Matthew 21:33-46

³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? ⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” ⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Murder. Violence. Greed. Revenge. Lawlessness.

It’s the kind of story that makes you wonder: what on earth was the owner of the vineyard thinking?

So the story goes that a man plants a vineyard, then moves far away, but leases out the land. The rent? The tenants pay in produce. But since the vineyard owner is far away, he sends his servants to collect the produce… and what do the tenants do? They kill the servants so that they can profit. Not good. And not even logical. So the owner sends more servants (really?) and they, too, get killed. So the owner sends his own son (isn’t he seeing a rather dangerous pattern yet?), and even the son gets killed.

Now this story raises lots of questions, especially related to the owner of the vineyard. First of all, what on earth was the owner of the vineyard thinking? Didn’t he run background checks on these people? Didn’t they have references? Didn’t he learn his lesson with the first set of indiscriminate killings? Why send more servants and not the authorities? Why send your own son?

Looking at this story from 2000 years away, it’s easy to come up with a list of questions related to the actions of the vineyard owner – they just don’t seem logical, do they? And it’s tempting to see the story in simple terms: God must be the vineyard owner, the prophets were the servants sent before and killed, the son was Jesus, and the wicked tenants were the religious authorities and others that rejected Jesus. That means that we are the “other tenants,” right? The ones with the unwritten future, the ones who produce fruit?

Not so fast. While it’s tempting to see this story as an ancient drama, the truth of this story is that it is about us. We are the ones who kill the servants, and we are the ones who kill the son. We are the ones motivated by jealousy, greed, pride, and our own self-interest, and we are the ones who sabotage God’s work in us. And God, in God’s infinite love, patience, and mercy, continues to give us another chance – even when it comes at cost to God. That’s the Good News in this story – the owner of the vineyard does not act rationally, or with good business sense, or with prudence. The owner of the vineyard acts with reckless abandon, hope, and forgiveness.

Questions for reflection:

How are we like the tenants? What are the ways that we kill others out of our own selfishness and greed?

The owner of the vineyard in this story seems irresponsible, risky, and too merciful. How does this change how you understand God?

What does this story mean for the Christian community today? How are we called to act?

This week’s Bible Blog is written by Pastor Mindy Roll, the ELCA Lutheran Campus Pastor at Texas A&M and Blinn. For more information on the ELCA ministry here, see www.treehouseministries.com.

Matthew 21:23-32

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?’ And they argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” But if we say, “Of human origin”, we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.’ So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

 ‘What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” He answered, “I will not”; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, “I go, sir”; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

The Parable of the two sons contrasts the faithless leaders and the faithful outcasts.  What matters?  What is authentic?  What we say or what we do?  Affirming the right thing, but not acting on it, stands in the way of authentic response to God.

Jesus challenges conventional perspectives of right and wrong and shows how different God’s Kingdom is from the kingdoms of this world.

By asking Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” the chief priests and elders hope to discredit Jesus and trap him into claiming his authority comes from God, so that he can be charged with blasphemy.

In true rabbinic style, Jesus replies with another question that presents the priests and elders with a dilemma.  If they answer that the baptism of John the Baptist was from God, then they must explain why they did not acknowledge John.  On the other hand, if they rely that John’s baptism was “of human origin”, the fear the response of the crowds who believed John was a prophet of God.

After telling the parable of the two sons, Jesus asks the priests and elders, “Which of the sons did the will of his father?”  In answering that the son who actually did go into the vineyard to work, even though he told his father he would not go, actually did the will of the father.  In their answer, the priests and elders exposed their own hypocrisy.  Affirming the right thing, but not acting on it, stands in the way of authentic response to God.

1.     How does the dilemma presented between saying and doing continue to affect us today?

2.     Reflect on the responses of the sons in terms of your own personal relationship with God.  How are you like either one or both of them?

3.     In this parable, Jesus turns conventional assumptions upside down.  What changes are we called to make from the implications of this story?

"It Gets Better" -Exodus 16:2-15

"The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.  On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days."  So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?" 

And Moses said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him--what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD."  Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'"  And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. 

The LORD spoke to Moses and said, "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'"  In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 

When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.

In the story of the Exodus, we know that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.  The Red Sea in Hebrew is actually has the dual meaning of "The Sea of the End".   The end of what?   Well, the end of oppression, the end of slavery, the end of suffering, and the end of marginalization as a people.   But in their minds as a people in today's passage, it was more probable to mean the end of food, the end of creature comforts, the end of life itself!   It felt like the ultimate bait and switch and the people wanted none of it!    They wanted to go back into slavery.

