Sermon - October 8th, 2023 - The Rev. Jack Alvey

you

you

may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in

your sight the Lord our strength and our Redeemer amen in parable 101 class

they teach you to look for the absurd in the parable in order to discern the

truth that Jesus is trying to convey well and to in today's terrible we get

two for one there are two equally absurd statements that are that are happening

here the first absurdity tells us a little bit about the landowner who we

might presume is God the second absurdity tells us something about these

tenants or these wicked tenants as some say who we might presume to be the

religious leaders of the time now before I move on I want to add a few words of

warning as it relates to understanding parables first of all a strict

allegorical reading a one-to-one reading will get us in trouble while allegory

can help us begin to understand what's going on it can't take us to the finish

line for example a lot of people have used this lesson to strictly say that

these that the vineyard was initially given to the Jews and then it was given

to the Gentiles therefore the Jews therefore it sort of created an anti

Jewish sentiment that has been carried down from generation to generation so

this passage is less about the Jews versus the Gentiles and more about the

faithful versus the unfaithful okay back to the absurdities in today's lesson the

landowner since slave after slave after slave to cadet collect the produce only

to see the wicked tenants kill them again and again and again we might

presume the slaves are prophets after seeing slave after slave get cut down

the landowner gets what he think is a great idea he will send his son the

eventual heir to the vineyard to collect the produce the landowner foolishly says

they will respect my son what kind of glasses is he wearing is he really that

naive is he going to send his son to these wicked tenants no one except the

landowner is surprised when the tenants kill the son who we might presume to be

Jesus not only is the land logic of the landowner flawed but so is the logic of

these tenants when they see the sound son coming they also get a bright idea

they will kill the Sun so that they can get the inheritance themselves what do

they think they're doing when what world can they commit murder and get the

inheritance right there are a number of threads that we can start to draw from

here but I want to pull the threads that tell us something about the nature of

God and in the nature of humanity that the actions of the landowner tell us

something about the nature of God whereas the actions of these tenants

tell us something about the nature of humanity as a whole based on the actions

of the landowner we might presume that God is foolish God is naive we might

presume that God puts too much faith in a people who prove themselves to be

wrong again and again does God not see this as a fool's errand to save a people

who keep on turning against him then again what other choice does God have we

might also presume that ours is a God whose love for us extends beyond all

logic and all understanding you might even say that God's lust lust for us is

desperate this past week my son John six years old learned at his Bible study

that God's love is incomprehensible and when I asked John what that word meant

he said I don't know to try and understand God in God's ways in and of

itself is a foolish endeavor but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try God isn't

the only one who gets to be foolish now based on the actions of the tenants we

might conclude that humanity is self-centered and blind to their own

sin why do we think we can get away with murder and get rewarded for it too why

do we think we can eat our cake and have it too do we think that we are so

special that the rules don't apply to us do we not fear the consequences of our

actions or do we think we are somehow immune to the judgment everyone else is

subject to as we unpack these implications I want to take us to

Romans 2 Paul writes do you imagine whoever you are that when you judge

those who do such things and yet do them yourself you will escape the judgment of

God or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience do

you not realize that God's kindness do you not realize that God's kindness is

meant to lead you to repentance to a change of heart so much of God's

salvation project hinges on our ability to recognize the our blindness to our

own sin our own separation God salvation project depends heavily on our ability

to recognize the distance between our ways and God way God's ways and how

that's corrupting not only our lives but the world around us contrary to popular

belief God helps us see this gap not through his wrath and anger but through

his kindness through his goodness through his mercy God shows us the gap

not to shame us into doing right but move us to return to him where our

hearts are made right with his incomprehensible love as I mentioned

last week one of the reasons that we have a hard time recognizing the

distance between us and God is because we tend to think that we have laid the

palm line in other words we believe the world revolves around me myself and I are

we believe our worldview the way we look at the world is normative and we judge

others and even ourselves based on our warped worldview Jesus and his kingdom

however reveal that our worldview is woefully off-center when we read the

Sermon on the Mount when we see the miracles that he's performing when we

hear his his parables how can we not see that our world is woefully off-center

to the kingdom of God which is the true plumb line he is the chief cornerstone

we humans however have little respect for boundaries the Ten Commandments is

exhibited and we like to think that the boundaries were drawn for somebody else

after years of sending messengers to call us back to God only to see us

backslide God goes all-in God saves the best for last he gives up his only son

God is laid utterly bare before a people who don't know when to stop asking for

more now this image that I'm trying to convey might be captured in a popular

children's book the giving tree by Shel Silverstein who always read it all right

it's a great book as you probably remember it's about a boy a relationship

between a boy and a tree over the years in the beginning the relationship is

good and mutual the boy swings from her branches and sits in her shade they

enjoy each other's company but after the boy meets a girl everything begins to

change he takes the trees apples to the city so he can make money sell them and

make money he cuts off the trees branches so he can build a house he cuts

down the tree so he can make a boat and the tree is happy but not really finally

the boy comes back to the tree and now the trees only a stump and the boy is an

old man the tree wants to offer the man shade and food and branches to swing

from but the tree can't do any of those things anymore they've all been taken

away but the old man is too old for that stuff anyway the old man says he just

wants to sit down and rest so the tree straightening herself up as much as she

can tells the old man that he can sit on her stump so the old man sits down and

the tree is happy God isn't as foolish as we think God is God knows that sending

his son into the vineyard isn't going to end well God knows that we will take and

take and take until we can take nothing else and God will give and give and give

until he has given all that he has but this is where our eyes are opened at

the intersection of God's infinite desire to give and our insatiable appetite

to get nothing less than the crucifixion of his son will open our eyes to a world

that has gone blind at the foot of the cross our desire for more for more power

for more money for more recognition has revealed as weak pedantic at the foot of

the cross we also see a God whose love for us is incomprehensible is more than

we can possibly desire or imagine on the cross God is essentially saying is this

enough what more do you need from me I have given you all that I am and all

that I have what else is there and from the foot of the cross how can we not be

moved to say I don't need anything else I've taken more than I deserve and then

some I am tired and bloated this is enough you are enough can I just rest

with you the gap or the chasm between God's ways and human ways is revealed as

immense the gap is so wide in fact how can we how can we miss it how can we

not be moved to a change of heart to turn around to return to a God whose

goodness whose goodness and mercy whose foolishness and desperation can make

our hearts right and set us straight in our little minds it's absurd for another

to go to such lengths to save someone who proves themselves to be untrustworthy

again and again and again but for God it would be absurd not to go to such links

God desires nothing more than a relationship with his children that they

might return to him and find rest for their wearied souls God is willing to

give all that he has and all that he is that that he all that he has and all

that he is to draw us back to himself and that's the good news we don't have

to commit murder to receive God's inheritance it is given in his son Jesus

Christ the one who makes a relationship with God possible now how absurd are

you willing to get so that the world may know a God who is more ready to give

than we are to receive and now we proclaim the faith of the church the

Nicene Creed