LENT 5C - Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3:8-14; Luke 20:9-19 - 25 March 2007 -

A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Are You Open to Growing, or Closed Off?

 

INTRODUCTION

 

In our Gospel today we hear Jesus’ story about the wicked tenants. Jesus is telling a parable about what is going to happen to him. By this time, he could see what was coming.

 

The owner of the vineyard, God, sends three different slaves to collect his share of the produce from the vineyard. The vineyard, by the way, is one of the metaphors that had long been used for Israel. The slaves, representing the prophets, deliver the message from God. “Turn over the fruit you have produced while working in my vineyard. Have the poor and the orphans and widows been treated well? Have you treated all with love and fairness? Let’s see the fruit.”

 

The tenants know, when confronted by the slaves, that they have not produced the kind of fruit that they were asked to produce. But instead of acknowledging that fact before the prophets - the messengers of God - and repenting of their actions, they react with anger, and turn violent. They beat and insult and throw each slave out of the vineyard, sending each one away empty-handed. Finally, the owner of the vineyard sends his beloved son, thinking, “Perhaps they will respect him.” But they react even more violently, killing the son. In their convoluted, darkened thinking, they believe that somehow, if they kill the son, they will inherit the vineyard.

 

The most fascinating part of the parable was the reaction that came from some of those who heard it. “When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.” They realized that the parable had been told against them. They realized that they were the tenants in the story, and that Jesus had exposed their darkness, and how did they react? Just as he predicted they would - with anger, anger that wants to explode into violence.

 

A CHOICE

 

When you and I perceive that a prophetic word of God is coming to us - somehow, some way - we always have a choice. We can see it as an opportunity to learn and grow, or we can say, “No, I don’t really want to look at this part of myself.” We can be open to growing and being transformed by God, or we can be closed off to that process. I want to look at that choice today.

 

Our collect (opening prayer) for today begins: “Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise...”

 

Do we desire what God promises? Well, you might say, “What does He promise?”

 

When you read the Gospels and the letters of Paul, and you listen carefully, what you discover is this: God promises, if we stay connected to Him, a new and transformed life. Eternal life is not just something that happens after you die. Jesus makes it quite clear that he came to bring us life in abundance, and that abundant life begins the moment you start turning your life over to God. You don’t have to wait until you die to enjoy the good life. It can begin right now.

 

There is one catch. You and I have to open ourselves up to the love and the wisdom and the transforming power of God. We have to have, at some level, a trust in what God wants to do to us and in us and through us. Required for this new, transformed life? An open heart. A trusting heart. And one might say, too - a courageous heart.

 

Do we desire what God promises? A new and transformed life? On one level, I think we all do. But on another level, I think it scares us out of our minds! Can I let go and let God? Can I trust God that much? Does God really have my best interests in mind?

 

We, the tenants of the vineyard, sometimes react the very same way the tenants did in Jesus’ parable, when a prophetic word comes to us. When we hear - “You’re not producing the fruit I want you to produce. You can be so much more than you are right now.” - we often react with defensiveness, or some form of denial.

 

“What? The behaviors I’m engaged in are hurting me and hurting others? What are you talking about? I’m a loving person! There is no problem here. You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

 

I’ll give you a little example. One of the things that Julia and I say in our couples’ workshops is that it is more important to be loving than to be right, that if you want a sure-fire way to disconnect from your partner, keep focusing your energy on the fact that you are right - no matter what the thing is that you are arguing about. On the other hand, if you want to deepen the connection, start looking at your own actions, and start asking, “How can I be more loving? What might the loving thing look like here?”

 

Sometimes when we present this point - that it’s more important to be loving than to be right - a couple will bring up some issue that has come up between them, and they’ll both start defending their position. The only way past the conflict they are in... the only way through the conflict to a place of deeper intimacy... is for both of them to give up their need to be right. And yet, many times, each one of them will tell the whole group why they are right, and defend their position. Sometimes people would rather get divorced than look at their own stuff. They would rather get divorced than admit that they could be wrong.

 

Sometimes, like the scribes and the chief priests, we want to lash out at the person through whom God delivers a message to us, we are so invested in holding on to our way of seeing things.

 

Something else is going on in these situations. We are not just highly invested in defending our position, although that is part of it. We are also scared. At times, we just don’t want to look at that part of ourselves that God is shining a light on. We think it will be too painful of a process. We think about the investment it might take - of our time, our energy, and maybe even our “hard-earned money”, and we say to ourselves, “It’s going to take too much effort to change this pattern in me. It’s not worth it.”

 

All the time, of course, we’re not counting up what it is costing to stay in the same place. The cost to myself - I may be killing myself in some way! - is significant. The cost to my relationships - I just talked about the cost to a relationship when we are more invested in being right than in being loving, and the same thing can apply to our relationship with God. The cost to others who might be in the path of my lashing out? That is not to be minimized, either.

 

Yes, we have this choice when God sends a message our way. We can try to receive it with an open heart, and enter into a process of learning and growth and transformation. Or, we can remain closed off and defensive, or even go on the offensive, and say, “No way! I’m not going down that road, because nothing is wrong! There is not a problem with me! I am just fine!”

 

GOOD NEWS

 

What we forget, when we get in our defensive place or our scared place, our lashing out place, is that God offers to walk with us through the painful places. I won’t lie to you, because you know the truth already. The truth is, opening yourself up to being transformed is not an easy road to walk. Images in the Bible that come to mind are of us being purified in the fire. What was it that John the Baptist said about the coming of Jesus? “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

 

There is the love and guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. And there is fire. A fire that purifies us. And so there will be tears, for there will be grief and pain and sadness. You cannot embrace a new, transformed life without saying goodbye to an old way of life, and in that saying goodbye, you and I will come face-to-face with some truths that are not easy for us to swallow. There will be some pain.

 

But here is the promise of God. The same God who promises a new, transformed life promises to be with us as we open ourselves up to the path that takes us there. Listen again to today’s words from Isaiah. “Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters... Do not remember the old things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert... to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.” (Isaiah 43:16, 18-19, 20b-21)

 

And do you know what it says earlier in that chapter of Isaiah?

 

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you... Do not fear, for I am with you...” (Isaiah 43:1-5)

 

(Sung) “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name;

I have called you by name, you are mine.”

 

This is what we need - a Lord and Savior who calls us by name, and who walks with us through the deep waters and through the fire, and brings us out to the other side, as newly sanctified and transformed people.

 

This is what we need, and this is what we have - in our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

CONCLUSION

 

We have a choice. There is always a choice, when God shows up, and shines a light on us. The tenants in Jesus’ parable did not need to react in the way that they did. We, as tenants of God’s vineyard, also have a choice. We can open our hearts to his true and life-transforming word, even acknowledging the truth about the darkness within us. We can repent - turn around and begin to see in a whole new way - thanks to the Lord who walks with us through the fire. We can open ourselves up to a very different, brand new way of living, as God transforms us. Or we can stay stuck in our old, debilitating ways.

 

The choice is always ours to make.

 

“Lord Jesus Christ, help us to be open to the transforming power of your grace. Help us to trust that you will be with us in the deep waters, or when we walk through the fire. Help us to courageously look at the things that you want us to look at, which might not be easy for us to face. And by your grace, bring us to that place where you want us to be, so that we might rejoice and declare your praise, and love others in the way that You love us. In your holy name we pray. Amen.”