8 October 2023 Pentecost 19
We have just come from our Season of Creation, where we looked, over 4 weeks, at the various elements and parts of creation and how we are to care for them, and our readings today speak of the ordering of the universe and human life. The Ten Commandments are about relationships rather than rules. God proclaims loving kindness for the people that were rescued from slavery, and God establishes a positive relationship with these people that becomes the basis for a positive relationship among themselves. Apart from the commandments to honour God and put God above all other creatures, the rest of the commandments look at a horizontal relationship between all humankind and creation. When we love God, we will also love creation. When we love one another, we show our love for God.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he shares his story of zealously following the law, and then finding a living relationship with the crucified and risen Jesus. Paul is not dismissing the law, but he puts it in its place, which is where Exodus puts it, in the context of grace. God’s grace allows Paul to continue his journey, looking forward, honouring the past as he looks toward God’s vision for his life.
And our gospel amplifies the grace of God and the risks of turning away from God. The landowner makes many efforts to bring the tenants back into relationship with him. But they reject all the offers, even to the point of killing the landowner’s son. And this action requires consequences. Turning away from grace, and the positive laws of grace, will result in destruction. But a graceful God cannot remove the consequences of our behaviour on body, mind, spirit, and social order. Turning away from grace limits what God can do in our lives, but when we open ourselves to grace it awakens new possibilities and energies.
Matthew reveals to us a God who is even more merciful than we can imagine. This parable speaks about how God reaches out to us. God sent us Jesus, God’s son, and when we killed him; God raised him and sent him back to us, still bearing the message of God’s desperate, crazy love which is offered not just once, or twice, but more times than we can imagine and it is offered to everyone who will receive it..
It would not take too big a jump to view this parable in the light of the season of creation, or even our current climate crises. What the tenants seem to not understand, or at least choose to ignore, is they are there as ‘stewards’ of the vineyard, not as landowners. So when the landowner sends his servants to collect his ‘rightful share of the harvest’, he is simply trying to collect ‘what is his own property’, but the tenants seem to be behaving as if this is unreasonable or that he is wanting more than he is entitled to. Somewhere along the way, the tenants have forgotten their place, their vocation, their standing in relationship to both the land and the landowner. Simply put, they have forgotten that they own nothing – nothing at all. Everything belongs to the landowner. Their vocation is one of caring, tending, safeguarding, cultivating, and protecting, on behalf of the owner. And it is worth noting that these tenants were chosen by the landowner, they were trusted to ‘steward’ the vineyard for the benefit of all.
And the comparison between this parable and ourselves today is –we have been asked, like the tenants, to steward creation. To look after the animals, the land, all creation. And we, also like the tenants, often act as if we ‘own’ creation and can use it however we like. We have had many messengers, climate scientists and others, warning us of the damage we are doing to creation, but we have chosen to ignore them. When it comes to the planet, the bottom line is very clearly outlined in our Scriptures, we are not owners, we are caretakers of a vineyard that God cares deeply about, a vineyard that will not survive if we continue to misuse and abuse it and treat it as an ‘inexhaustible commodity’. Last week we celebrated the feast of St Francis of Assisi, the 12th century monk who cared very deeply about creation. We are only just starting Spring and fires are already burning in many areas of our country.
Just like in the parable, God is desperately trying to remain in relationship with us. God is reaching out to us and sending us messages of hope, messages that we can turn this around; but we have to be ready to respond to those messages, respond to that hope so that healing can be possible. We remain the stewards of this land, our vocation is lifelong and our relationship with the landowner is eternal. Yes, there are some who will always resist the reclaiming of the vineyard because of their vested interest in keeping the vineyard broken. But that means we just have to work harder, speak louder, so that our voices will be heard over the voices of those who want to keep things broken. We own nothing, not this planet, not our community, not even our own lives. All of it is God’s and all of it is precious. And the fact that God trusts us to steward it, is pure miracle.