Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

I love the gospel of Matthew.  Matthew was written to communicate the Jesus story to early Jewish Christians and, let me tell you, the writer of this gospel really knew how to tell a story!  Beginning with Chapter one, verse one, we hear Jesus called “The Messiah.”  The writer of Matthew begins by setting us up for something amazing, something big, something life changing and something surprising by naming Jesus as the Messiah.  At that point in time, there had been great expectation among Jewish people that a messiah would soon arrive.  However, the people expected a messiah who would use military might and power to free them from Roman oppression.  So, Matthew’s version of the Jesus story begins by latching on to that expectation and announcing Jesus as the long promised, awaited Messiah.  The writer of Matthew continues to build on that expectation by linking Jesus’ genealogy to royalty as King David is named an ancestor of Jesus.  The story even includes royal sages from the East who come to pay homage to this newborn Messiah.  Then, the knowledge of a newborn king is so threatening to the present Jewish king, King Herod, that Herod has all the infants he can locate massacred.  The presence of this newborn king Jesus is so compelling that even powerful Herod fears him. 

If that is not enough, the writer of Matthew then tells us about a mighty prophet who enters the scene, John the Baptist.  John arrives wearing strange clothing, living in the wilderness, and eating bugs, while shouting out and calling people to repent.  This wild prophet begins announcing that One who is even more powerful than he is coming, One who “will be powerful enough to bring justice on the wicked and set things right.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 239.)  John shouts out, “Turn around – if your life journey is going down the wrong road, turn around and go the other way!  Start going down the right road!”  And, this announcement sets the tone for Matthew’s entire Jesus story.

Well, the stage has been set and excitement levels have been raised.  We can almost hear the trumpets blaring as they announce the coming of this new powerful leader.  The day has finally come.  This is the day the new leader people have been hearing about is going to make his first major public appearance and they expect something big.  People’s excitement levels are shooting off the charts as they sit down on the mountainside and strain their ears to hear what this new, powerful leader is going to say. 

          Anticipation rises even more as this new leader climbs up the mountain, just like Moses and David and Elijah, those great leaders from the past.  And then, when this new leader finally speaks and gives his inaugural address, the people are not only surprised, they are also astounded.  They are totally taken aback when they do not hear anything about using power to take charge of their present situation.  As a matter of fact, what this Messiah is saying has nothing to do with rescuing them from Roman oppression.  As he begins to speak, he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  He goes on with a whole series of blessings and then says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…..”

          What??  Rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted?  This was definitely not what they had been looking for or hoped for.  No.  Not only are his words something they did not expect, Jesus also begins his message by saying, “Blessed.”  Now, the Jewish people really knew their Hebrew scripture and they knew the Psalms.  They knew that the great Law Psalm, Psalm 1, begins with exactly the same word, blessed.  You see, Psalm 1 begins like this, “Blessed is the one who walks not in the way of the wicked but in the way of the Lord.”  And, ashar, the Hebrew word for blessed, really means something like “You are on the right road.”  So, what Jesus is actually saying is, “You are on the right road when you are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.  You are on the right road when you mourn, for you will be comforted.” 

Now, do you begin to understand how astonishing and surprising these words of Jesus were to people 2,000 years ago?  This was absolutely NOT what people expected to hear.  And, you want to know something else?  These words are not what we expect to hear either.  You see, we live in a world and culture where the Beatitudes we hear seduce us into believing:

• You are on the right road when you spare no expense to win the game, when you are the one who achieves and succeeds, when you come out on top.
• You are on the right road when power and strength are on your side, then you can claim God is on your side.
• You are on the right road when you buck up and avoid crying, grieving, and mourning, when you don’t shed those tears because then you can show how strong you are.
• You are on the right road when you pursue the American dream, work for success, and really start making lots of money to invest in the Kingdom of Wall Street.
• You are on the right road when you are one of the popular ones and you raise your kids to be the popular ones and become popular leaders.
• You are on the right road when you support policies that limit assistance to the poor, when you cut off the immigrant population and the asylum seekers because free handouts do not encourage the poor to find work.
• You are on the right road when you focus on your individual rights over and above the rights of your neighbor.

Oh yes, the list goes on and on and on…..

Well, today, Jesus gives us life-giving words that do not fit into the you are on the right road boxes we have created!  Today, Jesus is calling his disciples, including each one of us, to walk a very different road.  He is calling us to walk the road that is the way of his will for our lives and for this world.  And, that road looks very different from the road we hear about day in and day out in our culture.  In fact, Jesus is describing a road that is totally countercultural!!  It is the road he travels, the way of the cross.

