Friday, March 09, 2007
From AscensionNYC
Friday in the Second Week of Lent
Psalm 105:16-22
Genesis 37:3-4,12-28
Matthew 21:33-43
What could be more obvious? God works through the brother sold into slavery, the stone rejected by the builders, destroying the evil tenants along the way. We, of course, identify with Joseph and with the just landlord. Yet, as the Evangelist makes clear in verse 45, Jesus was directing the parable of the wicked tenants at the religious people of his day – the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were the people who tried to live the godly life, who were respected in the community, who were the pillars of the religious establishment.
What kind of tenants are we? We at Ascension have been made tenants of a most pleasant corner of God's vineyard. We have been blessed with historic buildings, masterworks of sacred art, splendid music, and the resources to support our common life. As God's guests and hosts at and from the corner ofFifth Avenue Tenth Street
What kind of hospitality do we offer to the seeker, the lonely, the downcast? To the poor and others in need? To those marginalized by society and church?
What kind of tenants are we?
Genesis 37:3-4,12-28
Matthew 21:33-43
What could be more obvious? God works through the brother sold into slavery, the stone rejected by the builders, destroying the evil tenants along the way. We, of course, identify with Joseph and with the just landlord. Yet, as the Evangelist makes clear in verse 45, Jesus was directing the parable of the wicked tenants at the religious people of his day – the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were the people who tried to live the godly life, who were respected in the community, who were the pillars of the religious establishment.
What kind of tenants are we? We at Ascension have been made tenants of a most pleasant corner of God's vineyard. We have been blessed with historic buildings, masterworks of sacred art, splendid music, and the resources to support our common life. As God's guests and hosts at and from the corner of
What kind of hospitality do we offer to the seeker, the lonely, the downcast? To the poor and others in need? To those marginalized by society and church?
What kind of tenants are we?
* This phrase is borrowed and adapted from New Testament Hospitality by Professor John Koenig of General Theological Seminary.
Walter Killmer (2001)
