 Rev. Scott A. Harmon |
What's
a Vineyard For?
Sermon:
Scripture: |
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On
this World Communion Sunday, our reading is from Matthew’s
gospel. Jesus has come to Jerusalem. The crowds have waved;
the kids have run alongside. It will be the last time he
enters the city publicly. He has turned over the tables,
cracked the whip, cleansed the temple. And in so doing, the
tension with the chief priests and elders escalates. In
the midst of the tension, Jesus tells three stories. One is a
story of two brothers and the real meaning of faithfulness.
Third is a story of a great banquet, and the invitation given
to both the good and the bad to come and enjoy the feast that
has been prepared. In between the former and the latter is a
second story—a parable of a vineyard, and a message for all
God’s people: Here’s another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits. The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants, They got the same treatment. The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. “Surely,” he thought, “they will respect my son.” But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. “This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all for ourselves.” They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him. “Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?” “He’ll kill them—a rotten bunch, and good riddance,” they answered. “Then he’ll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it’s time.” Jesus said, “Right—and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles: The stone the masons threw out is now the cornerstone. This is God’s work; we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it! “This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed.” When the religious leaders heard this story, they knew it was aimed at them. They wanted to arrest Jesus and put him in jail but, intimidated by public opinion, they held back. Most people held him to be a prophet of God. (The
Message) *
* * * * As
a boy, all my friends came from the neighborhood that
surrounded our house. Just down the road lived my best friend,
Chris Morelli. Chris was Italian. His whole family was
Italian. Garlic filled their house. Tomatoes filled their
garden. And in the back yard, grapes hung from the trellis
that covered the patio. As kids, we
notice the things that are different than we’re accustomed
to. Like how every house has a unique smell. In our
neighborhood, some were hardly noticeable, while you could
smell others as soon as you stepped up and knocked on the
door. In
the same way, every family had a little different way of
functioning. The rules varied. In some houses, you could leave
your shoes on; in others, you took them off. With some
friends, you could watch TV; others couldn’t turn it on.
Some homes had rooms where no one was allowed to go. And you
could stay for dinner with some; at others you had to go.
Every family was a little different. I
remember the day Chris and I were walking through his back
yard. I casually reached up and picked a small bunch of deep
purple grapes and popped one in my mouth. It was delicious!
All of a sudden, Mr. Morelli was calling Chris into the
garage—and before I knew it, we were on our bikes heading
down the drive. It turned out that in the Morelli family, no
one was allowed to eat the grapes. They were solely for Mr.
Morelli. That
was the last time I ate grapes at the Morelli’s. Come to
think of it, it was the last time I picked grapes anywhere.
It’s funny how we pick things up and they stick with us,
though. In
his parable, Jesus is talking about another kind of
vineyard—God’s vineyard kingdom, the vineyard to which we
have been called to be stewards. “Steward” is a word we
use a lot, but do we really understand what it signifies? It’s
synonym is “fiduciary.” Fiduciary is not a word I use very
often. In fact, before this evening, I had never used it in a
sentence. But it means “One that holds a confidence or
trust.” A guardian, caretaker, custodian. It’s an
important word because its use always signals that there is
someone from whom the subject of the trust has been received. Long
before Jesus came to Jerusalem, he spoke to the disciples,
telling them: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those
who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart
from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Yet we are so prone
to forget that most basic fundamental. What
has happened in Jerusalem is God’s constant headache. Those
to whom He has entrusted his vineyard have acted as though it
is their own, ignoring why it was entrusted to them in the
first place: to connect the world in life-changing,
life-sustaining ways with God. Probably
the hottest singer among the over-25 crowd today is Bono, the
lead singer of the group U2. In an interview a few weeks back,
he was asked about his extensive humanitarian work in Africa
and its connection to what the person doing the interview
called “his religion.” I was struck by how clear it was
that this man was a follower of Jesus Christ. He wasn’t
pushing it in anybody’s face, but said plainly that this is
what his faith was calling him to do. He was walking the walk, and people were coming to him to ask
why—to talk the talk. I
doubt Bono would ever consider himself a theologian, but
something he quipped stuck with me. He said he didn’t pay a
lot of attention to religion, “Because religion is what you
get when, like Elvis, God has left the building.” Religion
is what’s left when God is no longer in our hearts or
through whom we see the world. Ours
is a parable about religion. Jesus is challenging those who
are listening to see past their religion to whom it was
intended to glorify and connect them with in the first place.
He wants them to see how a relationship with God should be a
place where God can nurture and grow the fruits of his
kingdom—in our lives, in the lives of our families, and in
our places of work and our communities. A place where grapes,
connected to the vine, can ripen. Mr.
Morelli may not have liked it when a boy from the neighborhood
picked from his trellis. But Jesus says come to the vineyard I
have prepared for you. Experience it for yourself. Then
welcome others to the banquet. Celebrate the gift our Father
has entrusted to us. Living
every day in relationship with our God is that gift, a gift
made possible by Christ himself. Not one of us would be here
tonight if God’s Spirit had not, at some point, drawn us to
be people of his grace. And so it is fitting that we gather
around a table that stretches around the world—where all
those who follow Christ gather together—stewards of the
grace he has so lavishly shown. Come, let us eat here in the
vineyard together. Amen.
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