The only thing that felt Apocalyptic about Thanksgiving this weekend, was the full and pregnant feeling I had after eating and drinking to my hearts content.  Not sure if it was the plate of turkey and all the trimmings, or the dessert – or should I say desserts: pumpkin, apple and pecan pies – and I had one piece of each!  And so, ready to burst, a handful of us decided to go out for an evening walk and get a little exercise.  It was a beautiful Wisconsin night, above average temperatures and clear as a bell.  Far from the big city, the sky was lit mainly by the stars.  The Milky Way was clearly visible along with the 1,000 plus closer stars of our galaxy, and they were made all the brighter because the moon had been darkened in it’s new moon phase.  In the east, the orange-ish glow of Jupiter also stood out.  We could all pick out the Big Dipper, which sat on the northern horizon like a pot on the stove.  Then Mitchell, the youngest, called out, “Look, a shooting star!”  Suddenly, we were all on the look out for something to happen in the sky.  Was it a sign?  “Keep awake” –for you do not know when another star will fall!  But after a while we walked on, happy that the beauty of the sky seemed unchanged, the Dipper forever in the north, like a cherished old kitchen pan you can count on in the cabinet. 

As Jesus sat across from the Temple with Peter, James, John, and Andrew, he instructed them: “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.”  

Chapter 13 of Mark is often called, “The Little Apocalypse”, after the apocalyptic passages in Isaiah and Daniel, and later in Revelation.  Albert Schweitzer popularized the Little Apocalypse, however inaccurately, about a century ago.  He believed that, when Jesus said “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place,” that Jesus meant his second coming would take place.  So, disappointed that Jesus’ prediction had not come true, Schweitzer left the church, though he continued to cling to the mission of Jesus, going to fulfill a life of good works overseas in Africa. 

Today we know that the Little Apocalypse was actually not just a disembodied prophecy about an other-worldly second coming, but a specific map of history happening in and around Jesus and the early church.  As in all Apocalyptic writing, it arises in times of great distress, like war and displacement.  Daniel, of course, was written amidst Israel’s hopelessness, exiled to Babylon, and it helped strengthen their faith when they were tempted to give up. Mark’s Little Apocalypse was written during, or immediately after, the Jewish War from A.D. 66-70, in which the Brigands of Israel were finally defeated by the Romans, and the Temple was destroyed and burned to the ground.  So apocalyptic – first and foremost – addresses the community in which it arises.

In the first verses of Chapter 13, the disciples marvel at the beauty of the Temple.  And Jesus responds: ‘Go ahead, take a good look at it’ –and it was a magnificent, with its meticulously milled, massive stones, the gold inlay, towering above the city of Jerusalem.  But Jesus predicts, “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”  Then, sitting down on the Mount of Olives across the valley, the disciples ask him, “when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”  The whole rest of the chapter then, the Little Apocalypse, is Jesus’ answer to Peter, James, John and Andrew.  The wars he describes were the Jewish Wars of their generation.  Two of the worst earthquakes, we now know, happened in those years, of which Jesus makes mention.  The images of a ‘Son of Man’ coming in the clouds is almost a verbatim quote from Daniel.  And so today we know that Jesus’ prediction, that the Temple would fall, and he, the Son of Man would arise, did happen within a generation, or 40 years time.  And Jesus’ final word to the disciples as they look at the Temple from the Mount of Olives is, “Keep awake,” a message to them for the Passover festival about to take place, as much as it speaks to us today.   

And do the disciples keep awake?  Certainly not when they return to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives less than 48 hours later.  Jesus asks them to wait for him while he goes to pray and simply stay awake, stay on watch.  But three times they fall asleep, and then the Temple guard walk right up and arrest Jesus.  Not until the cross and resurrection, will they truly wake up! 

The “Little Apocalypse,” like earlier forms of it, are prophecies delivered in the midst of national crisis, which map a way out for a hopeless people.  As we too get more and more cautious and fearful in these times, lean more and more on simple and seemingly secure answers, Jesus, in the tradition of the prophets imagines a whole new world that God is going to bring even as we see the sky falling.  Something new is about to break in!  The old is giving way, and we must give our undivided attention to it.  Endings are opportunities for new beginnings, and God will not be satisfied with former traditions that have lost there traction as the former things are passing away. 

I remember the first Faith-based Community Organizing Training I went to.  In a workshop, an eager but perplexed student, asked Stephen Bowman, one of the leaders, “it seems like we are being trained to be some rather radical change agents in our parishes, and yet most of our people are traditional in their faith.  How will we convince them?”  Without hesitation Stephen answered: “you don’t have to convince them.  The people of your parish are people with families that care about the communities they live in, and no matter how traditional people are, they will stand up for what is best for their family life and neighborhood.  Justice and fairness is in their interest.” 

The darkened sky’s and falling stars of apocalyptic times are sometimes misused by false prophets to fill us with fear, and take away the power we have as change agents in the world.  But Jesus gives us a real map to follow through times of crisis and testing.  Jesus empowers us, during days where hope is in short supply and we are unsure if we even have a future, in days such as these when we face tough economic times, both in our society and in our congregational budget, and even the powers of heaven look shaken up. 

We know this is true because Jesus, the Son of Man, assures us that he is also the Son of God.  When in times of great peril, the Temple, the place where God had traditionally resided for centuries, was falling down, Jesus gave up his body, his life, to be raised as a new temple, a much more universal and available temple, where all could see and meet God wherever they live, and worship.  And miraculously, we, the Gentiles, were invited in!

We too, Keep Awake, knowing that the Son of God is alive, and will lead us through all uncertainty, offering us courage and a way through every fearful day and hour.  On this first Sunday of Advent, we have hope.  The world is so full of excess and false leaders, but it is also pregnant with a new Savior, about to be born into our world, born as one of us.  “Keep Awake!”  

‘Each week, the TV show, “Undercover Boss,” follows a different executive as they leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover assignment.  Their mission?  To examine the inner workings of their own companies!  Working alongside their employees, they see the effects that their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organizations, and they get an up-close look at both the good and the bad, while discovering the unsung heroes who make their companies run.  To the utter surprise of the employees, the CEO reveals his or her true identity at the end of the show.  They meet face to face and share in a conversation about their company. 

It sounds a lot like what Jesus reveals to his disciples in this Christ the King gospel reading from Matthew. "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him." Then, to everyone's surprise, he will reveal that he has been undercover among them for some time, but truly a different kind of boss.

