celebrating “thin spaces” with the communion of saints in the mystical body we share those who have gone before, who are today, and who are to come.

(images: Lady Gaga & Rick Genest / La Catrina in Guanajuato by M.Bell / ‘court of heaven’ painting by Fra Angelico) 

...and a few words from the late Fred Rogers (a.k.a. Mr. Rogers) relevant to this triduum:

They will know us by our love… by our love.

Our combination of assigned readings for today are rich with opportunity for consideration.  This morning, let’s jump right into the first part of today’s Gospel reading, one of the most beloved and often quoted passages (Matthew 22:37-40).  One might argue that the totality of the Bible is a testament about loving God with everything we are and everything we have.  And, phrases translated as “love your neighbor” appear at least eight times in the bible, E.g.: Leviticus 19:18  and Matthew 22:36-40 (part of this morning’s lectionary readings), Matthew 19:19, Mark 12:30-31, Luke 10:25-28, Romans 13:8-10,  Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8. 

The setting for Jesus’s words this morning, as you’ll recall from our readings for the last several weeks, is a series of responses from Jesus to the religious leaders and temple administrators/priests – the Pharisees and the Sadducees – who perceive his message as threatening to the established order of things and are trying to discredit, entrap, and otherwise silence Jesus.  Jesus has amassed a following from throughout the territory and has brought their movement directly to the seat of power – the temple in Jerusalem.  He has intentionally caused quite a scene with his actions and words as he has been very explicit in his prophetic critique of what he perceive as fatally corrupt and hypocritical religious leadership that is inconsistent with the kingdom of God. The scene this morning in Matthew is part of the final show-down between the establishment and our great prophet before he his handed over to suffering and death. 

What we’re hearing today is a deceptively simple summation of all of the religious law and prophecies. 

In Jesus’ day, as well as our own, orthodox followers of ‘the law’ went well beyond just the first ten commandments; they paid very detailed attention to a total of over 613 commands (248 things we ought to do and 365 we should not do, much of these recorded in Leviticus and Deuteronomy) and behavioral expectations that had been developed and weighted greater or lesser through rabbinic debate and discussions over time. Keep this in mind when considering what the religious legalist is testing Jesus with as a question – which of the voluminous list of commandments are we to pay most attention to?  What is most important? 

Jesus responds with a deceptively simple summation of all religious laws and prophecies.  He first emphasizes a fundamental of Jewish faith by quoting a phrase from Deuteronomy (6:5) that is used in their daily prayer known as the Shema (recited as an opening prayer in the synagogues) that says that the one true God is to be given our full attention and devotion.  He then says there is a second divine expectation that is like that first one, we are to love our neighbor just as we want to be loved ourselves.  Jesus says that these two commandments together form the basis / the framework for all the other multitude of behavioral laws.  You get these two right, and everything else will fall into place.  Elegant, yes.  Yet, Jesus’s pithy summary is much easier to recite than it is to really believe or follow.  It’s a divine summary that is often quoted, but rarely lived. 

Loving God with all of who we are – heart, soul, and mind.


This greatest command seems so obvious… yet, it also requires a lifetime of effort.  Not just a sentiment or state of mind, to love God with everything that we are requires more than a directional orientation, it requires constant intellectual mindfulness and discernment as well as heartfelt and soulful action.  If we are to love God wholly, that includes sharing in God’s love for all of creation, no?  It’s not as if we can love God in the abstract, separate and apart from all that God has created in and around us, including the sometimes disturbing or hard to understand and/or unlikeable bits of God’s creation.  In fact, we’re told that we’re made in God’s own image and share in the responsibility for stewardship and care of all that has been created.  Even when bits of it seem to go astray or seem to oppose each other, it’s all still God’s creation. Our ancient and sacred stories tell of God’s consistent intent to repair and restore goodness to ALL of creation.  In loving God wholly, aren’t we naturally called into this godly process of constant reconciliation and invited to share in it?  What is it to love God with everything we are and everything we have? (discussion)

Now, what about this notion of godly neighborliness? Who is our neighbor?  Who considers us a neighbor?  What does it mean to be a neighbor in the way that Jesus intends?

