Year A
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:7-14
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s true\u2026 you can find something in scripture\u2026 to justify just about anything\u2026 in almost any situation\u2026 wives be obedient to your husbands<\/em>\u2026 has been used to justify domestic abuse\u2026 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman<\/em>\u2026 has been used to justify not only heterosexism and homophobia\u2026 but the murder of LGBT children of God\u2026 and slaves obey your masters<\/em>\u2026 has been used to justify slavery\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But scripture isn\u2019t meant to be read using a microscope\u2026 but using a macroscope\u2026 not focusing in on just one or two verses to support your position\u2026 but to see one integrated message of grace\u2026 forgiveness\u2026 and love\u2026 some of the words are meant to be read to discern the meaning which lies beneath them\u2026 distilling the truths which are woven throughout\u2026 and which transcend any specific culture and any specific time period\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n UCC Minister John Gage writes\u2026 I believe the will of God isn’t the moment-by-moment itinerary on the cruise ship\u2026 it’s the direction that ship is supposed to be going\u2026 always toward justice\u2026 peace\u2026 and compassion\u2026 more abundant living for all creation\u2026 God works despite our sin and shortcomings\u2026 and outright evil\u2026 not in them\u2026 like a grandmother\u2026 making a new quilt from all our raggedy pieces\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n On September 13\u2026 Peter asks Jesus how many times he ought to forgive\u2026 as many as seven times\u2026 in the translation we heard\u2026 Jesus says seventy-seven times\u2026 but in another translation Jesus says seven times seventy\u2026 which would be four-hundred-ninety times\u2026 and we heard the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant\u2026 the man who was forgiven much but who would forgive little\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n On September 20\u2026 we heard the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard\u2026 the one in which a landowner went out throughout the day and hired laborers\u2026 and when quitting time came\u2026 he paid everyone the same\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last Sunday\u2026 we heard about the son who said “Yes!” but did No\u2026 and the one who said “No!” but eventually said Yes\u2026 about authority and obedience\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today\u2019s Gospel continues these themes of authority\u2026 and power\u2026 and wealth\u2026 and killing others to take and keep it\u2026 in today’s Parable of the Wicked Tenants\u2026 there’s quite a cast of characters who engage Jesus about its meaning\u2026 if the religious leadership identifies with the landowner\u2026 and let’s give them the benefit of the doubt\u2026 they\u2019re doing the best they can to care for Israel\u2026 then they\u2019re the ones who have been wronged by the tenants\u2026 but the moment they realize\u2026 as in Isaiah’s parable to which Jesus refers\u2026 that God is the landowner\u2026 and they\u2026 the religious leaders\u2026 are the bad guys\u2026 who kill the Son\u2026 then things get really tense really fast\u2026 and this is a much more obvious indictment of the leaders than we\u2019ve seen before\u2026 not of Judaism itself\u2026 but of how the current administration is interpreting the law\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And let\u2019s remember\u2026 this Gospel was written after Jesus\u2019 death\u2026 and what\u2019s being described happened two days after Palm Sunday\u2026 on Tuesday\u2026 in two more days\u2026 on Maundy Thursday\u2026 Jesus will be arrested and taken before the religious leaders\u2026 and on Friday\u2026 he will be crucified\u2026 and so today\u2019s exchange grows out of the demand by the religious leaders\u2026 and Pilate\u2026 to know by what authority Jesus does and says\u2026 all that he does and says\u2026 In the passage from Isaiah\u2026 after the landowner planted the vineyard with choice vines\u2026 and put a fence around it\u2026 and dug a wine press in it\u2026 not to mention the watchtower\u2026 he expected it to yield cultivated grapes\u2026 but it yielded wild grapes\u2026 and I wonder\u2026 what do those wild grapes represent\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n This past week\u2026 Bp. Satterlee said that in our context\u2026 we might understand these confrontations to be conversations between Jesus and the church\u2026 and just as the tenants mistakenly think the vineyard belongs to them\u2026 Jesus is suggesting that the church today\u2026 when and while it may meet our needs\u2026 and satisfy our preferences\u2026 and affirm our views\u2026 while it does these things\u2026 the church does not belongs to us\u2026 and during this pandemic\u2026 when people gather in the sanctuary\u2026 and don\u2019t wear masks\u2026 and sit too close\u2026 and sing loudly\u2026 they may well contract COVID-19\u2026 as they did at City Church in Rockford over the last week or so\u2026 so much so\u2026 that this past Monday\u2026 Pastor Doug Bergsma said they had to go back to online worship\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We continue to live in a tenuous time\u2026 as I think