I am Jay Warner and I am a farmer, not a pastor here at McPherson FUMC. I am also one of your Certified Lay Servants. Today’s joke is a wealth joke, so it is about a social faux pas.

It is set in a corporate boardroom as the CEO says, “We always look out for the stockholders!” Then another board member says, “SHHH! Here comes one now.” The easiest way to identify wealth jokes is they are not funny. Looking out for the interests of the owners does not mean hiding from the owners. Moving on.

Let’s pray. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. Amen.

I have attended a lot of training sessions about farm management. One that hit me several years ago was about “the three spheres of family-owned business.” It could be any family-owned business: a local store, an automotive dealership, a manufacturing company, or even a farm that has been in the family since the late 1800’s. We often think of it as a single thing, but it is actually three distinct entities: family, ownership and business.

“Family” is the people we invite over for a Thanksgiving meal. We sometimes think of family as linage and marriage, but that falls short. I often talk about “my herd” instead of “my family” because I know too many individuals whose family of origin was not a safe and healthy place. Divorce happens. Parents and siblings leave. We may be emotionally abandoned, even while physically present. Youth may be disowned. Conversely, we might find support and connection with our comrades in arms or at NA and AA. For today’s sermon, I am using an inclusive definition of family.

“Owned” is about holding title or deed for cars and property. It also includes tools, personal property and household items. Despite the quip that “possession is 90% of the law,” ownership is a legal right to utilize, buy or sell something. Borrowing, leasing or renting something gives possession to another, but it does not change ownership.

“Business” is about operations, management and production. There are many ways this might be structured. It could be a single individual, a partnership, or a more complicated legal structure such as an LLC or Cooperation. The business is the entity in charge of day to day activities. It does the actual work.

The K-State Extension agent who first presented the three spheres concept to me noted that every farm failure they knew of was rooted in one or two of these spheres being poorly defined and fused into another.

When “family” is the dominant factor, both ownership and business are neglected. The family members who are not involved with the farm may require that things are done a certain way. Perhaps a nostalgic item or system needs to be kept, even after it has served its time and a new system is needed.

For example, when I started farming with Amy’s parents, we had a large wheat harvest crew. At its peak it included three combines, a grain cart, six single axle dump trucks, three truck drivers and a meal provider with the chuck wagon van shown in this photo. It was a grand experience where family from out of state would visit in order to participate along with local friends. With children included, we were feeding a dozen people in the field. We now harvest more wheat per hour with just three people.  If that family time dominated, we would not be able to run harvest the way we do now. Family dominance can also drain working capital when too much cash is used to buy stuff for the family. More people might get hired than the farm can support, draining away operating capital, not just profits. Family dominance can work for a hobby or lifestyle farm, but not for earning a living.

When “owner” dominates, all resources go one place: the owner. The family sphere is abused to justify neglecting the business sphere. The child that helps keep the farm running does not receive equitable compensation. The parent may let the child live in one of the farm houses and give the child a side of beef or tires for the car as the owner sees fit, but the owner is in control of all things. Even after the next generation is actively operating the farm and the owner is “retired,” they still dictate all activities. This is perhaps the most common form of farm transition. That next generation doesn’t get paid because, “this will all be yours someday.” When “someday” comes, the next generation may or may not actually receive equitable compensation for their unpaid labor.

When “business” or management has all of the power, ownership and family are both neglected. Again, the family sphere is abused to justify neglecting the ownership sphere. I know of a farm where the elder generation received nothing for several years on land they owned. It was not a voluntary gift on their part; rather the hints and requests for payment were ignored. If the elder generation pushed more, they feared it would ruin Thanksgiving.

The better we are able to define and separate the family-owned business roles, the better it is for each role. When done right, the junior generation can quit or be fired from the farm and still be welcomed at Thanksgiving dinner. Since all are treated equitably in real time, resentments and assumptions are minimized.

With this in mind, we can now consider this morning’s scripture in its broader context. The previous chapter (Mark 11) starts with Palm Sunday. Jesus rides a colt into Jerusalem while the crowds place their garments and leafy branches cut from the fields and cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”

The next day we have the source for the famous meme: “If anyone ever asks you ‘What would Jesus do?’ remind them that flipping over tables & chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.” As I was searching for this meme, I did find a couple others that missed the point.

One is an Artificial Intelligence created meme of Jesus doing a backflip over the tables in the temple. The other implies that Jesus supports ultra-wealthy religious leaders and condemns those do not obey them. Rather, Jesus drives out of the temple the buyers and sellers, the money changers, the leadership that uses religion for personal gain. He proclaims “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

The next morning, the religious leaders came out to challenge Jesus’ authority. He countered with “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” When they were afraid to answer either way, Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

We now arrive at our reading from (Mark 12: 1-12). This parable is a direct response to the Pharisee’s challenging Jesus’ authority.  “A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it.” Our parable’s owner provided a complete vineyard with vines and fence. It included the pit for the winepress as well as the tower to manage and oversee the vineyard. This owner provided everything needed and then let it out to tenants, the people who will manage the business.

Soon the tenants started to think of this vineyard as only for themselves. As we heard in our Old Testament scripture, the Pharisees were familiar with the vineyard analogy and its use to condemn religious leadership that misses the mark.

