Matthew
21.33-46
October 8, 2017
+ I’m sure you’ve noticed, but there is
a lot of zealous people out there, especially recently. There is no end of
people giving very impassioned opinions. Especially in the wake of the Las
Vegas shooting one week ago tonight, people on both sides of the issues are
giving very clear and defined opinions about gun control and politics. Just take a quick perusal of Facebook.
And, for the most part, being zealous
for something is not a bad thing by any means.
I would rather have someone zealous for an opinion with which I might
not agree than know someone lackluster. At least the discussion will be
interesting.
But this morning, I am going to ask you
a very important question:
What are you zealous for?
For what do you have real zeal, real
passion?
I know. Yes, some of us have real zeal
for sports. And certainly, here at St. Stephen’s, I know there is a lot of
zealousness for political opinion and causes.
As am I. I am very zealous politically, and
theologically, and spiritually, and poetically. You all know that. If I have an
opinion on something, you’ll probably know it in no time at all, even if you
might not agree with it. Trust me, I am
full of zeal!!
But zeal is a word we don’t use too
often anymore. And, at least in this part of the country, we are, for the most
part, uncomfortable with zeal. Zeal
equals emotion for any of us. And certainly zeal involves an emotional
attachment to something.
Now, as I said, it is not a bad thing
by any means to be zealous. It’s good to
be challenged occasionally (respectfully, of course). It keeps us on our toes. And it humbles us.
Well, this morning we definitely have
one of those parables that challenges us, that keeps us on our toes. It may even make us a bit angry and that
definitely forces us to look more closely at ourselves.
Let’s face it, it’s a violent story we
hear Jesus tells us today. These bad
tenants are so devious they are willing to kill to get what they want. And in the end, their violence is turned back
upon them.
It’s not a warm, fuzzy story that we
can take with us and hold close to our hearts.
The Church over the years has
certainly struggled with this parable because it can be so challenging. At face
value, the story can probably be pretty easily interpreted in this way: The
Vineyard owner of course symbolic of God. The Vineyard owner’s son of Jesus. The
Vineyard is symbolic of the Kingdom. And
the workers in the vineyard who kill the son are symbolic of the religious
leaders who will kill Jesus. From this view, we can see the story as a
prediction of Jesus’ murder.
But there is another interpretation of
this story that isn’t so neat and clean and finely put-together. It is in fact an uncomfortable interpretation
of this parable. As we hear it, we do
find ourselves shaken a bit. It isn’t a
story that we want to emulate. I HOPE
none of us want to emulate it. But again, Jesus DOES twist this story around
for us.
The ones we no doubt find ourselves
relating to are not the Vineyard owner or the Vineyard owner’s son, but, in
fact, the vineyard workers. We relate to
them not because we have murderous intentions in our heart. Not because we
inherently bad. But because we sometimes
can be just as resolute.
We can sometimes be just that zealous.
We sometimes will stop at nothing to get what we want. We are sometimes so full of zeal for something
that we might occasionally ride roughshod over others. And when we do so, we find that we are not
bringing the Kingdom of God about in our midst.
Zeal can be a good thing. We should be full of zeal for God and God’s
Kingdom. We too should stop at nothing
to gain the Kingdom of God. But zeal
taken too far undoes the good we hoped to bring about.
The most frightening aspect of our
Gospel story is the fact that Jesus tells us that the kingdom can be taken away
from us. It can be given to others.
Our zeal for the kingdom has a lot to
do with what we gain and what we lose. Our
zeal to make this kingdom a reality in our world is what makes real and positive
change in this world.
At the same time, zeal can be a very
slippery slope. It can also make us
zealots. It can make us fanatics. And this world is too full of fanatics.
There are plenty of good examples of
fanatics in this world right now, from the far right Evangelicals to ISIS to
those poor people in North Korea who are held hostage to a brain-washed religion-like
ideology. This world is too full of people who have
taken their religion so seriously that they have actually lost touch with it.
This story we hear Jesus today tell us
teaches us a lesson about taking our zeal too far. If we become violent in our zeal, we need to
expect violence in return.
And certainly this is probably the
most difficult part of this parable for most of us. For those of us who consider ourselves peace-loving,
nonviolent Christians—and we all should be that kind of a Christian—we cringe
when we hear stories of violence in the scriptures.
But violence like the kind we hear in
today’s parable, or anywhere else in scriptures should not just be thrown out
because we find it uncomfortable. It
should not be discarded as useless just because we are made uncomfortable by
it.
As I have said, again and again, it is
not just about any ONE of us, as individuals. It is about us as a whole.
If we look at the kind of violence we
find in the Scriptures and use it metaphorically, it could actually be quite
useful for us. If we take some of those
stories metaphorically, they actually speak to us on a deeper level. If we take the parable of the vineyard workers
and apply it honestly to ourselves, we find it does speak to us in a very clear
way.
Our zeal for the kingdom of God should
drive us. It should move and motivate
us. We should be empowered to bring the
Kingdom into our midst.
But it should not make us into the bad
vineyard workers. It should not make
into the chief priests and Pharisees who knew, full well, that they were the
bad vineyard workers.
A story like this helps us to keep our
zeal centered perfectly on God, and not on all the little nitpicky, peripheral
stuff. A story like this prevents us,
hopefully, from becoming mindless zealots.
What it does allow and commend is
passion. What it does tell us is that we
should be excited for the Kingdom.
True zeal makes us uncomfortable, yes.
It makes us restless. It frustrates us. True zeal also energizes us and makes us want
to work until we catch a glimpse of that Kingdom in our midst.
This is what Jesus is telling us again
and again. He is telling us in these
parables that make us uncomfortable that the Kingdom of God isn’t just some
sweet, cloud-filled place in the next world. He is telling is, very clearly, that is it not
just about any ONE of us. It is not
about our own personal agendas.
The Kingdom of God is right here, in
our midst. And the foundation of that
kingdom, the gateway of that Kingdom, the conduit of that Kingdom is always
love.
Love of God, love of neighbor, healthy
love of self.
This is what Jesus preached. That is
the path Jesus is leading us on. This is
the path we walk as we follow after him. And it is a path on which we should be
overjoyed to be walking.
So, let us follow this path of Jesus
with true and holy zeal. Let us set out
to do the work we have to do as workers in the vineyard with love in our heart
and love in our actions. And as we do,
we will echo the words we heard in today’s Gospel:
“This
is what the Lord is doing; it is amazing in our eyes.”
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