October 8, 2023 — Pentecost +19A

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “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.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.” Matthew 21:33-46

We believe that evil/sin entered into the world through the Garden of Eden, just as sin entered into the vineyard of our parable. While G-d was away, Adam and Eve were tricked – duped by their own selfishness. While the landowner was away, selfishness began to seep into the minds of the tenants. They were doing all the work, why should they share any with anyone, even the owner. They wanted to be able to do what they wanted with the things they had. And, most importantly, they didn’t want to share, even if that meant with the one who gave them everything they had. What could the landowner do? This is of course how evil, and sin, and selfishness spreads within us, and within our society. It begins as a small pinpoint, a small thought, a simple action, and then it grows and spreads until our lives are filled with selfishness and ego.

The messes in our lives come where either we, or those in power, place pride above people, greed above charity. We use words to insult one another. We mistreat each other with actions like only thinking of ourselves, and hoarding what we have, letting greed get the better of us. We stone each other with nasty rumors. We put ourselves above and in front of everyone else. Finally, when the landowner comes seeking results, or when you and I want some hope that the messes we have created can be cleaned up – where do we turn for Hope? Where is our Hope? The good news my friends, the good news is that it does not have to be this way.

Is there a happy ending in the vineyard from our parable? Well, we take solace in knowing that the owner, G-d, does not give up on Adam and Eve, does not give up on the vineyard, and does not give up on us. In other words, no matter how much we mess things up, G-d will not give up on us. You see, the nature of G-d is not to stay removed from us, but to continue to reach out to us in very tangible ways, to remind us that G-d loves us. How? Well, through God’s Word, in the ingathering of the community of faith, through the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ, and in the sacraments. Is it a stretch for us to see how through Word and Sacrament, through Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Table, that the “vineyard” has been set for all of humanity?

Pastor Dave