Jesus is calling us to walk the road he initiates, to walk the road that draws us into the very life of God, the road that leads us into the world that is truly real, the road where we will find the deepest and truest meaning in life, the road where we will find life that truly matters!  Jesus is saying:

• You are on the right road when you are aware of your own poverty and you are at the end of your rope, when you are aware of your own struggle and feel as though you have lost faith. God is naming you among the most faithful.
• You are on the right road when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you begin to know the embrace of God, the One who is really most dear to you.
• You are on the right road when you are content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourself proud owner of everything that cannot be bought.
• You are on the right road when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. Feasting on the life of God is the best meal you will ever eat.
• You are on the right road when you care deeply for others. It is then that you will find yourself cared for.
• You are on the right road when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
• You are on the right road when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and discover your place in God’s family. (Paraphrased from The Message)

     Jesus’ words to us today are not just empty platitudes and promises about something that will happen at some point in the future.  No.  As Jesus speaks, his words to the people on that mountain and to each one of us announce a whole NEW world.  His words announce a whole new world that is breaking in upon us, a world that he is inaugurating, and a world he brings to us.  His words are all about the very real world of God, the very real world that becomes flesh and blood through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jesus calls and invites us to walk with him on the road he is walking, the road of God’s restorative justice for all people, the road of love and care for all our neighbors – all we consider “other” – the road that is truly a road of love.  This is the road where we will find the deepest, truest meaning in life.  This is the message the writer of Matthew’s gospel wanted to tell, because the truest gospel in this Sermon on the Mount is Jesus, the One who gives the sermon, the inaugural address:  he is the sermon made flesh.  (Feasting on the Word, p. 240)   Blessed are you if you are on that road!

This is a special musical presentation of a Flute solo of Great is the Lord by Gwynne Kadrofske at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

For those of you familiar with William Shakespeare’s work, you will remember that one line from his play The Tempest is “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”  Over time, that line has morphed into the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.”  Now, quite honestly, politics making strange bedfellows is by no means a recent development.  This has probably happened throughout the history of humanity.  And, we find that is exactly what is happening in today’s gospel reading as the Pharisees and Herodians team up to trick and trap Jesus.

For the past few weeks, we have been journeying with Jesus through the last week of his life, a week that has been intense to say the least.  Just a few days before today’s confrontation, Jesus had entered Jerusalem where he was greeted by throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Then there was that incident where he overthrew the tables of the Temple moneychangers.  Jesus has spent the week challenging both the political and religious powers that be.  He has been doggedly confronted by the religious leaders who are questioning the authority behind his actions.  And, he has called into question the religious leaders’ authority by telling illuminating, confrontational parables.  So, today, we discover the Herodians and the Pharisees team up to trap the itinerant, rabblerousing, peasant rabbi known as Jesus. 

To better understand what is happening in this story, we need a little bit of background information.  Jews in first century Palestine paid a lot of taxes. There was a temple tax; there were also land taxes, customs taxes, and trade taxes to name just a few more. The tax mentioned in today’s reading was yet an additional tax, one particularly despised by the Jews - it was called the Imperial Tax.  This tax was required as a tribute to Rome to support the Roman Empire's occupation of Israel. Think of that for a moment - first century Jews were required to pay their oppressors a yearly tax to support their own oppression! 

It is also helpful to better understand these two groups of people – the Herodians and the Pharisees.  The Herodians, on the one hand, saw themselves as having power derived from Rome.  As their name suggests, they were a family political party related to and allied with Herod Antipas, the local puppet ruler supported by the Romans. They were local sympathizers with the Roman rulers and, not surprisingly, the Herodians supported paying tax to Caesar because they benefited from it.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, were also a political party, as well as religious scholars.  They were committed to every detail of Jewish law.  They aligned themselves more closely with the occupied and oppressed and, for religious reasons, they opposed paying tax to Caesar.  Their opposition to paying the Imperial Tax was based less on the fact of occupation and more on the special coin that had to be used to pay this particular tax. You see, this coin – a denarius, worth a day’s wage – carried the inscription or likeness of Tiberius Caesar.  And, the Romans considered Caesar the divine son of Augustus.  This inscription or likeness was overtly offensive to the religious leaders, and within Jesus’ community the inscription spoke both of oppression and of blasphemy.  Thus, in Jesus' time, any conversation about the Imperial Tax was very divisive and immediately revealed where one stood in relation to Rome and faith.

Anyway, these two oppositional groups of people, the Herodians and the Pharisees, invoke a temporary truce as they try to trick Jesus, believing they finally have him cornered.  They present Jesus with a question that poses a political conundrum, and they await a political response.  They ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”  By asking this question, they know that if Jesus declares it lawful, he might acquit himself with the Roman authorities, but the crowd of followers would turn against him because it would scandalize the religious establishment.  And, if he rules against it, he positions himself against Rome, a position nobody in their right mind would willingly seek.  Brilliantly, Jesus responds by widening the question so that it has little to do with politics.  He says, “Show me the coin used for the tax.”  They quickly bring him a denarius.  Then, Jesus asks, “Whose head is this on the coin and whose title?” Thinking they finally have Jesus ensnared, they respond by saying, “The Emperor’s.”  

