Reflections...

A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 2 October 2011 by the Rev. John LeMond. The scripture readings that day were Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:4b-14 amd Matthew 21:33-46.


Have you ever heard someone tell about the sin of another person?
We all have.
But have you ever enjoyed hearing about the sin of another person?
Most people do enjoy hearing
That someone…someone else
Has been caught doing something wrong
It gives us something to talk about.
And it makes us feel a bit superior to those involved in the sin.
“Did you hear about Mr. “Smith?”
“He was caught taking money from his employer.”
“He had been doing it for several years without being caught.”
And we shake our heads and click our tongues…
And ask for more information.
“Did you hear about Maria?”
“It’s so sad.”
“What…what about Maria?!”
“Oh, nothing…I probably shouldn’t say anything.”
“No, it’s okay. I won’t tell anyone else. What did she do?”
“Well, she had an affair with her neighbor…”
“Oh, no!”
“Yes, every day when her children were at school.”
“Oh NO!”
We shake our head, and click our tongue.
We do enjoy hearing about the sin of others…
We even wanted to know about Maria when I just mentioned her…
Even though we knew she didn’t exist!
“How could he do that?”
“How could she do that?”
We like to gossip
But there are other times
When the sin of others calls forth far deeper feelings
For instance, when the sin of the person
Is against us
Then our feeling toward that person is not so gentle.
“Did you hear about Mr. Smith?”
“No, what?”
“He has been stealing money from you.”
“What?!”
Then there is no head shaking or tongue clicking.
There is only anger and a desire to seek revenge.
“Have you heard about Maria, your wife?”
“No, what?”
“She has been having an affair with your next door neighbor.”
“What?”
“Yes, every day when the children are in school.”
“WHAT?!”

There are places in the world where this would result in the death of Maria…
And the death of the next door neighbor.
No head shaking or tongue clicking.
Just swift and final violence.
Jesus tells the story of a vineyard owner who rents out his vineyard to others
It’s an interesting story of injustice and sin
When the owner asks for his share of the harvest
The renters kill his slaves
So finally, he sends his son to them,
Expecting them to respect him.
But they kill the son as well.
The listeners pay attention to every word of Jesus
Because they know exactly what should happen, legally.
They know the law.
They know that the land owner deserves part of the harvest,
And the renters must in law provide it to him.
They know that if someone kills your slave,
That the person will suffer greatly
And a great deal of money must be paid.
But to kill a son.
That was the worst that could possibly happen.
Jesus builds the story step by step.
And at the death of a son: the listeners are extremely angry.
Oh, how could these terrible people do such a thing?!
And so Jesus asks them: “When the owner comes, what should he do to those renters?”
What he is really asking them is, “What would you do to such people?”
And the answer comes immediately,
“Kill them.”
“Not only kill them, but do it in a way in which they suffer.”
“Because they have not only sinned against our law…”
“They have sinned against God…”
“Kill them!”
There is great anger and great self-assurance among the listeners.
And then Jesus tells them what they didn’t expect to hear.
You are the unrighteous renters.
You are not the one sinned against…
You are the sinner.
And you are right.
What you deserve death.
And it is death that God will give you.
Your inheritance in the kingdom of God will be taken away from you.
And given to strangers!
Now everything has changed.
This is not what they expected to hear.
This is not what they wanted to hear.
They thought they would hear about the sin of others
But it was their own sin that Jesus revealed.
“Have you heard about Mr. Smith?”
“No, what?”
“He just discovered that you have been stealing money from him?”
“Have you heard about Maria?”
“No, what?”
“She knows that you are having an affair with your next door neighbor.”
Everything changes.
We thought we wanted to hear about sin.
But now we’ve changed our mind.
We are caught…and everyone knows about our sin.
It is we who are the object of the story.
How did this happen to us?
The Apostle Paul asked the same question.
He was ready to pass judgment on Mr. Smith
And on Maria
Because he knew that he was truly righteous according to the law.
He knew that if anyone could judge the sin of others, it was he.
Circumcised on the 8th day.
A child of the Hebrew people.
A member of the tribe of Benjamin
A Pharisee.
Completely blameless
So…tell me the story of Mr. Smith
Tell me the story of Maria
Tell me the story of the renters of the vineyard
I am ready to shake my head, and click my tongue

I am ready to pass judgment on them
Even a judgment of death.
Cruel death if they deserve it.
Now, tell me the story…
I’m listening.
And then Jesus says to him:
“You are that one.”
And you surely deserve to die.
It was this realization that struck Paul like a lightening bolt on the road to Damascus.
“It is you Saul.”
“The person you seek to persecute for their sins is you.”
And Paul fell to the ground, and could not speak or see or eat.
In medical terms, we might say that he had a traumatic experience.
That he experienced a kind of hysterical blindness
A psychological reaction to something that his brain could not make sense of.
But in theological terms we would say
What he experienced was the truth.
And it was so overwhelming that it changed his life.
Not only the truth about his own sinfulness.
Not only the truth that he deserved death.
But the truth that, amazingly
Inexplicably…
He was forgiven by God
Not only forgiven but loved.
Not only loved and forgiven, but chosen by God
And this is a message that he spent the rest of his life proclaiming.
______________________
Did you hear about Mr. Smith?
He deserved judgment, but he was forgiven.
Did you hear about Maria?
She deserved punishment, but she was forgiven.
Did you hear about Paul.
He deserved death, but he was forgiven.
Did you hear about you?
Jesus Christ embraces you in your sin
And calls you to a new life.
There is no shaking of heads or clicking of tongues…
There is only silence
Because the story ends where we never expected it to end:
It is we who have been condemned
Yet we who have been saved.
It is we who have been judged
Yet we who have been loved.
We who deserve death,
Yet we who are offered life.
Have you heard about Maria?
Amen.