We are the Tenants

Some years ago, my husband and I vacationed in eastern Ontario. We enjoy live theater, and so we were headed to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. As we drove towards Buffalo on I-90, we passed row upon row of what were surely young vineyards. Crossing over into Canada, we discovered, to our astonishment, that eastern Ontario had also become a wine-producing area. Between Shaw Festival plays, we visited the surrounding area. We learned that wine has been produced in Canada for almost 200 years. However, in the last thirty years the apple and pear orchards that had once been the mainstay of the Niagara economy had now all become vineyards that were producing very nice wines. When we sampled ice wine for the first time, we learned that producing wine is a very painstaking business. The vines must be lovingly tended, the wine must be carefully put in barrels to age, and finally, the wine must be bottled to be sold. Winemaking is definitely not a solo operation! However, with conscientious workers and managers, even small wineries can produce wine that equals or even surpasses the wine of better known houses. Although we were disappointed to discover that very little Canadian wine is exported to the US, several bottles of wine from the smaller wineries crossed back over the border with us.

We should not be surprised that Jesus chose the image of a vineyard to make a point about good stewardship. The vineyard is a common image in the Hebrew Bible. For example, the book of Proverbs praises a “woman of valor,” by noting that, “She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard” (31:16). Isaiah concludes a prophecy about God’s anger with Israel saying, “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting….” (5:7).

What is more important, wine was an important part of the economy of Galilee. Despite the hard work involved in producing wine, even in Jesus’ time, anyone who owned a vineyard and who employed good managers and workers could expect a reasonably profitable product. Here, though, Jesus’ parable does not depict conscientious employees. Rather it depicts employees who deny the vineyard owner his rightful share of the wine. What’s worse, they are so greedy to get control of the production of the vineyard that they kill successive emissaries from the owner. In the end, they kill the owner’s own son, the rightful heir.

We should also not be surprised to learn that this parable occurs in all three Synoptic Gospels. Indeed, in Matthew it is the second of three parables that depict escalating conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities. Last week we heard the first one, the parable of the two sons, and next week we will hear a parable about those who refuse the invitation to enter God’s Realm.

Jesus’ earliest followers recounted these stories, because the church of the first century painfully questioned the relationship between followers of Jesus and the existing Jewish communities. The earliest Christians wondered why the majority of the Jews of their day declined to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, why followers of Jesus were unwelcome in synagogues, and why there was often conflict between Jesus’ disciples and leaders of the Jewish communities. Matthew’s version of the story is clearly allegorical. The vineyard is Israel, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, and God is the owner of the vineyard. The owner’s earlier emissaries represent the two groups of prophets, while the son clearly represents Jesus, who is killed through the collusion of the religious leaders and the Roman government. The verdict of the Gospel writer is harsh: old leaders have been replaced by new leaders, the followers of Jesus, the members of the New Israel.

Before we nod our heads in agreement, we need to avoid two mistakes when interpreting this parable. First, we must avoid the temptation of anti-Semitism. Instead, we must remember that only a few self-interested religious and civil leaders were responsible for Jesus’ death. We must also remember that Jesus preached to Jews, healed them, loved them, and was one of them. His first disciples were all Jews, as were most of his earliest followers. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the God of love graciously incorporates Gentiles into the covenant that God first made with the Jews.

Second, however, we must also avoid thinking that this parable applies only to the time, place, and people to whom it was originally addressed. Scriptures continue to speak to us and contain truths for all times, places, and people. If we think that the parable applies only to first-century Jewish leaders, we’ve missed the point – by a mile – and we turn our backs on the challenge the parable addresses to us.

So what does the allegory in this parable say to us? My friends, we might not like to hear it, but we are the tenants. We are the stewards, managers, and workers in God’s vineyard. We don’t own the vineyard any more than the tenants in the parable did. Indeed, in truth none of us owns anything. Everything we have has been given to us on short-term loan by God. Everything we think we own has been entrusted to us by God. God expects that we too will produce good fruit with God’s gifts. Just as in the parable, at the end of our lives God will surely ask an accounting of us, judging us by what we have done with God’s resources.

So of what are we the stewards? In church stewardship campaigns, it is common to suggest that we are stewards of our time, talent, and treasure. And indeed we are. God has gifted us with minutes, hours, nights, days, and years, with innumerable talents, and, in this country, with unimaginable economic resources. Yes, we must use God’s gifts of time, talent, and treasure wisely and productively. But I’d like to suggest a form of stewardship that we ignore to our peril, the stewardship of creation. God has given us this good earth, and God has given us the care of everything on it. And what have we done with God’s gifts? Polluted resources, global warming, shrinking rainforests, and overflowing landfills testify to the ways we have trashed God’s gifts. Worse, while so few enjoy so much, so many lack sufficient food and access to clean water. Theologians and scientists rightly shout out, “Beware, we are the wicked tenants.”

Yesterday was the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. A 12th century religious, Francis dedicated his life to living simply without possessions, to serving the poor, and to caring for all creation. The monastic order that bears his name, the parallel order for women, the Poor Clares, and the Third Order of Franciscans for lay associates, all still exist today. Francis’s movement still inspires today’s Christians. Third Order Franciscans in particular embrace a preferential option for the poor, non-violence, and a belief in the sacredness of creation. While one could say much about caring for the poor and speaking out against violence, I’d like to focus on our stewardship of creation, the responsibility that we share with Franciscans to care lovingly for the earth and all its creatures. Are we good stewards of creation in our personal lives? In our corporate lives? Could we all live more simply and less wastefully, so that, by God’s grace, our planet may begin to recover from what we have done to it?

Before you think, “I can’t do anything,” let me say this: big steps are good, but so are small steps. We do need to encourage our elected representatives to support legislation and government agencies that preserve state and national parks, protect the atmosphere, our farmland, and our forests, and clean up devastated rivers, lakes, and streams. But we also need to order our personal lives so that we too take responsibility for healing the vineyard in which we work. To do that, we must be in relationship: in relationship with creation, in relationship with our communities, and in relationship with God.

There are many ways we can foster our relationships with creation, with communities, and with God. I’m going to suggest just a couple of possibilities for each – if you’d like more I’d be happy to provide them. To heal your relationship with creation, identify habits in your life that are not sustainable for the earth and change them. For example, can you take reusable cloth bags when you shop? Can you support local farmers and reduce your consumption of food that has travelled thousands of miles? To strengthen your relationship with the community, can you get involved with an organization that is working for peace or for reduction of gun violence? Can you mentor a child, or teach someone to read? To strengthen your relationship with God, can you take time to be grateful for God’s gifts? If you have a smart phone, consider the app Five Good Things, which encourages you to note five good things about your day. How about pondering the answer to this question: what is the purpose of my life?

Ultimately, everywhere we go we are in God’s vineyard. God provides us the tools, the wisdom, and the means to produce good fruit in God’s vineyard. What we are asked to provide is the will to do what needs to be done to bear good fruit, and the will to work in the vineyard every day. When we renew ourselves at the holy table, and when we remember that we have what we need from God to produce God’s fruits, then we will be God’s faithful and worthy stewards.