Now, everyone in attendance knew the commandments and they knew that Jesus had just trapped the trappers in their own blasphemy according to Jewish law.  To understand what Jesus has just done, listen to the way David Lose describes what just happened. He writes: 

There’s more going on here than meets the eye, [because] along with that image is an engraved confession of Caesar’s divinity, which means that any Jew [even] holding the coin is breaking the first two of the commandments.  All of which leads to Jesus’ closing line, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  And with this one sentence, Jesus does not simply evade their trap or confound their plans, he also issues a challenge to his hearers that reverberates through the ages into our sanctuaries.

Now, to even more clearly understand this, if we look at verse 20, a better translation of Jesus’ question would be, “Whose likeness is this, and what title?”  And, when the good Jewish religious leaders hear these words, their minds will automatically think back to their Jewish scriptures and the book of Genesis.  They will automatically reference God’s pronouncement and promise in Genesis, chapter one, where we read:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;”

Jesus’ words are powerful words for the Herodians, the Pharisees and for us.  His response calls the Pharisees, the Herodians, and us to think about the way in which we are called to live.  The key question here is not whose image is on the coin but rather whose image is on us! Whose image is on our hearts? Jesus is calling us to remember our identity. You see, what Jesus is really reminding us of is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are not gods, but we bear God’s likeness and we are to act as God acts regarding the way we live in relationship to all others and the way we live as good stewards of all we have been given.  We are to bear the same characteristics God shows to us as we live in relationship to God, to all other people and to creation itself.  Jesus is saying that we are called to serve as God’s agents and God’s co-workers, not as an act of power but rather as an act of stewardship, as we work to extend the abundant life God wishes for all people and even all of creation.

As we go through our daily lives, making decisions and interacting with all kinds of people, it is often easy to forget in whose likeness we and they are made.  God is always calling us back, to turn again to him and remember that our primary identity is to live as God’s children, live as God’s good stewards of all that we have been given, and act like the God we see in Jesus!  And, while Caesar or Empire will get many of our coins, each of our lives is marked with God’s likeness, an icon of the One who is its source and destination, as we embody the kingdom of God.  While our currency bears the image of Empire, baptism is the watermark of our true currency, the inspiration for all that we do, the choices we make, and for the many ways in which we live as God’s stewards of all that we have been given. 

The point of this Jesus story is that we are called to live remembering that each one of us has been made in the likeness of God. God loves you. God loves you so much that God keeps your picture in the divine wallet and on the heavenly refrigerator. Jesus did not care about the tax – his real concern is that you live into the image and likeness of the God who lovingly created you.  And, that means living in such a way that you love God with all your heart and that you truly love your neighbor, and that means all others, as you love yourself and as God loves you!  This is the best word we can receive, and it is the best word you can share with others.

I am really exhausted by the chaos, the perpetual lies, the brokenness, the dysfunction, the hatred, the stoking of racism and white supremacy, the despair, the gaslighting, the lack of care for neighbor, the abuse perpetrated on the American people, the grief, the sorrow, and the increasing number of deaths from this virus, all of which seem endless as they impact our lives on a daily basis.  So, I found the readings we are given on this day to be medicine for my soul as God again breaks into our present reality with a message that can only come from God.

In our first reading from Isaiah, the prophet shares this vision of another reality, the final future, God’s final future.  Isaiah was writing to people who were suffering and experiencing despair.  Writing after or close to the end of Israel’s tragic exile to Babylon, he presents this apocalyptic vision of hope to weary people. Isaiah describes a future messianic banquet that is all about God and God’s love for all people. 

I think mealtime is always an important event, and meals are a vital component of celebrations. Meals are integral elements of milestones such as weddings and funerals, which involve life’s larger story, changing life’s direction and meaning not only for those most intimately involved but also for the wider community.  Thus, mealtime is so much more than just food.  And, throughout scripture, the table, the meal, the banquet, and the party repeatedly serve as metaphors for God’s activity in the world.

Isaiah shares this marvelous vision of God’s final future and does so by describing a feast.  He describes this universal banquet that will take place on God’s holy mountain. This extravagant feast is for all peoples. All nations will gather together as one for this magnificent celebration.  And, what a feast it is! It features the very best foods and wines. In my mind, I envision steak and lobster, a good glass of cabernet, and all sorts of gourmet, delectable dishes!  It is the ultimate food and wine festival!  God serves as the extravagant host of this party and God spares nothing to make this a lavish, luxurious banquet for all peoples. But Isaiah’s vision does not end there.  You see, God’s plans extend even further because even death itself will be sent away and defeated, and all who mourn will be comforted. This is such good news today! The shroud of death that is cast over all people will be gone because God will swallow up death forever.  There can be no grander promise than this, and the promise could not be more universal. God will destroy death and wipe away all tears!  Such words of promise and hope are lifegiving, so needed in this present time.  With so much death presently permeating our lives, I long for that day when death is swallowed up forever. 

