Homily:
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Growing grapes for producing wine is a process that
requires meticulousness and patience.
When starting up a new vineyard, one has to wait at least a couple of
years for the first “sweet” grapes, good for making wine, appear. For the “richer flavor” grapes, one has to
wait five or more years; and if anything harsh happens in between (like a hard
frost in late spring) the wait is even longer.
It’s a labor that can only really be taken up by one who is less
concerned about making a profit than about producing a good fruit.
Perhaps this is what makes the image of the vineyard and
the vinedresser such a popular one for parables in the Scriptures. In the ancient near east there were vineyards
everywhere, which made this image very accessible to just about everyone. And, because it presents an image of someone
who oversees and diligently cares for creation, it is also an appropriate image
for describing God’s involvement in our lives.
Today our scriptures offer us two different parables using the same
image that help us to shed light on our relationship with God and the
stewardship that he has given to us.
In both parables, God is portrayed as the dutiful owner of
the vineyard who does everything in his power to provide the perfect
environment for the vines to grow and produce a good fruit. Not only does he cultivate the land meticulously,
but he also places a hedge around it to protect it; and he even digs a wine
press in it, in anticipation of the good fruit that he expects the vines will
produce. In short, he does everything
any good vinedresser would do who wants to ensure a good harvest of fruit.
In Isaiah’s parable, we find that the owner of the
vineyard, when he comes in search of fruit from his vines, finds not the good,
sweet grapes ready for the press, but rather wild, bitter grapes which are no
good for anything except to be thrown out.
In the parable the vineyard owner asks “What more could I have
done?” The implied answer is, of course,
“nothing.” This also implies that the
failure to produce a good fruit is not the fault of the owner, but rather the
fault of the vines themselves and it is meant to be a conviction against the
Israelite people who had failed to keep God’s commandments, thus creating a
society full of corruption in which the poor suffer the most. For this, the prophet warns them, the Lord
will take away his protection from them and they will fall victim to the
militant nations that surrounded them.
It should not be hard for us to see ourselves in this
parable. Who here hasn’t been the
recipient of God’s gracious protection? And
who here, at some point in your life, hasn’t found yourself turning your back
on God’s commands, instead feeding your passions and, thus, producing “bitter
fruit”? In greater and lesser degrees,
we probably still find ourselves “producing bitter fruit” instead of the rich
harvest for which the Lord created us.
And is this because the Lord hasn’t provided everything for us? No!
Rather it is our own human weakness and tendency to use our free will
for our own selfish ends that produces such bitter fruit. Thus, this parable today should also be a
renewed call to each of us to turn from our selfish ways—daily if necessary—and
to seek first the building of God’s kingdom.
In Jesus’ parable in the Gopsel, we find that the owner of
the vineyard, after securing a good harvest of grapes, goes on a journey and
leaves his vineyard to others to tend in his absence. When the owner sends his servants to bring
him his harvest, the tenants turn against them: hoping to seize the harvest for
themselves. Showing an incredible amount
of patience with these rebellious tenants, the owner sends other servants, and
then his own son, hoping that the tenants will rethink their rebellion and turn
over the harvest. These they also kill,
as their greed for the harvest so overcomes them that they become blind to the
certain consequence of their actions.
The chief priests and elders name this consequence: the tenants
themselves will be killed and the vineyard will be given over to others who
will be loyal to the owner and give him the produce that is rightfully
his. Ironically, Jesus issues this as a
warning to the religious elite, the same chief priests and elders, who have
seized the Lord’s vineyard—his chosen people—for themselves; thus betraying the
stewardship that they had been given.
For us this is also a warning. As baptized Christians we have all been given
a stewardship in the Lord’s vineyard to tend his vines and produce a harvest of
fruit when the Lord comes to seek it. If
we simply come here week after week to “feed off of the grapes” but fail then
to go forth from here to preach the good news of salvation, to bring others to
Christ, and to work for justice, then we are no better than the wicked tenants
who refused to hand over to the vineyard owner the good fruit that he had
worked so hard to produce. Thus we also
condemn ourselves to the same disastrous fate that those wicked tenants would
suffer: to be cast out of the kingdom of God into the hell of eternal death.
Now it seems to me that, in both of these cases, there is
one common thing that is missing that leads each of these groups of people into
their rebellion against God; and I think that if we consider what they were
missing in the light of our own rebellions against God we, too, will find the
same thing missing. What is this thing? Gratitude.
Why did ancient Israel rebel against God and produce the bitter
fruit? Because they took God’s
graciousness to them for granted instead of remaining thankful for His vigilant
care. Why did the chief priests and the
elders act as they did to the prophets of God and to God’s Son himself? Because they allowed themselves to become
blinded by the authority they held instead of remaining thankful for the
stewardship that had been given them.
And why do we still sin against God?
Well, because it’s easier, right?
And why do we choose the easy way? Because we forget God’s graciousness to
us—and, thus, our debt to him—and so we use the gifts that he has given us to pursue
our own selfish ends; producing bitter fruit and failing in the stewardship with
which we have been entrusted.
My brothers and sisters, examine your lives and see if this
isn’t true: that whenever we fail to give thanks for the graciousness given to
us we become bitter and self-absorbed; but when we give ourselves to gratitude
we become gracious and more focused on others.
It is for this very reason that we gather each Sunday to celebrate the
Eucharist: to remind us of our need to give thanks for all that God has done
for us—most especially the gift of life and for the redemption won for us in
Christ Jesus—and to receive the grace to go forth from here to fulfill the
stewardship entrusted to us: to be missionary disciples for the building of
God’s kingdom, his vineyard, so that a rich harvest of souls might be produced.
You know, it’s no coincidence that the Scriptures are full
of images of vineyards and that we offer the fruit of the vine as part of our
thanksgiving offering here on this altar.
And so, my brothers and sisters, may our offering this day—and every
day—be the sweet fruit of gratitude for all that God has done for us in Christ
Jesus; and may we carry that gratitude forward to bring God’s blessings to the
world around us.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – October 8th, 2017
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