With all that has been going on, this is a hard text to hear today. In the midst of the craziness of the world, in the midst of the violence, we come to this really violent text and see reflected the very violence of our world in Scripture. It has really been a struggle. So, I am going to begin today by asking if I say Munchausen by proxy, do you know what I mean?
Yes? So, some of you know. Are there any of you who don’t know?
Okay, Munchausen by proxy is a psychological condition where people, oftentimes mothers, create crises in the lives of people they care for, most oftentimes children, but it happens among older adults too, that threaten their lives. Then at the last minute they rush those depending on them to emergency rooms or get them to the doctor in the nick of time to save them. Most times they are successful, but sometimes, sometimes they are not and the dependent person dies. It is a dangerous, psychological condition for the care giver and horrifyingly life-threatening for the person under their care.
Today I am wondering if we live in a Munchausen by proxy world. That is, I wonder if we live in a world where we create our own crises in order to rush in at the last moment to rescue others so that we can feel good about ourselves? Do we participate in a system of behavior that creates crises that will occur again, and again, and again? In our 21st century world, one would think that we would be able to do something to prevent, or at least lessen, the catastrophes of society today.
In the past few weeks, I have been more convinced of this Munchausen by proxy idea as we begin the rebuilding process surrounding Harvey, Irma and Maria. We have known for years that Houston was below sea level, that there have been any number of things that could have been done to avoid at least some of the flooding that occurred in the aftermath of Harvey. We know that after the flooding of 1932, certain steps were taken to prevent that kind of flooding again, but then, with population growth, personal greed, and a false sense of security fostered by years of good fortune, the people of Houston became inattentive to the maintenance and the need for continued preventative construction.
This is not new technology that is needed. The people of the Netherlands have known how to do this for more than a thousand years. It means that canals need to be dug and maintained; the dikes and the levees need to be monitored. Pumps need to be ready for emergency use. But mostly it depends on constant vigilance.
I heard with horror the reports from New Orleans that, when the pumps responsible for controlling flooding were tested, nineteen of the pumps were inoperable. This is not because of sabotage or intentional damage; it is not because the pumps have been overworked and are worn out, but simply because they have not been tested regularly and general maintenance has not been attended to. Today TOO MANY of those pumps remain inoperable. “Experts” claim the number of pumps on line are sufficient for the emergency today, but what happens if one of those pumps fails in the midst of the crisis? Will we again rush in to rescue and save?
We know that the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico get hit by devastating hurricanes every once in a while. We know that this year has been exceptionally devastating. We have watched and listened with a macabre fascination as that crisis unfolded We have witnessed the testimonies of those who are still waiting for aid, who are drinking out of rivers and streams ignoring concern for water purity because they are thirsty, and it is the only source of water.
At the same time, we know that our military is able to establish bases for thousands of soldiers in the midst of combat zones with everything that is needed. They can fly in all of the infrastructure needs for an entire city in a matter of days, and yet there are some in Puerto Rico who have still not received the aid they need weeks later.
We mourn with the people of Mexico in the aftermath of the earthquakes, for the people who died because of inadequate housing construction. We know that some of these buildings are very old, but some of these buildings are new enough to have benefited from modern building design and materials. But the building codes either don’t exist or are not enforced, and so more die as others rush in to rescue.
In past years, we have gone from shooting to shooting, counting the bodies of the dead, and rushing the wounded to hospitals. Then, in the aftermath we wonder what is going wrong with the world that we live in. And then, when the carnage is over, we go back to our daily lives, hoping, “God forbid it should ever happen in our community”.
Las Vegas is now the worst, but not the last. We no longer think, “If this happens again”, but “When this happens again”. There must be a way for us to honor our constitutional rights and meet the safety needs of our society. In the meantime, we loosen the regulations on gun ownership. Soon it will be legal in several states to carry a gun into courtrooms and schools. We have relaxed the rules on gun ownership and mental wellness, and there is now a bill to make it legal to carry a gun into any venue in any state if it is legal in your state of origin.
We stand in judgment of those who would do such a thing, and we celebrate those few that run toward the gun instead of away from it, sometimes sacrificing their lives to save others. I have to admit that I was particularly impressed with the man who ran from the shooting to his truck and then drove back into the shooting in order to get those who were wounded out of the killing zone to hospitals and aid stations. He didn’t do this once, he drove back into the shooting five times.
We remain quiet in the midst of hate language and behavior. We don’t even bother to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions and language when it further stigmatizes and criminalizes the actions of some while creating a way of leniency for others who commit the same behavior. Taunting and bullying language and actions seem to be much more prevalent than at other times in history.
Wedges seem to be driven deeper and deeper into the fiber of our society expanding the gap that divides one person from another. We carefully watch that gap grow, calculating when that critical moment will demand immediate action so that we are able to rush in and be the hero of the day, or, at least, that is the hope.
We have lived in this culture that claims a saving role in the world around us. We live in a world where Lincoln saved the union. Our commitment to WWI, “the war to end all wars”, resulted in the conquering of the Kaiser. Our entry into WWII “saved the world for democracy”. After that, we have been involved in any number of combat engagements that have inconclusive endings requiring us, as a nation, to maintain a policing presence in order to preserve our democratic way.
You see, we don’t want to look like despots. We want the world to see us as the great rescuer of the world sharing the extreme abundance of our society while participating in the systems that initiate and even escalate that violence. We enjoy our place of world privilege, manipulating the geo-political scene, and then wait for the nations to beg for what we have. We seek the adoration of being the rescuers of the world.
