MEDITATION: A Premeditated, Deliberated, Vicious and Violent Act of Appropriation… The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost: October 5, 2014 By The Reverend Nathanael Saint-Pierre We invite you to worship and be in communion with us during our 10:30AM Service of Holy Eucharist to hear the full sermon. +++++++ A Premeditated, Deliberated, Vicious and Violent Act of Appropriation… The story from the Gospel for this Sunday is very authentic even though we don’t necessarily view our behavior as comparable to what used to happen in the time of Jesus. Although Jesus denounced and raised the issue, to appropriate the church as if it were our own is still perpetuated and perpetrated. How many times have we heard someone declare: “This is MY church and …”? The fact is that those who want to claim ownership of the church are not necessarily working for the glory of God, but for the benefits, concrete and abstract, they hope to get from it. Sometimes the common good is neglected to benefit a few. The resources that all have contributed to gather are enjoyed and sometime wasted by a handful and those really in need are deprived of the small portion that could help. However, the actions of the few envious and egocentric benefactors are nothing less than premeditated, deliberated, vicious and violent acts of appropriation. Our stories today, from the reading from Exodus through the Gospel, are wonderful reminders of why each of us needs to give back to our church, and share Gods grace and blessings. As God has given us a lease on life; we need to reinforce our Christ-centered life by giving back rather than being self-focused. We are called to take care of the vineyard as tenants not to become its landowner. God is the landowner. The land is the world and the vineyard is the church. As you can see, reading or listening to the story, the vineyard was already built up and productive. The story is not about planting or investing, it is not about the soil nor the seed. The landowner has taken care of all that. He trusted the tenants with the vineyard and the agreement was that they would give back the fruits of the vineyard when the harvest came. But as often happens, the contract (also called Testament) signed between God and humankind is rarely respected by the humans. Every time God asked for payment and sent people in his service to claim what belonged to him (the agreed portion of the fruits), the greedy tenants killed them. They killed the servants sent by the landowner and they brutally killed the son in a vicious and violent act of appropriation. The tenants did not understand God’s attempt to establish a NEW Testament. Instead they wanted to maintain business as usual, same old practices, same old customs. And when the son came to change things around, they thought that by killing him, there would be no heirs, NO testament, and the vineyard would stay under their control. What will we not do to retain control? What will we not do to perpetuate lawlessness? Some of you might be telling yourself, “Here he goes again and he is going to use today’s Gospel to point fingers at us and make us feel that we are appropriating the church.” I can hear your heartbeat feeling accused. My fingers are pointed on us, you and me. The disciples felt that way. They misunderstood where Jesus was going with this parable. The Pharisees and High Priests became defensive and refrained from arresting Jesus with difficulty and by fear. Like a tourist who is traveling with a box of matches with the address of a hotel, afraid to be misunderstood not speaking the local language, travels with a box of matches with the address of the hotel he wants to be driven to, gets driven to a match factory instead, allow me to drive you through God’s unexpected love instead of making you feel miserably accused of appropriating the church of God. No one can! Because: 1.No one can kill the Son. The Father and the Son are ONE. The Son came to give his body and blood (to be rejected) so that humanity could be redeemed. When one tries to reject or to premeditate or deliberately kill the Son, one is not really knowledgeable of the identity of the Son. The Son is the cornerstone of the church. He lives in the Father and the Father lives in him. The church cannot be destroyed nor be the property of anyone. No one but those chosen by God will inherit the vineyard. That’s the CURRENT Testament. And when those who are called do not respect it, 2.The kingdom of God will be taken away from those who want to unlawfully appropriate its fruits (lawlessness), and will be given to a people who produce the fruits of the kingdom (generosity, forgiveness and love). No legitimacy will matter, seniority, nor numbers. Heaven cannot be won over in a racket or a riot. 3.When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but “the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Try to stand in the ways of God and appropriate the vineyard is to expose oneself to God’s anger. And God’s anger is to give the vineyard to people who exuberate (demonstrate with excitement) fruits of the kingdom. It is to transfer the benefits to those who do not deserve to get them but have accepted that their legitimacy exists only through the bloodshed of Christ. When our Eucharistic prayer says about Jesus that he is: The “word made flesh.” The one sent to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world. In him, God has delivered us from evil, and “made us worthy to stand before” Him. In him, God has brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.” we affirm in this prayer that we only access the grace of God through Jesus alone. We cannot unilaterally claim or declare ownership of the (church) vineyard. God will remain the landowner and Christ, the legitimate heir. God’s love is the only unchangeable testament. To every premeditated, deliberated, vicious and violent act of appropriation, such as: judgment, condemnation, and crucifixion, God responds with an unexpected act of kindness, resurrection, forgiveness, generosity, and love. As we celebrate today the ECW chapter that we host, I cannot conclude this meditation better than by quoting Paul: “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.” Paul continues: “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” The ECW organization in its vision statement affirms that it is a membership of “women blend of all ages” who “aspire to a God spark, shining and sharing the love of God.” May you flourish to attend your goals and contribute to the growth of the kingdom of God here on earth in his vineyard and in the kingdom to come. Amen. + + + + + + + St Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church 286-290 Henry Street New York NY 10002
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:19:03 +0000
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