Are we responsible Tenants in Christ’s Vineyard ?

Bishop Seraphim : Homily
Are we responsible Tenants in Christ’s Vineyard ?
13th Sunday after Pentecost
5 September, 1993
1 Corinthians 16:13-24 ; Matthew 21:33-42


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

For me, to come back home here to n this time is especially pleasant. For the first time in many years, there are many children. I am not sure if I can even remember having heard them here before. I hear a baby. That is a special blessing. That there are children and babies encourages me very much about the life of this parish. May God grant that these signs of life and hope will in time be concrete evidence of the future life and growth of this parish. Even now, this morning, there is a Sunday School and there are children able to ask the bishop really intelligent questions. That is so refreshing. This gives so much encouragement. I hope that you yourselves understand what a blessing these children are.

Today, we heard in the Gospel reading about people who are tenants in a vineyard owned by someone else. They try to steal the property and make it their own. When this story was told by the Lord, He had another situation in mind, but it applies to you and to me now, today. Here where we are together today is the vineyard. The Lord comes to you and to me and He says, as it were : “It is time to reckon up, to give to Me what you owe”. He comes to you and to me here today in this Divine Liturgy. In fact, He comes to us almost every day saying the same thing : “Give to Me what you owe”.

What do I owe to the Lord ? Two dollars ? A loonie ? What do I owe to the Lord for all that He has given ? For the fact that He died for the sake of my sins and rose again in order to give me life, what do I owe Him ? Two dollars ? A loonie ? Five dollars, perhaps ? For the Lord’s enduring my perpetual rebellion, for His endless suffering and patience with me in my continual ignoring of His love, what do I owe Him ? Two dollars ? Three dollars ? Five dollars ? One dollar ? For the love, the hope, the encouragement ; for the many times that He comes to me through my brothers and sisters and gives me hope, encouragement, correction ; for the many times that He wakes me up in time on the highway when I am driving and saves me from a terrible accident, what do I owe to the Lord ? One, two, five, ten dollars ? In fact, what I owe the Lord cannot be measured by money alone. Indeed, I owe Him everything that I am and that I have.

If I am going to be a good Christian, if I am going to be like Christ and if I am going to be an Orthodox Christian, I have to understand that it does not matter how much I work in order to acquire this or that thing, how much property, how much money I may have in bank accounts, what good farmlands, gardens, cars, what good church buildings : it is not mine. Even though I have it, it does not belong to me. It belongs to the Lord. If the Lord is so generous to me as to allow me to build up a nice bank account, a nice house, nice land, even a nice church, I am like that tenant in the vineyard. Either I honour the Lord who has rented out and lent to me this vineyard, this house, this land, this car, this bank account, this church, this anything that I have, or I dishonour Him by claiming it all for myself alone.

What am I going to do ? If I insist on being selfish and wicked, only looking after myself, at the end of my life I will come in front of the Lord. The Lord will say to me : “So, I gave you a great deal in your life. What did you do with it ? What have you got now ? Where is that house now ? Where is that car ? Where is that bank account ? What will you do with it now, here in Heaven ?” He will say : “As much as you were so selfish and did not care about the needs of anyone else and only looked after yourself in your life, you made it impossible for yourself to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You make yourself stay out now because you care still only about yourself”.

If we want to be with our Lord who gives us life, who saves us, it is necessary for us to be like Him, to do as He does for you and for me. It is necessary for us to be filled with love for other people as He is filled with love for us. It is necessary to help, strengthen, encourage, and save other people as He helps, encourages and saves us. Most of all, it is necessary to do what Saint Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to do and what he is encouraging you and me also to do today. If we are going to be like Christ, and if we are going to have any hope of salvation, any hope of being with the Lord in the Kingdom to come at the end of our life, then we must do as Jesus Christ, who said : “‘The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve’” (Matthew 20:28). You and I, out of love, must serve each other. We must do the best we can to be good to and for each other. We must be careful to pray for each other all the time.

When someone is hurting, we should be aware of it. If the person is not answering me in the way that I would like to be answered, it is not for me to get a crooked nose, but instead it is my responsibility to pray for that person. That person is not behaving normally because of pain. Why should I be afraid of anything ? I hope and I pray that that person has not changed towards me. How can I help that person who is hurting ? This or that person might have been late for church, when the person is usually on time. Maybe that person is not well. Instead of being quick to criticise and condemn that person for being late, I should be praying for that person who might be unwell or might have had a traffic accident on the way to church. Who knows what happened ? If that person is actually lazy, then it is my responsibility to pray and not become the judge.

It is my responsibility to serve, and serve only. If my brother or sister is ill or weak, then I should be phoning my brothers or sisters to say : “Let us pray for so-and-so who is ill or weak”. We should be demonstrating our care, our genuine love and concern for each other in these concrete ways. If we are going to be like Christ, if we are going to be good tenants in the vineyard, let us “from this day, from this hour, from this minute, love God above all and do His holy will”, and serve Him and serve each other. Thus we shall glorify the all-holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.