Experiencing God - Spirit of Stewardship 122

"The word of the Lord came to me:  “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?"
Ezekiel

In the book of the Ezekiel, this zealous prophet issues an indictment against those who have been called by God to shepherd their people in Israel.   He accuses them of looking after themselves, and being neglectful of the ones under their care.  They feed themselves while the flock goes hungry.  Their abuse of power, exploitation of the weak, has not gone unnoticed by God.  Those who do this will be held accountable. 

In the meantime, Ezekiel prophesizes: "God Himself will become the One who will look after this scattered flock." 

According to the St. Jerome Biblical commentary, this is a call to the people to return to God, to become God centred.  When this happens, then we also become other-centred and seek to care for those around us. 

This reading flows very nicely into Psalm 23; "The Lord is My Shepherd".  

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever

 

When we recognize the Lord as our chief shepherd, our wants and desires for other things fall into their correct priority. 

 

I received a posting on the internet the other day which said: "The important things in life are not things".  When the Lord is our shepherd, we no longer seek after things in an inordinate way.  The gift of the Lord's presence becomes the source of our hope and desires. The Lord will not be outdone in His generosity as we place our hope and trust in Him.

 

This quite naturally comes out in the gospel parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  Many times when we read this parable, there is triggered a sense of injustice or unfairness.  That's because initially we are inclined to approach this parable from the perspective of our human conditioning.  We are deeply engrained with the belief that we should be treated fairly and honestly in accordance with how we work and act.  We expect to receive a fair wage for an honest day's work.  

 

Jesus is not condoning unfair practices.  He is simply trying to get His listeners to consider how extravagant God's love and mercy can be. 

 

Jesus knows that most of the ordinary people in Palestine hire themselves out as day laborers.  They would go to the market place each morning and wait for someone to hire them for a job, such as harvesting the fruit in the vineyard.  To stand idle all day without work usually meant that the laborer would return home empty handed with no money to provide for his family. The owner of the vineyard in Jesus' parable recognizes the plight of the workers.  As a result, he shows compassion for those who were called at the last hour by giving them the same wage as those who worked all day.  Each person, each family, had a need that was as great as the other.  Therefore, God, in His abundant mercy and love showed concern for meeting the need of each of the laborers.  His love overcomes our conditional logic as to what we feel we deserve based on what we do.

 

As we put on Christ, as we recognize the special gift of His love and forgiveness, we begin to dislodge our conditional thinking and replace it with an awareness that all is gift from God, a gift that must be shared with those of greater need than ourselves.  This happens when we recognize that the Lord is truly our shepherd, there is nothing that I shall want apart from His love.

 

This, of course is the spirit of Stewardship.  We share our gifts of time, talent and treasure because God has abundantly blessed us, beyond measure, with all that we need and more.   God lavishes us with the gifts of His Kingdom, supplying not only what we lack, but giving us more than we can possibly expect.  The denarius, a days wage, given to the laborers who worked only one hour, is a symbol of God's generosity.