Today, Jesus also tells a story about a great banquet.  And, quite honestly, this is a bizarre story!  In fact, Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, calls this the “worst parable ever!” I tend to agree with her.  Nadia also talks about how you often need to turn your head a thousand different ways to make sense of Jesus’ parables because Jesus does not define the characters for us.  We are not told “this person is God,” or “this person is Jesus,” or “this person is you.” Quite honestly, Christian literature includes many different people throughout history taking a hack at Jesus’ parables and coming up with any number of possibilities that help reveal deeper truths. And, truthfully, we need to see the characters interpreted in a variety of ways so we can grow in understanding.

Anyway, Jesus has already told a few stories after entering the temple and being questioned by the religious leaders about his authority. His first two parables were intense, but this third one is downright extreme. Jesus also ups the ante by beginning with the lead in or teaser, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”  Well, with these words he gets the attention of the religious leaders!  Anyway, Jesus begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” Now, the immediate kicker is that no one who is invited to the party comes. Huh? The king, a person to whom nobody ever says, “no,” suddenly is not even getting RSVPs!  People simply are not showing up.  And this is only the beginning of the absurdity.

So, the king sends out his slaves with a message of good food, good smells, and good company with the king.  Some of the people laugh and walk away, while other people kill the king’s messengers.  Then, the king throws a king-sized hissy fit – kills the people who were invited but did not show up, and he burns down their city.  After this horrific behavior, he sends his slaves out to invite everyone, good and bad, so he can fill the wedding hall with guests.  Finally, when one man comes and is not wearing a wedding robe, he has him bound hand and foot and thrown in the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!

Frankly, one horrifying aspect of this parable is indeed the king and his actions.  It is really hard to make sense of this parable and there have been multiple interpretations where, astoundingly, the king is God.  That is even more troubling.  So, for these reasons, I am going to share Nadia’s telling of this story.  She writes:

Our parable for today is a real doozy.  Here’s how I heard it: A king throws a wedding banquet and invites the other rich, slave-owning powerful people. Seemingly unimpressed by the promised veal cutlet at the wedding feast, the elite invitees laugh at the invitation and proceed to abuse and then kill the slaves of the king.  Well, then the king kills them back.  But he doesn’t stop there, not to be outdone, he burns down the city… and it is there amidst the burning carnage of the newly destroyed city that he sends more slaves to go find whoever they can to fill the seats. After all…the food is ready and he has all these fancy robes for the guests. All he cares about is having every seat filled at his big party. But who is left?  He burned the city. The rich and powerful have been murdered so it’s the regular folks wandering the streets looking for their dead, picking apart the charred debris of their burned city who are then told that they have no choice but to go to the party of the guy responsible — and it’s already been established that he doesn’t respond well if you turn him down.  So, the terrified masses show up and pretend that this capricious tyrant didn’t just lay waste to their city.  Out of fear they all dutifully put on their wedding robes given them at the door and they pretend. Slipping on a gorgeous garment was what you did for a king’s wedding feast. And the guests got to keep the outfits, just a little souvenir of the king’s generosity – and a reminder to keep in line. You don’t get anything from the empire without it costing you a bit of your life. 

Well, our story ends with these well-dressed survivors looking on as the King spots the one guy at the banquet who isn’t wearing a wedding robe.  And when the innocent man has nothing to say for himself the king has this scapegoat hogtied and thrown into the outer darkness. “Many are called but few are chosen” he says.

Wow!!  Nadia’s interpretation of this story blows my mind, but I like where she is going in her interpretation. First, we must remember that Jesus’ audience lived during a lot of upheaval and turmoil.  They lived under the thumb of the Roman empire. They were no strangers to moody tyrants burning cities. That was the kind of thing they feared.  And, at the time when Matthew wrote his gospel, Christians were being persecuted and Jerusalem had already been destroyed.  Furthermore, as we look at the king in this story, we must remember that the God we worship in Jesus Christ is not a powerful king, but a servant. Jesus does not kill his enemies and burn their cities. He is the one killed by his powerful enemies for refusing to go along with them.  So, Nadia concludes by saying:

…the kingdom of heaven is like: a first century Jewish peasant who laughed at the powerful, kissed lepers, befriended prostitutes and ate with all the wrong people and whom the authorities and the powerful elite had to hog tie and throw into the outer darkness.  …the kingdom of heaven is like Jesus.  And what if it is from this place of outer darkness that everything is changed?  It is in the outer darkness of Calvary where death is swallowed up forever. 

Friends, the tomb of Christ has already swallowed up death forever. Jesus, in his life, ministry, death and resurrection defied the usual world order and empire, and Christ’s defiance of the usual world order sets us free!  We live into the reality that Christ has already swallowed death.  Even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the risen, universal Christ draws us into life right now!  Because of Christ we can defiantly sing our “alleluias.” And, as St. Paul says, we can rejoice in the Lord always because the Lord is truly near, even in the depth of our present experience.  And, the peace of God, which truly surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. 