Jesus’ ministry is a constant example of how to define neighbor and how to be neighborly, is it not?  Who does he identify with and how does he treat them?  In Matthew we have what has come to known as the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), but that can sometimes be misunderstood as a simply a call to be nice to others.  Our Christ calls us to go further than that. 

When challenged by someone who wants to clearly define who our neighbors are (perhaps implying that those who are not neighbors can then be ignored or discounted) Jesus offers the provocative story of the Good Samaritan in which it is someone who his listeners considered unclean who actually acts most neighborly toward one in need when other members of proper society have neglected that responsibility (Luke 10:25-37).  To drive this point further, Jesus explicitly tell us that loving our friends is not sufficient… you are to exhibit love and mercy toward even your enemies and prayer even for those who do harm to you, just as God’s mercy and grace is poured out on everyone – the good, the bad, and the undecided (humor) (Matthew 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36).  We could go on citing other places throughout the Bible in which ‘neighbor’ is defined more broadly and inclusively than I than many of us might like… but let’s now consider what it means to ‘be neighborly’, that is, how we’re to treat each other.

from Germantown Church of Christ (Germantown, TN)

In another Gospel, we’re told that Jesus extends the 2^nd greatest commandment to make it even more challenging – we are to love our neighbors, not just in the way we’d like to be loved (because, frankly, that might lead to some dysfunctional examples of love – humor, again), but as Jesus has demonstrated love for us – “love others as I have loved you” / follow my example of being neighborly (John 13:24, 15:12).  What does that look and sound like?  How would you describe or define divine neighborly love? (discussion)


Some suggested discussion points:

·         Outreach to the outcasts and the unclean (sinners, tax collectors, lepers, foreigners, etc.)

·         show hospitality to strangers and even welcome them into your home / out of harm’s way (Hebrews 13:1-2)

·         not only do not harm to others (Romans 13:12), but actually seek to please and to look out for the interests of others (Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 10:33; Philippians 2:4)

·         don’t be so quick to judge (logs in your own eyes before specks in others - Matthew 7:1-5; Luke 6:37-38) and don’t presume to cast stones at others (John 8:3-11).

·         Paul, in Romans and Galatians equates loving your neighbor with a summation of all God’s commandments and, in Galatians specifically (Galatians 5:13) says that love is expressed as service toward others. Note: most of the ten commandments are addressing how we should treat each other, essentially saying that we’re not covet, take what isn’t ours, or violate the dignity of others.

·         What do we often hear recited when we’re making holy commitments to each other? Love is patient; kind; not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude; doesn’t insist on its own way; isn’t irritable or resentful; doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing; rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things; is never ending. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8)

So, what gets in our way of truly believing and following these two greatest commandments?  Let’s give some voice/name to specific obstacles we need help with… things in our life we’ll now bring to God in prayer, asking our Christ for assistance with… (call for specific words and phrases)

We’re told that God’s charitable and merciful love has been poured into our own hearts (Romans 5:5).  We’re told that others will know us by how we express our neighborly love (John 13:24-25), we even sing a hymn about that – our love towards others is a tangible demonstration of God’s love.

What will be cultivated among us as we follow these commandments of loving God and our neighbor the way Christ has shown us?  Paul suggests that we begin to harvest the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Let’s close in prayer – a prayer asking God to unsettle us and to help us get real about who we all are together and get on with the business of more fully loving and living.

Pry Me Off Dead Center

O persistent God, deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle.

Pressure me that I may grow more human, not through the lessening of my struggles,

but through an expansion of them that will undamn me and unbury my gifts.

Deepen my hurt until I learn to share it and myself openly, and my needs honestly.

Sharpen my fears until I name them and release the power I have locked in them and they in me.

Accentuate my confusion until I shed those grandiose expectations that divert me from the small, glad gifts of the now and the here and the me.