When Todd Ricketts became CEO of the Chicago Cubs, he took a turn on “Undercover Boss” and went into the beloved stands of Wrigley Field as –you guessed it- a beer vendor.  In conversation with them afterwards, Ricketts revealed that he was impressed with the good humor and strong work ethic, which his staff had as they faced daunting challenges, demanding fans, and discouraging games.’  Certainly that was true if Mr. Rickets happened to have run into Lois Lyse, long time Unity member, hard working, good humored, and an usher at Wrigley Field for a dozen or more years.  ‘It may be scandalous to compare Christ with a beer vendor--especially for the perpetually losing Cubs--but it’s encouraging to think that the Son of Man, our "enthroned king" might actually be happy with the work we're doing’ under discouraging conditions, demanding times, with sometimes daunting challenges. ( HYPERLINK "http://www.christiancentury.org/contributor/christine-chakoian" Christine Chakoian, Christian Century)   "You who are blessed by my Father,” says Jesus, “well done, good and trustworthy servant.” 

The contemporary Icon of Jesus I posted on the Friday Constant Contact email called, Christ in the Margins, portrays Jesus, looking through a barbed wire fence, his pierced hands grasping the strands of wire.  And, as you contemplate it, it makes you wonder, is Jesus inside, looking out from this confinement, or outside, looking in? 

On this final Sunday of the Church Year, Christ the King Sunday, the sweep of Jesus life is now revealed.  Jesus, the innocent victim of judgment, had become Judge at the end.  Jesus is reigning from an apocalyptic throne at the right hand of God, but he derives his glory from his servanthood, his acceptance of the cup God gave him to drink, as the crucified king.  Jesus, who knew defeat, is now victorious!  He is all-powerful, in his vulnerability.  Jesus came to reveal the realm and kingdom of God, a wholly other culture of life, emptying himself here in the midst of our human culture of death – or as the Hymn of the Day says, “a different rule of righteousness, a different kind of king.” 

And that’s also how Matthew describes the sheep at the kings’ right hand, “the righteous.”  The righteous ones are those “blessed by God and who inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world.”  Much like those who are “blessed” in the Beatitudes – the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – the coming Son of Man chooses the sheep, not for their knowledge of doctrine or their good standing in the community, but for their actions toward “the least of these” here in the kingdom of this world.  The Son of Man welcomes those who care for the hungry and thirsty, the stranger and the naked, the sick and imprisoned. 

Jesus, like Todd Ricketts posing as a beer vender, goes undercover in our world.  Not just to be judgmental, but to tell us ahead of time, to prophecy, and to illuminate the kingdom of heaven for us already, now.  Jesus invites us to be followers, and to join him on the journey.  In a sense, the journey, our discipleship, is all we have here, punctuated by the occasional and unpredictable mountain top experience of arrival. 

So the choosing of sheep and goats reveals most of all that, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Jesus not only reaches out to the least of these, he is one of them, the hungry and thirsty, the outcast and naked, the sick and imprisoned.  If you love Jesus, if you are a follower, it will become a part of who you are.  The way to God is the way of Jesus.  And the way of Jesus is to instinctively care for the least of these, knowing that we are dependent on one another.  How do we know?  Because of the gospel good-news.  Interestingly, the disciples, pre-Easter, did not know.  They have to ask Jesus, “when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty, outcast or naked, sick or imprisoned?” 

Whether a sheep or a goat, they don’t know.  They have to ask.  But we, on this side of the grave, know already.  Christ is risen!  The cat is out of the bag!  The victim, has become the Victor!  Jesus is on both sides of the barbed wire fence – the prisoner has come to set us free!  The beer-vender-boss, knows us inside and out, has lived our life and invites us to follow him into a life of service, and blessedness. 

The culture of this world, with it’s promise to reward the successful with more success, teaching them to lord it over others, has been inverted and overcome by Jesus.  Following Jesus to the cross we experience the power of love, a stumbling block to the world.  Jesus, the one judged on the cross, is the merciful Judge at the end.  We learn forgiveness in Jesus’ pardon of his executioners, and view the threshold of a new culture of life, in living for the least of these. 

The God on high, a ruler we so wish to save and protect us, comes and humbles himself to live among us in human form precisely as one of the least of these.  This is truly a different kind of undercover boss and king.  Jesus ushered in the culture of love and justice that can unite the world, and create abundant life.  This is the culture prepared for us from the foundation of the world.  The end has been revealed – and this good-news will not be put back in the box.  “Come to the banquet – you who have been blessed by my Father,” eat and be satisfied – for I am with you, even now, until the end!  

For it is as if a banker, going on a cruise around the world, called a meeting of his vice presidents, and entrusted the company to them.  Make loans to any family you can, who wants to be a home-owner.  I don’t care what they have for a down payment, 10 %, 5%; don’t worry about their credit risk or job situation.  Just make the loan, we have to compete!  And, in the mean time, I’ve got my managers in the finance department working on those new Credit Default Swaps, 24/7.  They’re like, blipping golden!  It’s, heads we win, tails they lose.  The markets love it.  And I promise, we’ll all get handsome bonuses when I get back.  Any questions?  Good, get to work! 

And so his servants eagerly rolled up their sleeves.  It was their chance to shine, and they knew what he wanted for the company.  They learned how to cozy up to the Federal Trade Commission and minimize their criminal risk, and how to pay politicians for their elections, and the media reported prosperity for all, as they hailed the steady climb of the almighty markets.  Those entrusted with 2 talents made 4, and those with 5 talents turned it into 10.  It was all working, and they sat in the lap of “abundance” more and more.  No one said anything about how the loans they made weren’t backed up by much of anything, and practically no one knew how the company stood to gain even more if the CDS’s were defaulted on – basically they were a trade that has a high probability of doing nothing, but a small possibility of producing a nice return.  Upside with no downside. (Wikipedia) 

But the one who had received the one talent went off and hid it in a plain old savings account, in his neighborhood bank. 

After a long while the banker returned from his cruise to settle accounts.  The ones who had doubled their money in the markets, and by making loans to new home-owners, were praised by the bank owner.  ‘Well done good and trustworthy vice presidents.  You have been trustworthy with just a few of my billions, I will put in charge of many more.’  “Come on in and share my happiness.” (Edward Sweitzer trans.) 

But the one who received the one talent was not so lucky.  Master, I knew that you were a harsh man and you didn’t care about bending the rules to earn more and more money, even from those you didn’t know, and in neighborhoods you’ve never set foot.  So I was afraid to lose it and I went and put it in a conservative savings account where I live.  But I’m sorry to say, because the bank defaulted and was closed in the Great Recession, and my house is under water, it’ll be a while before I can pay you back. 

But the rich owner said, you “lazy” bum.  I knew you didn’t have it in you.  If you knew how I was passionate about making money, why didn’t you learn how to invest, and bundle CDS’s in the market, and show me you’re worthy of living like a king?  I’m sorry, but you’ll have to give your house to J. P. Stanley Sachs over here with the 10 talents.  “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”  And another thing, you’re fired. 

