WALKING THE WAY

As St. Margaret’s approaches our In-Gathering Sunday, a day when we gather our pledges for the coming year, some parishioners have been praying on what it means to Walk the Way in this Stewardship Season. Below is a guest post from parishioner Barbara Archer. I hope you enjoy her words. - Mother Jennifer

As I sat in the pew out east four weeks ago, listening to the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33), I found myself thinking, “What could I possibly have to do with this awful parable that Jesus told over 2,000 years ago?” In addition, I thought, “I can’t wait to see how the priest is going to use this is parable in his sermon. “The priest admitted that this was one of the “hard” parables but I was quite taken aback when he compared the tenants in the parable to me!

For a quick refresher of the Parable of the Tenants, there was an absentee vineyard owner who rented his vineyard to tenants. When the owner sent his slaves to collect his portion of the grapes, the tenants killed the slaves. The vineyard owner sends a second set of slaves to collect his portion of the grapes and the tenants do the same thing as before, killing the slaves. Finally, the owner sends his son to the tenants thinking that they would respect his son and give the owner’s son his share of the grapes. The tenants decide to kill the son so that they can have the son’s inheritance. The parable goes on further but I will stop at this point.

I think most would agree that the tenants were the greedy scoundrels of this parable so how could I be compared to them? The priest went on to explain that even though the vineyard owner had given the tenants all of his property, they were unwilling to share any portion of their profits. The tenants greedily wanted to hang on to whatever they had made regardless of the fact that the vineyard owner had given them everything they needed to be successful. The priest went on to remind us that God gives us everything we need to be successful yet, often times, we turn our backs on God. We refuse to give God, His share of our hard earned dollars despite the fact that He has given us everything!

Are you giving back to God his fair share? Are you like the tenants? It is a sobering question to ask yourself and to reflect on. As we find our Stewardship Campaign coming to an end and our In-Gathering or Commitment Sunday nearly upon us (Nov. 2), please continue to pray and return your blue card with your 2015 Pledge Commitment this coming Sunday. Our Stewardship theme this year is “Walking the Way.” Which way are you walking?

Faithfully, Barbara Archer