21 PENTECOST, PROPER 22, YEAR A

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE

THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY

5 OCTOBER 2008

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Exodus 20:1-4, 7-7, 12-20; Ps. 19; Philippians 3;4b-14; Mt. 21:33-46

Every morning, since late August, as soon as I open our side door, Angus and Paco tear out as fast as their legs can take them. Out they go to two ancient pear trees we have out back. They are overjoyed when pears start falling so they can rummage around in the grass to gobble them up. And in the winter we often see them sitting in the snow and gazing upwards, as if a pear, just maybe, might still be left over, hanging up there, or maybe they’re waiting in anticipation of next year’s round of fruit.  The fruit of one little part of God’s vineyard. Reliable, eagerly sought after and thoroughly savored.

On one level, today’s gospel story is a vineyard story. Scripture is full of them.  And it’s appropriate to the season for us, as we put our own vineyards and gardens to bed this fall. And as fruit trees hunker down for the winter.

On another level, Jesus is telling a story about what was going on in his time. His ministry is coming to a close. He’s nearing the end of his life. In the story, the wicked tenants in the vineyard, not only kill the slaves working there but they murder the vineyard owner’s son as well. Ominous times.

On yet a further level, this is a story about the future. It’s about what will happen for the long term. The renegades who had been put in charge of the vineyard in the owner’s absence have squandered the owner’s property. The outraged owner will find new caretakers for the future well-being of his beloved vineyard. New people, who would care for the vineyard and who would help produce GOOD fruits.

Matthew today is using a story Jesus had probably told earlier in his ministry. Matthew understands the vineyard to be the kingdom of God, the owner of the vineyard to be God, the tenants to be the people of God, the son to be Jesus himself. Matthew was writing it for the current context of the brand-new church of his own time, decades after Jesus’ death. Matthew was reaching into his collection of Jesus stories to describe his own context. Using scripture to help us understand our own times is what scripture is for, after all.  Preachers use scripture in that way every week; that’s what we’re supposed to do.  

Matthew’s church, at the end of the first century, was going through turmoil. Jesus had been killed, Jerusalem had been destroyed, and the young church was filled with Gentiles now, foreigners, not simply Jewish Christians, as before. The vineyard had been sacked and the owner had given it to new owners, the Gentiles.

So this story is basically about the future: the future as Matthew saw it, and the future for us. There was a bumper sticker once which said, “The future is imminent!” It sure is! And the question is: As the future unfolds, day after day, what do we do with God’s vineyard, which has been given into our care? Are we the new tenants in whom God has trust? Will we disappoint God and therefore be replaced by others?

I think we must, because I’m convinced this is true, I think we must see everything we have as a gift from God. Everything belongs to God. We are the tenants, not the owners, of these gifts. It’s easy to confuse stewardship with ownership.  God is the only owner, we are the stewards. As stewards, how are we doing?

Well, for starters, we’ve mucked up the financial well-being of the country, as well also of the financial health of the rest of the world, at least for awhile. It’s not that the system itself is awful; it’s more the people, the stewards, the tenants, who have manipulated things badly.

We often mess up our relationships with each other, too. How do we value the lives of those we live with or encounter? How do we use or misuse each other? Do we see other people as gifts, as people who are as beloved by God as we ourselves are, even if we don’t like them especially well? How do we work to help our relationships bear fruit in some way, even if, in the end, the relationship doesn’t work, but at least we’ve given it our best effort because it’s our job to give our relationships our best? How do we look on other human beings as treasures?

And how have we done with the gift of our planet? We are called during this month of October to pay special attention in our Sunday liturgies to our guardianship of creation, this part of God’s vineyard. How are we doing? Our animals, our plants, our water and air, the treasures of the earth? How do we shepherd its resources? I noticed a blurb two days ago about houses, especially the size of houses nowadays.  In 1990 in the USA, a new house had an average of 1500 square feet; in 2008 we’re up to an average of 2400 square feet per new house. What resources does it take to create and maintain a house that size? There’s a trend now in some places to build small. One woman built herself a house of 84 square feet. Luckily she lives alone! But we get the message.  For those of us with houses of more space than we actually need, we have to be creative indeed as we find ways to keep them heated and in good repair. The same goes for our public buildings, including our churches.

The next president of the United States will preside over vast numbers of difficulties in the vineyard he is charged by us to oversee. Global climate change is one of them, and most of the acceleration of its terrible effects are human-caused, disclaimers from some quarters to the contrary. Nothing less than leadership from the top, coupled with support and hard work from all the rest of us, is our required, God-given task. Our job of trying to produce the fruits of the kingdom, not the kingdom’s destruction.

“Gospel” means “good news.” Whenever we read the gospels we must seek, not only God’s challenge to us, which can sometimes seem overwhelmingly hard, but God’s Good News as well. Challenge and Good News. They’re both there. The challenge of today’s gospel is clear. What is the Good News?

God was furious, remember,  with the wicked tenants of the vineyard. God took immediate action. But notice that God did not let the vineyard be destroyed. God saved it. God did not destroy the wicked tenants, either, but rather found other tenants. Tenants who would produce good fruits. The damaged vineyard wasn’t beyond hope. All was not lost. There came another day.  God didn’t give up. That’s Good News!

Way back in the beginning, God stopped and looked at the vineyard before him, at everything that God had just made and God was delighted. God saw that it was very good.  Then God did a daring thing: God gave all of it over to us to protect and keep. How are we doing, as tenants, as caretakers, as stewards of the vineyard? Can we write an 11^th commandment, something like: Thou shalt do all in your power to keep God saying in delight, “Behold, it is all very good.”