A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 4 October 2020, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, World Communion Sunday, by Dr. Hope S. Antone. The scripture readings that day were Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-17; Matthew 21:33-46.
“How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). This is our prayer not only for Kowloon Union Church but for all believers everywhere as we observe the World Communion Sunday. We do affirm, however, that genuine communion does not necessarily happen in face-to-face situations. It happens only when there is real connection of the gathered community and there is real sharing of something in common. What connects believers together in this World Communion Sunday is the affirmation that our unity in Christ is expressed in our belief that Christ is the head of the church everywhere. It is a unity that transcends time and space, and differences in socio-economic status, culture, language, or denomination. What connects us even more deeply is the belief that partaking of Christ’s broken body and poured out blood is not just in the taking of the Communion elements. It is more so in our participation in Christ’s ministry of transforming the world.
Today’s gospel reading is labeled by the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, “the parable of the wicked tenants.” Actually in our daily life, which is very common in the Philippines, this story speaks about the injustice and inequality that many of our peasant farmers and landless people are facing all the time. However, a common explanation of the parable is that the landowner/farmer represents God; the vineyard is the Kingdom of God; the tenants are the religious leaders; the slaves are the prophets; the son as Jesus; and the new tenants, most likely, as the church. This parable is often retold as a story about God entrusting the vineyard to the Israelites during the Old Testament times. Then God sent the prophets at different times of their history to remind and correct the Israelites whenever they steered off course of being the light to the nations. But most did not listen to the prophets. Then God sent Jesus but still many refused to accept him. Instead, many turned against Jesus to the point of killing him. So the driving point of the parable is that, despite having been rejected, Jesus became the chief cornerstone or foundation of the new community that lives out the values of the reign of God.
Since we are already familiar with this type of interpretation, I would like to reflect more on the metaphor of vineyard in the light of our current situation.
A parable uses familiar objects to point to an unfamiliar teaching or truth. The parable here uses the vineyard as a metaphor for that was a common sight for the biblical people. Where they lived, the vineyard was everywhere.
One lesson I can draw from the parable is that the vineyard was a symbol of God’s blessing. After all, the vineyard provided food and livelihood. A good harvest was perceived as a sign of abundance and prosperity. A good harvest also implied a time of peace and tranquility for a vineyard could only blossom well in situations of peace – when workers could attend to the vines more constantly, consistently and watchfully. At a time when wars often happened between rival tribes and nations, the image of sitting under one’s vine symbolized peace and security – as some Old Testament passages have recorded (Mic 4:4; 1 Kings 4:25; Zech 3:10).
Another lesson is that the vineyard signified hard and tedious work. God’s blessing of abundance and prosperity did not just fall from heaven. Vine cultivation required the farmers to have a good relationship with the land and the vine. It’s the kind of relationship that knew well the right type of soil and the right amount of moisture and sunlight for the vine to grow and bear good fruit. Vine cultivation needed watchful care especially before the vine began to bear fruit. It also needed constant pruning of the vine to ensure that the grapes grew to full maturity. So knowledge of and respect for the cycle of planting, growing, pruning, bearing fruit, harvesting was very important. Fencing around the vineyard and building a watchtower were to protect the vineyard from wild animals and thieves. Since vine cultivation was related to wine production, digging a wine press was part of the package.
Still another lesson is that tending the vineyard required an attitude of stewardship, not ownership. In today’s parable, the problem came up when the tenants confused the lease (or temporary possession) with ownership of the vineyard. Having the vineyard on a lease or loan is not the same as ownership. According to the parable, when the tenants behaved as if they were the rightful owners, they became greedy and violent. They couldn’t accept that the real owner would claim the ownership of the vineyard and whatever was due to them. Even the farmer who owned the vineyard must have that attitude of stewardship by giving a tenth of the harvest back to God, as prescribed in the Bible.
Taking the vineyard as a symbol of God’s blessing, hard and tedious work, and that it requires stewardship rather than ownership, what is your vineyard today? What is it that God has entrusted to you in order to sustain your life and provide you with a sense of prosperity, security, and peace? What is it that needs your hard and tedious labor and requires your attitude of stewardship, rather than ownership?
