[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. In the latter part of the Gospel reading, it’s kind of like the light finally went off in those men’s heads. But you’d have thought, as soon as Jesus began this parable the way he began it, they would have made the connection between what God had already written 800 years before by the prophet Isaiah in this morning’s Old Testament reading, and that gospel proclamation of that parable should have been clear to them.
Well, it’s that way with you too. See, there are many things in your and my life that are privileges. It’s a privilege that we were given the Holy Spirit, by God, through His Word and by parents who raised us in the church, if that was our experience. If it wasn’t, we were privileged by someone who did bring us to church, that we may hear the good news of Jesus Christ, and by His Holy Spirit, believe.
And isn’t it a privilege that we as parents can tell our babies about Jesus? That we can pray with them at night? That we can tell them that we don’t have all the answers, but that God controls all things and He has promised to be loving and gracious because of Christ Jesus. And is it a privilege as loved ones become gray and frail that we can tell them again what was told to us? That Jesus will guard and protect and preserve His saints until they go home.
But like all privileges, we can come to a point when the privilege doesn’t become appreciated because it becomes so familiar. Many of you have been over to Europe and have seen the tremendously large cathedrals, and yet they’re filled with hardly anyone at all. If you haven’t been there, maybe you’ve been to Scotland or Ireland or England and have seen the large and ancient cathedrals there. And again, they’re not filled with hardly anyone. Has Christ abandoned the continent of Europe or England? By no means. But has the vineyard owner taken it away and given it to people who produce the fruit? And the answer is yes, He has.
If it happened in the continent of Europe, if it happened in the island of Great Britain, who was the world power at one time, it can happen and is possibly happening to the great country of the United States today. The application is to you who are members of the communion here at St. Paul. We had many people fill out things about St. Paul that they loved and were following up with a strategic planning and a survey, which please fill out. Take the time to do so so that we can have a fruitful discussion about where we want to go.
Because many of the things that we appreciate about St. Paul that are earthly are the stained glass windows and the mosaics and the ornate altar and the music and the organ and all those things. But that better not be the reason that you’re a part of St. Paul. Because you and I are a part of St. Paul because of what is proclaimed here and what has been proclaimed here long before I ever came onto the scene by faithful pastors and teachers before me. And we want to make sure that our children and our grandchildren have this, and other people have the privilege of this pure Word of God here that we’ve been given.
But the connection to this story, your story and mine, in the parable is quite clear. The vineyard owner, our God and Father, has given us this place and these people with whom to be knit into a holy communion. Knit together not because of stained glass windows and organ, but because of the Word of God and what it does in us and has done in us and will continue to do in us until He closes our eyes and says, “Welcome home, good and faithful servant.”
But just like in England and in Europe, people can become so unappreciative of the Word of God among them. And by degree, trade it for something else. Something more current. Something more socially acceptable. Something less offensive to the general public with whom we interact. And in doing so, by degree, we in essence beat and kill the prophets that have been sent to us. Like in the vineyard.
You see, God didn’t just send one prophet to the people of Israel over those thousands and thousands of years that He brought the Gospel message through the seed of the woman, born as Jesus. He sent prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet. Then He sent apostles. Then He sent the disciples of the early church. Then in your personal life, He has sent pastor. And maybe more than one pastor or two, or more than one individual or two, to bring you this reminder.
We can all have this lost and taken from us if we don’t stop and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. What does God desire for us to produce but His fruit? Think about what the master vineyard owner in this parable is described as. Same as in the Old Testament reading. The vineyard is his. He bought the land. He dug the wine press. He constructed the watchtower. He built the hedge of protection by his holy angels around it. He planted the choicest of vines in that vineyard, setting up the tenants to succeed in His fruit. And then He just said, “Go do it. Here’s all that you need. I’ve given it to you.”