I wrote recently\u2026 it\u2019s as though someone turned out all the lights\u2026 and we\u2019re stumbling around in the dark\u2026 trying to find the familiar paths which still work for us\u2026 and where we need to forge new paths\u2026 and Bp. Satterlee said if we think that talking about racism\u2026 or human rights\u2026 or voting rights\u2026 or the environment\u2026 or wearing masks\u2026 is too political\u2026 the reign of God will go elsewhere\u2026 because in this time\u2026 when we feel off-balance and are not getting what we want\u2026 the Good News\u2026 is that we have a chance to embrace the fact that we don\u2019t own the vineyard\u2026 we are the tenants\u2026 and God will do\u2026 what God will do\u2026 with the church and the world\u2026 and bring love\u2026 life\u2026 forgiveness\u2026 hope\u2026 and peace to those who seek and are open to it\u2026 it may be a struggle to gain and own that awareness\u2026 we may need to discover new ways of being\u2026 and we may not totally get the life we want\u2026 but we may just get the life God wants\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as we move towards that life\u2026 we must continue to ask ourselves\u2026 and each other about the kind of grapes that are being planted in this country\u2026 and who\u2019s planting them\u2026 and what\u2019s being harvested\u2026 and discern whether they\u2019re cultivated grapes that God has planted\u2026 or wild grapes which clamor for our attention\u2026 but really need to be trampled down\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And even Martin Luther\u2026 in some of his writing\u2026 said it is not God\u2026 but Satan\u2026 the has\u2019satan<\/em>\u2026 the accuser\u2026 who rummages through our garbage looking for already forgiven sins\u2026 and then rubbing our noses in them and saying\u2026 this is who you really are\u2026 but it is a lie\u2026 and when more of us realize that it\u2019s a lie\u2026 than believe it\u2026 we can start to be not afraid\u2026 because it is possible to talk to someone without any lies\u2026 without any sarcasm\u2026 or deceptions\u2026 or exaggerations or any of the things that people use to confuse the truth\u2026 and people confuse the truth because they’re afraid of continually being shamed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We got word Friday morning that the President and First Lady\u2026 and many others in that orbit\u2026 tested positive for COVID-19\u2026 and while we don\u2019t know how mild or severe any one person\u2019s symptoms may become\u2026 we do know that as far back as February\u2026 the president characterized the pandemic as a hoax and as fake news\u2026 I wonder if in hindsight\u2026 those statements now seem more like wild grapes than cultivated ones\u2026 because it\u2019s what the has\u2019satan<\/em> says that\u2019s fake news\u2026 and what God says and does in Christ\u2026 that\u2019s the real Good News\u2026 that\u2019s the wide\u2026 macroscopic vision we need to seek\u2026 and maintain\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We got word Friday morning that the President and First Lady\u2026 and many others in that orbit\u2026 tested positive for COVID-19\u2026 and while we don\u2019t know how mild or severe any one person\u2019s symptoms may become\u2026 we do know that as far back as February\u2026 the president characterized the pandemic as a hoax and as fake news\u2026 I wonder if in hindsight\u2026 those statements now seem more like wild grapes than cultivated ones\u2026 because it\u2019s what the has\u2019satan<\/em> says that\u2019s fake news\u2026 and what God says and does in Christ\u2026 that\u2019s the real Good News\u2026 that\u2019s the wide\u2026 macroscopic vision we need to seek\u2026 and maintain\u2026 this is what we ask you God\u2026 in your Holy name\u2026 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:7-14 Philippians 3:4b-14 Matthew 21:33-46 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 It\u2019s true\u2026 you can find something in scripture\u2026 to justify just about anything\u2026 in almost any situation\u2026 wives be obedient to your husbands\u2026 has been used to justify domestic abuse\u2026 you shall not lie with a male as with a woman\u2026 has been used to justify not only heterosexism and homophobia\u2026 but the murder of LGBT children of God\u2026 and slaves obey your masters\u2026 has been used to justify slavery\u2026 But scripture isn\u2019t meant to be read using a microscope\u2026 but using a macroscope\u2026 not focusing in on just one or two verses to support your position\u2026 but to see one integrated message of grace\u2026 forgiveness\u2026 and love\u2026 some of the words are meant to be read to discern the meaning which lies beneath them\u2026 distilling the truths which are woven throughout\u2026 and which transcend any specific culture and any specific time period\u2026 UCC Minister John Gage writes\u2026 I believe the will of God isn’t the moment-by-moment itinerary on the cruise ship\u2026 it’s the direction that ship is supposed to be going\u2026 always toward justice\u2026 peace\u2026 and compassion\u2026 more abundant living for all creation\u2026 God works despite our sin and shortcomings\u2026 and outright evil\u2026 not in them\u2026 like a grandmother\u2026 making a new quilt from all our raggedy pieces\u2026 On September 13\u2026 Peter asks Jesus how many times he ought to forgive\u2026 as many as seven