trump, we’ve actually already seen from Hillary Clinton. So I’d say, don’t be a victim of this propaganda campaign, which is being waged by people who exercise selective amnesia. They’re very quick to tell you about the terrible things that the Republicans did, but they’re very quick to forget the equally terrible things that have happened under a Democratic White House, with two Democratic houses of Congress. It’s time to forget the lesser evil, stand up and fight for the greater good.

Comments by Jill Stein

The Fix Is In

The 2016 presidential race features two incredibly flawed candidates. Judged on their own merits, either candidacy could implode anywhere along the line. They are not however, both being judged on their merits. Outside parties are trying their best to influence the outcome of the election. The fix is in.

Exhibit A is the mainstream media. The major television networks, the cable news networks and America’s largest print publications are all actively advocating for Hillary Clinton. Each picks and chooses what stories to report and which to ignore. Case in point is the recent dualing “scandals.”
Donald Trump was captured on tape in 2005 saying crude things about women

Within two hours of the Trump story, Wikileaks unloaded thousands of emails that showed Hillary Clinton speeches where she said she’d like open borders and open trade (the opposite of what she says publicly). Communication where Hillary Clinton says that Jordan can’t possibly vet all those refugees from Syria and acknowledges that Jihadists are coming in along with legitimate refugees (the opposite of what she says publicly). Emails indicating Hillary’s intention is to dampen the 2nd amendment via executive order as President of the USA (the opposite of what she says publicly).

There are countless more examples of where Hillary says one thing publicly and something quite different to her inner circle and big money contributors. Ironically she also advocates for politicians having a public position and a private position on the same issue.
How can a candidate that 70 percent of America thinks is neither honest nor trustworthy get away with these intentional deceptions now made public? Because the mainstream media simply refuses to report them. The fix is in.

As of the beginning of this week the major networks had spent 198 minutes of news time talking about Donald Trump’s tawdry and offensive locker room conversation from yesteryear. Those same networks had spent a grand combined total of 11 minutes talking about Hillary’s leaked email information. Virtually no coverage of her preference for open borders, gun control or the fact that she supports the refugee program while knowing for sure that jihadists are coming to the U.S. among them. The fix is in.

The print media is no better. In order to secure an interview with Hillary Clinton the New York Times, ostensibly the most credible news organization in America, agreed to give Hillary Clinton complete veto authority over the article resulting from that interview. If she didn’t like the content? No problem, they would change it. What if Clinton perceived after the fact that something she said was unflattering? No worries. The NYT would simply delete it before going to print. The fix was in.

Ditto the Boston Globe, which kindly gave Clinton advice during campaign season as to when she could get the maximum attention and benefit from an op-ed and follow up article in their paper.
What about Mrs. Clinton’s Houdini act getting out of the seemingly inescapable home-brew server scandal and irresponsible handling of sensitive classified information? How do we explain that other than her pure innocence? Simple … the fix is in.

As it turns out Hillary Clinton’s press secretary, Brian Fallon, is the former spokesman for the Department of Justice. A 2015 internal Clinton email from Fallon said that “DOJ folks had informed him about an upcoming status conference in one of the lawsuits regarding Clinton’s private email set up.” It appears Fallon was tipped to the info before it was made public. The United States Department of Justice was doing all it could at the time of an ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton to aid and assist her. The fix was in.

The FBI, a part of that same Department of Justice, promised a fair, thorough and impartial investigation into Clinton. During the course of the investigation however, they granted immunity to five (yes, five) Clinton witnesses and even went so far as to agree to destroy the computer hard drives of Clinton State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills (and one other witness) when the FBI had finished their investigation. This despite a standing order from Congress for the information on those same computers. They didn’t require Hillary to be under oath for her interview with them. The fix was in.

Just days before the FBI released its findings in the investigation former President Bill Clinton arranged a private one-on-one meeting with the head of Justice, Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The fix was in.

The Department of State, over which Hillary ruled until early 2013, carefully orchestrated which emails they would and would not release in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, and prior to releasing any material, the State Department would notify Hillary and her campaign team exactly what was forthcoming. Again, Team Clinton knew before the public. The fix was in.
Leaked emails released just prior to the Democratic National Convention this summer demonstrated that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had actively worked in favor of Hillary Clinton and against her primary opponent, Sen. Bernie  Sanders. Taking sides in the primary season is a no-no and cost Debbie Wasserman-Schultz her (DNC) chairmanship. Even during primary season the fix was in.

Brought in to replace Wasserman-Schultz was longtime DNC operative Donna Brazile.
Through information released this week we’ve come to learn that Brazile took sides, too. She leaked dirt on Senator Sanders and warned the Clinton camp last winter/spring about info Sanders was sharing with the DNC. It appears many of those in positions of authority with the DNC were going to make sure the fix was in.