Yes, the tomb of Christ has already swallowed up death, and we have been set free to rise up and defiantly live into God’s new reality!  So, rise up and live!

This is a special musical presentation of Standing on the Promised sung by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

Friends, this past week has been one for the record books.  I don’t care which side of the political spectrum you happen to support, what we saw on Tuesday night can only be described as bullying, mean, cruel, and abusive. Such behavior is not ok!  It is not ok in public life, it is not ok in private life, it is not ok in civilized society, it is not ok if you have any care for the common good, it is not ok as we live in relationship to others, and it is the antithesis of how we are called to live as people of faith.  As I continue to ponder the events of the past week, let alone the events of 2020, I have truly been feeling a deep sense of lament and enormous grief about what is happening in this country.  I have also been thinking about today’s readings and, oh my, do they ever speak to us today. 

In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah begins by singing a love-song concerning his beloved’s vineyard.  When looking at Isaiah’s words, I think he gains the attention of his listening audience when he begins to sing what sounds like a beautiful love-song.  And, like us, the people who listened to Isaiah’s song likely expected to hear a ballad with a happy ending.  Isaiah sings of how God, his beloved, did everything possible to set up a healthy, thriving vineyard. He tells of how God spared no effort to create an environment conducive to success.  The soil was fertile and cultivated; the stones were removed; only the finest quality vines were planted; a watchtower was built in the middle of the vineyard; and a wine vat was built in preparation for the harvesting and processing of the grapes. The love-song is most pleasant to the ears, and listeners’ heartstrings are touched by the nurturing care of the beloved. Yes, the prophet Isaiah is serenading us with such a beautiful love song.

         But wait, before you are lulled to sleep with these tender words, listen to what follows. As the iconic Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Isaiah’s love-song is transformed into a song of hard-hitting judgement and lament.  Out of the blue and very unexpectedly, this gentle love song is suddenly transformed into a condemning, raunchy, deafening heavy-metal rock-and-roll song.

         In any case, the irony of the song comes to the forefront when Isaiah, speaking for God, asks the people of Jerusalem and Judah to “judge between me and my vineyard.”  In other words, the people are asked to judge between God on the one side, and Jerusalem and Judah on the other.  In an agonizing song of judgement and lament, God tells the people that there is nothing more God can do to guarantee the success of God’s own vineyard.  God had done everything that could possibly be done. And, quite honestly, implied here in the song is the human freedom that God gives us. In the song, God the beloved expects the best from God’s people: “God expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” And, by the way, a more literal translation of “wild grapes” would be “stinking things.”  So, the consequences of freedom being misused or abused is that a well-cared for vineyard becomes neglected and turns into a dried-out wasteland of briers and thorns and stinking things!

         The concluding verse of the song makes it abundantly clear that the vineyard represents God’s chosen people. God expected and hoped the people would ensure that there was justice for everyone in the nation. Instead of justice, the wealthy class of politicians and businesspeople were killing society’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Blood was on the hands of the rich and powerful members of society because their wealth was gained by cheating and robbing society’s poorest class. God expected and hoped for righteousness from God’s very own people. Instead, God heard a cry from the poor and oppressed. God expected God’s own people to look after the poor and oppressed; after all, those who were now blessed with wealth and the good life – had they and their ancestors not cried out to the LORD when they were poor and oppressed slaves in Egypt?  Had God not heard their cries and delivered them from Egyptian slavery? Why now had they abused their freedom and become selfish and greedy? They, with their blood money and ill-gotten riches were no better than their former enemy oppressors – the Egyptians.

         In our day and age, has anything really changed?  Don’t we hear stories of injustice and ill-gotten gain today? Our planet is moaning and groaning due to the selfishness and greed of a minority of the world’s population. 820 million people in this world experience hunger every day.  Increasingly, hateful, venomous words are spoken to others as words become weapons. Empathy for others and care for the common good seem to have become arcane, and a malignant focus on individual freedom is spreading like cancer.  We are living through a pandemic in which over 210,000 people in our own country have already died and it did not have to be this way. The plague of racism permeates every aspect of our culture and racism and white supremacy are even stoked by our country’s top leaders.  Countless numbers of people are hurting following recent hurricanes and fires. Do we hear the cries of suffering and how do we respond?  Are we really a caring society?  Quite honestly, it seems there are presently a plethora of wild grapes and stinking things in our vineyard.

          God’s love, care, and protection come with an expectation:  justice and righteousness.  These are the fruits God longs to see flourish in us.  The blessings and nurture we receive are meant to result in right social relationships.  Justice and righteousness are not things we practice for extra credit; they are the main point.  God is not content until the blessings we receive are shared fairly with all people.  If this fruit is not produced, the consequences may be that God allows us to have our own way and leaves us to our own devices.