Expose my shame where it shivers, crouched behind the curtains of propriety, until I can laugh at last through my common frailties and failures, laugh my way toward becoming whole.

Deliver me from just going through the motions and wasting everything I have which is today, a chance, a choice, my creativity, your call.

O persistent God, let how much it all matters pry me off dead center so if I am moved inside to tears, or sighs or screams or smiles or dreams…

They will be real and I will be in touch with who I am and who you are and who my sisters and brother are.

Loder, Ted. Guerrillas ofGrace: Prayers for the Battle (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1981)

AMEN

So worth considering that I've shamelessly posted this article in its entirety...

What Steve Jobs can teach the church

By Gary Nicolosi, October 20, 2011
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_130255_ENG_HTM.htm

[Anglican Journal] "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." Those words could have been spoken by Jesus, but they were uttered by Steve Jobs at the Stanford University commencement in June 2005. He was citing from the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalogue, one of the bibles of his generation back in the 1960s and early '70s.

Steve Jobs was a very complex person. He was a Buddhist and a visionary, almost a mystic, whose most exhilarating experience was walking in a Zen garden in Kyoto, Japan. Intellectually, he was an innovator and inventor, ranking with the likes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Temperamentally, he was a free spirit who integrated his love of design with technology in a user-friendly way.

He was not perfect, to be sure. He could be the best and worst boss at the same time. He was something of a bully, firing and rehiring people the same day, intense, direct, strong-willed, a control freak with a binary view of the world. He did not suffer fools gladly, did not enjoy small talk and would turn off people who did not interest him. His management style will never be touted in leadership books. He would not make a good parish priest, nor would he fit well into most churches, especially ones with lots of rules and regulations.

And yet, I greatly admire Steve Jobs and will miss him, even though we never personally met. I especially appreciate his conviction that we are on this earth for a limited time, that we will someday die and that others will take our place. For Jobs, this meant making the most of life while we can; living passionately, intentionally and deliberately; not wasting or squandering our precious time.

Jobs told the Stanford graduates: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

In Steve Jobs' words, we hear echoes of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the New England Transcendentalists. His personal and business philosophy went beyond the boundaries of conventional thinking. He would not use the past to shape the future. He didn't drive his company by looking into the rearview mirror. He didn't settle for doing what others already knew—only better.

Instead, he managed to fuse a core business with disruptive innovation. He combined the intellectual with the artistic. He balanced the rational with the lunatic. He refused to admit that something was impossible only because it had not yet been done. He found ways where there was no way, because life for him was about possibilities, not limitations.

Steve Jobs understood the paradox that disruptive innovation is essential to any healthy, growing organization.

When he returned to Apple, he developed an ad that said: "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

The problem with being a rebel, a misfit, a troublemaker is that you are not likely to be cheered by the authorities. Consider Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi and the dissension they caused in their communities. Consider the many theologians and scientists who were condemned by the church — Galileo in the 17th century, Darwin in the 19th century and Teilhard de Chardin in the 20th century.

Even Steve Jobs was lambasted before he was praised. It took him years to come up with a turnaround strategy that showed what Apple could do. People tend to forget the years between 1996 and 2001, when much of the market called him more insane, than insanely great.

So, what might churches learn from Steve Jobs at this moment in history as we struggle to do ministry in a rapidly changing world? Here are six insights to reflect upon.

First, be open to the Holy Spirit, to God's plan for new times and seasons, and to the Spirit's working in the world.

Steve Jobs was able to see things in a way that other people did not. His biographer Walter Isaacson refers to him as a "visionary" — and that he was. 

Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us see clearly, discern our choices and act courageously into the future. In the Spirit we can make Jesus central to everything we do as a church, and everything else secondary. We can re-examine the assumptions in how we do ministry. We can overcome "hardening of the categories" by getting rid of the traditions that no longer make sense.

