The Rev. Betsy Anderson 21 Pentecost 10/5/08 Is 5: 1-7; Ps. 80, 7-14 Phillipians 3: 14-21; Mt 21:33-43 Today s lessons provide a dizzying set of images for us to try to hold on to, and I am grateful for one of Howard Anderson s new practices in our parish all of our ministry groups are asked to begin their meetings with a little prayer service that includes a reflection on one of the upcoming Sunday lessons. I have been a part of 4 of these groups this week: the parish staff meeting, the Ministry Council meeting, our Emmaus Mentor meeting, and the Fellowship Commission meeting at least 30 of you have helped me as I have tried to listen for what God s Spirit is saying to us. I have to confess, my initial reaction to reading the Old Testament and Gospel lessons was, How lucky could I be? There is much for us to unpack. First of all, if you are like me, you probably keyed in on the image of the vineyard; many of us have visited vineyards we ve seen the beautiful leafy plants lined up in orderly, welltaken- care-of-rows; the abundant purple fruit that just before harvest is full, fragrant, and hangs heavily on the vines; then there are the sun-bleached and rain-weathered buildings- this is what I think of in both Isaiah s and Matthew s images. In fact, in these biblical times, the image of a vineyard was usually associated with the House of Israel: God s chosen people in their God-given land. The image of the vineyard as Israel also carried with it the notion of a love-relationship God was the owner of the vineyard, the one who lovingly created it and nurtured its fruit. A love story woven throughout the Old Testament. Yet something has gone wrong terribly wrong-- in these love stories. In Isaiah s text, the vineyards that were planted yielded wild grapes. Isaiah was called forth by God to a rather unpleasant task: to tell the House of Israel the shocking and sad news that as wild grapes they had squandered God s love. God expected justice in this loving relationship, and instead got bloodshed; God expected caring righteousness from the people, but instead found the cries of the abused and overlooked. Someone this week wondered if God wasn t a bit naïve to think that God s vineyard would remain so good? Or was it that God loved God s people so much that God held the bar so high? We will find out as we continue on. In any case, God either seems either irrationally angry, or perhaps beginning a practice of some kind of tough-love: God will no longer tend the vineyard because of the fruit it produced. We notice that God s response is to remove the vineyard s 1
protective hedges (one person heard hedge-funds ) and expose them to forces that would devour them, and then command that the clouds no longer rain upon it. For Isaiah the prophet God had the power to do this; and Isaiah s readers, present and future, would hear this in the context of the Israelites long, very-real life journey through military conquests, exiles, and restorations. From that perspective, God s actions may not be understandable, but God appeared to know exactly what God was doing. When we hear this very same vineyard image come up in Matthew s parable, our ears should perk up, as Matthew s audience most certainly would have. There is bloodshed again, and no doubt the wails of crying, as the tenants of the vineyard repeatedly stoned and slayed the landowner s slaves who came on his behalf to collect the vineyard s fruit; not to mention kill his son and heir. Jane Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury s wife, and a fine theologian in her own right, comments on this text: in Matthew s Gospel, Jesus audience included many Pharisees and chief priests; when these Jewish religous leaders heard that things went wrong in the vineyard because of the landowner s tenants, they may at first have breathed as sigh of relief that this parable was not a condemnation of the whole of the House of Israel, but only some within it not the vineyard workers, not the land itself. And, she says, there were those in the audience who were not Jewish leaders who [probably]focused on the absentee landowner. There wouldn t have been much sympathy for him with them they knew the back-breaking hard work of the harvest, and who is this guy who sends messengers to collect it? So Matthew has everyone on the edge of their chair holding their ears to make sure they get it all, when he zeroes in on Jesus point. Given responsibility to manage and grow the vineyard, the tenants begin to take themselves way too seriously: The tenants killed many of the slaves, the messengers, of the landowner when they came to take stock and collect the harvest; when the landowner finally sent his son, and heir, the tenants think they can get his inheritance for themselves by killing him, too. Wiliams says, Killing the slaves buys the them [the tenant managers] a bit more time to enjoy the produce of the vineyard, so their mad calculations might just have led them to believe that there was some point to it; But their actions are completely short-term. They don t stop to think about the increasingly heavy penalty they are earning for themselves. But their final act shows that longterm thinking is not within their capabililties at all How [could] they ever convince themselves that killing the heir would make the vineyard theirs? Why is the owner suddenly going to make his son s murderers his heirs? (Lectionary Reflections, Year A, pp. 114-115) A good insight. 2
By now Matthew has made it clear for his audience, as did Jesus, that this is exactly what the Jewish leaders themselves have been doing for generations they have seen themselves as the true heirs of God s kingdom, and they have killed all of the prophetic messengers sent to them; by now these religious leaders are so systemically intertwined in the religious establishment that they have taken it over for themselves, controlled the tradition, and missed God s messengers all along; These Pharisees and chief priests could not have wanted to hear this from Jesus. How easy it is to slip into the mentality that our ways are God s ways; that it is our kingdom, not God s; into a blindness to God s real messengers. And they certainly didn t want to hear the answer they themselves gave Jesus when he asked them what the owner of the vineyard should do about this: He should put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruit at the harvest time. Unlike in Isaiah, Jesus teaches that the vineyard would not be destroyed, but given to those who can harvest it properly. Or as someone said this week Use God s kingdom, or lose it. Matthew s audience, like Isaiah s audience, would have heard this in a larger context in the context of Jesus own death and resurrection. So, God may not be understandable, is certainly not controllable, but does appear to know what God is doing. So are these parables about a naïve love, or a tough love? I think a lot about the Church, especially we leaders, but really all of us who honestly seek Christ in our lives. Are we setting God s bar too low? Are we so caught up in the system that we think too much about short-term fixes rather than long-term spiritual truth? In our world of the quick fix, in the world of our arrogant and yet sometimes naïve understandings about ultimate reality, in the world of our need to control our spirituality so that God conforms to our image, rather than the reverse, are we missing something really big? Are we walking into our own trap? Jesus tells us that the vineyard was not destroyed but given to those who can produce its fruit. St. Paul, in this morning s Epistle, encourages the Phillipian believers to strive toward the heavenly call of God and toward complete transformation in Christ Jesus, God s son. He calls for those who are mature to be keep this before them, and trusts that God will reveal what is necessary to those who aren t there yet, but who put their trust in God s power to reveal his true kingdom. The goal is that our humble bodies may be conformed to the body of Jesus glory the whole church. Trust, the process of persistent striving to maturity, seeking spiritual goals that require long term commitment these are not really valued in much of today s world. 3
How about you are these parables for about God s naïve love, or about God s tough love I d like to know what you think. Amen. Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, 4
but heard a cry! Philippians 3:14-21 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Matthew 21:33-43 Jesus said, "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. When the harvest time had come, he 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 he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 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; 5
this was the Lord's doing, and it is amazing in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom." 6