          In today’s gospel reading, Jesus borrows Isaiah’s words when he tells the allegorical parable of the Wicked Tenants.  God, the landowner, has called us to work in the vineyard of the world.  But, we decide we want the fruits of the land for ourselves and we refuse to give back to God that which is rightfully God’s.  And we beat and mistreat and murder those who would call us to be responsible.  And what does God the landowner do in response?  God just keeps sending servants, until finally God sends God’s own Son, who also is mistreated and ultimately killed.  However, my friends, the good news of this story is that God goes to such great lengths for us because God never gives up on us!  This is the amazing part of Jesus’ story, and the part that is too often missed.  Like the crazy landowner in this parable, God is constantly working to establish a relationship with us, and God never gives up, no matter how many servants are treated badly.  It really does not seem sensible.  And, that’s the thing about God’s grace – it isn’t sensible, it isn’t logical – it just abundantly is!

          This parable Jesus tells is about the extravagant grace that God has for us and for all people!  Jesus is illustrating how God goes to extravagant, excessive, even illogical and crazy extents to shower this love and grace upon us.  And no matter how many times we reject God, God keeps at it.  God keeps working on establishing a relationship with us!

          So, as I continue to reflect upon the events of this past week, the burning west coast, damages from hurricanes and storms, chaos and hatred that daily spew forth from our country’s leadership, the lack of compassion and love as people interact with others, today’s readings not only call all of us to repentance, they also remind us of a God who never gives up on us.  God’s Son is continually redeeming creation, and this God never lets us forget that we are the characters in God’s divine love song. God is always showering us with immeasurable grace and love.  And, as a tenant in the vineyard, I can only respond by working to bear good fruit.  As people of faith, we respond to God’s immeasurable grace by bearing the sweet grapes of love, care and forgiveness, and letting God use us as we work for peace, righteousness, loving kindness, mercy and God’s restorative justice for all people.      

This is a special musical presentation of Majesty by Addie Thompson and Deb Borton-McDonough on handbells.

Charles Campbell, professor of homiletics at Duke University, when commenting on today’s gospel reading, shares this memory and amusing thought.  He writes:

A few years ago, while channel surfing, I paused and watched part of an interview with television psychologist and celebrity Dr. Phil.  At one point the interviewer asked Dr. Phil, “If you could interview anyone in the world, past or present, who would it be?”  Dr. Phil replied, without hesitation, “Jesus Christ.  I would really like to interview Jesus Christ.  I would like to have a conversation with him about the meaning of life.”  As soon as Dr. Phil spoke, I remember thinking, “Oh no, you wouldn’t!  You would not want to sit down with Jesus, treat him like an interviewee, and ask him about the meaning of life.  You would be crazy to do that.  He would turn you upside down and inside out.  He would confound all your questions and probably end up telling you to sell everything you own, give the money to the poor, and come, follow him.  No, Dr. Phil, you do not really want to interview Jesus, and I do not want to either.  It would not go well.”

          Dr. Campbell’s point in telling this story is that conversations with Jesus are dangerous conversations.  They are very dangerous because Jesus is always going to twist and turn your thinking, leave your head spinning, take you to new places, and leave you feeling confounded.  Jesus cannot be captured or made to fit into our preconceived notions or perspectives.  Jesus is always going to be moving us beyond the safety of our preconceived notions, perspectives, and ideas about God.  And, quite honestly, when one of these dangerous conversations takes place, the participants will rarely leave the encounter singing a hymn like, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus!”

          As we encounter Jesus today, it is the final week of his life.  Just one day earlier, he had entered Jerusalem accompanied by shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David,” as people were proclaiming him king.  He then went to the temple and literally turned the tables, knocking them over as he drove out the money changers.   He said the temple itself had become “a den of robbers.”  It had been an eventful day, to say the least.  Things are becoming intense and there is growing, even violent controversy between Jesus and the temple leadership.  So, as we enter today’s reading, it is the morning of the next day, and Jesus has returned to the temple.   As he enters, he is confronted by the chief priests and elders of the people who try to trap him with a question about authority.  They think they are the ones who are in charge and they have ultimate authority at the temple.  And, they demand to know, “By what authority are you doing these things?”  Believing they have control and are in charge, they are ready to challenge whatever Jesus says. 

          Well, the chief priests and elders discover that challenging Jesus results in some very dangerous conversation.  What they are not prepared for is hearing that Jesus’ authority comes not from another human being but from heaven.  Jesus avoids their trap and figuratively turns the tables on the religious leaders with a thorny question of his own, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin.”  This is a very dangerous question because, in making a commitment about John’s authority, the religious leaders would also make a commitment about John’s witness to Jesus – and thus Jesus’ authority.

          Oh yes, the tables have really been turned and the interviewee has now become the interviewer!  Jesus outwits the religious leaders, places the question back on them and unmasks their deepest priorities and concerns.  You see, the religious leaders are not really interested in Jesus’ true identity, and they are not interested in discovering how God would have them respond to Jesus.  No, what they are really interested in is maintaining their privilege, power and control and they want to keep their current order intact.  They want to keep Jesus in their tidy little box or have nothing to do with him.

