Gospel:
Matthew 21:33-46
1st
Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
2nd Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14
In our Wednesday
morning Bible Study group we’ve just started on the book of Deuteronomy. We just finished Moses first sermon of 3,
where he is handing out the parts of the promised land to the twelve tribes of
Israel, and griping a lot because he can’t enter the promised land with
them. Every tribe has their
allotment. The land is all claimed,
shared as equally as possible so that all may prosper and find abundant life.
The people enter
the promised land, a people who have only known desert wandering. What a shock for them to even begin thinking
about putting down roots and living in community in a whole new way. Everything they learned in the desert has
prepared them for this moment. They’ve
learned to rely on God. They’ve learned
not to stockpile the manna. They’ve been
learning to live in freedom and what their freedom is for—the abundant life of
the community.
Fast forward to
the Isaiah reading for this morning.
This love-song is a sad song that God is singing because people forgot
what their freedom was for. They began
adding house to house and field to field.
They have stolen from the poor and abandoned the orphan and the
widow. In Isaiah’s time, real-estate
developers were squeezing the poor. They
were making loans to poor farmers and when there was a bad year, they would
take their farms and turn those farmers in to tenant farmers. God’s anger in Isaiah was about folks
forgetting that the point of it all is the thriving of the whole community, not
one’s personal prosperity. God is
reminding them that God gave them the land, and now they are claiming it as
their own, or taking it from others through laws the rich set up to take from
the poor. God made plants to grow on it
to feed each person and now the rich are saying they want the land to produce
to line their own pockets. God drew the
boundary around it, and shared it generously tribe by tribe and now the rich
tear down the boundary and say it all is theirs. God did all these things for the good of
God’s people and expected grapes, a beautiful community full of life and sharing. Instead, God got sour-grapes, that set God’s
teeth on edge, leave a bad taste in God’s mouth, something useless and
divisive. Something destructive and violent.
The Social Justice
Committee has been working on housing issues in Clackamas County for over a
year, and we’ve been doing some research on landlords and tenants. There are many landlords who know that the
point is healthy community and thriving people, some even in this congregation,
who haven’t raised their rents even though they knew the market would bear
it. People who have resisted the
temptation to try to bring in more money, people who may have endured scorn and
mocking for doing the right thing by their tenants. Some in this congregation have been faithful
and sold their home for a good enough price instead of waiting for the bid that
was $20,000-$50,000 above asking price.
This is because they know the point is community, not money, and because
God has been so generous to them. But
there are also a lot of landlords, many from out of state that do not have an
investment in the community, who are doing violence to the poor, taking food
from the mouths of children, displacing seniors from their support systems,
putting people on the streets, in order to add field to field.
But we’re not
going to give up making changes to state and local laws to protect the poor and
vulnerable. We’ve run up against the
landlord lobby, which is very rich and afraid to let go of any power. But we’re not giving up, on the social
justice committee and we’d love to have you join us as we figure out how to
shape our communities into ones that give life instead of take it away.
So now we come to
the Gospel. It is a parable, but notice
it never says this is what the Kingdom of God is like, like so many other
parables do. This is a story of tenants
and the landlord. To us maybe who have
been trained to associate the landlord with God, it seems the landlord is
entirely innocent, so we read this and we think it is about how God has let us
borrow this land and we shouldn’t abuse the gift God has given us. That’s a good take-away. But it is problematic to think that God is
putting those wretches to a miserable death and other not-so-Godlike
things. So we try to look a little
deeper. Jesus’ listeners were the
tenants and landlords of his time, some of them chief priests and elders who
had been adding farm to farm and field to field and trampling widows, taking
people’s livelihood and dignity. When
they all heard Jesus’ opening sentence this morning, they would all have
thought of Isaiah and known that it was about this behavior, the destruction of
the beloved community, the stealing of land by perfectly legal means. Jesus is calling the priests and elders out
for the violence they were doing in the community.
We might wonder about the mistaken logic of the
tenants who think that if they can kill the son they will inherit the
land. However, in that day and age, if tenants
press their claim for 3 years in a row, they may have a chance of converting
the tenancy back to ownership in court.