I completed my Doctor of Ministry this year and looking back on 25 years of education (27 if you want to allow me to count Preschool---hey Play-doh taught me a lot!), I can say one thing for sure.  I looked forward to every graduation as if it was an Exodus moment in which the shackles of tests and papers would finally end and I would enter into my own realm of Nirvana.  No one told me, though, (well, maybe there was a boring graduation speech that did) that the next step would bring its own challenges, but it did.   It wasn't always harder in the same ways but it was different and still a ton of work.   Even now, I am burdened by the fact that with that a in front of my name means people actually expect me to know something (many times outside my field) and share it!   Education never ends, nor should it.   There's a Zen saying that before enlightenment, one must chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.   Too true.

You can pick any story of liberation.   In our country, think about those released from slavery in the Emancipation Proclamation.   Were they free?  Yes.  Were they still oppressed?  Absolutely yes.   Most of us would still say it is a process that has not finished even with having an African-American President.   At the same time, many other liberating movements in the model of Exodus continue and emerge among the human family for those who are of various races, religions, and personal realities.  

As an example, "It Gets Better" is an Internet-based project founded by Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller on September 21, 2010, in response to the suicide of Billy Lucas and a number of other teenagers who were bullied because they were gay or because their peers suspected that they were gay, such as Raymond Chase, Tyler Clementi, Ryan Halligan, Asher Brown, and Seth Walsh. Its goal is to prevent suicide among all youth (with emphasis on LGBT youth) by having adults convey the message that these teens' lives will improve. The project has grown rapidly: over 200 videos were uploaded in the first week, and the project's YouTube channel reached the 650 video limit in the next week. The project is now organized on its own website, the It Gets Better Project, and includes more than 22,000 entries from people of all sexual orientations, including many celebrities. (Wikipedia entry "It Gets Better")   Many critics, though, point out that this campaign falls short because it does not call for communities to take responsibility and "Make It Better".  

The truth is there is hard work ahead in the walk to liberation and little, if any of it, will happen by inertia.   The "Promised Land" seems elusive as all of us travel ahead from captivity to liberation.   We all have a story of being liberated from something that held us back.  If we don't now, we will.   We like to think we don't complain in our own wildernesses but we do.  We like to think it will just "get better" if we hang on to hope but there is still much work to do on behalf of ourselves and others.  The bottom line, the sacramental line if you will, is that our God may well expect us to continue to chop wood and carry water but He also does not leave us without what we need to move forward.   He is not a Deistic god that is watching us on our own personal reality TV channel.   He is a provider from the abundance of His faithfulness and grace.

The Lord, Adonai, the Holy One of Israel, provides enough manna, bread, for the Journey.   Yes, we may approach the altar lost and uncertain with our question, "what is it?"   Yet we are always met with the provision and hospitality that "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."    

Eat the manna.  Claim the vision. Trust in God.  Walk forward.  God will provide.  Repeat.

Rev. Dr. Kyle Walker is the Director/Campus Minister for United Campus Ministry at Texas A&M University.   UCM meets at the Canterbury House for "Aggie Supper" on Thursdays at 6 p.m.  All are welcome.

Matthew 18:21-35

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. ²³“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.²⁴When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; ²⁵and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.²⁸But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³²Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’³⁴And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Yowza! Really, Jesus? If we don’t forgive one another, and forgive them from the heart, we’ll be handed over to be tortured until we can repay our entire debt?

Something’s fishy about this passage. For one, the math is nuts. The first slave owed the master ten thousand talents. One talent was worth 15-20 years of work. So, this slave owed the master something like 150,000 years of work. Um, that’s crazy! The number was not even fathomable to the ancient mind. It’s like your financial aid officer saying, with a completely straight face, “You owe the school a ga-gillion, fa-billion dollars.” What on earth is a ga-gillion, much less a fa-billion? The number is meant to be ridiculous and unfathomable. The next slave, on the other hand, owed the fellow slave something like 100 days of work. This was fathomable. Jesus is clearly making a point with these two sets of numbers – what’s he up to?

Second, the call to forgive is not for seven, but 77 times. Peter thought he was being awfully generous to offer to forgive seven times (three was generally thought to be the max by the teachers of the law). But Jesus turns even this upside down. Not seven, Peter, but 77 times. Not the generosity you think you are capable of, but multiple that – and then multiple it again.

This text tells us something about human nature, doesn’t it? We want to receive mercy and forgiveness; we want to act with judgment.

And here’s the thing: judgment is so much easier. To be the one who acts with mercy and forgiveness… let’s be honest: this takes more humility, strength and faith than we are capable of – even on our best days. But to trust that God works forgiveness and mercy through us – that forgiveness is God’s business and God’s good gift – that’s Good News.

This week we mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. What does this text mean when we think about it in the light of this anniversary? What does forgiveness mean? What might God be working through us?