St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:7-15; Philippians 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
Matthew 21:33-46
[Jesus said to the people:] 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.
NRSV
. . .
The Kingdom Rejected
Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The word rejection comes to mind this Sunday. And I don’t know about you, but I had already put the Chicago Bears in rejection mode. They could not do anything right, for I don’t know how many seasons now. They changed everything, and still, everything was a disaster. For 14 consecutive games going back to last year, they could not produce any fruit whatsoever worthy of victories. They were no longer worthy of my time or my care. I was ready to lay them to waste. I had more important things to do.
That was until this last Thursday night, boom! I could not believe we had a power outage in town. Thank goodness Amazon Prime Video has an instant recap video. I could watch all the highlights and Justin Field’s three other touchdowns before the beginning of the 4th quarter. Bliss! In some shape or form, they managed to come around for at least one game despite the absolute rejection of a whole bear nation and sports media ready to burn it down. Maybe all those rejected pieces may finally find something to become the cornerstone of more and more fruits worthy of victories to come. But you know, it is the bears.
Back to scripture, there is a lot of rejection in these lessons today. And it is not a good kind of rejection. My doctor would be proud and joyful if I decided to reject carbs. She probably would tell me I increased my chances of living a long and healthy life. Nonetheless, what we receive here today is the kind of rejection, often aggressive, that takes life away and causes death.
In Isaiah’s proclamation and the parable of the wicked tenants, the people called by God receive an amazing and priceless gift: all the tools and fertile soil necessary to produce fruit and live abundantly. They failed to perceive the meaning of such a gift so much that they violently reject anyone God sends to set things straight. God was hoping to receive good fruit in return. Peace in the land, justice, and righteousness resulted from the people’s trust in God’s promise to be their God and provide everything they needed to live, love, and laugh. Instead, God received in return greed, injustice, violence, and arrogance in the form of human trust in human ways.
Jesus tells the parable in such a way that we may wonder if he is fiddling with rejection. I mean, he just turned the tables on the temple. He is unhappy with the audience in front of him, and they are not happy with him either. They answer Jesus’ question about the destiny of those who reject the Son with the expectation of a miserable death. It feels like, right here, Jesus is going to burn everybody to crisps because he knows they are plotting to kill him. The parable was materializing as they spoke. But Jesus quotes the Psalms and reminds them about the promise to stones rejected.
Paul knew both sides of rejection. By his own words, he once violently rejected Christ and became a persecutor and killer of everything Jesus. Nonetheless, Jesus did not reject or send him to a miserable death. Jesus changed his heart and mind and restored him to righteousness through faith so Paul could reject the ways that lead to death and turn to the ways that give life.
We’ve had a little history with rejection recently here at St. John’s. I mean, who doesn’t? Amid some rejection followed by clarifications, we can see the playground is progressing, and the marvelous day made by the Lord when Ryan G. will inaugurate the slide is coming near after a few setbacks.
When the assembled structure sank, there was fear all the progress made could be lost. We faced the challenge of lifting and leveling the structure again without bringing everything down. It was clear in my mind that the designers of the playground had chosen a gravel base for post holes with the intent that the removal and addition of gravel would allow for leveling of the structure. Therefore, I crossed the street to the parsonage to grab a shovel. Upon my return, I noticed a decision had been made to collect refused bricks to place underneath the posts in an attempt to level the structure. In my head, I immediately rejected the idea and asked myself, self, why not just add gravel underneath until it is leveled again? See, I am one of those people who know where the charger is but have no idea where the power drill may be in the house. Therefore, I kept it for myself.
Here is the cool thing, though. I met with Dick this past Friday, and he said something like, “Can you believe we got that thing up again without getting at each other?” Beloved children of God, good things happen when our hearts and minds are transformed to reject what separates us from each other and from what Jesus intends for us. When that happens, we become good tenants of what he freely gives us and bear the fruit he hopes for.
May the rejected stones that once supported what was built for Jesus Christ and are now cemented on this ground be an ever reminder of what we can become by faith in the one that was himself rejected for us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 