Tending the Vineyard

Luk 20:9-16 ESV
(9) And he began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while.
(10) When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
(11) And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.
(12) And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out.
(13) Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.'
(14) But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.'
(15) And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
(16) He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "Surely not!"

I know that this parable is told against the Jews. However, sometimes I wonder how much it applies to our time in America and our way of life. I think we could replace the tenants in this parable with Americans. How much longer will we have a free and sovereign nation? I know that it can't go on forever because no nation does. When will it end?

Independence

I've noticed a few posts around the God blog about Independence Day. First of all, I think that it is something we should think about as Christians. There are people in some countries who have no access to the bible in their native tongues. There are others who can be killed for owning a bible. We need to remember just how precious our freedom is. Why waste it on trivial pursuits?

I find that I am often torn about the state of the country. There are some who think that it is almost sacrilegious to be anything but jingoistic. However, it is clear that there are some major warts, even with our current Christian President. I do believe that he is indeed a sincere follower of Christ and he would probably like to be even more bold about it. It's a shame that he is in such a mess now, but it's partly his bed that he made.

I also think of what "independence" means. As a Americans I think we tend to chafe at the idea of being a "bondservant of Christ" as Paul called himself. However, that is what we are. I could stand to have a lot more dependence on Him than I do.