On the Feast!

      I know, I know, there was a bit of a push on social media late in the week  to “re-consider” the parable of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel today.  People were sharing “edgy” takes or interpretations that made them feel better about the parable.  Rather than spending our time going through some of those interpretations and, in several instances, reminding us that the author “who came up with the new interpretation” was not the first to try and interpret the parable that way.  More importantly, we remind ourselves that we have almost 2000 years of Church tradition regarding the Scriptures.  Is it possible someone today will come up with a better interpretation of any Scripture?  Possibly, but unlikely.  We are far more likely to discover a nuanced interpretation that causes us all to think, but the chances of a new creation are not particularly high, given the fact that the Apostles taught what Jesus taught them and we have a chunk of that in the early writings.

     I spent most of my week doing a different deep dive.  Let’s just get it out there that I am pretty sure I do not have an original thought today regarding the passage from Isaiah.  My illustrations are my own, but that’s it.  Had it been left up to me, I would have preached a political science sermon.  A couple commentators piqued my interest complaining that God’s people were more concerned about rabbinical teachings than God’s teachings.  The political science nerd in me was all about raising his hand to say something.  A number of Americans self-describe as Christians, a significant minority, but how many of us resort to Hume and Locke when it comes to questions about rights rather than God?  What is unfortunate, of course, is that so many self-described American Christians proclaim they have the right to tell others how to behave or speak about everything.  I can choose to live my life following Jesus, but our founders explicitly rejected the idea that they or I could make you follow Christ.  We can chat more in the Parish Hall about that, if you are of such a mind.

     Our passage in Isaiah today reminds us of the invitation we have been given to share with those around us in the world.  We are like the slaves in the parable who go to invite everyone to the Feast given by the Lord.  We cannot compel like the soldiers.  We can merely remind people who it is that calls them and invites them to come.  Our reading in Isaiah today takes place after the the prophesied destruction of the southern kingdom in chapter 24 and in light of the feast in Exodus 24.  Now, I know it is the wrong time of year to ask the question, but does anyone remember the feast described in Exodus 24?  I see a lot of people watching Charlton Heston in their minds right now.  Quit laughing.  We all have it on a reel in our heads.  You did not see it there, did you.  You only know it if you read Exodus and studied it like a Berean.

     When Moses complains to his father-in-law, Jesse, that he is exhausted from settling all the disputes of the people, how does his father-in-law advise Moses?  Good answer!  He tells Moses that he needs help.  The result of that conversation is that God takes some of the Spirit given to Moses and gives it to seventy other men, who will share in the settling of disputes.  Sound familiar?  It is rather boring stuff, so it did not make the script in the movie.  Who wants to hear Moses complaining more, and how is the spirit taken from Moses and given to the 70?

     Exodus 24 records that Moses, the 70 men, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons, the priestly caste, went up Mt. Sinai and encountered Yahweh standing above a clear, sapphire-like stone.  In the presence of Yahweh, all those invited feasted.  In fact they eat and drink in the presence of the Lord.  Everyone with me so far?  Good.

     When Isaiah utters the destruction of Judah in chapter 24, it is the very opposite of that experience.  In fact, Isaiah notes how some try to ignore the destruction and desolation of the earth in God’s judgment by singing with joy and celebrating the majesty of God.  Isaiah reminds us all that treachers deal treacherously with each other and with God.  God knows the heart, however, and still punishes.  There is nothing any human being can do to avoid the punishments and the judgment.

     As is almost always the case, however, the prophet does not leave God’s people without hope.  That is where our reading picks up.  Isaiah reminds himself and us that the desolation was God’s doing, that God was faithful even when His people were not.  But in the midst of that desolation, the prophet reminds us that the Lord is a refuge to the poor, to the needy in distress.  God always hears the cry of the oppressed and humbled.  In fact He reminds all of us that the blood cries out after their deaths, a reminder that should give rulers lots of pause.