          Yes, this was a dangerous conversation indeed!  The religious leaders are left speechless and the interview appears to have ended.  But, Jesus does not stop.  He knows they are off balance and confounded and so, he tells them a story – one of his favorite teaching tools.  He tells of two sons.  When the father directs the first son to go and work in the vineyard, the mouthy and rebellious son emphatically answers, “I will not go.” But then, he changes his mind and goes anyway.  The second son, who appears dutiful and obedient, answers that he will go, but then he does not.  When Jesus asks his questioners which of the sons did the will of his father, they say, “The first.” 

          Again, this is a very dangerous conversation, indeed!  According to this parable, those who are seemingly “in the know” (the religious leaders) are not the ones who are doing the will of God.  Wow!  The tables are again turned.  You see, Jesus’ stories and questions are seldom about right answers; rather, they are about calling his followers and his hearers to be transformed.  The question really is not “What is the will of God?”  It is a much, much deeper question of who belongs in God’s realm or kingdom.  And, through this exchange and his questions, Jesus convicts the scribes and elders of their lack of belief, and finally asserts that the despised, tax collectors and prostitutes will enter heaven before they will.  Talk about dangerous conversation!  This whole exchange begins with the “in the know” religious leaders authoritatively questioning Jesus, and it ends up with a pronouncement that they will be the ones who follow reviled tax collectors and shunned prostitutes into heaven.

          Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous conversations!  Jesus is not interested in simply talking with us about the meaning of life.  He is always confronting us with the issue of his identity and the call to faith in him.  Again today, Jesus is really asking the central question of the gospels: “Who do you say that I am?”  And, Jesus is not about small talk or beating around the bush.  Jesus wants our very lives, and he is going to do whatever it takes, even going to the extreme measure of ultimately dying on a cross, to unmask our deadly priorities, and call us to faith in him. 

          Friends, that call to faith is always a call to turn from the futile, deadly priorities in the world around us, to repent and turn back toward God, because then we find life that truly matters.  God desires that we live into life that truly matters.  Such life is the ultimate point in our reading from Ezekiel when we hear these words, “Turn, then, and live.”  When we do this, we discover that our world and our lives become changed, so changed that we will likely face some kind of disruption, find our preconceived notions shattered and our heads spinning.  But we also find that, when we turn toward God, we discover we are grasped by grace.  We then respond to God’s call and grace as St. Paul says, by “letting the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.”  And, we find God is truly at work within our lives.

          Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous, indeed.  We do not begin by interviewing Jesus, but by believing in him, trusting in his authority, and following him to the places where he goes.  And, in the process, our world is always going to be turned upside down and inside out, our heads left spinning and our tongues stammering.  We also discover that no matter how much we think we are in control and in charge, whether it be our own lives, the circles in which we function and live, or even the community of faith, we are not.  It is God alone who is in charge. 

Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous indeed.  Friends, just like the privileged religious leaders, we are always going to discover that our preconceived notions and perceptions of who Jesus is will always be shattered.  Jesus will never be captured or controlled or fit into our little boxes.  He is always going to disrupt the ways in which self-righteousness and privilege and piety and power try to control and manage.  Jesus will always elude our grasp so that we may be grasped by him and by God’s immeasurable grace and boundless love for all.  And, when we realize that we have been grasped by God’s grace, the tables have truly been turned.  Then, we can truly celebrate and live into a love that is indiscriminate, boundless in mercy, and life-giving for all. 

This is a special musical performance of The Lord's Prayer by Tammy Heilman at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

This is the Gospel and Sermon for Sunday, September 20. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton is reading Gospel this week and Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing provides the sermon.

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, there was a businessman who owned a small vineyard in Napa Valley.  As the economy changed and larger corporations were increasingly taking over the market, he began to see the writing on the wall.  These larger vineyards were gradually squeezing out the smaller businesses, competition was becoming increasingly challenging, and he knew he would be facing major difficulties in the foreseeable future. 

Therefore, he finally decided to sell while his business was still doing rather well.  However, he wanted to give his workers one last holiday bonus.  Ever since he first started the business, he had given his workers a holiday bonus based on the company’s yearly profit and each individual’s time on the job.  And, the past year of operations had been a reasonably good one, so he decided to do something wild and crazy and give everyone a very generous bonus.  Not only would everyone receive more than they had during the previous few years, each would also receive equally the same amount.  There would be no differentiation based on the time each person had spent working for his company.  In other words, if you were simply on the payroll as of December 22nd, the day the checks were written, you got the bonus!

When the envelopes were first opened, it seemed everyone was thrilled to see the amount of his or her bonus.  However, as people began to slowly share information and compare checks, guess what happened!  Voila!!!  It was today’s gospel story in Matthew, chapter 20, all over again!! 

