Is God an absentee landlord? It almost feels that way in this parable, doesn’t it? The owner of the vineyard is miles and miles away from his property. In fact, Jesus says, he bought the vineyard, fixed it up, leased it, and then left the country altogether. Meanwhile, the tenants do as they please. The old saying comes to mind, “As soon as the cat is out of the house, the mice are dancing on the kitchen table.” They go wild. Things deteriorate. The tenants refuse to pay. They become criminals and go as far as taking human life. The lines in this tale are drawn in favor of the owner.

In real life things are a little bit more complicated. Absentee landlords are often not so kindly talked about. Fair or not, they are rumored to be uninvolved, more interested in collecting rent than keeping the homes in good shape. And while there are certainly many other examples – owners who care a lot and are very conscientious about the maintenance of their property – given human nature’s tendencies, it isn’t all that hard to imagine that people who rent properties might cut some corners to ensure a bit more profit and a comfortable income. Especially when you own a property far away and you just look at it as an investment object… Landlords can be greedy. And then again, sometimes it’s the tenants who are careless and lazy, trashing the property, not paying rent on time; and when they finally leave, they leave a disaster behind. In real life, the lines are not drawn as neatly as in this gospel lesson. But we are dealing with a parable here. And parables always must paint in stark and contrasting colors – to make a point.  So, what’s Jesus point here?

The landlord is a thinly veiled reference to God. The tenants, thinly veiled references to the Pharisees and the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. And Jesus’ problem with them was what exactly? That they seemed to have removed God – the owner – from their brand of Judaism! In fact, this entire parable may be viewed as a cautionary tale about religion. Every religion can be likened to tenants who have been given their property, their mission, their faith, by the ultimate owner of life’s deepest secrets – God – in order to take good care of it and bear fruit – fruit of compassion, faith, justice and love. The problem is, the owner is absent in flesh. And people are tempted to replace God with their own philosophies, to make their own religion while God seems to be elsewhere.

So, what do we make of this parable? Some of us may want to protest and say: “Bad image, God is not like an absentee landlord! God is here, in Word and Sacrament, in Spirit, in the gathering of the community, in deeds of kindness, in every hug that is shared this morning, God is here!” And I would very much support that argument. It’s how I feel about my faith.  But that doesn’t entirely explain the absentee landlord metaphor, and I think there is more to it than this just being a random sort of example that Jesus happened to select.

Sorry, church, but God will not show up at our church council meeting tomorrow night to tell us exactly how we should conduct our ministries here at St. Peter’s, or to reveal to us who should serve on our next council after several people finish their terms. God will not tell us exactly how we should conduct church business. God will not micro-manage St. Peter’s. All of that is up to us, the tenants of this place, the church. We ought to make these decisions with the interests of the owner in mind, sure. The posed our way through this parable is this: are we tempted to serve our own interests and neglect God’s ownership of the church? You know, it happens all ten time. When churches become self-serving, when they secretly or overtly think that the place is “their property” and not God’s, things go awry. Churches become country clubs or they die or they just lose their spiritual edge. This parable is a reminder for all of us that we never own faith or religion, that we are only tenants and stewards of this place, that we remain accountable to God, forever trying to figure out God’s will for us. When we keep that in mind, our religion will be much less subject to human toxins, such as pride, greed, anger… also traditionally called sins!

So, let me ask a big question here, a very big question that kept on coming back to me, provoked by this parable. Is God an absentee landlord? Is God the one who set the universe in motion and made it possible for life on earth to evolve, for the beauties of creation to develop, for Stephen Hawking to question him, for human brains to develop nuclear weapons, then leaving us to our own devices? Even if you say, as I want to say, “No, that’s not the God I believe in!” even if you resist the thought of God not imminent in creation and present in our lives, if we are honest, sometimes it feels that way. When disaster strikes people tend to be just a bit more candid about it. They may ask: “Where was God when Harvey struck Texas or when Maria took so many lives and ruined the infrastructure of Puerto Rico for years to come? Where was our landlord when the shooter of Las Vegas fired his deadly rounds?”

Let me be clear, lest there is a doubt: I don’t believe in an absentee landlord God. I believe in the God of Jesus Christ who is present in our lives every single day, every hour of the day, every second. In fact, God is here right now. Sometimes we are aware of it and sometimes not so much. But the metaphor of this parable is more helpful than I initially thought, and it is in this way: God gives us a lot of freedom and leeway, just like the owner granted the tenants in the parable. God allows us to bring our own gifts and creativity into the development of his property; God doesn’t micro-manage us, but trusts us. God also gives us the ability to repent and change and learn from mistakes. The question is: are we using our freedom in the way our landlord would approve of? As we at St. Peter’s are engaged in ministries locally and abroad, as we continue to ask how we can serve God and be good stewards of this church, which is owned not by us but by the Lord, please ask, if you haven’t already, how you can be part of it. It’s a great responsibility and a great privilege and also a great joy, and you are here for a reason. You are one of the tenants of God’s property. And you can help make it God-worthy.

Amen.