8:00 am Sermon The Rev. Dr. Donald Thompson

Transcription

1 8:00 am Sermon The Rev. Dr. Donald Thompson Is. 5 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When we read Scripture, we bring with us some expectations as to what it will be about. This passage would be a good example. We assume it is about us. The vineyard is an analogy for Judah, the collective society of the Jewish nation. The focus is on how negligent the people are about the gift of life and living they have been given by God. And as we read it, we are prone to think of our own life and living, which shows how negligent we too are to the life and living we have been given by God. And we are used to thinking of the Scripture in moral and spiritual terms. But there is something very obvious about this and many other passages that we overlook even though it is right before our eyes. And that is the framework it gives for the vineyard, or the earth, and the world. All of these natural images presume a very attentive agricultural stewardship, which actually is quite striking in its ecological insights. The vineyard is to be carried for, protected, pruned, hoed, fallowed. As in this passage, that is presumed to be obvious. Or look at the most famous New Testament passage of the Sower. The only seeds which survive are those in good soil, without withering heat and without thorns and thistles. The point of the parable may be the analogy that we must provide the Word of God and with such fertile minds and hearts that his Word will grow throughout our lives. But it also assumes well thought-out agricultural practise.

2 Reading scripture with a heightened awareness of the earth and the care of the earth is something promoted by a new version of scripture called The Green Bible. It uses exactly the same text of scripture as we know it, but all the passages dealing with the earth and our relation to the earth, have been highlighted in green text. And needless to say, both today s passage are all highlighted green. The Gospel, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants is particularly hard on the role we human beings play as tenants in the vineyard of the earth. There we see those who are only greedy about securing the vineyards for riches and title are to be put to death when the owner of the vineyard returns! What is it that is going on with ecological and earth issues, and our Jewish and Christian faith? If you ever studied anthropology, you would know that most religions in their infancy utilized forms of Animism, anima meaning breath or soul. The belief of animism is that a soul or spirit exists in every object, even if it is inanimate. And the world of souls or spirits is as multiple as the things we encounter, so we must be aware that every one of them has a soul or spirit, and has some power and power over us. So you had better do homage to the spirit of the river before you try to cross the river. In the Old Testament, we read of this in terms of sacrifice to Baal. You will remember the episode of the Golden calf while the Israelites were waiting at the base of Mount Sinai for the appearance of Yahweh. Instead of waiting, they worship something close at hand the ox. (Ex 32) Well, both Jewish and Christian heritage have taught that there is nothing holy or scared in any animal, or statue. Just remember the encounter of Elijah on Mount Horeb, which was thought to be the seat of the godhead. (Kings ) Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

3 This was God communicating to him, but not in any thing! The same thing in Exodus 3:1-15, and the burning bush. God identifies himself as a God who does things in history I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob So to be on the right side of God, means doing the things that God expects or commands. And rocks and trees, weather, even harvest are not holy in themselves. Our first commandment teaches us: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. That means everything else is neutral, and not a threat. It has no power over you. Combine that with one of our two creation stories, and you can see where humankind quickly assumed far more than even God could have imagined: So God created humankind* in his image, in the image of God he created them;* male and female he created them. 28God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. 29God said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. 31 Does this mean that it is all for us? I can just see God shaking her head and saying, but I didn t mean for you to take THAT literally! But this notion of Dominion and domination is something that really evolved in western civilization. Even though so many basic insights of knowledge and insight occurred in Asia rather than in Europe or England, natural creation was not exploited in Asia because of a far greater respect for all aspects of creation human beings being only part of the picture.

4 But Christian and Jews view much of the world as inanimate, material, and therefore capable of being used for any purpose. It is our civilizations that even extended this usage even to other human being s slavery. You can own people just as much as you can own birds and rocks and trees. So by the 19 th century the results of these ill-founded beliefs became evident. And movements began which addressed the abuses of slavery, exploitation, dumping, and poisonous residue. And whole new levels of understanding emerged when that first NASA picture was sent back to earth of what was clearly a round and fragile earth. Our island home, as one of our Liturgies expresses it. It is our experience of the last three hundred years that has finally challenged us in its pragmatism, that there are consequences to every single thing that we do. There is a relationship between the birds of the air, the pesticides of our agriculture, the heat of our planet and the extent of our C02 emissions. We have to start taking care of our world and all that is in it. Turns our we were far too selective in hearing the Genesis creation story. We liked the first best it seemed to give us Dominion over the earth. But the second gives the account of human sin. The proud male of our species is told in the second version: cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. We should have learned a certain humility from that, shouldn t we? Our fist sin was abusing the garden of creation.

5 Which brings us back to the green bible, and so many of the stories and teachings which have been sitting before us for hundreds of years, and we have neglected them. Yet at painstaking care and nurture of all creation is embedded in so many of our biblical stories. And sin is what happens when we disrespect those teachings. He entrusted us with that hill. All we had to do was tend it responsibly. But it yielded wild grapes, sour grapes, grapes that have not been tended and nurtured. We need a green version of the living our Faith. We need to think, like many others around the world, that all things are connected. That we cannot get away with doing one thing without facing the consequences of having affected another. St. Augustine said: Love God, and do what you like. In Western Civilization, we ignored the first line, and chose the second: Do what you like. But if one loves God, one loves all God has made. The you has changed to a we with God. Hence today s scripture That s us, in this world. What sort of grapes will we produce? Amen