Has He not done that to you in your life? Did He not allow you to be nursed at the tit of the gospel here in the church? Did He not suckle you at His chest with His comfort and peace? Did He not raise you up and clean you up with each mistake in which you found yourself in by your own choosing and bring you back? Did He not bless you in your marriage, drawing you, challenging you, and growing you? Did He not crush you and raise you at various times and in various ways? That’s a gift and a privilege.
And there’s a whole mess of people that are completely ignorant of this privilege that you and I can become so satiated with, we forget the cost. Something else that the vineyard owner, the Father, did was that having set them up for success, having given them everything that they need, having controlled all things so that they would be able to produce fruit without even thinking. In fact, it would produce itself, wouldn’t it? All they had to do was take care of it.
He then sends these faithful people into the tenant’s life. And if the vineyard owner is the Father, consider this. If the vineyard owner in this parable is the Father, and he is, then the vineyard owner knew exactly what would happen to his servants when he sent them to the tenants. That is a sign of God, not of man. Men like that are called fools. God, like that, is called Jesus.
The vineyard owner knew exactly what those tenants would do. And the vineyard owner doesn’t show his love for the tenants in one sacrifice of servants. But if you listen, the second group of servants was even larger than the first. And they did the same to them. Until God poured Himself into human flesh in the Son. Amen. And said, “Well, they will honor him. He’s my son.”
This is the part of the parable that’s mind-blowing and hard to grasp. Because it paints you and me in a very dark light. And that is, you and I are the tenants. And we killed the son, knowing full well he was the son. Now you and I can say, “Well, we weren’t born then, so we didn’t know he was the son.” You were conceived and born in sin. And if your sin did not kill him, then your sin is not forgiven. If your sin did not get paid for by his sacrifice and it was the nail that pierced him, then your sin is still floating about unforgiven.
That’s a frightening proposition. And the only alternative is to reason it away. It’s not my fault. It’s somebody else’s fault. I’m the way that I am. The son had to be sent by the vineyard owner so that the sins of the tenants, who are murderers by nature, could be paid for. Murderers by nature. Adam didn’t kill anybody. Eve didn’t kill anybody. Oh yeah. The flesh and blood of Adam and Eve. Their son Cain did kill someone. From where did murder come from but from mom and dad?
This is the hard part of this parable because if we’re not the tenants, then we’re watching this from a distance, and it has no application, and those are the people that are the ones who are not taking privilege in the great gift of the gospel. And I tell you, that’s exactly what happened to Europe and England, and it’s happening in this country. If we do not see ourselves as the tenants of this great vineyard that God has given us, then we too will grow unappreciative of God’s gifts because it doesn’t apply to us. We’re not the murderers.
But if it is, and we are, then we have honor from God. Why? It was God who honored you by becoming one of you. Making you His child, He honored you, the tenant, knowing full well you would kill His son, and called you yet His son and daughter. He honored you by calling you into His kingdom to be a worker in His vineyard, knowing full well you would not appreciate those sent to you, including His own son.
I don’t want us, as a parish family, to lose this great gift of God’s holy word and sacrament here in this place. But if God chooses to, I have nothing to do with it. But I know one thing, He will not let go of His children. Just as He gathers faithful believers in Europe and England, though the vast majority who have heard it and disbelieve it aren’t a part of it, so He will do in this country too.
And whether we gather in this glorious cathedral-like building or whether we gather in someone’s home, the privilege is the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ. And whether the chalice is silver and gold or an aluminum cup, the body and blood is still the body and blood. It is a privilege to be given the work in the vineyard that we’ve been given, to share it with our babies and to have it shared back with us as we grow older.
The privilege of being able to encourage and uplift one another in all of life’s challenges, most importantly being dealing with ourself and our sin and trusting in His forgiveness in the blood of Christ. We must repent and turn back to the owner of the vineyard and say, “Oh Lord, have mercy upon us.” And He will. And He has.
For the stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone. It has crushed you but has raised you up from the dead and given you adoption as tenants. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
