Bill and John were co-pastors of a mega-church in downtown Baltimore. Years earlier the building had been part of venerable Episcopal congregation, but a succession of rectors there lived off the endowment until it ran dry and the bishop was forced to close the church and sell the property. Bill and John had just graduated from seminary, and they saw an opportunity.

They purchased a beautiful 200 year old sanctuary that seated 800 people, along with classrooms and just about everything they needed except for parking. The purchase price was pennies on the dollar of the real value of the property. The bishop could not see any kind of proper church growing in that crime-infested corner of the city, so the new church bought the entire property for $20,000.

It took a few years and they had to buy buses to bring people in from the parking lots outside the center city. Now the old sanctuary was packed for several services every Sunday. A large video display was tastefully inserted in front of a statue of Mary. Another video display dropped down in front of the chapel entrance on the opposite side of the nave. The chancel was rearranged so the choir and praise music band faced the congregation behind the pastors.

Sunday after Sunday the message beamed out of those displays. “God loves you and will bless you with all kinds of riches if you will just turn your life over to Jesus.” Powerful, emotional testimonies from talking heads on the video displays reinforced the message. People streamed down the aisles for altar calls. The scripture used was a select cut from the Bible, all designed to emphasize individual salvation by grace alone. Yes, grace is an unmerited gift, but somehow Bill and John taught their flock that they had earned their seat on the last train to heaven.

Money poured into this church and it became a powerful political machine in the city. Bill and John wrote books about church growth and attended prayer breakfasts with the rich and powerful.

One day they read from Matthew 21. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Bill and John launched into a discussion about the former owners of the building, and how some churches have strayed from the “true mission” of God. They implied that the Episcopal diocese deserved to fail in that location because it was God’s plan. They portrayed themselves proudly as the new tenants who would give God a tremendous produce of all these people at harvest time.

Down the street in an area the police called “the shooting gallery”, named after all the heroin users there, Joe gathered his flock into an abandoned shoe store. There was no sign on the windows except for the neatly lettered sign of its former days as a shoe store. The front door hung wide open. People shuffled into Joe’s church stooped over at the shoulders as if they were carrying heavy bags. Some of the baggage they carried was physical, from a life on the streets. Some of it was mental, from a life of alcohol and drugs. Some of it was spiritual, in the form of cut off from God – no hope, no human connections, no future.

Joe didn’t have a lot of training, but he loved his people. He didn’t try to change them. He told them about God’s love for the poor. He didn’t paint rosy pictures of how God would bless them because he knew better, and the Bible didn’t really say that if you read the whole thing. Joe just tried to live like Jesus: simply, with gratitude, and a hopeful outlook for all God’s creation.

That same Sunday Joe’s church also read from Matthew 21. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: `The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?

Joe talked about his own experiences of rejection. Members of his congregation talked about how the rich were buying up buildings and converting them at great profit much like the greedy tenants in the story. At the same time the only grocery store for miles around and the health clinic were both closing. Joe listened while each member told their story of loss and rejection. A woman in the group looked up and said, “This gathering is all I have. We’re family. I love our meals together. We take care of each other.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

They say that every preacher preaches the same sermon every Sunday. Joe’s sermon was always about God’s love. He entered the discussion and said “God sent his only son to be tortured and die. It was God’s way of telling us, ‘No matter what you do, God will forgive you and love you.’ God’s love for us is crazy. It makes no sense. But when you are at the end of the line no matter whether you are rich or poor, that crazy love is all you’ve got.” People responded with “yea” and “amen.”

A shiny new bus rumbled down the street headed for the mega-church. An old man straightened up and asked if anyone knew how to take a city bus to the suburban clinic. His arthritis had become unbearable.

[pause]

Now I must tell you that some people have asked me to talk more about what these scriptures will do for each one of us in our everyday life. I tend to shy away from this kind of preaching for several reasons: Ever since I responded to a call to ordained ministry, life has actually been more difficult in many ways. It would be a complete lie for me to tell you that once you decide to follow Jesus, everything will be rosy. That has not been my experience. But at the same time I would not trade these years for all the money in the world. They have been the most difficult years AND they have been the best years. Our time so far in Muskogee has been very positive.

Secondly most of the teachings of Jesus are addressed to the plural form of you, not to the individual. Even today’s lesson where he says, “Have you never read in the scripture …?” his question is posed to a crowd. So the idea of focusing sermons on the notion of personal benefits or individual salvation is quite a stretch.

When we try to follow Jesus as a community, when we try to spread the love of Jesus to others, and when we make a difference in the lives of other people – then we are producing the fruits of the kingdom. That’s all Jesus wants us to do