Trouble in the Vineyard

For a vineyard to produce, he would need to wait perhaps 5 years, quite long enough for the tenants to start feeling and acting like they are the owners.

So when it is time for the first real harvest, they put their attitude into action.

They beat the first two sets of of servants which were sent by the owner, and at length they kill his son and heir.

What has the owner lost? It seems as though he has lost...

--lost the investment—the vineyard is illegally claimed by others.

--lost the servants—beaten and shamefully treated.

--lost the son and heir—murdered by the tenants

Lost, all lost.

What happens next?

The story ends on that gloomy note, with everything in disarray.

Will the owner vindicate his honor?

Did he make a bad judgment in choosing the tenants?

Is he a fool for not acting after the challenge was first made by the tenants?

Is he simply powerless, because he has done nothing by the end of the parable.

Will the tenants ever have a change of heart?

Could the owner ever restore them to their tenancy which they have abused so badly?

The story ends, full of bad news and unanswered questions.

In that sense, it is very true to life, true to our lives which we live in much confusion and disarray.

We may have begun with some jealousy of the owner; he has the money and we don't.

Then we may have felt sympathy when the first servants were mistreated,

dismay when the second set were beaten,

contempt at the seeming weakness of the landowner when the son is killed,

and finally confusion at the story's end.

Good guys always wear white hats and win the battle before the hour is up.

At least that is the way we thought that things were supposed to work.

This story is a signal that the kingdom of God will function on a very different basis, not with our usual list of right and wrong, what is acceptable or not.

Part two of the reading today should not be heard as what has in fact happened, but rather what could happen if our God were the vindictive type.

Any normal god would get even with the miscreants.

But the Lord God is up to more than keeping score with us.

What is left unsaid is what God is doing next.

Like so many of the parables, it is a cliffhanger, it leaves us wondering – what next?

Is the end destruction?

Is it all gloom?

...because it doesn't take long in listening to the story to discern that the characters with whom we are identified most closely are the wicked tenants!

We are not the one in charge, the owner.

We don't often have a prophetic word to speak like the servants.

We are certainly not the only Son of eh Father.

The only ones left in the story are those tenants, the ones who think that they own the place.

What will finally happen with us?

That question echoes through our lives.

Sometimes when we are thoughtful, we can even hear it.

In the silence of God in which the story ends is hidden the mercy of God.

The righteous sentence is not carried out on us.

God waits, and is waiting.

Think of the story in John's gospel where Jesus waits as a sinful woman's accusers rant, until they come to silence. [John 8:1-11]

God waits until we finally hear the echo of the emptiness of our lives.

[I first misspelled the word as “emptimess.”]

One of the hymns which refers to this text begins this way:

Amid the world's bleak wilderness

A vineyard grows with promise green,

The planting of the Lord himself.

You and I know where our “bleak wildernesses” are,

those places of echoing silence

those places which we try to cover up with a brave front and foolish words.

Politicians seem to be especially adept at that, but we all fall into that pattern.

But when we finally hear the silence,

then and only then can we hear the word from outside,

the net word, God's word,

the word of hope, the word of resurrection

the word of new beginning

the word of ultimate fulfillment.

This is why the story seems so dark;

neither the disciples nor we are easily or immediately ready to hear that Word.

First we need to recognize the true loneliness, emptiness, and brokenness in our lives.

Then the new word which breaks the silence can have its full effect.

The service begins with Confession that leads to Absolution, the announcement of God's forgiveness.

The Lessons accuse us today, but they lead us to comfort and encouragement of Jesus promise that overshadows our pains and sorrows.

The sacrament of Holy Communion names our guilt in the death of Jesus, and also our hope in his resurrection-body.

Oh, there is lots of bad news,

some of which we have brought on ourselves.

But in the silence of God, there is more.

The Voice of God questions Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

The prophet whispers, “O Lord, you know.”

Can the bony wreckage of this vineyard of yours live, O Lord?

Can we be restored as your tenants?

O Lord, you know!

By the grace of God, the answer is Yes!

We are his branches, chosen, dear,

And though we feel the dresser's knife,

We are the objects of his care.

Vine, keep what I was meant to be:

Your branch, with your rich life in me.

[LBW#378.3,5]

Let all who hear this as Good News this day say: Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.