How do we view God in this gospel parable today?  Although it is about money – a Talent, by the way, equaled at least 15 years of annual earnings – still, the purpose of parables, is to teach us, and challenge us, about the kind of God that is revealed in Jesus. 

This is one of only two parables in Matthew that do not begin with the familiar, “The kingdom of God is like…” introduction.  Does it make a difference?  Is the rich owner to be compared to God, and to Jesus, in this parable, or not?  There are so many ways to turn it and see it, yet, nothing seems to add up in the parable, if you know what I mean, to make a coherent picture of who God is!  If the rich owner is God, the analogy is often made to the generosity of a God giving us good gifts, like the 5 Talents, an amazingly large sum.  But how does this square with a God who punishes a guy, who only tried to hold on to the master’s money and not risk losing it.  Especially when you compare it to the parable shortly before this about the Unforgiving Servant who was also entrusted with large sums of the master’s money, and though he squandered it, wasn’t thrown into the outer darkness, but gets pardoned – instead of being punished, was given generous grace!  And, turning the parable another way, we find that the one who hid the money in the ground, was only performing what was the standard practice of the day.  Believe it or not, people did bury their money for safe keeping.  While “usury,” on the other hand, investing your money with a banker to make interest, was expressly prohibited in the Hebrew Bible.  And so, as we try to get a handle on who God is, nothing adds up in this story. 

But, in trying to read this parable with fresh eyes and an open heart, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks, when I heard the rich owner say, “For to those who have, more will be given and they will have an abundance; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”  In our context today then, the rich owner is just the opposite of what Jesus has been preaching throughout this gospel.  This might very well be the story of greed in the world, told through the down to earth example of a very unfair bank owner, who rigged the system in his favor, invited in all those who wanted to play his game, and didn’t care about the losers, in fact, blamed them, called them lazy, and deserving of what they got.  At least on one level, it’s a parable about the Great Recession we’re in, and how our society is stuck. 

It’s no coincidence either, that this story falls right before next week’s gospel for the last Sunday in Pentecost, Christ the King Sunday, and the story about the separation of the sheep and the goats.  Today’s story is really just Part I of a two part episode.  Stay tuned!  In next week’s gospel, Jesus reveals the real judgment, reminding and amazing us once again, who God is.  Jesus welcomes the sheep -- those who care for the ones who have lost their savings, their pensions, and their homes, while the goats who ignored them, get anything but eternal happiness!

Jesus’ practice has been to reach out to the marginalized, and bless the poor in spirit, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  He never preached that ‘the rich deserve to get richer, and those that have nothing should lose everything.’  You might hear that from a pulpit preaching the Prosperity Gospel.  But the God we know from Jesus’ words and deeds, is a God who welcomes all servants of healing and loving, giving and sharing.  And that’s a whole different banquet of joy than the invitation to come on in and share the happy spoils of the rich owner.  If we know nothing else from Jesus’ teaching, we know that his giving knows no ending, and that it is his love for us, that is a deep well of endless riches – a whole different banquet!  Come on in and share the joy of this feast!  

One of the standard chants of all the Occupy Movements – whether Occupy Chicago, Occupy Wall Street, or any of the dozens around the country – goes like this: A leaders calls, “Tell me what democracy looks like!”  And the crowd responds, “This is what democracy looks like!”  If you’ve been there in person its pretty compelling, especially when a whole street full of Occupiers, accompanied by drums, stretching shoulder to shoulder for blocks, chants together, in one booming voice.  On the one hand it lifts up the people, in that moment, as the brokers of their own fate, and on the other hand, it unveils for everyone a symbolism of the many, the 99%, in all their diversity, whether present or not. 

In the Book of Revelation, John hears, and sees, the broad based universal multitude of every tribe and nation, street-ful after street-ful, of those chanting and singing to God and to the Lamb.  “I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count,” says John,  “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice,” and were joined by “all the angels, singing, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!” 

This is the Hymn of Praise we sang this morning as we gave thanks, and remembered our baptisms, in the beginning of the service.  Revelation is full of songs and praises, full of beautiful and awesome symbolism and images, containing both auditory and visual art, and one of the most quoted in ours, and many liturgical traditions.  And so, this is not a book of history, or some kind of ‘script for the end-times,’ as it is so often miss-used.  As for those who have been trying to predict the apocalyptic end of the world, for the last couple hundred years, adjusting and readjusting the date, and so far, failed, each and every time, Revelation has been a key source for their predictions.  But only because they think it’s about them!  That the end will conveniently happen in their life-time.  I say, lighten up!  Understand that the terrifying description of battles is a kind of symbolic language for the war God is waging against the Devil.  And listen to the beauty of the Hymn of Praise and see the wonderful images that invite us to join the banqueting feast of victory, yes, in our own life time, but also in every age, and for all time.  The Victory, in Christ is assured, in the end.  Whenever the end will be!  Christ has triumphed, and that liberates us today, and gives us great freedom to live our lives every day with courage and confidence. 

Join the victory celebration of good news.  Bang the drum!  This is what the realm of God looks like! 

And, this is what the Beatitudes celebrate.  Again, not literally, but symbolically, and proleptically.  That is, they reach back from God’s assured victory in the end, into our own lives now, inviting us to be confident and courageous in our victory in Christ.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, for theirs is the realm of God.”  In Jesus’ eyes, this multitude of the faithful, all these saints, the street-full of the multitudes, are blessed now, and held in the palm of God’s hand until the final victory. 

God works in a world of symbolism, as well as our flesh and blood lives.  God slays the dragon and fights the enemies that surround us.  The powers of evil that seek to turn our world against the good, and the just, and those banqueting together in peace, confront a strong and righteous savior, ‘the Lord of lords, and the King of kings.’ 

In Revelation, it looks like that will be the lion, for the first 5 chapter of the book.  The lion, especially in the symbolic world of Apocalyptic literature, was usually the Victor, the great and terrible beast who was undefeatable.  And that looks like how the story is going to go, until we get to this section, in Revelation.  And then, with an unusual surprise and reversal, it’s not the lion, but in our common Christian story, it’s the Lamb, the one who brings us out of the great ordeal.  We who “have washed [our] robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” we are saved by a Victorious – lamb!  Jesus is the Lamb, the little Lamb-kin, or, “Fluffy” as Lutheran Pastor Daniel Erlander says tongue-in-check, who brings us victory not by a great a terrible apocalyptic conflict or war, but in the end, by his shed blood.  By giving his life, lifted up on the cross – foolishness to us, as St Paul says – the Lamb, the innocent creature with no ‘mark’ of triumph or victory – except, to our eyes, the ‘mark of the nails in his hands, and the spear in his side.’  This is our savior, an agent of God’s purposes to transform the world.   

