2014
Sermons
Dez 28 - Outsiders
Dez 28 - The Costly Gift
Dez 24 - In the Flesh in Particular
Dez 21 - More "Rejoice" than "Hello"
Dez 14 - Word in the Darkness
Dez 7 - Life in a Construction Zone
Dez 2 - Accountability
Nov 30 - Rend the Heavens
Nov 23 - The Shepherd-King
Nov 16 - Everything he had
Nov 9 - Preparations
Nov 2 - Is Now and Ever Will Be
Okt 25 - Free?
Okt 19 - It is about faith and love
Okt 12 - Trouble at the Banquet
Okt 5 - Trouble in the Vineyard
Sep 28 - At the edge
Sep 21 - At the Right Time
Sep 14 - We Proclaim Christ Crucified
Sep 7 - Responsibility
Aug 31 - Extreme Living
Aug 27 - One Who Cares
Aug 24 - A Nobody, but God's Somebody
Aug 17 - Faithful God
Aug 8 - With singing
Aug 3 - Extravagant Gifts of God
Aug 2 - Yes and No
Jul 27 - A treasure indeed
Jul 27 - God's Love and Care
Jul 20 - Life in a Messy Garden
Jul 13 - Waste and Grace
Jun 8 - The Conversation
Jun 1 - For the Times In-between
Mai 25 - Joining the Conversation
Mai 18 - Living Stones
Mai 11 - Become the Gospel!
Mai 6 - Wilderness Food
Mai 4 - Freedom
Apr 27 - Faith despite our self-made handicaps
Apr 20 - New
Apr 19 - Blessed be God
Apr 18 - Jesus and the Soldiers
Apr 18 - Who is in charge?
Apr 17 - For You!
Apr 13 - Kenosis
Apr 9 - Mark 6: Opposition Mounts
Apr 6 - Dry Bones?
Apr 2 - Mark 5: Trading Fear for Faith
Mrz 30 - Choosing the Little One
Mrz 26 - The Life of Following Jesus
Mrz 23 - Surprise!
Mrz 19 - Mark 3: The Life of Following Jesus
Mrz 16 - Darkness and Light
Mrz 12 - Mark 2: Calling All Sinners
Mrz 10 - Where are the demons?
Mrz 9 - Sin or not sin
Mrz 8 - Remembering
Mrz 5 - Mark 1: Good News in a Troubled World
Mrz 3 - For the Love of God
Feb 28 - Fresh Every Morning
Feb 27 - Using Time Well
Feb 23 - Worrying
Feb 16 - Even more offensive
Feb 9 - Salt and Light
Feb 2 - Presenting Samuel, Jesus, and Ourselves
Jan 26 - Catching or being caught
Jan 19 - Strengthened by the Word
Jan 12 - Who are you?
Jan 9 - Because God....
Jan 5 - By another way
Read: Matthew 21:33-46
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - October 5, 2014
It is depressing.
I never turn on the TV news, because it is so uniformly bad news.
From natural disasters to war, greed, violence and despicable behavior of every sort, the world seems to be falling apart.
Day by day, we grow older, more aches and pains appear; ailments which would love to overwhelm us.
And God...where is God in all of this?
Why is there evil?
If there is a God, then God should not let....(fill in the blank with whichever awful thing troubles you the most at the moment.)
What is the point of it all?
In the midst of this gloominess, we have this story from Jesus, with even more gloom yet.
If we focus on the parable itself, and leave aside the application which may have been added early on, the tale is of increasing gloom.
The landowner planted a vineyard, organized things and went traveling.
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. |