We might shake our finger at the tenants who seem to think that 2 wrongs
make a right, that violence is also ok, who beat and kill the messengers. However, let me point out that they are
defending their right to feed their families.
They are thinking that if they lose this fight, their whole family will
starve without the land to feed them.
Remember all the land had been handed out. There was no where else for them to go except
to be under the thumb of a landlord who may or may not care if they had enough
to eat. So if these tenants so
mistreated the messengers, why would the landlord send the son in the third
year? It was because the landlord needed
a representative in court to defend his interests. Why would the tenants kill the son, thinking
the land would become theirs? Because
maybe the landlord has already given the son his inheritance, and if so the
land would go back to them.
However, everyone knows what is going to happen when
the landowner finds out—put those wretches to a miserable death. In other words, violence begets
violence. When we act violently, when we
tear the society apart by taking from another person their means of survival,
when we attack those who have taken from us, no one benefits. Insurrections almost always fail because the
rich and powerful have weapons and army and the poor will be crushed.
Both of these stories are inviting us to firstly put
the needs of the community before our own and to remember why we’re here and
what our freedom is for—for the thriving of the community. Secondly, these stories are reminding us that
when we meet violence, instead of responding by escalating, to be creative in
our response. It is an appeal to us and
it is an appeal to God who may or may not be acting violently in the Isaiah
text as God pledges to tear down the wall and hedge of the vineyard and make it
a waste.
But maybe it is an example of one creative way of
responding to the violence of the Israelites who are destroying the poor. Maybe it is death and resurrection. That land will be stripped bare, but for how
long. Soon enough, something will be
growing. The seeds lie dormant in the
soil waiting. New life is waiting to
grow.
This week we have been grieving with Las Vegas in the
violent attack there. I have seen
examples of people responding creatively to violence. Some shielded others from the shots. Some helped people from the venue. Some have stood in line for hours to give
blood. Some offered free counseling
services for the victims and families.
Some have written to their senators and representatives. Some have called someone they know who is
lonely. Some have turned off the TV and
gone out to volunteer. Some have
attended forums to better understand the issues.
In the same way, God’s son didn’t respond to violence
with violence. Someone was violent to a
woman who had committed adultery and Jesus was creative in pointing out that we
all have failures. He held up a mirror
to all who would condemn. He stood up to
the violence of the community against lepers by forgiving and healing them and
ordering them back to community life.
And he didn’t defend himself when he was handed over to be killed. Instead, he used that as an opportunity to
join with all the suffering who have ever lived and show them that God does not
abandon us even when there is silence when we cry out. God is there.
Humanity has often used violence to control and keep
power, to add field to field, garage to garage.
We’ve often rejected the way of love and shalom, wholeness, thriving,
community. We were so threatened by
Jesus’ refusal to live within our violent system that we put him to death. We let our greed become the god, instead of
building the beloved community, the Kingdom of God.
We thought we knew the goal, to gain wealth and power,
have the most people in church, the nicest car, the biggest pay check. But them we met Jesus and saw how he let go
of everything in order to share abundant life with those who were willing to
follow his way. He invited us to set
down our fancy stuff and go to work in the vineyard, to work on something that
mattered and gave life to everyone, the Kingdom of God. So we stand here, afraid to set down our
stuff. Afraid that the emptiness of our
arms will feel like failure. But if we
don’t all we’ll feel in our hearts is emptiness and brokenness as we perpetuate
and escalate the violence. We know the
old system isn’t working, isn’t healthy for anyone, but we’re not sure yet of
where God is leading us. We want
assurances. We want a map. We don’t want to look like fools, like we
don’t know what we’re doing. Will we
forsake our violent ways? Will we use
this holy creativity, God has given us?
Will we let Jesus lead us to empty ourselves? Will we let go of death and find our arms not
empty, but filled with the love of God?
I pray that as we consider our gifts, our estimates of
giving and of our time, we will remember that it all comes from God. God made the vineyard, put the hedge around
it etc. Remember that God has a vision
for creativity, that we don’t just give and volunteer for the continuation of
all our favorite things, but for the new ministries that God is spurring us
toward. Remember to give of time and
money out of love and generosity rather than out of fear.
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