God’s Quality Control Crew
The Venerable Jon Clark
Matthew 21:33-46
Self-made or home-made. Those are phrases that fill people with pride, especially in this country, where for years “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” was the primary goal to attain.
A couple of weeks ago at St Stephens, I talked about the idea of working hard and feeling we deserve our own brand of “fairness” based on our measurement and success paradigms. Last week at St Andrews I talked about the politics of authority and winning through rhetoric rather than personal identity, faithfulness, and authenticity. Today, Jesus’ disputes with the Chief Priests and Pharisees continue as he addresses their “right to rule the roost,” even if it’s not their roost to rule.
But this too is not unfamiliar to us today. Our “right” to do what we please, when we please, and how we please governs much of our life. Each generation for the past 50 years has become more and more diverse in its opinions and beliefs–and the conviction that what we believe is equal to authority and truth. In fact, we as a culture have lost respect for authority, that is, any other authority besides our own thoughts and truth.
When you mix extreme diversity of opinions together with individualistic convictions of truth, what you get is an explosive cocktail. Welcome to 21st century.
And yet this scenario is not so different from 1st century Palestine, and especially first century politics.
The priests and pharisees, scribes and lawmakers were connected to their power and prestige, and their money. They kept a careful balance of power between Rome and the Jewish people through Temple politics. And they had no intention of allowing that power to slip.
They claimed to rule Temple administration but also became the legal system for the faith, and those legalities became more and more strict and stringent. Their world seemed efficient and definitely working, mostly to their advantage. But they forgot something very important. Their “land” didn’t belong to them.
That error in vision, that is, understanding our “place” in the fishbowl, is exactly what afflicts most all of us at any given time.
We think we are the rulers, when in actuality, we are the tenants, the servants.
Anyone here watch Downton Abbey? It’s become one of the most watched shows today. It’s so beloved that people are watching the series two, three, or more times.
The show centres around the dichotomies between the English aristocracy and the staff in service. It examines astutely their relationships, their aspirations, their feelings of ownership and envy, and their understanding of their role, identity, abilities, and place.
While some characters feel peeved about their servant role, others accept their place in the family gladly and take pride in their role.
In a sense, these kinds of personalities, feelings, and identity questions also come to play when it comes to our role in God’s world.
In Jesus’ parable for today, he speaks of a landowner, who is a metaphor for God, creator of the world and Lord of the “vineyard,” a metaphor for our “garden” world that we are required to “tend and till” on God’s behalf. In Jesus’ story, the crops and winepress are to be worked by the tenants of the property to create delicious wine that God will use to nourish the world with His love and grace. In other words, the job of the tenants is to “bear the fruit of the kingdom,” fruits such as love, grace, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and mercy. However, that’s not what happens.
Instead, the tenants begin to be tempted by power, money, prestige, and status, and they begin to believe that the vineyard is their own to tend as they see fit. Anyone who threatens their power and monopoly is eliminated.
In the story, the owner sends emissaries (or prophets if you will….referring to the prophets throughout history sent to guide and reboot the Jewish leaders in authority in the right directions of renewing their faith and loyalty to God) to collect the harvest. But those “in charge” kill them and go on as though the vineyard belongs to them. This goes on several times, until at last, the owner decides to send his own son to collect on the fruit of the tenants’ labour.
What happens? The tenants in charge plot to kill the heir and seize his inheritance. Now to us this may sound like delusions of grandeur; and yet the story strikes disturbingly close to home, as we realize, the Son is Jesus, and Jesus is describing his own impending death by those who believe, they can attain God’s kingdom by their own means, their own power, their own authority, and their own right.
If that kind of power-hungry arrogance doesn’t scare you, it should. For at one time or another, we all assume, we can “build God’s kingdom” by our own means, or raise up the church by our own power, or make the world a better place by our own wisdom. And it’s far too easy to forget who is really in charge.
Now Jesus doesn’t mean for us to believe that our efforts don’t matter. They do. That’s why we are the workers in the vineyard, God’s building and construction crew here on earth.
But lest we forget, Jesus reminds us, we didn’t make the designs. We don’t own the vineyard. We don’t have the right to determine the blueprint for success or the terms of our hire.
We do however have some say in the quality of the product. In fact, you might say, we are God’s quality control department.
We can create the most delectable wine out of the orchard God has given us to work with, a wine so delicious that it is a delicacy. Or we can create something so sour that no one will want to drink it.
And here is the beauty of the scriptures. The word in Hebrew for Eden (God’s original garden of delights) is the same word in Hebrew for paradise, and for heaven. “ganeden.” So, while we are thrust out of our easy life in the original garden, we still are placed into God’s vast vineyard in order to “till and keep” it, to work the soil, cultivate love, peace, and loyalty to God, and to bear fruit that will in fact delight as the fruits of Eden were meant to delight. That is, our human habitat was created to be a wine-making, love-making business. And we as God’s tenants are in the mercy and love making business.
And as God’s tenants, we are held accountable for the quality of the love and mercy that we make.
Want to taste and see that the Lord is good? Taste the wine made by God’s tenants, the most delectable wine in the world. Because our job is to cultivate the most wonderful fruit we can in the vineyard that God has given us.
This is the way we “build” God’s garden kingdom on earth, “as” God has imagined it from, and like, in heaven.
At the end of Jesus’ parable, he threatens the chief priests and pharisees, saying that if they continue to rule the Jewish people as they are, God’s kingdom will be taken away from them and given to others, who will create the kind of “vineyard” world God intends us to create.
For the world we believe is ours to create belongs to someone far greater than us.
God has bestowed upon us –those he created to be only a little less than Himself—the ability to create a beautiful, harmonious, pleasurable, delightful world, filled with love, hope, and peace. But to do so, we must be willing to accept God’s blueprints and build upon the cornerstone that is faith in Jesus.
For ultimately our lives, our livelihoods, and our future belongs to Him.
Will you take pride in your position as servant of God’s kingdom? Or will you envy the power and prestige of the Lord’s house?
The answer will tell you much about the garden kingdom you are building. And the future you will leave behind.