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Pentecost 18A
October 4, 2020
Matthew 21:33-46
Philippians 3:4b-14
INTRODUCTION
Today’s Gospel will pick up right where we left off last week. You remember, Jesus has just marched triumphantly into Jerusalem (on Palm Sunday), has turned over the money-changers tables in the temple, and has generally upset the authorities. They have just asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you that authority?” Jesus responded with a trick question that they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer, and then a parable that calls out the religious and political authorities on the ways they have not fulfilled their duty to God. And now he will tell another parable, about wicked tenants who are called upon to care for a vineyard, but who are not merely negligent, but actively work against God’s kingdom. Jesus is not making any friends here – Matthew tells us that the chief priests and Pharisees start looking for a way to arrest him.
The Isaiah text will pick up on the vineyard theme, with a parable and love-song about how God cared for this vineyard and hoped for great things for it, but has been disappointed that it yields only wild, sour grapes. God is so grieved, he rips out the lot of it.
Both texts are about how people have squandered God’s providence, neglecting to seek justice and love. Neither of these delivers much in the way of good news, but you will find some solace and hope in the epistle, about how nothing we do or don’t do is more powerful than what Christ has done for us. As you listen, dwell in the hope of this promise! Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
On Thursday, news broke that one of President Trump’s closest advisors, who had been with him, unmasked, on Air Force One, had tested positive for Covid-19. By Friday morning, news had spread that both the President and the First Lady had also tested positive. On Saturday news broke that the president was showing symptoms as early as Wednesday. This weekend, we’ve learned of several people in Trump’s inner circle who have also tested positive, and many others who had close contact are at risk, including Vice President Joe Biden, and Amy Coney Barrett, whose formal nomination for the Supreme Court during an event in the Rose Garden last weekend is now suspected to have been a super-spreader event. It’s very unnerving that the most protected couple in the country, if not the world, is just as vulnerable to this virus as the rest of us.
As anyone could have predicted, in a country where feelings about the president and his administration range from devoted love to raging hatred, the responses to this news have been varied. I’m sure you have seen, as I have, the whole gamut, from deep concern on one end, to rejoicing on the other, to a shrug and recognition of irony saying, “That’s too bad, but he brought it on himself – I’m surprised it took this long.”
Some in our country are feeling angry. They’ve been frustrated all along that the president has been holding large, unmasked rallies, and has been inconsistent at best about wearing a mask, even mocking Joe Biden just this week for wearing a mask as often as he does. And now this negligence has placed hundreds of people, including much of our government, at risk. Some people are even further discouraged that the vulnerable public can’t seem to get any straight answers about who knew what and when, and what the president’s health status actually is. This anger, I think, is justified.
On the other hand, many are taking seriously the biblical mandate to “pray for kings and those in high positions,” and are now doubling down on their prayers, perhaps including not only the Trumps, but also adding the increasing number of people on Capitol Hill who are testing positive or are in harm’s way. This is a good and faithful response. We don’t want any of God’s children to suffer, regardless of how we feel about them, and it is our duty as people as faith who are also citizens to pray for the president, both in sickness and in health. This is a good and faithful response.
But I suspect for many Christians, people who are called upon to love and pray for our neighbor, there is actually a mixture of feelings going on – the ones I mentioned and a million others. How do you pray for the well-being of someone at whom you are enraged for their reckless endangerment of others? And even if that doesn’t describe you, I’ll add this: that while this is a Very Big and Important example, it is also not the only example of Christians being faced with the question of trying to produce the fruits of the kingdom in the midst of emotionally complex situations. We have all experienced that at some point!
“Produce the fruits of the kingdom” – that’s what Jesus is ultimately talking about in our Gospel reading today. The parable he tells is a difficult one, at least it is if we take it seriously and don’t assume that we couldn’t possibly be the wicked tenants in the story, the ones who have shunned God’s messengers and reviled them and not taken them seriously. I assure you, we have all, at some point, been confronted with God’s word, God’s call, God’s intention for the world and for us and said, “Nah, no thanks,” and done instead whatever it is that best serves us and our earthly desires. I know this because we are, all of us, captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We all make mistakes. We all think thoughts and do things we know are not what God would want. We all understand Paul’s lament when he says, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” So how, in emotionally complex situations, and with our sinful nature always within us, do we act in a way that produces the fruits of the kingdom?