I like the view of the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, a retired Episcopal minister in the USA, who preached on this parable sometime back, saying:
“We – all of humanity – are laborers in the vineyard. The vineyards are our homes, schools and workplaces; our churches, synagogues, and mosques; our cities, suburbs, towns and villages; the Internet and its worldwide web; yes – even, our financial markets. The vineyards are our bodies with their complex genetic coding; our deserts, rainforests, and mountain ranges; our oceans, rivers, streams, and lakes; and even our polar ice caps. The vineyard is our world, our earth, our cosmos. And, we – each in our own way – are called to tend it. Some have management responsibilities, some are trainers, and others are laborers. In a market economy, some people even have limited term tenancy or ownership. But nobody permanently owns the vineyard – none of us. God is the real owner. The vineyard is leased to us as stewards. According to the parable, we human beings, and everything we have, belong to God. We just have it on loan. Someday, perhaps sooner than we anticipate or desire, the term of that loan will expire and we will be called to account. Thus, tending the vineyard is a matter of stewardship for our finite time on this earth.”
It is a long quote but it tells us very clearly that whether it is my body or my life, my career or occupation, my family or loved one, the community or the world – the “vineyard” – which I think I own, is just leased or loaned to me only temporarily. It is entrusted to me to help me sustain my life, to provide me security and peace. But I do not own or possess it.
The Ten Commandments (Book of Exodus) warn readers of the temptation to make idols in the form of anything in heaven, on, or under the earth. It is possible to make any of our “vineyards” an idol – something that replaces God and requires our full allegiance and loyalty. What’s with the preoccupation with earning more, to become better than others, and to become recognized as highly successful – if it is at the expense of our relationships with others characterized by the values of love, justice and compassion? If we don’t remember to live out these values – love, justice and compassion – in our work, our families and families - could these preoccupations with what is good for us be possibly not be signs of making an idol of oneself?
Somehow, the Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us more starkly of the truth that everything we have, including life itself, is a loan from God. We may have made beautiful plans for our work, our lives, our loved ones – but we are not fully in control of it all because we do not own it.
In the wake of the increasing cases of Covid-19 infections in the USA, Fr. Theodore Trinko, a Catholic priest in Maryland, reminded his parishioners of the temporariness of life. I find his statement very profound:
“Even in the worst case, if we were to catch this coronavirus and die, so what? Is not death just a return to the House of the Father? We did not come into this world to stay forever any more than a person goes to a skyscraper to ride the elevator. Sooner or later we will leave it and, by God’s grace, go back to God who made us.”
Truly, we find this pandemic a disruption to our plans – including our personal plans, travel plans, and work-related plans. But it has reminded us that we do not have full control of our life because we do not own it.
So how are you tending your vineyard today, knowing that it is only leased to you on borrowed time?
Stewardship, not ownership, is the better attitude to take. Stewardship makes us more humble because it is without a sense of entitlement – that assumption that we have the right to the many blessings from God. Stewardship makes us more humble because it is without a sense of privilege – another assumption that we are the chosen ones among the many to inherit the kingdom of God. The sense of entitlement and privilege can lead to a sense of pride and arrogance, and even violence.
As the parable states, “the kingdom of God will be taken away (and I would add, from those with a high sense of entitlement and privilege) … and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matthew 21:43). Tending our different vineyards today in the spirit of stewardship means doing the best we can to share ourselves in ways that proclaim the values of the reign of God. It may be caring for a family, helping someone in need, reminding someone that they are loved and valued, or kindling the hope of one who is yoked with heavy burdens – perhaps because of the uncertainty during this time of the national security law, the Covid-19 pandemic, and everything else. All these are part of the work in God’s vineyard.
May we be the new tenants of the vineyard – the community of Christ that makes his cross our own… that looks past the church’s door to find those in need and to work with them for the betterment of life. May it be so.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, October 04, 2020
