AProp22

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Psalm 19; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46

G.K. Chesterton wrote,

“A man walking, who comes to the edge of the cliff, and keeps walking, will not break the law of gravity.

He will prove it.”

A landowner planted vineyard,

put a fence around it,

dug a wine press in it,

built a watchtower to protect it.

He obviously, as owner,

made careful and expensive preparations for his vineyard.

He also makes another prudent decision when he has to leave the country.

He leases the vineyard to tenants who will take care of the vineyard in his absence.

When harvest time comes he will make a good profit even in his absence

and the tenants, of course, would keep a portion of the produce in this collaborative venture.

This parable Jesus tells is really an allegory, is clearly about Israel.

The vineyard was a traditional metaphor for Israel or Jerusalem.

The tenants are the religious authorities – Pharisees, scribes, elders.

The slaves sent to collect the produce at harvest time –

are the prophets God  has sent through the ages.

And the son – Jesus himself.

And this parable is about authority – who has the true authority of ownership.

At the harvest time, the owner sends servants to collect his produce.

When the first one arrives, the tenants are shocked.

They had come to think of the vineyard as their own.

They fall into a sense of crisis immediately at the thought of having to give back any of the harvest.

The owner is far away.

They had really forgotten all about him.

So in their panic they beat the first servant who arrives.

That servant makes his way back to the owner,

Who seeing what has happened,

sends another, who is in turn killed, so he can’t return.

And when that servant does not return to the owner of the vineyard,

He sends another, who is stoned.

Then he sends a group of servants, and they are treated in the same way.

It is clear to the owner by now that the tenants have taken over the vineyard

and mean to keep it under their control.

They are asserting authority of ownership, through the means of this hostile takeover.

Then, as we know, the owner sends his son, the next in line in authority,

and, rather than the son’s legitimate authority carrying some weight in the situation,

the tenants reason that if they kill him, the heir, there will be no one left to bother them.

The crisis will be over and the vineyard will be theirs for good.

It would look to anyone passing by the vineyard,after the owner had been gone for some time

that the ones who had authority over the vineyard, are the tenants.

They had come to see it that way, and so would others who didn’t know the whole story.

A man who comes to the edge of a cliff and keeps walking

does not break the law of gravity, he proves it.

All that the tenants did to take charge of the vineyard,

does not change the simple truth of who the true owner was.

When Jesus asks the scribes and Pharisees, who are the tenants in the allegory,

what the owner will do when he comes back to his vineyard,

the very ones who have turned Jerusalem and the temple

into their own enterprise,

who through the ages have killed the prophets who came to warn them

to remind them that they are not the owners,

that they do not have final authority over the holy city and its temple…

that they may have tried to deny the truth, but they prove it.

They don’t get it and they say,

“The owner 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.”

They don’t know that they are speaking of themselves.

And Jesus points this out.

I used to read this as the judgement of God, the vineyard owner,

on those who consider the owner far away and have taken over this world and this religion.

He will treat us as we have treated others.

And if we have rejected or killed God’s messengers, then we are doomed.

But, this is not Jesus’ verdict. This is the verdict of the tenants themselves,

because they cannot see themselves in the allegory.

Violent retribution from God is their solution,

because this is the only way they have run ‘the vineyard.’

God did not in fact put the wretches who killed his son to a miserable death.

God did something that broke the cycle of crisis caused by

real truth meeting false truth,

real authority meeting false authority,

real ownership meeting false ownership.

Rather than putting an end to the tenants by finally expelling them,

as they had done to  his messengers and son,

God the sent the risen one back to expose false ownership and false authority.

And through the Son, God offers the tenants their true place in the vineyard

– a place of relationship and belonging with the owner,

where they in peace and dignity and mutual collaboration

will share in the benefits and blessings of the vineyard.

When the risen one arrives on the scene is when a new chapter can begin.

A chance to try a new way, to live into that way, that truth, that life

that will break the cycle and bring about life rather than death.

All through this section of Matthew, the reader is told of the ‘authorities’

questioning, and being offended and angered by Jesus.

And the crowds were astounded at the authority with which he spoke.

How could the ‘authorities’ understand a true authority that reveals itself

within the very cycle that has always rejected it?

Who would choose as a cornerstone, the very stone that the builders reject?

And Jesus says, “The one who falls on the cornerstone will be broken.”

A man walking, who comes to the edge of the cliff, and keeps walking,

will not break the law of gravity, he will prove it.

The theme we are using during this Stewardship season and through Advent is Pilgrimage.

Pilgrimages are those journeys that lead us to the cliff’s edge

where we meet with truth in our life.

Where our false ownership and false authority and our need for control are exposed and broken.

Where we meet the Risen One who leads us away from the fate of proving the law of gravity.

These next three Wednesdays evenings we will hear from pilgrims.

Tim Lytle and Stephen Whited will take us on a virtual pilgrimage in Ireland

and highlight the ways they and their students have

‘stepped to the edge of the cliff’ and seen holy truth revealed.

Mr. Rae Greene will be with us the next Wednesday

to walk us through his life of false ownership and control,

his falling off the cliff, and his climb back to life.

And beloved Jim Yeary, who served here as an interim seven years ago,

(hard to believe!) will be here to share with us

his times of cliff-hanging and times of grace during his journey with cancer.

I hope this month of October and this theme of pilgrimage

will be a time for all of us to reflect on our lives,

to consider those cliffs in our lives

where we can fall into our illusions of ownership.

And where we can consider the Risen One who leads us into all truth 

who invites us to join him in a life that breaks the cycles

and leads us into a peaceful and fruitful collaboration with the owner.