The business owner could not believe it.  He had tried to do something good for everybody and now he was getting angry phone calls from people who had just received larger bonus checks than they had ever gotten before, but were upset that everyone received the same amount.  Envy and greed had become more important than what they had received.  The long-time workers thought they had not been treated fairly.  And, the business owner had to ask, “Are you envious because I am generous?”

Well, the truth of the matter is, yes.  Not only are we human beings greedy and envious, as I mentioned last week, we are also great scorekeepers and bookkeepers. In fact, we love to keep score.  And, when it comes to a person’s just reward for actions, work or whatever, we turn into some top-notch bookkeepers.  We love to keep score and we are oh so good at it!!  We keep score of day to day relational stuff that goes on within our families, wanting everyone to be treated fairly, yet quite often acting as though there is not enough love to go around.  We keep score of the stuff that happens at work.  We not only want everyone to be treated fairly for their efforts, but we also do not want to lose out on any rewards for ourselves.  And, when it comes to fairness and score keeping between businesses, organizations, communities and countries, well…..all we need to do is take a look at the news headlines and the world around us.  Yes, we want to be treated fairly, especially if we can benefit from that treatment. 

In today’s reading, Jesus again tells a story about the reign of God, the household of the community of God’s people.  He tells of a crazy landowner who treated his laborers equally, regardless of the disproportionate hours they worked.  And, Jesus’ story seems to suggest that when it comes to life in the kingdom of God, there is an element of what we would consider unfairness.   His words to us today are unsettling and they shatter our perceptions of fairness.  His words cut right through the ordered world we try to create. 

Yes, we want an ordered world in which everybody gets what we consider to be their just reward, what we consider fair.  Friends, this perceived order and desire for what we consider fair is as old as humanity itself.  When looking at our other readings for today, we discover that even Jonah struggled with his perception of what he considered fair and not fair.  God forgives the people of Nineveh, but Jonah begrudges forgiveness for his enemies.  And, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul also addresses this issue.  When we are deeply divided and see others as undeserving enemies, Paul reminds us that only because of God’s unending forgiveness for both sides of every quarrel or disagreement, can we really accept one another and live in unity. 

Friends, the truth of the matter is that Jesus invaded this world to create a new order, an order that replaces our order, our individual, cultural and social assumptions of what is fair and not fair.  The disciples have been struggling to understand this in-breaking reign or kingdom of God, this new order Jesus has been talking about.  They have been operating out of the existing social framework and mindset with which they had grown up and were so familiar.  They, like each one of us, have assumptions and understandings of the way the world should work, assumptions that include keeping score of rich and poor, superior and inferior, those who are in and those who are out – a list that goes on and on and on….  Then, Jesus goes and messes it all up by telling a story that again unsettles us.  His story undercuts and interrupts our assumptions.  But, through his words, he creates the possibility of something very new.  Jesus gives us words to “envision the new order of God and unmask the deadly spirits and inequality of the old order.”  (Feasting on the Word, p. 95)

Jesus holds before us God’s vision and desire for this world, a vision where all are treated equally.  Jesus holds before us a new reality that undermines the old distinctions and the competitive struggle with which we are all so preoccupied.  Theologian Warren Carter, describing Jesus’ story and the landowner’s surprising payment to the workers, says:

Instead of maintaining differentiation among the laborers based on performance, instead of reinforcing the superiority of some at the expense of the rest, the landowner has evened out the distinctions and treated them in solidarity as equals.  Instead of using wages to reinforce distinctions, he uses [wages] to express equality and solidarity. (Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading, p. 394.)

Yes, Jesus describes a new social order and his words painfully expose the suppositions of the existing social order that has shaped us.  I love what Professor Charles Campbell writes when describing Jesus’ words.  He says:

[Jesus’ story] exposes the fundamental metaphors that so often structure social relations:  winner and loser, superior and inferior, insider and outsider, honored and shamed.  It unmasks an order that often encourages us to pray, ‘Give me this day my daily bread,’ rather than, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’” (Feasting on the Word, p. 97.)

While Jesus’ story makes us face some of our individual, social, and cultural assumptions, the biggest truth about today’s gospel reading is that this story is NOT about us.  Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!!!  Ultimately, Jesus’ story is not really about us at all!  Jesus’ story is really all about the endless generosity and amazing graciousness of God!  His story is really about a God who, like the crazy landowner, bestows unmeasured grace and mercy to all people, regardless of how deserving or undeserving we think people to be. 

The reality is that God’s generosity and grace disrupts, undercuts, and violates our assumptions and opinions about the way this world should be ordered.  The good news is that the grace of God is showered upon all in equal measure. The good news is that with God, there is no such thing as “partial benefits!”  The good news is that God’s love never runs out and it comes to us as an inexhaustible supply!  In fact, the good news is that God is a lousy bookkeeper!  The good news is that, in the cross, we see a God who loves us so much that we can let go of all our bookkeeping and scorekeeping efforts, and live into the love and grace that has been poured upon the world, in fact poured upon the cosmos!  And, when that happens, we will find much greater joy in living.