BTW- Have you seen the “Spoon River” performance yet?  Tonight’s the last performance!  I saw the matinee yesterday with my mom and my sister and brother-in-law, and loved the large and talented cast, each one playing a multitude of characters, who tell their stories, one by one, as they rise up from their graves in the cemetery – symbolically of course!  And oh, what a story they have to tell!  One or two with sweet or happy endings, but more often, scandalous in their honesty, of lives filled with betrayal, secrets, deep wounds and unresolved pain.  These are our lives too.  The existential reality of our human nature with all its longings and hurt, our lives in the shape of questions that can only be answered, and ultimately fulfilled, in the feast of victory prepared for us by the Lamb who was slain, and has already begun his reign.  In knowing the end we gain courage and confidence for the journey.  With that confidence, we can join in the Hymn of Praise from Revelation: “Blessing, honor, glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever. Amen.”   

In our song of praise on this All Saints Sunday, we lift up two names of those saints who died from our multitude this year, Jim Taylor and Harry Stillwell, they who now dwell with all the saints who have gone before us.  “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” Jesus declares to us!  And so we also lift up all those loved ones you have written in the Book of Names, and they will be read aloud, as we confidently and courageously sing “Blest are They,” and as we light candles and offer prayers, as we receive anointing for healing and wholeness, as we march around to the prayer areas, a great multitude, surrounded by all the saints, above and below.  We hear the blessings, and we see the heavenly host, and we join our Alleluia’s with all of their alleluia’s. 

               It’s a spiritually deep and unique celebration, knowing “God will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes.”  Bang the drum, and, “Tell me what the realm of God looks like?”  This is what the realm of God looks like!  

I’m totally with the Judeans.  Jesus, what do you mean by suggesting I’m enslaved to anyone and need to be freed?  I’m an American – we’re not in bondage to anyone!  We’re the flagship of freedom!  As the Judeans said to Jesus, “we are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.”  So we might say: we are descendants of the American Revolution and will not be slaves to anyone.

Just so, Jesus has us baited, sets the hook, and reels us in!  “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth,” he said, “and the truth will make you free.”  Jesus hadn’t said anything about slavery before the Judeans, those leaders in Jerusalem, brought it up.  They assumed that’s what he meant, when he was teaching in the Temple.  Which is all wonderfully ironic, given that, after Abraham and Sarah, they actually were slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years, until Moses led them back home.  And, even as they spoke with Jesus, they were under the thumb of the Romans.  And likewise, it’s tragic for us, in that, one race and creed of people enslaved another race and color of people for hundreds of years, right here in ‘the land of the free.’  By our denial, Jesus reels us in, and points us to exactly what he means about sin and freedom.

Jesus is talking about the slavery of sin that each and every one of us are born into, a condition that we all are entangled in.  It’s more than making a mistake here or there, our individual sins, although, we all have these, as well.  But Jesus means, the sin of not being able to trust others, worrying that they may take advantage of us, afraid there isn’t enough to go around, so I better get mine first.  The kind of sin that makes it hard for me to share with others, building barns to store up treasures for myself, locked away from the common good, as we become estranged and separated from one another. 

This is a larger, corporate nature of sin, a condition which we all participate in and ‘cannot free ourselves from,’ the sinfulness of separation from God, and from one another.  “For there is no distinction,” as Paul said, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 

This is when the invitation to the freedom Jesus offers, starts to sound more appealing!  This good news that “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!”  Jesus frees us from the curse of the Garden of Eden.  Where paradise was once lost, now it is opened again.  In the garden, outside Jesus’ tomb, Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for a gardener on the morning of his resurrection.  On that first day of the week, the beginning of a new creation, Jesus made a way out of no way for all of us to re-enter the new Garden of Eden, the realm of God – “if we continue in his word and are truly his disciples.”  Because, in the garden, God makes wide steps for us.  In the ecology of God’s garden, there is grace, room to make mistakes and to sin, and also to forgive one another and find healing and new life.  This is the responsibility God tasked us with as care-takers of creation.  We cannot make our own paradise, but as Jesus’ disciples, we can know the way, the path that leads to, and around, the Garden.   

In a wonderful way the ecology of our world is like this, a big garden, our biosphere, created ‘very good’ by God, a diverse and inter-dependent ecology, with forgiveness for us, within its created limits.  As in the creation story, God made safe boundaries, separating the dry land from the waters, providing vegetation and animals for food, as long as we care for this ‘very good’ bio-diverse world.  As long as we care for one another, and share, out of the abundance of all God has provided. 

In our life times, however, we have pushed the biosphere beyond its capacity.  Signs of global warming in our science and our weather, speak in a prophetic way to the excesses of our over-consumption.  The eco-boundaries of planet earth have exceeded its capacity to recycle our carbon dioxide that we produce.  And of course tomorrow, October 31, you know what happens.  No, not Halloween.  The earth’s population will reach 7 billion for the first time.  Which has it’s own set of issues for using the earth’s resources.

What shape does confession and forgiveness take in this context?  Who will take the first step in trusting that we can live again together in the new world, the new biosphere, the Garden of Jesus’ resurrection, beyond our race to hoard fossil fuel’s and burn carbon based products past mother earth’s tolerance? 

Last Sunday, Unity received the “ComEd Congregational Challenge” award, “In Recognition of Outstanding Energy Conservation Efforts,” a pleasant surprise in the life of our ‘caring for creation’ efforts, and, something to celebrate!  Will it save the world?  Not hardly!  Nothing we do, whatever the size of our efforts, can free us from our bondage to sin.  It’s a relatively modest step to have retrofit our old energy-guzzling lights and Exit signs with new high efficient bulbs, and to have calked and sealed our leaky stained glass windows for the winter.  But it is a great example for us, and for others, that we can trust one another enough to take a step into the biosphere of God’s grace, the Garden of sharing generously of what God has first given us. 

The reformers of the church prized ‘freedom from’ the tyranny of corrupt religious authorities, and ‘freedom for’ the gospel good news for all.  That freedom gave courage to let old structures die, so that many could come to know the saving grace of the word in scripture for the first time.  Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word, curb us who by deceiving ourselves, and others, would bring all that God has made, to naught. 

‘We are an urban green space,’ with a beautiful Garden out front.  May our “green space” remind us of the Garden of Eden, a gift of abundant life, and enough to live within safe boundaries.  And also of the Resurrection Garden, where Jesus, who like a seed planted in the ground must first die, rose to new life.  Though we are slaves to sin as part of our human condition, together, as the Body of Christ, we are raised to live anew.  And as Jesus’ disciples, steadfast in his word, and fed at the feasting table, we find true freedom in generously giving away, out of the store of God’s abundant gifts!

