SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2023 | AFTER PENTECOST - Proper 22 (A)

Isaiah - judgement over bloodshed?

Philippians: Paul bragging - flexing a bit -> it matterrs not, knowing Christ is more

Matthew:

Vineyard - we are supposed to work on it, not kill the one’s that are sent to us - prophets, Jesus//// not 1 to 1, owner is not God, but we are not to misuse our position

Important to stress that we are not replacing the Jewish - no, we are grafted into the family.

Twist to explore: from grapes to the workers

Children’s Moment:

Hand an item - can you look after this for a little while? Thank you.... Okay, can I have it back? Thank you...

What just happened? I told you to look after something and then return it when I ask - you were caretakers or stewards! Good job.

The tenants in the reading did not want to do that - well, maybe they took care of the vineyard, but they didn’t want to give it back! So they did only a half of the job. So no wonder the owner of the vineyard was not happy.

And so it is sometimes with us - God entrusts us something and we don’t quite take good care of it. If God asks for something back what should we do? Give it back to God.

Great, you were better than those tenants, so much better!

Let us pray: Thank you Lord for giving us various things to take care of: animals, land, plants, other people…please help us be good caretakers. In you Holy Name, Amen.

Good morning,

And I am still here! ;) Hope you were keeping warm and dry in this damp Fall weather. Speaking of weather, nature, and stuff - our reading remains in agricultural parables, more precisely yet another vineyard one! He is just laying it into the religious leaders that so rudely interrupted his teaching.

Firstly, the parable is a little hyperbolic - those tenants are REALLY wicked, doing all manner of killing, most likely to allude to the treatment of prophets throughout the times - it’s never easy to be a prophet!

And then the treatment of the owner’s son foreshadows the fate of Jesus on the cross. Fairly obvious stuff! What is a little troubling is whether Jesus actually agrees with the assesment of the crowd or not:

Revised Common Lectionary 10-8-2023: Proper 22

“He 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.”

Sure, taking away the lease is one thing, but putting them to a miserable death? Jeesh.

Again, is it a little hyperbolic to drive home the point, perhaps? That again, mere religious inheritance by contract is not as stable, if one is producing wild grapes, ambiguous “good” deeds mixed with refusal to be corrected and repent, rather than grapes, the fruits of the kingdom were one listens to God in humility and seeks to do God’s will?

Those tenants in the parable wanted it all - it wasn’t enough they were supposed to fulfill their contract and deliver the grapes when asked…no, they just wanted to keep it all and when the heir appeared, they wanted even more, they wanted his inheritance! Again, Jesus is ripping into the religious people that think by just practising their religion without spiritual discernment of their deeds in the world is enough and not even the Son of God can convince them otherwise. And it may even take a turn to violence.

Needless to say, they were angry, but also on brand cowardly - they didn’t seize him because they realized Jesus does have quite the following, even if they probably regarded many of them inferior to themselves.

In short, Jesus criticizes that instead of being stewards of what was entrusted to them by God, they had higher ambitions - they wanted control. I think if we look at news, humble stewardship can be hard to find amongst those that lead. Be it hoarding secret documents in the bathroom, vindictive voting each other out, speaking ill of their opponents, disregard to the real needs of the community… They are producing wild grapes and refuse to share what they should as stewards.

That makes it all the more important to look to better examples ourselves - chief among them being Jesus.

As the World Council of Churches affirm in their document Together towards Life: Jesus began his ministry by claiming that to be filled by the Spirit is to liberate the oppressed, to open eyes that are blind, and to announce the coming of God’s reign (Luke 4:16-18) (page 14-15). Not to hoard, overcome, dominate… God’s creation was made good and to God’s liking, but it requires careful and humble stewardship without which it ends up twisted and muddled. It is like a good vineyard that bears its fruit in the appointed time, full of blessings, but if it falls into hands that want to keep all of it and twist it to their will, rather than God’s…then that vineyard is going to suffer.

Beloveds, God’s salvation and reconciliation is for the whole creation, not just humans - God desires that ALL of the creation is brought back into God’s embrace, nourished, and made whole. Blessing the animals is joining in on God’s work of reconciliation for everyone and everything - they too are cherished and loved by God. So are the trees, the flowers, the bees, the oceans…and so much more! We are not here to dominate above them all, but rather to take up the mantel of stewards of God’s good creation making sure that blessings are freely flowing and God’s mercy, love, and care is known everywhere, including our home, neighborhood, and community. Amen.