In the meantime, the violence of our world continues to escalate, and we stand by, helplessly asking what can be done. We live in a Munchausen by proxy world where the catastrophes are waiting just outside our doors giving us the opportunity to swoop in and rescue the victim du jour in the world. To me, this is crazy!
Today our text includes violence with an anticipated savior who will rescue too. There is a temptation to look at this parable historically as being about the Jews and their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. This view has led to thousands of years of anti-Semitic violence blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus and a self-righteous claiming of the rescued vineyard resulting in even greater violence.
When we connect the two stories of the vineyard, this one in Matthew and the other in Isaiah 5, we further distance ourselves from this text by distancing the imagery even further into ancient history, and that is our great failing. Other interpretations of the text also help to distance us from the story itself. After all, Jesus is telling this story to the Pharisees, isn’t he? We are not Pharisees. Therefore, this story can’t be about us, can it? Or can it?
In so many ways, I really don’t know what to do with this parable that will give a conclusive answer or direction for good news proclamation, but here is where I am going today. When we focus on the verdict of the people, that is, “The landowner will take those wretches and put them to a miserable death and then give the vineyard to tenants who will give the fruits of the vineyard,” we set ourselves up to be the rescuing inheritors of the vineyard. So today, I think that we need to confront this parable with the honesty of the Pharisees realizing that this parable is about us, and this parable is being told before there is a resurrection rescue act.
Yes, this parable is about us. We are the people of the vineyard. The landowner is sending a payment due notice to us. Not only that, the payment due notice has been delivered to generations that have gone before us, and the response then and now continues to be violence. Beyond that, we set the stage for violence in a way that allows us to look virtuous in the midst of the violence. We continue to live in a world of beatings, killings, and yes, even stoning. We continue to find ways to throw God’s redemptive work, God’s only son, outside of the vineyard and kill him.
And so, the vineyard gets taken away from each succeeding generation and given to the next in the hope that the fruits of the kingdom of God might be shared in a way that offers healing instead of bloodshed; that the kingdom of God might be a place where we stop the pattern of crisis and rescue, of violence without resolve, and find ways of peace, Christ’s peace that surpasses all understanding, for we know that God has already showed us another way. In the midst of the chaos and violence of Jesus’ time, God found a way of forgiveness, grace, that is, God’s undeserved love, and reconciling wholeness, in the heart of violent brokenness.
We get confused from time to time, thinking that it is our ways that will bring peace. That peace comes from speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Now this isn’t just any big stick, this is like the biggest stick you have ever seen. It is a stick that is so big that it can create a fury and violence like the world has never known before. It’s a great stick, and you don’t really want me to get that stick out because you don’t really want me to use it, but I’m not afraid to use it, and you know that it is always an option that is on the table.
In this parable we are reminded that judgment belongs to the landowner, not the listeners; that the foundation stone of the kingdom of God was rejected by the builders in favor of another; that the builders have chosen violence, but God chooses peaceful reconciliation.
Today I come to you with this amazing story of a vineyard. It is a pristine and ideal vineyard with a hedge or fence around it. Now when the Jewish people talk about a hedge or a fence around God’s work, they are talking about Torah, the law, those laws that God handed down through Moses in the midst of the wilderness, that gave order to their lives and freed them to live with one another in safety and peace. This proclamation of the law said, that within the relationship of God and God’s people there can be peace. Further, it says that, if we live in that relationship of peace God intends, others will notice and want to become part of the relationship. In that relationship we can be the city built on a hill; a light to the nations reflecting God’s light to the world.
In this vineyard is built wine presses and towers, a source of food and drink, a place of vigilance for seeing the forces that threaten the vineyard, the garden of God’s creation. We are reminded that humanity once lived in that garden of perfect relationship with God, and found a way to screw it up. Indeed, every generation after Adam and Eve has found their own unique way to screw it up. So, the vineyard continues to be handed down from generation to generation.
I suggest today, in this parable of the vineyard, we are the people, the tenants of the vineyard with the ability to give or withhold the produce of the vineyard, to be the fruits of the kingdom for the sake of the world. In the midst of this Munchausen by proxy world we are given the possibility of being a source of peaceful wholeness, a source of hope in the midst of our chaotic world; the source of breaking the cycle of life-threatening terror, of being a place of safety and hope. We can be the source of calling our public authorities to accountability for what they say and do. We have been given the fruits of the spirit conferring the authority to say, “Enough is enough!” For as the tenants of the vineyard, we need to find ways of maintaining the world we have been given in a way that offers safety for the greatest number of people.
The word for tenants in Greek is a compound word, combining geo and ergon, geo meaning earth or world, and ergon meaning work. We know this word today in the name George. So, the landowner leased the vineyard to George, earth workers, ground tillers, farmers, people like us, expecting those who leased the vineyard to work for the world. The landowner expected George to till the earth, to care for the fruits of the spirit, and gratefully pay from the bounty of peace, but George paid in violence.
Let us not fool ourselves. When the time comes, the vineyard will again be taken away from us and handed over to those who come after us, but we do not have to bear the fruit of violence during our tenure. We do not have to be known for our violence. We have the possibility of being known as George the peacemaker, as George the changer of violent behavior, as George the ender of Munchausen by proxy, so that those who come after us will have a world that is worth inheriting. We can slay the dragons of greed and offer up the good fruits of the vineyard.
It is time to check on the functioning of the pumps that protect us from the rising seas of chaos. It is time to build towers that will withstand the shaking of our world events. It is time to build strong faithful infrastructures that can prevail against the winds of change and stormy controversy. It is time to simply give thanks for our vineyard that God has created for us. It is time to give God the produce of the vineyard we live in hearing those prayerful words, “We offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us…, Your gracious love.” All this we lift up before you today, O God, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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