This gospel reading is definitely not my favorite bible passage!  The whole dialog about “my Lord said to your Lord,” is so obscure we are quickly left in the dust, and tune out.  “Whose son is he?” is just not our question, anymore than we would think to judge our kids’ friends, by their parents! 

“What does Jesus, the Messiah, stand for?” might be a better way of asking the question today.  Like the once popular, WWJD, it’s a moral question.  And as questioning and baptized believers in Christ, “What does Jesus stand for?” is a basic marker (question) we revisit often, consciously or unconsciously! 

That said, I can now appreciate this odd and obscure gospel passage a bit better.  I used to just ignore this sticky wicket in preaching, but actually, I think I’m beginning to see how they go together. 

The Pharisees, who’ve been hanging around the edges in Jesus’ final days until now, watching and waiting to see if the Sadducees, the high priests and leaders of the people, could entrap Jesus, now see they will finally have to enter the fray, and give him the legal conundrum every Grad student trips on.  After all, out of more than 700 laws in the book of Leviticus, who’s to say what the greatest commandment is?  But Jesus, ‘clever like a fox,’ chooses the most common verse of all, the Shema, everyone’s morning and evening prayer, which had become an oath, a statement of citizenship, and a creed: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (might).” But a second command is its equal, Jesus quickly adds.  And now he chooses from our 1st reading in Leviticus today: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Threading these 2 passages together wove a seamless tale, and important moral guide, that was impossible to deny.  These were utterly familiar passages on their own, but cut and pasted together, they were able to capture, not just the greatest command or Law, but the whole of scripture.  Together they cemented the identity, and moral reach, of a chosen, called and committed people. 

But Jesus ads yet one more thing, the 3rd leg of the stool, if you will – the question of the Messiah, and the one who’s standing in front of them!  The leaders in Jerusalem, of course, don’t believe “anything good can come from Nazareth,” and no matter how popular Jesus is, no matter how smart he is in answering their questions, no matter how compassionate he is in showing mercy, they will never believe he is the Messiah, for their interests do not line up.  Jesus uses Psalm 110 to point out a contradiction, and trip them up.  If David, the writer of the Psalm, quotes God calling David’s son Lord, how can he be the Messiah?  Only if “the Son of David” – who they admitted was the Messiah – is also the Son of God!  But the Pharisees refused to go there!  It would be a proof that Jesus was right, that he indeed was the Messiah, and, the Son of God.  Okay, admittedly, that’s still pretty obscure!

But the point is simply that “loving God, and loving neighbor” is a morality that is grounded in Jesus, the Son of God.  In Jesus’ speaking, and in his person, a unified understanding of how to believe and act in the world, suddenly made sense, and we have a marker, a compass, to lead us. 

Jesus’ world was crumbling.  The Temple, holy city and its establishment was losing legitimacy, day by day, year by year.  Its foundation was built on low moral ground, the Herod family.  Like a bank to big to fail, it blocked the way of reform even as it claimed special sovereign status.  As spectacular as Herod’s Second Temple looked - and it was beautiful - its leaders were too compromised, and clung too rigidly to the letter of the law.  Power was consolidated in the 1%, while the 99, the regular working folk, tradesmen and artist(ans), homemakers and homeless, had been pushed aside.  There was no place for them to sit at the table, until Jesus, as the third leg of the stool, offered it to them.  Washing their feet as an example of his new Commandment, and, in love, offering all of himself on the cross, was a stumbling block for the leaders of Jerusalem, but the beginning of a new temple for them, and a way to reach out, empowered now, to change the world. 

What is crumbling in our time that needs a moral fix?  What do you think of the Messiah?  Could he be the third leg of the stool for the times we live in today?  And, what is the greatest commandment for us? 

It’s hard to beat Jesus’ prescription for the greatest law: Love God with your whole being, and your neighbor as yourself.  We can still get behind that, and believe it, lift it up in prayer and praise, and act it out in compassion and in service to our neighbors.  With this moral, and religious, prescription, we can address the crumbling socio-political corruption of our time. 

Today, in the Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, they seem to be gaining authenticity from a broad representation, and a deep moral critique.  “Too big to fail,” is not a future to build on.  The corruption of checks and balances wounds society, and leaves it limping, like the missing third leg of our moral stool.  Wall Street – set free from any significant regulation, to profit at the expense of the 99%’ – is symbolic of our moral malaise, if not the actual center of the crisis.  And so, there’s plenty of crumbling going on that calls for a moral re-evaluation.  We are called, by our faith, to show the compassion and willingness to change, the world so desperately needs. 

“What does Jesus, the Messiah, stand for?”  Jesus came to stand up for all people in the midst of the crisis of his day, which is the same moral crisis of every day.  In dying and rising again, he founded more than just a social movement, of course – he lives, and continues to send the enlivening Spirit, for the transformation of all lives, and for the renewal of “the spirit of the Law” that lives in, and for us, in every age: for grace and forgiveness, for love and justice, for the inclusion of all.  He is the third leg of the stool, our seat at the banqueting table of the Lord - where our Messiah and Savior, has set us free, to be a holy presence for others. 

 

“In God we Trust.”  As I squirreled my money away in a handful of white wove envelopes as a boy, I couldn’t help but notice our nation’s motto imprinted on every bill and coin.  It was a crazy system!  I mean the envelope savings system, but maybe also the motto draped rather dogmatically above Lincoln and Washington’s heads.  Why was it there?  Which God is it that everyone is supposed to trust in?  A Lutheran or a Catholic god?  A Jewish, Muslim or Hindu god?  Even then I wondered, why would I trust the government to tell me what I believe about God?  And I didn’t much go in for the secret Masonic eye in the pyramid thing either! 

Ironically, we’re not the only country that adopted the motto, “In God we trust.”  As it turns out, it’s also the motto of our neighbor to the south, Nicaragua.  Which makes me wonder if the men and women of faith in the White House in the 1980’s who approved the illegal torture and killing of innocent Nicaraguans in the Iran-Contra affair, ever felt a contradiction there?  What does it mean to trust in God?  What does it mean to have that motto on your currency?  I don’t know for sure?  What do you think?  Really!  I’m interested in your thoughts, and I invite you to write them down on the Stewardship paper provided in your worship folder today.  “What do you think Jesus means? What things are the emperor's and what are God's?” 

Anyway, my family’s envelope system goes back to when I had my first lawn mowing and snow shoveling jobs, and my parents shared their elaborate system of saving money with me.  All my brothers and my sister got the same lesson sooner or later, to get in the habit of saving some of your paycheck for the future, whether it’s for college or for clothes, for church or for something you want for yourself.  I remember I wanted a mini-bike!  The point was, you simply write the name of the fund you’re saving for on the envelope, and decide how much you’re going to put in there each time you get paid, and stick to it.  It was pretty primitive, but it was easy, and it worked!  And later I realized what a transformative lesson it was.  Not only did I have some nice clothes for school and church, I also got that mini-bike, and had a good chunk of change for tuition.  Debt would never be a serious problem for me. 