The exclamation point on the Donna Brazile piece is that prior to becoming DNC queen, she worked as an analyst at CNN. She took advantage of her access there by sharing CNN Town Hall questions with the Clinton campaign a day before the event. Talk about the fix being in.
Donald Trump is a flawed candidate. But regardless of this strengths or weaknesses, apparently he didn’t ever have a chance. As the pieces all come together one thing is abundantly clear.
The fix is in.

President-elect Hillary Clinton. As disturbing as that phrase sounds, get used to it. The election is less than four weeks away.

Washington Times by Tim Constantine (10/12/2016)

Unlocking the Parable of the Renters

The Trouble With Renters

I can't pay the rent because my dog ate my husbands pay check.
I can't pay the rent because when I deposited my check in the bank, they made a mistake and it will
    take two weeks to get it straightened out.
I can't pay the rent because I had a choice of paying the rent or buying a car and I bought the car. I
    knew you would understand.
I can't pay the rent because I knew my tax money was coming this week so I spent the rent money. I
    just found out my tax money is delayed.
I can't pay the rent because it is your fault my last check bounced. Why didn't you tell me you were going to go to the bank that same day.

Landlords can seem distant, indifferent and do they care more about their dirty houses or the dirty living? We think the landlord doesn't like us when the real problem is we would rather hide or runaway from the landlord. The problem of sin is we think the landlord God can't stand to be around sinners who can't stand to be in the presence of sin. The real problem is sin can't stand to be in the presence of God.

Hear again the parable of the renters:

There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country Now when the vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son." But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance." So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? They said to him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind to powder. Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.

God's Vineyard

God is the owner of the vineyard. The background to Jesus parable is the song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-6.  Isaiah the prophet says,

Now let me sing of my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding his vineyard. My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and  cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please le Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take a hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

Notice how God is called "Beloved." God is the one who does the work. God is looking for good fruit. Lastly, because the vineyard produces bad fruit, it is trampled down and ruined. Jesus goes onto quote Psalm 118:22 that says, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Jesus is the cornerstone and we are his builders. The key verse in this text is the last part of the Psalm quotation, "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Matt.21:42).

Are the works of God marvelous to our eyes or have we become so accustomed to the routine and common that they seem only mundane? The problem of religion is it often breeds overfamiliarity. We can take our faith for granted and even be careless about it. It is when I marvel at the works of God that I know I belong to God. I'm God's Beloved and I love working and serving Him. The problem develops when I have been working in God's vineyard for so long. I begin to think its mine. "I manage the vineyard so I own it. I've been going to this church for so long, It's my church!" The Bible declares its God's church!

Please Don't Kill the Messenger

I saw a fascinating movie this year called "Kill the Messenger." The movie was a true story of how our CIA and government sold drugs to Americans to take down other drug dealers in the 1990's. There was this small town reporter who broke the story and because famous. But the powers that be did everything they could to discredit the reporter and kill the messenger. This reporter was reported committing suicide later but his original story did get verified later but did not get hardly any major press at that time.

Is this not a description of God's people throughout history. God sends his prophets to speak to Israel but they persecute some and kill others. God finally sends his son and they kill him as well. Why do we always have to kill the messenger. Why is it that when anyone breaks a corruption story of our government or blows the whistle on our government that those individuals must either go to prison or wind up dead. Must we continue to kill the messenger?

Jesus says in this parable that God sends his son to us. It's not your work or your vineyard. It's God's vineyard and even the work you are doing is God power and Spirit working through you. It's all about Jesus and not about you! We are to get our eyes off ourselves and put them on Him. If we look for tool long at ourselves, we will no longer see or honor the Son. The truth is I can not clean up the mess in my life nor can I save myself. The whole point of this parable is its the Lord's doing (v.42). Jesus did for me what I could not do for myself. If you think you can do it yourself, you will end up rejecting the Son!

We talk like this is God's world but we more act and live like this is our world. We wrongly think our dirty life will somehow make Jesus unclean. We have it all backwards! His pure life will make my life clean. Every time we partake of holy communion, we are not showing how faithful we are to Jesus. Partaking of communion celebrates and marvels at the faithfulness of Jesus.

Where are You?

God is still asking the question to us as he asked to Adam and Eve in the Garden. "Where are you?" Do we want to be found? Do we even care we have lost our way? This parable speaks judgement on the temple leaders because they no longer marveled at the works of God. They did not know God was still pursuing them. I believe we need a new definition of lost today. I got this idea from Joshua Ryan Butler. The religious leaders of Jesus day saw everybody else lost but themselves? Is that you today? Hey, I'm a member of the church. Others need Jesus, not me! I already have him. Do you?

We keep telling others you need to find Jesus. Has God ever quit or stopped pursuing you? This whole parable is about what Jesus is doing for you! Lost means God is coming to find you! Lost doesn't mean you are worthless or life doesn't matter or you are an outsider. Lost means you are pursued, you are valued, you are sought after. In other words, lost means you are wondrously and marvelously loved! Will you respond to that love that has loved you with an everlasting love? God is not a mean landlord. He is a wonderful Savior. Come and surrender yourself into God's loving outstretched arms for you.