Now if we could just stop the story right here, it sounds pretty good, planting, vineyard, sharing or leasing to others. All sounds good.

Transcription

1 17 th Sunday after Pentecost, October 5, 2014 Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46 Sermon Title: Tending the Vineyard Theme: Introduction: We are in the season of parables from the last number of Sunday s sharing of parables taught by Jesus and more of Jesus story telling coming down the road. How did you hear today s story telling by Jesus? In one of my Bibles, the heading for this story is The Wicked Tenants. What a soothing friendly loving story to begin our morning. It starts out Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. Now if we could just stop the story right here, it sounds pretty good, planting, vineyard, sharing or leasing to others. All sounds good. But then, the harvest comes and when it does the landowner sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. (This seems pretty normal and activity to be expected, yet listen again to what happened.) But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Pretty violent and not so pretty. When we think that we live in such a violent world and when you think that you have heard the most tragic story ever, just wait a day and something that seems even worse has happened. 1

2 And then back to the story, Again, the landowner sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. (Violence). When I have heard this story this week I thought how this was an example of how the Bible does relate to what is happening in our world today. Violence and miss treatment and killing and torture are all part of our world today. While I don t feel good about that, this story reminds us that violence has been part of our world for years and years. Let s take a brief tour down memory lane of only some of the violent events in our world. Go far back to the Spanish Inquisition where people were tortured and killed in the name of the church with the goal of confessing that they were Christian. Burned at the stake or placed on torture racks with their arms pulled one way and their legs in the other direction until they either converted or confessed that they were Christian or they were killed. Or the black plague that took the lives of many and wiped out whole communities in Europe. The regime of the Nazi war crimes and the attempt to exterminate a race with the killing of millions out of a human determination of superiority verses those that were determined to be of less value. 2

3 Think of the race riots and the lynching s by the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. Hard stuff and sad happenings in our world where it should give us pause to realize that we are part of a world, part of the human race that have been part of horrific things. In today s reading you have the wicked tenants who not only beat, but also stoned and killed the people, the slaves that came for the landowners produce, From our parable story brings us to think of stories today of violence with beatings and killings. Think of Ferguson Missouri and the shooting of an unarmed young man, not shot only once but six times. And then the community outcry of the injustice went out immediately and still continues weeks later. The terrorist group ISIS that unfortunately has become part of our language in the fight and struggle in our world with radical groups that are hard to understand their purpose, other that destruction and killing of hostages and the horrific act of beheadings. And then you have the disgruntled employee in Oklahoma who sought retribution by returning to his former job site and beheading the first person he came to and was shot and killed as he attempted to take another person s life. 3

4 But then, the harvest comes and when it does the landowner sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, the landowner sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. So if violence has always been a part of our world, what is different for us today? CNN and FOX News! The one thing that is different in our world today regarding violence is that we have it live and loud in our households. Up close and personal. And while we can choose to not watch TV or read the newspaper our advances in technology bring all of the worlds happenings quickly to us whether good news or bad news. So now what? How do we live in a world where newscasts cover violence and tragedy 24/7 one could say even in the attempt to constantly be looking for the next story that will cause fear for its listeners. With the Ebola outbreak that we have heard in the news, I also heard that there has been 30 other outbreaks in the last 100 years, yet fear is out there today in our news and therefore in our lives. So now what? Where do we turn as people of faith in the midst of violence and fear? Let s turn back to today s parable told by Jesus. 4

5 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance. So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 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? For us here at New Life Lutheran, for the community of Florence, Oregon and beyond, LOVE WINS. LOVE, trumps all the violence that we can muster up from our past, present and future. LOVE WINS! Good conquers evil, even in the midst of the darkness love conquers all. And we can look to our Lord Jesus Christ The Cornerstone of our faith who was sacrificed for you and for me, for all. And with that claim and promise, we are called to tend the vineyard. God has given us the vineyard to tend in the midst of the violence, in spite of the violence and fear of our world. God calls us to tending that is merciful and 5

6 kind. Out of discouragement, we are called to tending the vineyard, tending to the world and the people that we live with in hope. And that hope and love is at the very base of all of the violence of our world that there HAS TO BE A MERCIFUL GOD! From Matthew 5: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 6