First, we need to know: what are those fruits? And I think we all have a pretty good idea. Think: what do we believe is true, in God’s kingdom? That is, God’s eternal kingdom, but also the kingdom we pray would come to earth as in heaven, so that even now in this life we would be living as God intended. What orders such a godly life?
Well the first fruit of a godly life is… life! That’s what God is all about, after all, what he intended to give us by being born and dying and rising again. So a fruit of the kingdom is anything that brings about a fuller life, especially for those most in need. That is a consistent message of the prophets (traditionally understood to be represented in this parable by the servants the landowner sends to collect the harvest). The prophets preach a return to God’s path: care for the poor, release to the captives, freedom for the oppressed. In short, life, for those on the margins.
Another obvious fruit of the kingdom is love. Love of God and neighbor is a central commandment throughout the Hebrew Bible and of course in Jesus’ own teachings it is named as the commandment on which all the other commandments hang. That means love for those easy to love, of course, as well as those who are difficult to love, our so-called enemies – people with whom we disagree on important issues, people who aren’t taking simple measures to keep others healthy during a pandemic, people who make racist comments, people who are too obsessed with being politically correct, people who wish to undermine your rights or the rights of others you care about. Love them all, God says. This is a fruit of the kingdom.
And of course, Paul lays out nine fruits of the Spirit, that could also be considered fruits of the kingdom: in addition to love, also joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. Oh, some of those are particularly hard to harness when we are feeling so many complex emotions!
Okay, so with all that in mind, how does a God-fearing Christian who wants to produce fruits of the kingdom respond when a divisive President is diagnosed with a deadly virus, or when any situation arises in which our own emotions make it hard to be God’s kingdom people?
A good first response, I think, is always repentance. It is always important to recognize, as I said earlier, that we are all sinners in need of God’s grace, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Starting with repentance puts us in a space of humility, which is always more likely to produce fruit of the kingdom.
The next response is to pray. I suggest we start by praying for ourselves, that God would guide our thoughts, words and deeds, and not let the evil of sin guide our ways. If you aren’t sure even then what to pray, draw on the Holy Spirit, who God promised would “intercede for us with sighs too deep for words.” If you just need to sigh deeply for a while, letting the Spirit supply the words, God will surely hear those prayers, and you will surely not regret the additional oxygen, proven to lower anxiety! If you would prefer to have some words to pray, “thy will be done” is always a good and faithful option.
If you are in a place to pray more words, remember that God is foremost a God of life. So pray for life, and whatever it is that will bring that about most fully. One colleague of mine offered this prayer: “God of healing, God of shalom, we pray a prayer of healing and a release of bondage for the President of the US. We pray that he may be healed and released from all infirmities that hold him in bondage, including Covid-19, so that he may be transformed.” I’d be delighted if someone prayed that prayer for me – Lord knows I have plenty that is holding me captive, plenty of need for healing of body and soul, and a constant desire to be transformed into the woman God has envisioned for me to be. So as you pray, let an underlying hope for life and for transformation guide whatever prayers or interactions you have in response to the news or any challenging situation.
People of God, take a deep breath. Truly, do it right now. The whole country – the whole world! – is anxious right now. You know what is causing your anxiety, and no matter what it is, that anxiety is real and it is holding us back from producing fruits of the kingdom. Then, dear friends, remember that God is a God of life and of love, and so whatever it is that you have, or have lost, whatever credentials you may or may not have, none of that can affect God’s love for you, or your salvation that is from Christ. Our righteousness, as Paul writes to the Philippians, is from Christ, not from our own actions. So: give yourself a break. If you are not proud of the way you have acted, or spoken, or how you feel about this week’s news, know that Jesus still loves you, and that your righteousness comes through faith in Christ, not your own merits. God’s grace has got us covered.
And so, knowing that, we press on, trusting that Christ has made us his own, and has shown us the way toward life. May we ever seek to attain such life, for ourselves, for our enemies, and for all the vulnerable, all of whom God loves so very much.
Let us pray… Forgiving God, we are wretches who are deserving of a miserable death, yet you love us anyway. Draw us out of our fears and anxieties, out of our human captivity to sin, and into a life that produces the fruit of the kingdom. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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