Such proprietary lessons were essential in preparing to enter the world of 20C middle-class living.  But for those who lived in Palestine and listened to Jesus’ parables, even that level of savings was not possible.  Money was not a broad based standard available to the 99%, the subsistence living crowds Jesus so often cared for.  There were no checking accounts, much less ATM machines or online banking options.  The amount of coins in circulation with the emperor’s image on them, were minted simply to expedite the system of collecting taxes and creating debt.  A farmer or carpenter would rather have bread in hand, than coins.  It was no spiritualized abstraction to, pray for ones “daily bread.”  Money, whether bronze or silver coins, occasionally gold, was just another way for the 1% to “lord it over,” the 99. 

But in the dawning of the kingdom and realm of God in Jesus, a different economy, built on trust in God, had emerged.  The economy of Rome was the prevailing option, which the Pharisees and the Herodians in Jerusalem, had been co-opted into, and, more and more, benefited from.  An economy of debt and excessive taxes, of owing the elite for your land or your business, were the price paid to feed the family.  You could imitate them and join the rat race, the system of indebting others to you, so that in pushing them down, you could rise up a bit, trust that you would not be one of the newest victims needed to fuel the economy.  Or you could entertain the option Jesus revealed, a new kind of trust.  Serve God, not Mammon!  In the economy of the realm of God, trust was shared between the faithful, and within the ekklesia or church, a trust that first came from God, based on a deeply held belief that God was the creator of heaven and earth. 

It’s still an ideal we attain to, continue to seek, and make a reality.  But trust is key.  It’s complicated in the 21C, with a world-wide economy!  We live in the empire, even as we negotiate our faith in the creator of everything.  We pay our taxes and do business with money saying, “In God we Trust.”  I don’t know.  What do you think?  Write it down and we can discuss it at the Stewardship meeting. 

No one can really say just what Jesus meant when he so skillfully got himself out of the trap that the Pharisees set for him, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Does that mean we’re supposed to give all our coins away to the rulers of this world, and, give all our lives, our allegiance to God?  Is giving the emperor the things that are his, the taxes?  How does it work?  I really don’t know for sure.  What do you think? 

At the Occupy Wall Street protests, a popular sign said, “Keep the Coins, I want Change!”  A clever double-meaning!  Maybe a modern translation of Jesus’ reply?  We do know that, in Jesus day, no one even expected to receive services for payment of taxes.  They were levied largely to keep order, at the expense of freedom and creativity for the 99%. 

It wasn’t just “the love of money” that corrupted those at the top of the system in Jesus’, or any other day since then, but the lack of faithful and secure grounding in God, and the misunderstanding of whose “image” we’re made in.  It takes a deep and sincere trust that we are created, not just symbolically, but unequivocally and marvelously, in the image of God, the only trust bold enough to “walk through the valleys of the shadow of death,” we must face.  Which opens us up to accept the invitation to this table, and trust, that this bread and wine are Jesus body and blood for us, the beginning of a path of unimaginable joy, and way to transformation for the world.  “Keep the Coins, I want Change.”   

These times are full of uncertainty, and to trust in God will require a new and deep trust in one another, an openness to the realm of transformation.  We hold on to our faith in a loving God, a truth that does not change, but we also must answer the call to deeper faith, to a more bodily and incarnate kingdom and realm of God, that always pulls us into that loving grace anew.

What does it mean to trust in God?  What do you think?  What things are Caesar's and what are God's?  How does our faith shape our economic decisions?"  "What one question about the relationship between faith and money would you most like to talk about at church?"  Write down your thoughts.  Put them in the offering plate or give them to me.  We’re in this together!  

A Lutheran is one of the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011!  Leymah Gbowee has no political pedigree, unlike her co-winner, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of her West African country, Liberia.  Gbowee is a mother of 6, who followed a dream she had one night, to gather the women of the churches to pray for peace.  It happened at one of the most terrible times for her country, when the brutal dictator, Charles Taylor ruled a decade ago.  "We sat down there every day under the rain and sun,'' said (Bernice Williams,) one of Gbowee's colleagues from the Women in Peace Network.  ''We sat here together.  [And] Today she has won this prize, and it is not Leymah alone, but it is all the Liberian women who suffered for it,'' she said.  ''These women endured the unimaginable.  Some of them were raped, their husbands were killed. Their entire families were murdered.'' 

Gbowee grew up in central Liberia, and left for the capital when she was 17, just before the war started, to train as a trauma counselor.  And her work began with ex-child soldiers who had fought for Charles Taylor.  Just a few years later she became the spokesperson for the women's group and led the protest for peace.  She “gathered all whom she found,” both Christians and Muslims, believing that: "If any changes were to be made in society- it had to be by the mothers. 

"I started to cry and to pray,” Gbowee said.  “The women kept coming.  Market women.  Displaced women from the camps.  Some of them had been walking for hours.”  Her key moment came in April of 2003 when a huge crowd of women went before then-President Charles Taylor, and she was the one to hand him a resolution for peace, saying, ‘The women of Liberia, …we are tired of war. We are tired of running. We are tired of begging for bulgur wheat. We are tired of our children being [brutally mistreated].”  She hadn’t been invited, she came from the most vulnerable and lowest rung in their society, but her prayers were answered.

An amazing accomplishment, along with President Ellen Johnson, she was instrumental in ending the civil war, and bringing Taylor to justice.  And, it must have been quite a celebration that summer in 2003!  And now she is celebrating her peace prize, to the delight of many.

This past summer’s celebration that everyone was tuned into was, the royal wedding of William and Kate from Britain, a spectacle everyone wanted to participate in.  Wedding banquet’s are always times for celebration, and no expense was spared to wed the Queen’s grand-son, who is 2nd in line to succeed her.  Celebrities from here and everywhere arrived, presidents and prime ministers came.  It was an extravagant and picture perfect affair. 

And that’s just what was expected, we can imagine, of the wedding banquet that a king threw for his son, in our gospel parable.  But, it all went wrong in a hurry!  The king sent out invitations well ahead of time, as was the custom, and then as the day came, sent out his servants to announce the affair once again.  “But now they refused to come!  [Not giving up, he sends other servants out, insisting, come on, this party’s going to be nuts! You don’t want to miss it! But they laugh at the invitation, and go back to work, while others mock and kill the messengers.] 