When the owner tried to collect his share, his servants were beaten and killed. The son was finally sent but they killed him also under the delusion that they would now inherit the vineyard. The owner came and destroyed the evil tenants and gave the vineyard to others.

There is a quick and easy way to interpret this parable. God is the owner. The vineyard is God’s religious institution on earth. The tenants are the Jewish chief priest, the scribes and the elders. The servants who were beaten and killed are the Old Testament prophets. The Son that is killed is Jesus the Christ. At the end of the parable, the old religious hierarchy is destroyed as God establishes new leadership for God’s people.

Of course, many of you have come to realize that I rarely accept quick and easy answers. A parable is never just about others missing the mark. When we look for the speck in the eye of others, we always miss the log in our own eye. Throughout history, some Christians have misinterpreted parables like this in anti-Semitic ways, turning Jesus’ critique of the Temple leadership into an attack of the Jewish people as a whole. Such misinterpretations are dangerous.

All metaphors and analogies have their limitations. Yet, it might be worth considering what does this parable look like using the family-owned business paradigm?

Family includes the servants who were beaten and killed as Old Testament prophets, just as in the quick and easy interpretation; but that is not enough. If we limit this to those in the Old Testament, we deny relevance for today. God’s family includes all who bear the Creator’s image. They are not the creator, not the owners. Neither are they limited to the tenants. God’s family includes all of God’s children, all who are created in God’s image. As Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” Family is not confined to those within the vineyard walls, not limited to those of us in church.

Yet, when the family sphere dominates, we become spiritually bankrupt. We lose sight of our Higher Power. We burn out from personally taking on the problems of the universe. Our church loses its role as a place of praise and worship. It is no longer a place of growth.  Soon, the financial and volunteer resources to remain a viable center to host and promote the common good disappear.

God is the owner, the stockholder. Our Creator God remains as the man who planted the vines, set the hedge, dug the pit for the winepress and built the tower. God provided humanity with all that is needed for God’s Kingdom on Earth. This vineyard is God’s church. Jesus is the Son who was killed, just as the owner’s son was killed in this parable. No conflict with the quick and easy interpretation yet.

But my paradigm states that having any sphere overshadowing the others is a bad thing. Surely, having the Owner God as the dominate sphere cannot be problematic, or can it?

Too often, when we claim to dedicate everything to God, it is little more than an attempt to justify neglect for our family and our neighbors. Focus on God is too often self-centeredness in disguise. As Jesus noted in (Mark 7: 1-13) “But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) – then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.”

Yet, mystics do exist, experiencing a deep inner spiritual relationship with The Divine. Unfortunately, this can still result in a failure to maintain a church where we gather together for praise and worship as well as edification and growth. It can neglect the common good that feeds the hungry and visits the prisoner. It fails to love neighbor.

For the final sphere, the business is run by tenants. Those of us in the church today have this tenant role. Just like the religious leaders in Jesus day, we manage the business of the church, but we do not own it. Whenever we do communion at McPherson FUMC, Pastor Emily reminds us that the communion table does not belong to us: it is God’s table. Do we sometimes say this while not really believing it? It is ours. After all, we are the ones who designed this space. It was our money that paid for it. We are the ones with religious authority. We declare who is, or is not, acceptable in these spaces.

When the business sphere of church dominates, we start to think and act like every other for-profit business. We neglect both God’s ownership and our neighbors – the family created in God’s image.  The church’s aim for the common good is subtly replaced by the institutional good. Focus becomes internal. Achievement is measured by net worth. Worship and outreach both become token activities to give us a feel good fix for the week.

Since we do not want to be wicked tenants like those in this morning’s parable, what does it mean for us to give Owner God their share of the vineyard’s fruit? What is the purpose of this family-owned business? “The Mission of the {United Methodist} Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” That is our core business.

As disciples – that is to say, as students of Jesus Christ- we learn to think, act and love as Jesus loved. We worship and praise the Creator, but it does not stop there. Although we dislike talking about money at church, being a disciple includes sharing our financial resources for God’s Kingdom on earth. I suspect we are all familiar with the Biblical guideline of tithing: giving 10%. Our tithes, offerings and estate gifts allow the church to function, but that is a means, not an end. The church is not here to generate wealth. We are called to make disciples: to bring others to think, act and love as Jesus loved.

As we think, act and love as Jesus loved, it results in the transformation of the world. Last week, Pastor Emily preached on the Great Judgement as described by Jesus in (Matthew 25: 31-46). “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.… Truly, I say to you, as you did to the least of these my brethren, you did to me.” The way we treat the most undeserving individual created in God’s image is the way we treat the Son of God. We are to love all of those created in God’s image in both word and deed. We are to care for those outside of the church walls. That is how we transform this world into God’s kingdom. This is what it means when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

How well do we manage God’s vineyard? How well do we run this church to Love God and Love Neighbor? I can assure you that we fall short of the glory. And yet, and yet we are members of the best family business. Unlike the CEO in my opening joke, we have no need to hide from our Divine Stockholder, the Great I AM. For we serve a God of Grace and Mercy. “The Mission of the Church {remains} to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”

Amen. ~ Jay Warner, Certified Lay Servant