OCT. 2, 2005 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
IS 5:1-7; PS 80:7-14; PHPS 3:4b-14; MT 21:33-46
The Three R’s
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Many of you remember the old saying that a good education must include the three r’s. Can someone recall what those are for us now? Reading, wRiting and ’Rithmatic. I’ve always found it a little funny: in a phrase that praises the importance of a good education, two of the three r words… don’t actually begin with an r. There’s something not right about mis-spelling words in a slogan that endorses the need for good schooling.
But even with its creative use of lettering, we all understand what the phrase means. It’s about the basics, the ABC’s, the fundamentals of whatever endeavor we’re facing. Coaches, like teachers, are keenly aware of this truth about life. Often a team that struggles finds itself foundering… because it has wandered away from the basics.
In our Gospel for today, Jesus brings us back to the basics of our faith. In fact, it has been argued by some that this single episode captures the message of the entire Bible all on its own. But where the three r’s in education are Reading, wRiting and ’Rithmatic, here they have to do with Rebellion, Rejection, and Redemption. (My title, The Three R’s, by the way, is from our creative friend Pastor Bill Warren down at Anchorage Lutheran.)
You’ve just heard the gospel story about the workers in the vineyard who rebel against the owner. What’s a possible meaning for the parable?
Vineyard = world. Workers = us. Slaves = prophets. Son = Jesus.
And if we add all those elements together, how does it seem that the story has to end? What does it say about the intention of the owner (God)? That we had better watch out because God is angry and plans to take revenge… but on whom? Non-believers? Sinners? Pharisees?
Two things need to be said here. First, Jesus does not pronounce a word of judgment against the workers in the vineyard. That truth is just obvious. It’s a logical consequence of their actions. Even the Pharisees see the owner’s struggle and recognize his right to judge. But it’s not prescriptive (Do this or else); it’s descriptive (because of this, this is what’s coming).
So is that it? We workers have rebelled, killed the son, and are now just waiting until the owner returns to give us our due? Or is there another piece to the story that has yet to be told? And if so, what might that be? (Hint: check out Jesus’ prayer on Good Friday – Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing). As the Pharisees say in our gospel lesson for today, the owner of the vineyard has every right to put those wretches to a miserable death (v. 41). But for some reason, that’s not what happens.
As it turns out, revenge is not the final word spoken in the real-life drama that mirrors this parable. Instead of dealing harshly with us rebels and our rejection of the son, the owner: pronounces…pardon; freely offers forgiveness; announces amnesty and absolution; re-works redemption for all rebels.
It is a goofy sort of justice when you think about it…one that causes all of us at first to stub our toes against it, or, for a miserable few, be crushed by its weight, to refuse to abide such grace.
In the stage version of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, the police officer, Javert, is brought to a crisis that leaves him teetering on the edge of an emotional cliff.
It’s bad enough that his nemesis, the “criminal” Jean Valjean, has escaped the cop’s best efforts to return the man to jail. But now that ex-con has done something that has completely ruined the officer’s life.
The two men have just had an altercation in a deserted alley during the height of a riot. Valjean won, holding a knife to the officer’s throat…it was the perfect opportunity to get this guy off his back once and for all – literally to get away with murder. But, this sinner-turned-saint chooses a different path. He pulls back the knife, lets his enemy go unharmed, extinguishes the fires of revenge with the free flowing waters of forgiveness. Does anyone remember how the officer Javert responds to this gift?
He sings with pride and passion, I should have perished by his hand…it was his right. It was my right to die as well; instead I live, but live in hell…all because his enemy showed him mercy, forgiveness and love. This gift of redemption is too great a burden for his spirit to bear…so he ends his life.
In this gospel text I think we have set before us the very charter of the Church: return to the basics and live out our calling trusting that God’s passionate concern is as much for us, as it is for the people in our neighborhoods, and in our nation, and the nations of all the world.
Jesus asserts that all our schemes and schedules, all our projects and pursuits, all our deadlines and dead-ends will come to an end. It will happen either when we stub our toe against that cornerstone called the Christ, or when his gift of grace crushes our plans to punish those who cause us pain.
In truth, what we can count on is that everyone who comes in contact with Christ will come undone – will stumble or be crushed – but will also then be lovingly remade, from the bottom up and the inside out into a brand new person, built from the basics into a child of love, a child of God. Amen.