Instead of asking, "What are we going to lose by moving into God's new times and seasons?" we can ask, "What is the kingdom of God going to gain?" Or, to put it another way, "How can the church position itself to respond to what God is doing in the world?"

Second, master unlearning.

Not everything we learned is wrong or outdated, but we live in a world where yesterday's successes are tomorrow's failures. We need to be flexible, agile and ready to move beyond conventional ways of thinking and doing ministry. We need to reshape tradition to the present context of ministry rather than be stuck in the past.

In a world going at warp speed, only the fast survive. Steve Jobs knew this.

In January 2007, while unveiling the iPhone, he made a very telling comment about his business philosophy. He said, "There's an old Wayne Gretzky quote that I love — 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.' And we've always tried to do that at Apple, since the very, very beginning. And we always will."

Could the church do the same?

Third, be willing to look beyond the church for answers.

The knowledge we need for the future may not exist inside the church. If we believe that the Spirit is at work in the world as well as the church, then the world may have something to teach us about how we do church.

Jobs never was ashamed to look beyond Apple for innovations that he could make better. When everyone was praising the invention of the e-Reader, Apple came out with the iPad. Jobs not only made something better, he transformed it into a revolutionary new product with multiple uses.

Might we in the Anglican church look to non-Anglican churches and even secular organizations for ways to improve our mission and ministry? We don't have to accept their message, but we can learn from their methods.

Fourth, experiment, fail and try again.

Steve Jobs understood that the future will not look like the past, nor can anyone fully predict the future. Charting new paths, even in failure, became characteristic of his way of moving forward.

For the church, there is no clear strategy to take us into the future. We see the future dimly, and no one is likely to get it right the first time.

So why not allow parishes to be places of exploration, trying new things, taking risks, experimenting and even accepting failure as a way of learning new ways of doing ministry?

Institutionally, this means becoming permission-giving rather than permission-denying, because there is no one-size-fits-all approach anymore. Consensus in synods, or even among bishops, seldom represents the cutting edge.

Instead, we need to listen to the voices on the margin and not just the mainstream, because often the answers we seek will come from places we least expect to find them.

Fifth, expect the uncomfortable.

To minister effectively in a secular, post-modern, post-Christian world means that at some point we can't keep doing what got us here. Remember Einstein's famous maxim: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

We need to step out in faith, move beyond our comfort zone, look into the lens of the future and imagine what could be. Safety, security and the status quo lead only to death. Today it is not enough to manage an institution. We must also lead a movement.

If we only manage yesterday's church, we forfeit the opportunity to shape tomorrow's Christians.

Lastly, maintain your passion.

By passion, I mean holding on to what you love.

Steve Jobs, reflecting on the days after he was fired from the company he built, told the Stanford graduates: "Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Do you remember Steve Jobs' famous conversation with John Sculley, the one that brought him to Apple? Sculley, who then worked for Pepsi-Cola, told Jobs he could not accept his offer to join the company.

Jobs confronted Sculley with a crucial choice: "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?" Translation: Do you really want to spend the rest of your days on work that fails to inspire, or stuff that fails to count, for reasons that fail to touch the soul of anyone? The question knocked the wind out of Sculley, and he went on to join Apple.   

That's the challenge before us in the Anglican Communion. Do we want to continue to live just somehow, or would we like, in Christ's name, to live triumphantly and be part of changing the world, our lives, and the lives of others? The ball is in our court. Hit it back—or let it die there bouncing slowly, slowly, slowly, while we hesitate and procrastinate.

Steve Jobs knew what to do — and he did it with love, passion and gusto.

What about us?

-- The Rev. Gary Nicolosi is the rector at St. James Westminster Anglican Church in London, Ontario. Reprinted with permission of the Anglican Journal.

