Alternate Payment

Let's talk about giving.

He began to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. - Luke 20:9-10

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples a parable.  It is a story of disrespect, about tenants who fail to live up to their agreement, about people who have become selfish and greedy.

So, what does that have to do with us?

We can hear this parable and say it has nothing to do with us at all.  It is about those who rejected Lord, beat his prophets and killed his son.

They forgot or chose not to recall that they were tenant farmers, living and working the land that did not belong to them.  One could argue that all we obtain, all we use and all we claim to own in this world is not ours either.  It is all on loan, available for our use, and what we pay for it is like a rental.

It will eventually go away when we go away, even if we manage to hand it down to heirs.

So, with that in mind, here we are on #GivingTuesday, the day non-profits have set aside to make us feel guilty enough to share a portion of what we have allotted to us to claim and use.

Like the tenant farmers, we could look at what we achieve through out toils as ours and say, "No, you are not getting any of this."

But suppose the owner of the land told them they didn't have to pay him for it.  Suppose he said they could take the share of the crop that would go to him and give it to the poor and the hungry.

Would they have done that instead of refusing to give him his share?

Consider it an alternate payment.  What I give to another in need is a way of paying back the one who helped me succeed.

Do you think they would accept that argument?

This is the season of Advent, the waiting time, when we anticipate the coming of the heir, the son, the one who will remind us that we have a commitment to fulfill.

We don't see it that way, as we rush to put gifts for loved ones under the tree, but this is reminder time, time to recall our blessings and offer something from our bounty to those who have little or nothing to give.

So, what should we do this day?

I think I will start by thanking God for all I have, even if I feel it is not enough.

Then, I will look for an opportunity to share, not so much as an alternate payment, but as an act of love.

It is, after all, what the heir, the son, is coming to tell me to do.

More to come...