The Vineyard is Alive and Well

[Image courtesy of Fir0002/Flagstaffotos. Used with permission.]

Lectionary 27, Year A – October 5, 2014

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Grace and peace are with you, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Throughout Christian history, people have used various stories and verses from Scripture to justify such things as the systematic subjection of an entire race of people into slavery, or spouses remaining in abusive marriages, or violence against a certain ethnic or religious group. So, for example, the parable I just read – what we call the Parable of the Wicked Tenants – is one of many parts of Scripture that has been used in years past to justify anti-Jewish sentiment.

However, this particular parable, like so many of Jesus’ others, is an allegory – and so the characters in the story are meant to represent something else altogether, and Jesus definitely did not tell this parable to incite his listeners (or anyone else) to hatred. He told this story to drive them to think about themselves – their own actions and attitudes. This, of course, means that we ourselves, as the readers of this parable, are also driven to think about our actions and attitudes.

If we go back earlier in Matthew 21, we see that Jesus is telling this parable to the chief priests and elders in the Temple, in other words, to the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus, like other Jewish writers and prophets before him, is using this image of a vineyard to talk about the house of Israel – the Jews. And so, in this allegory, the wicked tenants are the Jewish religious leaders. God is the landowner who sends his son, Jesus.

Here’s the story again, briefly: A landowner has a vineyard but he lives in another country, so he leases it to tenants – which was not an unusual practice in Jesus’ time. The tenants are tasked with working the land, and caring for the vineyard so that it will continue to bear fruit. When it comes time to harvest, the landowner sends slaves to collect what is his, except that the tenants beat and kill the slaves – and this happens over and over again.

Needing a solution, the landowner sends his son, with the idea that the tenants will certainly treat him with the respect due him. But the tenants – who want something for nothing – instead kill the son. With the heir out of the way, they figure, it’s possible for them to take the vineyard for themselves, if the landowner never comes back to claim it.

Remember who Jesus’ audience is – the Jewish leaders. At the end of the parable, Jesus asks them what they think the landowner will do to those who killed his son. They answer in a very human way, that, of course, the landowner will punish those wicked tenants by killing them. These men then realize, after hearing the parable and giving their own verdict, that Jesus is talking about them. They begin to realize, too, that he is calling their leadership into question, and as a result, the care of the vineyard will be given to someone else.

In the parable, the landowner sends his son to care for the vineyard, and God sends his Son, Jesus, to dwell among us. But unlike the son in the parable, who dies and then is no more, God’s Son, Jesus, dies, but is raised to life again, victorious over death.

This past week, I spent several days near La Grange, at Lutherhill, which is the camp and retreat center for the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod. I was there meeting with other first call pastors from the three synods in Texas – about 33 of us. As ELCA pastors, we are required to attend this First Call Theological Education for the first three years of our first calls out of seminary. We get together several times a year to build relationships with each other and to learn from each other, and to learn from various speakers about various topics.

So, what do a bunch of first call pastors talk about when we get together? Do we talk about the deep joy we find in ministry, and our passion and love for serving as pastors? You bet we do. I love hearing what other pastors and congregations are doing, and I love telling them what we’re doing here.

We also find time to discuss the challenges of ministry – not only the challenges that we face personally and professionally as pastors, but the challenges that our congregations face, especially in this time of great change for churches. For we live in a time in which it is very easy to feel as though the Church is in decline – especially churches that are in what we call “mainline denominations.”

It is a difficult time to be a leader in the Church. Gone are the days when we can throw open our doors and get out of the way of all of those streams of people coming in. If I can co-opt the image of the vineyard to represent the Church: it can sometimes feel as though the vineyard is drying up and the fruit is withering on the vine.

Yet, after three days with 32 other first call pastors, I can tell you that the vineyard is alive and well. It’s hard to find any good news in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, but there is some for us: the landowner doesn’t allow the vineyard to die. And so the good news for us is that God doesn’t allow the Church to die, either.

The Body of Christ will face challenges – over and over again. Let us not forget that God calls us to continue to walk in faithfulness. God calls us to continue to live with great hope. And God calls us to continue to live our lives with love. Our very life comes from Jesus – who died and who lives!

Amen.

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