So, the vindictive king retaliates, sending his own personal troops, not only to kill them, but to burn their city to the ground.  Much as we might expect from today’s leaders, like Charles Taylor in Gbowee’s Liberia, or like President Assad of Syria, whose security forces once again, just yesterday, fired shots this time into a crowd of innocent mourners at a funeral, killing at least two.  Methods of terror and intimidation are all too pervasive throughout the history of kings and presidents. 

But in the parable, the wedding banquet took a more positive turn when the king, however briefly, showed his benevolent side, ordering his servants to go out into the marketplace and invite anyone and everyone they could find, “both good and bad.”  Now that his rich friends, who rejected him were eliminated, he’d take any old warm body to fill his wedding hall, even those he considered undesirable!  And so they came into the palace, a bit wearily, but hungry enough to take a chance on this fickle and capricious king.  

What I started to wonder at this point was, where was the king’s son in this story?  The most obvious thing about the son, is his invisibility!  Normally in this parable, we would interpret the son as Jesus, and the king as God.  But here we have a king that looks a lot like the real king of Jesus’ day, King Herod, who had the ‘well deserved’ reputation among the Palestinian Jews, of a brutal despot, and capricious ruler. 

So the Jesus character in the parable, it turns out, may actually be the one who was next in line for the king’s retaliation at the royal wedding.  “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe,” the king said to him out of the blue.  And, he had him thrown into the outer darkness.  Just like Jesus, the innocent man stood silent before his accusers.  Jesus tells this story as holy week begins, and shortly, on that Thursday evening after he is arrested, and as he stood trial, Jesus receives the false accusations without answering, “speechless,” and then he is thrown into the outer darkness of death, just like the condemned robe-less man in the parable.

The retaliation of the king will be transformed by Jesus, of course, in his death and resurrection, he will become our new king, teaching us a new way, by breathing peace, into the whole Body of Christ. 

Who are those in our society and neighborhood that are considered undesirable, that don’t get the first invitation to weddings?  Who are those that are willing to pray and gather up those affected by capricious and dirty leaders?  Who are those that have been as a Christ to you, and showed you the way to transformation in your life?  Today we think of Leymah Gbowee.  Amidst the story of Charles Taylor, armed rebels and a quarter million Liberians killed, her story was silenced until now.  Yet, thanks to the Nobel Peace Prize, we have heard the key roll she played in freeing her people non-violently, by their perseverance, prayer and faith.  She did not have the proper wedding robe or credentials to do it, no one had invited her.  But concerned for the women and children of her country, she followed her dream, and, her time of celebration has come.   

Which reminds me, there’s another thing I need to tell you about the Nobel Peace Prize winner.  I got an email from Anne Basye yesterday.  She just had to share the news with me!  This fellow Lutheran, Leymah Gbowee, was her house guest back in 2005 when Anne lived here on Balmoral, just down by Glenwood.  And on Sunday, naturally, she brought her to church!  Leymah was invited to speak here from this ambo, and gave a brief greeting to those assembled – maybe some still remember?!  But Anne wanted us to remember: that the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Leymah Gbowee, sat right here in the same pews that we do! 

We too are called!  The feast has been prepared.  Come, we have much to give thanks for, and celebrate!  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  

What does Christian stewardship mean in this rent-to-own world?  What is Jesus trying to tell us about the vineyard in this third Vineyard parable in as many weeks?  Is it okay to return violence for violence on those who have misused their trust to care for the Vineyard? 

This is one of those passages where it helps to look between the lines, and to apply the Lutheran principle we call, scripture interpreting scripture. 

There may be some here who memorized that core statement from John’s Gospel, “For God so loved the world that God sent his only begotten son…”  If so, your ears may have perked up hearing the same thing in this parable about the landowner who, “sent his son to them,” to the tenants, to collect the produce.  The landowner, frustrated by the treatment his servants have received from his tenants, thinks, or hopes at least, that “they will respect my son.”  Jesus is making an analogy about himself, of course, just as John’s gospel was talking about God sending Jesus into the world to save it by going to the cross.  “The scriptures, both Hebrew and Christian, Old and New Testaments, provide one witness after another that God’s mission to save the world will not be derailed by human wickedness, doubt or failure.  The realm or kingdom of God is not built on human institutions or promises, but is built and planted in God’s grace-filled will to make it happen. 

The servants in the parable that God kept sending, were the prophets at the time of the exile, who were rejected or killed, because the chosen people didn’t want to hear the truth about their misuse of the Vineyard.  And later, the son with whom God is well pleased, Jesus, was also cast out, who is also “the stone that the builders rejected…”  And so Jesus concludes, “the realm of God will be taken away from [those who aren’t good stewards of the vineyard] and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”  The thing that keeps us from receiving the prophets and Jesus then, is our worldly rent-to-own values.  We have worked the vineyard and we start to think it is ours.  And we forget the covenant agreement, the promise, that God gave us the earth to till and keep, to be care-takers, and to be fruitful, delighted, and share it. 

In one congregation, the story goes, this rent-to-own mentality became destructive when the choir, a long-time ministry of the church, believed they finally had arrived at ownership, and decided they were above the need to make financial contributions to the church any more.  ‘We are claiming ownership of the Vineyard, and you can keep our envelope boxes,’ they declared!  But what if everyone who contributed time and talents to care for the church, and tend the vineyard, decided they didn’t need to make an offering of their treasure in this way?  When rent-to-own becomes possessive and exclusionary, or turns into a feeling of entitlement, it becomes divorced from the care-taking we are all called to, by our creator, the God who gives us the Vineyard to share and care for. 

Answering the call to be good stewards in the Vineyard is more vital today than ever.  Yesterday I heard the story of one Texas city that through careful planning and deliberate conservation of their water, has been able to avoid the worst of the drought there.  At one time, San Antonio had been as carefree about water usage as any major city, until they were challenged in court by the Sierra Club.  In the past, if a drought hit, they too would have simply pumped more water out of the San Antonio River until it was gone.  But when the Sierra Club successfully sued them to protect a certain endangered species living in the San Antonio River, the blind salamander, well, at first they got angry.  But then they got creative.  First, they reduced water consumption, from a per day usage of over 200 gallons per person to about 130.  And secondly, during times when the rains are plentiful and the San Antonio Aquifer is full, they aggressively pump out its overflowing waters and store it some 40 miles away in a sand formation called the Carrizo, which could ultimately store, perhaps as much as 65 billion gallons! 

Caring for what we have as a gift from God, is something we can all practice, whether it’s the earth’s resources or one another.  God gives us this world, this vineyard, not just to use and use up, but to care-take.  We are all tenants in this rent-to-own world.  But even owners must continue on as care-takers.  There is nothing wrong with owning a home instead of renting.  Home ownership needs good stewards as well!   