Rendering ourselves, our souls and bodies unto God

Can you imagine it today?  Imagine a great banquet of various political and church leaders, perhaps a prayer breakfast at the Capitol.  Gathered are leaders of the political parties, government officials, the wealthiest lobbyists, and some of the most influential religious leaders.  Into this august gathering, a social media prophet who is considered by the establishment to be a red-neck rebel rouser comes in, all ‘Occupy Wall Street’ style, turning over some tables, calling those at the head table hypocrites, and grabbing the microphone he stands before the TV cameras proclaiming that country will be taken from them and given to the common folk and that foreigners and sinners will enter the kingdom of heaven before they do. 

Now imagine that, surprisingly, both a leading Republican and a leading Democrat join forces side-by-side and approach the trouble-maker with insincere smiles on their faces and with a question that they both hope will entrap him in the public eye, “Should we continue to pay taxes to support this government?” 

The crowds have gathered and millions are watching on TV.  If he answers “yes”, his credibility will be lost with the crowds who see him as a messianic social prophet.  If he answers “no”, he will be viewed as seditious and they might try him for treason.

Avoiding their trap and wishing to raise the stakes of this game, he asks them to pull out the common currency of the day and says to them, “Show me the money.  Tell me what is on it.”

They reply, “Images of the United States of America, indication that this is a Federal Reserve Note, and the saying ‘In God We Trust.’”

The prophet then says to everyone listening, “then tender this paper to the reserve to which it says it belongs while rendering unto God all that belong to God.”

In today’s Gospel lesson, when the Pharisees and Herodians confronted Jesus with the question about paying taxes to the Emperor, the scene was the same.  The meaning of the tricky answer that Jesus gives them is something for us to continue to pray about.

“Give… to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”

As hasty interpretation might simply ponder a separation of church and state (a concept that would have been hard to imagine at the time Jesus spoke these words), or that Jesus was simply saying that we should strive to balance being a good citizen of the earthly empire while also being a faithful subject of God’s kingdom.  And, in fact, that’s probably what many of us hear in the story and what some of us have struggled with at times when our allegiance to capitalism and/or our democratic federal republic conflicts with our commitment to the revolutionary gospel of Christ which challenges conventional notions about wealth and social order (just as it did in the 1^st Century).  

However, Jesus might be highlighting a higher call that puts even our governments and the vast storehouses of gold in humble perspective.

Our discernment both about what is of God as well as how to faithfully utilize of our wealth and political influence should be continually offered up in prayer.

To help fuel some prayerful reflection this week, let’s consider some of what we’re told our Lord has said about money and wealth as well as what we’re told belongs to and should be offered to God.

It’s been said that Jesus preaches more about money and wealth than any other topic other than the kingdom of God (and sometimes addresses both in his parables).  We could occupy at least the rest of the day exploring what Jesus says about material wealth.  For our purposes this morning, let’s just hear again three sayings of Jesus from earlier in the Gospel of Matthew:

(Matthew 6:19-24) Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

(Matthew 19:21) If you wish to be perfect, go, sell you possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

(Matthew 19:24) …it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people… particularly the part about you can’t serve both wealth and God.  The possession of material wealth that is not the problem for Jesus… it’s our obsession with it and our misplaced trust in it (neither belongs in God’s kingdom).  Christ compels us to reconsider the nature of true wealth and to more generously and charitably share our earthly possessions as good neighbors to those have the least.

Give to God the things that are God’s.  What are the things that are God’s which we are to hand over / to offer up?

On the Roman coin is the image of the emperor from which is came – offer that imprinted image back to the one who minted it.  Upon our very being is the image of God from which we come, for we’re told that we’re created in the image of God (Genesis1:27; 5:1).  How are we to offer ourselves back to our creator?

Our scriptures tell us in many ways that all things come from and belong to God – even the emperor and his coins. E.g., “…for all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” (1 Chronicles 29:14)

The primary Jewish declaration of faith and pledge of allegiance to God, known as the Shema, says that the lord our God is one and that we are to love God will all our heart, soul, and might.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom 12:1), he encourages the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices to God.  Thomas Cranmer adapted this in the Eucharistic Prayer found in Rite 1 which reads, “…here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies…”.