times\u2026 in the translation we heard\u2026 Jesus says seventy-seven times\u2026 but in another translation Jesus says seven times seventy\u2026 which would be four-hundred-ninety times\u2026 and we heard the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant\u2026 the man who was forgiven much but who would forgive little\u2026 On September 20\u2026 we heard the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard\u2026 the one in which a landowner went out throughout the day and hired laborers\u2026 and when quitting time came\u2026 he paid everyone the same\u2026 Last Sunday\u2026 we heard about the son who said “Yes!” but did No\u2026 and the one who said “No!” but eventually said Yes\u2026 about authority and obedience\u2026 Today\u2019s Gospel continues these themes of authority\u2026 and power\u2026 and wealth\u2026 and killing others to take and keep it\u2026 in today’s Parable of the Wicked Tenants\u2026 there’s quite a cast of characters who engage Jesus about its meaning\u2026 if the religious leadership identifies with the landowner\u2026 and let’s give them the benefit of the doubt\u2026 they\u2019re doing the best they can to care for Israel\u2026 then they\u2019re the ones who have been wronged by the tenants\u2026 but the moment they realize\u2026 as in Isaiah’s parable to which Jesus refers\u2026 that God is the landowner\u2026 and they\u2026 the religious leaders\u2026 are the bad guys\u2026 who kill the Son\u2026 then things get really tense really fast\u2026 and this is a much more obvious indictment of the leaders than we\u2019ve seen before\u2026 not of Judaism itself\u2026 but of how the current administration is interpreting the law\u2026 And let\u2019s remember\u2026 this Gospel was written after Jesus\u2019 death\u2026 and what\u2019s being described happened two days after Palm Sunday\u2026 on Tuesday\u2026 in two more days\u2026 on Maundy Thursday\u2026 Jesus will be arrested and taken before the religious leaders\u2026 and on Friday\u2026 he will be crucified\u2026 and so today\u2019s exchange grows out of the demand by the religious leaders\u2026 and Pilate\u2026 to know by what authority Jesus does and says\u2026 all that he does and says\u2026 And Jesus asks them\u2026 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes\u2026 what will he do to those tenants\u2026 Jesus never answers the question himself\u2026 he lets them answer\u2026 he doesn\u2019t affirm or deny what they say\u2026 but it reminds me of the passage in 2Samuel 12\u2026 when Nathan questions David about ensuring the death of Bathsheba\u2019s husband Uriah\u2026 and David indicts himself\u2026 as the religious leadership has just done\u2026 In the passage from Isaiah\u2026 after the landowner planted the vineyard with choice vines\u2026 and put a fence around it\u2026 and dug a wine press in it\u2026 not to mention the watchtower\u2026 he expected it to yield cultivated grapes\u2026 but it yielded wild grapes\u2026 and I wonder\u2026 what do those wild grapes represent\u2026 This past week\u2026 Bp. Satterlee said that in our context\u2026 we might understand these confrontations to be conversations between Jesus and the church\u2026 and just as the tenants mistakenly think the vineyard belongs to them\u2026 Jesus is suggesting that the church today\u2026 when and while it may meet our needs\u2026 and satisfy our preferences\u2026 and affirm our views\u2026 while it does these things\u2026 the church does not belongs to us\u2026 and during this pandemic\u2026 when people gather in the sanctuary\u2026 and don\u2019t wear masks\u2026 and sit too close\u2026 and sing loudly\u2026 they may well contract COVID-19\u2026 as they did at City Church in Rockford over the last week or so\u2026 so much so\u2026 that this past Monday\u2026 Pastor Doug Bergsma said they had to go back to online worship\u2026 We continue to live in a tenuous time\u2026 as I think I wrote recently\u2026 it\u2019s as though someone turned out all the lights\u2026 and we\u2019re stumbling around in the dark\u2026 trying to find the familiar paths which still work for us\u2026 and where we need to forge new paths\u2026 and Bp. Satterlee said if we think that talking about racism\u2026 or human rights\u2026 or voting rights\u2026 or the environment\u2026 or wearing masks\u2026 is too political\u2026 the reign of God will go elsewhere\u2026 because in this time\u2026 when we feel off-balance and are not getting what we want\u2026 the Good News\u2026 is that we have a chance to embrace the fact that we don\u2019t own the vineyard\u2026 we are the tenants\u2026 and God will do\u2026 what God will do\u2026 with the church and the world\u2026 and bring love\u2026 life\u2026 forgiveness\u2026 hope\u2026 and peace to those who seek and are open to it\u2026 it may be a struggle to gain and own that awareness\u2026 we may need to discover new ways of being\u2026 and we may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And Jesus asks them\u2026 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes\u2026 what will he do to those tenants<\/em>\u2026 Jesus never answers the question himself\u2026 he lets them answer\u2026 he doesn\u2019t affirm or deny what they say\u2026 but it reminds me of the passage in 2Samuel 12\u2026 when Nathan questions David about ensuring the death of Bathsheba\u2019s husband Uriah\u2026 and David indicts himself\u2026 as the religious leadership has just done\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n