Kim and I are renters right now and we are grateful to our landlords, the owners who live upstairs.  We pay well for what we get: including a beautiful view onto the Blvd from our historic greystone, with heat, laundry services, and a garage parking spot, all included.  But then the owners did something almost unheard of.  When they heard that Kim was unemployed recently, they offered to reduce our rent!  Maybe it’s because there’s an apartment next door that’s been for rent for many months!?  But I like to think they were caring for their Vineyard as a whole, for their building, and for us, the renters, who also respect their property and help in its upkeep, and pay our rent on time.  Owners are called on to be good care takers of what is entrusted to them, just as tenants are. 

God has taken on the burdens that come with ownership, for repairing, saving and guiding this worldly vineyard, and covenanting with us for the ultimate promise that the Vineyard will be redeemed, and we will be saved.  Our world has been created good, and we are invited in to be its care-takers.  But if we take a rent-to-own approach, as if there are no longer any burdens or responsibilities for all the precious resources we have been entrusted with, what should God’s answer be?  Is it to put us “wretches to a miserable death?” 

In the parable, Jesus seems to say, the Vineyard is ours to share and care for, and the reward is up to us.  We can choose to accept or reject the cornerstone, to fall on it and be broken to pieces, or, to build on it and be fed by the broken pieces of bread given for us, and the wine of the Vineyard shed for us, that builds us up as the whole Body of Christ. 

The abundant life of God’s vineyard, a harvest of rich food and fine wine, is already ours!  We are simply called to share and care for it.  God’s answer then, is a place at the table in the promised vineyard, where care-takers – tenants and owners alike – find new life in the realm of God.  

‘Individual freedom of choice’ within a ‘Vineyard of responsibility’ – it’s a balance, as they say!  According to our readings, you can work it to your advantage, or you can empty yourself of your privilege, for the sake of the world. 

Okay, so there’s a back story to all this in our readings today.  The “chief priests and the elders of the people” don’t just come to Jesus questioning his “authority” in a vacuum!  They’re reacting to Jesus out of the previous scene, where Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple and accused them of turning “his” house of prayer into a den of robbers.  Who is in charge of the Temple?  Where does the authority lie?  The chief priests and elders were pretty sure it was not with this renegade itinerant preacher from Nazareth!  They had been appointed the guardians, they were sure, with the authority to speak for the people of Israel. 

Jesus answers their question about his authority as any rabbi would, with another question!  “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?”  Checkmate – they didn’t see that one coming!  Either way they answer, exposes their privilege, that they cling to.  They did not believe in John, but they knew the people listening to Jesus teaching in the Temple did, regarding him as a prophet.  A prophet who had boldly demanded they give up their privilege and prepare their hearts to receive the Messiah, Jesus.  But the chief priests and the elders are more willing to endure public embarrassment than to “change their minds” and turn around – which is saying something in a culture based on receiving honor and avoiding shame.  And so they endure the conclusion Jesus draws, “truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.”  The more they cling to their status and office, the more their honor and privilege evaporate from their grasp!  They are like the son who says “I will go and work in the vineyard today, but he did not go.” 

Are we able to see our privilege?  Are our hearts open to change?  Is the kingdom of God what, and where, we thought it was?  Some of us may not have ‘privilege’ but instead are put in the position of ‘fighting for our dignity.’  The issue isn’t entitlement, but believing we belong as workers in the same Vineyard with the privileged.   But either way, we all must turn around and return to God. 

“The word of the Lord came to me,” said Ezekiel: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?”  

The theme in Ezekiel is also about clinging to privilege, but by averting responsibility and blaming others.  Ezekiel’s back story, is that, he’s living in Babylon with the first deportation of Jews, exiled from Israel, due to their disobedience, and failure to care “for the least of these,” some 6 C. before Jesus.  Ezekiel was an “elder” of the people, but one who repented, turned around from his privilege, and advocated that all of Israel should do the same. 

And so Ezekiel refuses to accept that the everyday proverb can be their excuse any longer, that they can have their “teeth set on edge” by the “sour grapes” their parents have eaten!  In other words, he doesn’t accept that the children suffer, because of the misdeeds of their parents, any more than he would accept that they might benefit because of their parents success.  Their righteousness depends on their own choices within the Vineyard of opportunity given by God’s grace.  They are not locked in to the consequences of sin in the past.  Even though they are in exile, away from their beloved Vineyard, the promised land of Israel, they are not destined for suffering forever.  “Turn and live” says Ezekiel.  God is a God of life, and we are free to take responsibility and choose it.  You are not bound by the sins of the past, or your parents.  Turn and live, is a word of Grace!  The way out of exile, for them, and us, is turning around, repenting from the ways of death, and living in the way of life, the ways of the LORD.  Why would you choose to blame your parents?  Or insist you are bound to the sins of the past, when this only leads to more death!

But, we do!  We blame others.  Or we insist on the privilege we have received from our parents, instead of “seeing John’s righteousness.”  “For John came to [us] in the way of righteousness and [we]did not believe him…” that there is a way out – the freedom to choose life – this life, this gift of grace.  We have it not by our own deeds, any more than we have it by our parents’ sins.  But we have life in proportion to our giving it away for others to have.  Not to suggest it’s some kind of a Ponsy scheme, that depends on us finding one more person to hand it off to.  God has given, and is continuing to give away, life, to us.  It is limitless, whether we choose it or not.  It is free, and it is the way of life that overcomes the way of death. 

James Alison has said that, “There is no real freedom that does not pass through a recognition of complicity in death.”   He referring, of course, to Jesus’ death and resurrection that helps us to see and to understand this journey.   We do not just have to work a little harder at doing good to earn the gift.  “Life is not something fought for,” Alison continues, “but something given.” 

Are we able to see our privilege?  Are our hearts open to change?  Is the kingdom of God what, and where, we thought it was?  The kingdom, or the Vineyard is not where John was – out in the desert.  But John’s ministry of baptism in the wilderness is an excellent preparation to pass through on our journey to freedom.  It is where our sin and separation from God is let go, and washed clean.  We go through John’s baptism, to get to the promised Vineyard.  We empty ourselves of the weight that holds us down, and we come up out of the waters ready to be filled with the new life of Christ.  Our freedom is in turning around and choosing life. 

Why in the world, Ezekiel wonders, do you want to be tied down to your parents’ sour grapes, their sins?  Although there is momentary comfort in denying our privilege or escaping our responsibility, it only leaves us more separated from the reach of God’s loving embrace.  We have been set free in the waters of baptism.  Our exile ends in the freedom we have to choose life, and, in learning how to give it away again. 

Welcome to the Vineyard!  Even though we say, “I will not go and work in the vineyard today,” whether out of privilege, or out of rejections in our lives, we go!  For here is work that frees the soul, and grapes that produce a harvest for the banqueting feast at the table of the LORD forever.  Our exile is over!  Choose life, and return to the Lord your God.