And, sometimes as we prepare for the Holy Communion you might hear the priest say, quoting from today’s Psalm, “Ascribe to the LORD the honor due his Name; bring offerings and come into his courts” (Psalm 96:8). This alludes to the tradition of offering the best of our harvest – our first fruits from our vineyards – to God (Lev 23:9-14; Deut 26:1-11) as acknowledgement that all good things come to us from God, a sign that everything ultimately belongs to God, and a gesture expressing our trust in God’s continuing provision for us.

The theme here is that we, and everything around us, is God’s creation and that we’re to offer all of who we are to God’s service.  Jesus has shown us how to do this… and although he says his yoke is light, the labor is challenging indeed, if we take it seriously.

We are laborers in vineyards that have been leased to us by God.  We’re told to harvest the best fruits of the Spirit (E.g., Galatians 5:22-23) and to render them first to God, then to our neighbors (Matt 22: 36-40), trusting that there is plenty in the kingdom to go around.

Sometime later today, look again at the currency in your pocket and prayerfully consider what it represents in God’s economy (not in ours).  It’s not only your daily bread, but also an opportunity to express unreasonable generosity and charity toward others (as God has shown toward us). 

When you next handle your money, in whatever form, ask yourself what it might mean to more truly and full render our trust to God and God’s kingdom rather than any earthly reserve.  

Ask yourself what belongs to God and what should be given to God for the sake of the new kingdom to come.

Let’s close with these words attributed to a Serbian Orthodox Bishop in the late 1920’s: 

Render sacrifice to God; a sacrifice of gratitude,
O you wealthy ones; according to God's mercy!

Who is wealthy and with what; with that let him barter,
Everyone with his gift; let him, the Kingdom acquire.

Whoever is wealthy with money; let him money, offer,
Whoever is rich with wheat; wheat let him distribute,
To whom wisdom is given; others, let him teach,
To him whose hands are strong; let him perform service.

Whoever knows a trade; let him honorably uphold it,
Let him conscientiously consider himself as a debtor of God.

Let him, who knows how to sing; praise God,
Only he is small, who does not know God.

Whoever received what; with that let him serve,
With mercy toward men; let him repay God,
Not all are the same, nor do all possess the same,
But a pure heart, everyone could give to God….

AMEN

What fruits are we cultivating in the vineyards leased to us?

Jesus’s authority has been challenged by the Pharisees and Sadducees before today’s reading in the Gospel according to Matthew – they’ve questioned his commensality with sinners (tax collectors and the like) and his interpretations of legal codes and religious laws; chided him for encouraging the hungry to eat and healing the sick on the Sabbath; criticized him for not being more strict with his disciples; and have even demanded miraculous signs from him while also accusing him of using satanic powers to perform his miracles.

And, in Matthew’s telling, echoing the prophetic observations of John the Baptist, Jesus is pointedly critical of the powerful religious legalists and the ruling priestly class.  Jesus has warned his disciples to beware of the corrupt and misleading ways of the Pharisees and Sadducees and has even been as explicit as calling the chief legalists and temple priests an evil and hypocritical, poisonous snakes (den of vipers) who are at risk of being cut down like trees that are failing to bear good fruit.

Today’s reading from Matthew’s writing is another of Jesus’s critiques of the religious and legal rulers – a stern message that we can still heed today in the fields we are called to tend to.

In our Gospel readings from Matthew this season, Jesus has been using many parables to teach his followers about the true nature of the godly kingdom.  He has been preaching throughout the region to all who would listen – Jew and Gentile.  In Matthew’s account, shortly after Jesus has offered the parable about the landowner who paid all the laborers invited into his vineyard the same wage, we’re told that Jesus leads his disciples to Jerusalem and provocatively enters the city on a donkey, humbly mocking the regal and royal processions of the Romans and the elite Jews who he believed colluded in the same oppressive regimes.  While in the holy temple itself, Jesus has angrily driven out the money changers who were accumulating wealth from profit-minded trade cloaked under religious rationalizations.  It’s the morning after this dramatic scene and Jesus has returned to the temple again and is confronted the chief priests and elders.  He really lets them have it…

Last week we heard Jesus tell them that repentant prostitutes and tax collectors (read: sinners) will be entering the kingdom of God ahead of them.  Next week, he’ll be warning everyone that “many are called, but few are chosen.”  In this week’s Gospel lesson, we’re hearing Jesus use parable and prophetic allegory to warn everyone that the kingdom will be taken from the wicked and disloyal tenants and they will be crushed by the very authority that they have rejected.

