in the vineyard

Shalom Mennonite Church

Sunday, October 2 – World Communion Sunday

Texts: Matthew 21:33-46

Eric Massanari

“in the vineyard”

A vineyard is a place of cultivated beauty.

In autumn and winter the old, well-pruned vines

cling to arbor and trellis

like gnarled hands reaching out of the ground.

In the Spring, the new growth emerges, green and vibrant—

vines running, tendrils spiraling, and wide leaves opening to the sun.

In time, as days lengthen, flowers emerge

and then the clusters of fruit form,

at first small, hard and green,

then swelling and sweetening to ripeness.

Then comes the harvest of heavy fruit,

then the press,

the flow of juice,

and the waiting

for wine to age and come alive.

Throughout the Jewish and Christian scriptures

the vineyard is a metaphor for Life—capital L.

It is the place of richness, bounty, vitality.

It is a resurrection place where dying and pruning happens,

and new growth emerges from the old vine and bears fruit.

It is a place of gift and generosity.

The vineyard is the place of divine blessing.

In Jesus' parable, however, the blessing of the vineyard

has not been well tended or graciously shared.

Those entrusted with the vineyard, the tenants,

claim it as their own, and defend it with violence.

There is allegory in this parable—things in the story world

represent things and people in the “real” world.

Jesus is holding the scribes and Pharisees accountable

for the way they have not tended the vineyard

of God's covenant of love with the people.

Like the tenants in the parable they have

looked after their own interests, they have not welcomed

the least of these or the outcast into the vineyard,

and they, too, use violence as a means to an end.

By the end, the scribes and Pharisees certainly

feel the sharp accusation of Jesus' story,

and they were not pleased.

I think this remains a parable of accountability,

speaking to all of us who would assume to preach,

teach, and practice our faith in the world.

As the church we presume to

teach and practice a divine vision for the world.

How are we doing with tending the vineyard?

Do we carry our faith with a spirit of severity,

as if it were something we need to defend

against a threatening world?

Do we carry our faith with a spirit of pride,

as if it were the only true answer

in a world of risky questions and uncertainties?

Does our faith feed our self-interest?

Do we get what we want from it,

get what we want from our participation in the church,

and then leave the stuff, or the people,

that might make us uncomfortable.

Are we terribly, dreadfully serious about our faith?

Do we carry it into the world as a burden?

Is the gospel of justice and love the cross we feel we must

bear in an unjust and violent world?

As a result do we plod ahead in serious effort

believing that if we don't do it, no one else will,

and that to show too much joy would really

be unseemly—if not unfaithful—given the pain of the world.

These are just some of the ways that

we in the church become a bit like the Pharisees and Scribes,

neglecting and squelching the vitality and joy of the vineyard.

At the very beginning and at the very end

of his public ministry, Jesus offered the fruit of the vine

as a sign of what he was about.

For a wedding party he filled

cisterns to overflowing with good wine

so that the party could roll on into the night.

At the very end of his ministry

as death neared

he filled a cup with wine,

he raised it,

and offered it to his friends.

“Do this in remembrance of me.”

This was the symbol of his “new covenant” –a shared glass of wine.

Jesus knew the pain of this world.

He knew it and felt it first hand.

And, yet, this never made him bitter

or resentful or shrouded in

sour guilt and false humility.

It did not leave him cynical

and lashing out against the broken world

in the primary role of critic.

Jesus chose, in the midst of the pain and brokenness

to dwell in the vineyard in each moment,

and he reminded those he met that

the vineyard is always right here--

this moment is a place of divine blessing,

this person before you is one with whom life's gift can be shared,

and from whom it might be received!

We dwell in the vineyard.

We are asked to tend it with our lives,

to cultivate it with our gratitude, joy and generosity.

This is the church's message

and it is the reality in which we can choose to live.

The world needs more joyful followers of Jesus,

who understand the gift and beauty it is

to be alive and to be entrusted with the vineyard

that is this world and that is also found in human community.

The world does not need our bitterness,

or fearfulness, or anxiety, or well-defended claims to salvation.

The world has more than enough of this.

The world needs our joy, --

the joy we find and proclaim when we come to this table

of sharing, and generosity, and community

and pass the fruit of the vine.

and proclaim, “this is the cup of the new covenant”

the new covenant of life and love, of beauty and peace.

And we are invited to remember this day and each day:

The vineyard is right here.