There is a prayer we used to pray during the offertory at church—many of you may remember it.
“All things come of Thee Oh Lord, and of Thine own have we given thee.”
In this prayer, we are reminded that those gifts that we offer back to God, were in fact received from God to begin with.
Our Gospel lesson today speaks to this truth.
When reading a passage of scripture, I often find myself looking for two things—the first is the good news that this passage proclaims. What does it tell me about the Kingdom of God? What does it tell me about the love of our Lord? Where is the liberation or the beauty or the healing proclaimed?
The second is the challenge — how is God using this word to challenge us to new things? To grow in our faith or to repent or to live more fully?
As you heard me sharing with the children earlier, I see such good news in this story, despite its rather somber overtones.
The good news I see is that God, God’s self is the Creator of this, our vineyard—and he tends us with care and provides a wall of protection and a watchtower to keep us safe, and in the winepress, God provides a way for the fruit of our labors to be used for such joy.
As I walk through my garden each day I feel a connection with each plant and tree. I long to see each one thriving and becoming its fullest self. And I imagine God seeing each of us in that same way. This is Good News.
But what about the challenge:
In this gospel reading today, Jesus is recollecting a familiar parable the people have heard before—from the scroll of Isaiah.
In Isaiah the story begins this way:
I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.
Then Jesus takes a turn. In the Isaiah passage the story is about the grapes themselves and why it is that they are not yielding fruit true to their nature—why they are sour, when they should be sweet, why there is bloodshed, where there should be justice, why there are cries of distress, where righteousness should reign.
But in today’s Gospel, Jesus turns and directs the focus of the story to the Tenants or the Vinedressers or Stewards of the land.
So to whom is it being addressed? Near the end of our Gospel reading it says that the chief priests and the Pharisees understand that Jesus is talking about them in his parable. And often it is preached as the vineyard is going to be taken away from them and given to us.
But anytime I hear about the Pharisees—I have learned that I should give a glance to myself as well. After all, the Pharisees were people who studied the Bible religiously as do I. They were people who tried to separate themselves from sinful actions as do I, and they were often leaders among the people as am I. And I dare to say many of these things might be true about you as well.
But we resist—the Pharisees are known as being a “Do as I say and not as I do” kind of people. They are known as being hypocrites in their walk of faith, judging others, but failing to look closely at their own failings. They are known for feeling proud when others notice how well they pray or how faithful they are in attendance.
I never do any of those things — or do I?
You never do any of those things — or do you?
In fact, I find it is always a good wake up call to check in my own life whatever the Pharisees are being challenged about.
So here goes. The term used in the Greek says that they are the Vinedressers, they are trained and capable stewards of the vineyard. And apparently in the story they are in fact bringing about a harvest of fruit.
So we look in our own lives — what gifts have we been given to use? What opportunities has God placed us in? What vineyard has he carefully built up and carved out and placed us in that we might bear much fruit?
And yet, like the Vinedressers in our story, we start thinking that we are the one working here. We have put in all this time on this vineyard or this job, We are the one who has invested ourselves in these children or this church. This is really ours — we are the ones who should reap all the benefits. We are the one who should get all the praise and all the credit.
Maybe we will just ignore those servants who have come to remind us that this is actually God’s thing — it’s God’s vineyard, or God’s work, or God’s children or God’s church. Maybe we will find a way to silence them so we can go on believing that it is really all Ours.
Maybe that is why the Landowner sent his Son—to remind them and us that it all actually belongs to Him and that God just asks us to tend the part we know how to tend and to listen to the breath of his spirit as he walks through the garden of our lives — to hear his heart rejoice as we bring forth gifts from our labors.
When my two-year-old godson is over at the house he loves to go into the garden — he loves to look to see if anything is ripe enough to pick. He giggles with delight when he finds a squash or a bell pepper that he can harvest — and sometimes he just pops them in his mouth and says, “Yum!” And sometimes he wants to run and show them to his moms or us.
He wants to share what he finds.
He doesn’t want to horde it.
He sees it all as gift and he is learning to be a caretaker of the garden.
To be gentle with the new flowers, to return earthworms to their homes,
learning that each plant needs water and light but in different amounts.
He is learning to respect everything — even the things he doesn’t understand.
I want to follow his example.
I want to be that kind of Steward -- the kind of Steward that rejoices in all that God has entrusted to me and shares it joyously with the world.
All things come of Thee oh Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.