Statue of Jesus Christ in Vineyard, Kaysersberg, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France

The parable we heard today is rendered in Matthew, Mark, and Luke with only slight variation in symbolism and emphasis.  This tale of evil and greedy ‘husbandmen’ or tenant farmers draws inspiration from the prophet Isaiah’s vineyard love-song (Isaiah 5:1-7), in which God chooses to destroy his beloved vineyard because despite God’s careful care and feeding, it has only yielded the sour fruit of injustice.  However, whereas in Isaiah’s tale, it’s the entire vineyard that has grown stale and corrupt, Jesus is telling us that it is some of the laborers, who should have known better, who have taken advantage of their positions and become corrupt with pretense, entitlement, and greed.  Is Jesus’s parable, God remains faithful to the vast vineyard, even continuing to send prophets and innocents, including God’s own son, to the tenants, inviting them to change their ways.  Alas, the tenants refuse to change their ways and murder the prophetic messengers, including God’s own son, with selfish and covetous intent in their hearts.  Jesus says that owner will take the vineyard from the evil doers and give it new laborers to produce fruits for harvest time.   Jesus makes it very clear that he’s telling the self-righteous and smug listeners that the kingdom will be taken from them and given to others who have not rejected the cornerstone of the new covenant.

Of the ten divine commandments our Israelite ancestors were given, most of them addressed how they should be neighborly, emphasizing loyalty, fidelity, and honesty. The longest one explicitly says shouldn’t covet what isn’t yours.  Jesus summarizes these commandments and emphasized that first you should love God and secondly you should love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 19:16-19; 22: 36-40).  In the Gospel according to John, Jesus adds, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-25).

Let’s consider that it might be this additional commandment of Christ, the cornerstone of the new covenant that some of our ancestors rejected (Psalm 118:22-23, Isaiah 28:16), that leads us to participate in the restoration of God’s vineyard that has been leased to us.  Through the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism, we’ve given the opportunity and responsibility for producing fruits of the new kingdom.

Our earlier Christian ancestors might have heard today’s parable as justification for the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E..  Yes, the message of this parable still has relevance and meaning for us today, over 1,900 years later.

Some questions for discussion this morning…

What are the vineyards today?

(examples our fields of relationships: friendships, families, churches, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, nations, global village)

What evidence do we observe (see/hear/feel) that suggests some of us as tenant farmers have become corrupt?  What do you suppose is at the heart of this corruption?  What is the root cause?

(E.g., sinful, self-centeredness and covetousness.  E.g., Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.”)

What are the fruits that God, the true landowner, expects to find in these vineyards?

(E.g., Galatians 5:22-23: “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love [agape], joy, peace, patience [longsuffering], kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and [temperance] self-control.”)

How are we to help cultivate and harvest these fruits? 

(E.g., references the 10 commandments and Jesus’s additional commandment – centering ourselves in God and being a neighbor to others as Jesus has been toward us)

Close your eyes and imagine one of the fields you’ve been leased in life.  Who is there?  Is the vineyard bearing the fruit the landowner expects?  Why / why not?  What ought you as a tenant farmer to do about that?  Pray about this during the week.

As we continue to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us this week in consideration of how to cultivate the best fruits in the vineyards we’re tending to, perhaps we can use as a prayer this paraphrase of the final verses of the excerpt we heard from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, which he wrote while imprisoned and uncertain of his own earthly fate:

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. (Philippian 3:12-14, The Message)