Twenty-Seventh Sunday

Twenty Seventh Sunday Ordinary
October 2, 2005

"The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel" (Isaiah 5:1-7). "Whatever is true...just... gracious...think about these things...Then the God of peace will be with you." (Phil 4:6-9) "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard." (Matthew 21:33-43)

Jesus expands on the prophet Isaiah's metaphor of the vineyard for the kingdom of God in the parable about a landowner whose emissaries (including his son) are sent out to collect his share of the profits. The tenant farmers kill them hoping to get the land for themselves. Instead they lose their land and their lives. This story reflects the situation in Galilee at the time of Jesus when Roman backed Jewish kings (like Herod) had seized most of the land, and profits from it for themselves. In doing so they violated the principle that Yahweh "owned" the land which was "rented" by God's people. Their rent consisted of imitating Yahweh's justice and mercy. Many of Jesus' stories and conversations with the Jewish leadership emphasized the violation of this fundamental law and tradition. It disenfranchised the poorest and least powerful of God's people for the sake of profit for the aristocracy of kings and priests. The landowner is the Most High, the farmers are the local rulers and the emissaries are the prophets and Jesus whom they murdered. The kingdom of God would ultimately be given back to its rightful tenants, those dispossessed and brutalized by their wealthy and powerful leaders. In the kingdom of God justice will prevail.

I wonder if we don't too often focus on the vineyard owner's violent retribution meted out to the bad guys, and attempt to imitate that ourselves, thinking that we are supposed to be God's avenging angel. Shouldn't we instead become expert practitioners of those principles described in the passage from St. Paul? He urges us to think thoughts of truth, justice, honor, purity and graciousness. Our tradition of the spiritual life has always affirmed the importance of cultivating these habits of thinking (the "virtues"). In a conversation recently with my brother who has just completed chemotherapy for cancer we talked about just this realization. It is remarkable how much negativity had become part of our normal lives until faced with life-threatening and life altering situations. It is equally remarkable what a transformation happens when we began to think thoughts of love, gratitude and graciousness. We really do become what we think about and dwell upon.

How would our world, our communities, our workplaces, our families and our personal lives change if we lived consistently by these virtues? For centuries we have waited for God to intervene and establish the kingdom of God permeated by justice, compassion and graciousness. Perhaps it is time to accept the fact that it will not happen until we do it.