It would seem the vineyard image is appropriate for this time of year. I’ve read that the Napa Valley is expecting a great crush this year. In Amador County, here in California, there is weekend tasting and festivities in honor of the harvest vintage. Maybe some of our people are there right now, or wish they were.
Jesus frequently used agricultural motifs to make his point. This time in the story of the vineyard he prepares his disciples for the suffering and rejection ahead of him; just a week away. The leaders of Israel and the leaders of Judaism will reject him, just as they rejected the message of the prophets, represented by the slaves who came for the harvest in the story. So the theme today then is “Would You Also Reject Him?”
Let us probe for a moment why indeed we may reject him. We are told that a landowner, who represents God, planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. Isn’t this sometimes our problem with God and why we may reject him? He has seemingly gone away. The Psalmist refers to these moments in the Christian’s life when he says “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” Leslie Brandt ponders these moments in a paraphrase of Psalm 69: “Oh God, don’t let me go down the drain. Respond, in your great love, to my unhappy plight. Raise me from the mire of despair, the darkness of depression. Deliver me from these human weaknesses that beset me and lead me into defeat.” At times, even good Christians sense God’s silence. He is the great Deus Obsconditus; Latin for the hidden God, who has gone away on a journey.
I don’t think God is hiding from us. But it would appear that way. Even on my good days, I find myself succumbing to a deep despair that our culture has rejected God – something I didn’t quite feel as much when I first began the ministry nearly 30 years ago. In this fleshly, silly, pagan, entertainment and pleasure oriented culture, that adults and young people and kids are all expected to mimic and enjoy, we find that like a suitor spurned, God has backed away. I have to check myself to see if I too have not casually waded into this culture, testing the waters a toe at a time, then up to my ankles, then my waist, and finally immersing myself in it, no different from anyone else – questioning the authority of Scripture, and thereby neglecting it, straying from the straight and narrow, going after pleasure and material blessings at the expense of spiritual ones -- Flicking off the Ten Commandments, and in the interest of tolerance, becoming a moral relativist. Have I joined the company of those whom St. Paul complained of who were only interested in the things of self rather than in the things of Christ. Will you share in a personal inventory then -- a true soul searching, if somehow we, who call ourselves Christian, have not also rejected Him, and at least as fellow travelers, joined the company of those religious leaders who rejected Jesus and even arranged for and participated in his death? The owner of the vineyard has left on a journey, but it would be well if when he returns, he finds us faithful and watching and working instead of pursuing selfish interests that leave us so unfulfilled.
But God has fulfilled us. He has filled our cup to overflowing, with goodness and mercy following us all the days of our life and the promise that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We find fulfillment in reflecting on the goodness of our heavenly Father who as the maker and owner of earth has placed us in the vineyard of life with blessing upon blessing, so much so that we start refusing them, preferring instead to become serious, cynical and joyless, lest we discover ourselves having too much fun in the abundant life that Christ has promised us. After all we Lutherans are part of the serious minded church that author and humorist Garrison Keeler picks fun on as people who feel that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while "passing the peace." Or who feel that applauding for their children’s choirs would make the kids too proud and conceited. Lutherans are those who feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the fellowship hall. And they may be those who usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.
So we must be careful that we don’t, like those in the parable of the vineyard reject him, forgetting these blessings -- failing to count them and consequently turn against God and his representatives – the Old Testament prophets, the apostolic writers of the New Testament, our pastors, teachers and Sunday school teachers, and our Christian parents and grandparents.
And let’s start at the beginning with our blessings, even as this Gospel has its start in the fruitful vineyard: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth.” I think one blessing we overlook, and as a result, makes it easier for us to stray and reject him, is God’s hand in creation. My wife and I were awestruck the other morning as we watched in the driveway above our heads flying in formation barely 20 feet over our heads a large flock of geese coming in for a landing no doubt at the nearby golf course, descending from who knows what location or elevation far in the north on their journey south. The Psalmist declares: “From thy lofty abode thou waterest the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy work. O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy creatures, who look to thee. May the Lord rejoice in his works.” As one scrolls down below all the disturbing news on the Internet Web page of the Sacramento Bee newspaper, one comes to a listing now of “Autumn color in the Sierra”-- where new photos of color - and even light snow - in the Sierra have just been posted. The listing includes a Fall Color Drive Map/Color Rating scale as fall continues to unfold.
Yes, we overlook the creator’s blessing and presence in music, art and the beauty of creation. We Lutherans have almost had to apologize for being the church of Bach and even for being Trinitarian. This is the danger in pietism; an over-emphasis on intimate kinship with Christ our Redeemer and His wonder and his mystery and his cross, that is as impossible to keep at a high pitched level as unrelenting feelings of love and romance are in a marriage. There must be peaks and valleys and plateaus, all the while supported by the forgiveness of sins found Word and Sacrament and the assurance, on account of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension to Glory – the assurance that he will never leave us nor forsake us, and works all things together for our good. By way of example, when Mary Magdalene stood outside the open tomb on Easter Sunday and finally recognized that the one she thought was the gardener was actually Jesus, she jumped all over him like a contestant on “The Price is Right” jumps all over Bob Barker. Jesus told Mary to stop clinging to him, for he had not yet ascended to his Father who was in heaven. Of course we must cling to Jesus. “Who have I in heaven but thee,” we must say with the Psalmist and with St. Augustine concur that “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.” “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling,” we resonate in the song: “Just As I Am without One Plea.” But that clinging is also found in the simple words of St. Peter after Christ had performed a miracle of the draught of fish, when Peter said: “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Those too are holy words no less than words of deep affection that come from the sweetest and best of our hymns and praise songs. They too are words worthy of our reflection as we are privileged to kneel and take the unmerited blessing of the forgiveness of sins, Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Today then, as workers in his vineyard, we once again offer him the best of our hymns, praises and song. Though faith and fervency may fade from brilliance and color like an autumn leaf, we know it will return. We can anticipate it in the smile and helping hand we offer others -- in the patience and long suffering we extend to those whom we find difficult to live and work with, and in our prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest time of year – the pattern of gold and yellow and red and orange against bright blue horizons.
The Holy Spirit who has brought us to faith will keep us in the faith, and keep us from rejecting the one in whom we live and move and have our being. For no one and nothing can snatch us out of his hand. Even the rejection of our Lord by man in the parable before us, could not keep God’s plan for our salvation from happening. Christ died; but he also rose and ascended on high to be given the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Indeed, the Father has blessed us. Our names are written in the book of life. And so we find it a privilege to set out to and continue to work in our Lord’s vineyard --in every season – spring, summer, fall and winter, and to respond to the many unique opportunities given us to gather in the harvest even as we await the Master’s return. Even so, come Lord Jesus. AMEN.