     In verse 3, 4, and 5 our translators render the Hebrew as ruthless.  The word is often used to describe a ruler who cares only for himself.  In Aristotle’s Politics we would call such a person a tyrant, one who rules for his benefit and very few others.  One of the problems with human beings, of course, is how easily we are swayed by pretty words and selfish desires.  Most of us sitting here today can name those whom we think were tyrants in world history, people like Nero, like Hitler, like Idi Amin, and like Kim Jong-un.  There would be little argument, I imagine, over whether they were tyrants or despots.  As Americans, we naturally like to think our enemies at any given time are tyrants or despots and that we are never the bad guys in any story.  I suspect, however, if we spoke to residents of Gaza or Iran, they might have a different color hat on our heads in their stories.  And those of us who really study political science understood our forebears were concerned about the tyranny of the majority, that part of the reason our three branches of government exist and check one another is to prevent the majority of us from tyrannizing those in the minority.  Looks like I shook loose a couple cobwebs.  

     Isaiah reminds us that the tyrants and despots of the world are accountable to God for their treatment of those whom He loves, namely the poor and the distressed, the widows and the orphans.  One cannot be a disciple of Jesus and an abuser of the poor and the distressed.  We might claim to be someone who cares for them, but the Lord knows our heart and our actions, just as He knew Israel’s.  But we are also accountable when we support such abuse of those whom He loves.  We, like Israel, are called to repentance and to action.  When someone is hungry, we who claim Jesus is Lord are called to feed them.  When someone is naked, we are called to clothe them.  When someone is a stranger, we are called to welcome them.  Jesus in Matthew will make that much clearer in a couple chapters.

     Even as the prophet is reminding us of God’s attitude toward the ruthless, though, God has another lesson for us.  Now many of us will not understand the polemic, but I hope to make it make sense.  Verse 7 and 8 speak to the shroud that is cast over all peoples and God’s swallowing up of death for ever.  We recognize that death hangs over all humanity.  It should not surprise you, but people in the ANE recognized that death hung over all who lived.  The God of death, Mot, was perceived as having a mouth that stretched all the way to the horizon.  When Mot closed his mouth, he captured the dead and swallowed them.

     In Canaanite understanding, though, the chief ba’al (remember, there were lots of ba’als) fights with Mot.  Mot, I think, actually threatens to swallow up the baal in the initial encounter, but it does not really matter who started the fight.  Both fight to what you and I would call a draw.  But, they would rest and then continue their battle after that rest period.  The outcome of the repeated battles came to explain why droughts happened or why the rains came.  This was incredibly important in that area of the ANE, which we know had little water.  That area depended on the rains in order to nourish the crops.  If ba’al won the battle, the rains came and people ate.  If Mot won the battle, there was a drought and people starved and, naturally, died.  Remember, this understanding has developed in that area before the Exodus and settling of God’s people there.

     The Lord of hosts says He will swallow up death for ever in verse 8.  This is not going to be an annual battle between two powerful mythological figures.  When God acts to swallow death, it will be the end of death.  Faithful Jews, like us, understand that death results from the curse of sin.  When they heard and we hear these words, we are supposed to understand that God is undoing the sin in the Garden of Eden AND restoring His people to that intimate relationship for which He created us.

     Keep in mind, this is several centuries before Jesus and a couple centuries before Israel begins to really consider the existence of an afterlife.  But God switches from His identity as a warrior to that of the Covenantal Lord and says that on the day when He swallows up death, He will wipe away the tears from all faces and take the disgrace of His people away from all the earth.  To use the language of our favorite Anglican, everything sad in creation will be made untrue.  That’s CS Lewis’ description, for visiting.  How does that work?  We really have no idea.  In our Anglican tradition we do not fight much about it because we remind ourselves daily that God often does more than we can ask or imagine, right?

     Speaking of more than we can ask or imagine, back to verse 6 and the big lesson for today.  I reminded us at the beginning of this sermon that Exodus 24 needs to be in our background understanding.  What happens in verse 6?  God calls all peoples to a feast of sumptuous food, of well-matured and strained wines, of rich food filled with marrow.  God is inviting all humanity to the feast on His mountain, Mount Zion rather than Sinai.  At this feast amazing food and wines and desserts will be served.  You and I cannot begin to understand how good the feast will be.  I know, how can wine be better than your favorite?  How can food be better than your favorite meal?  How can anyone improve on chocolate or on ice cream or whatever our favorite dessert happens to be?  Time and time again we experience God’s abundant blessings, we remind ourselves He often does things that are exponentially better than what we ask or imagine, and still we think the Creator of heaven and earth, the Make of all that is, seen and unseen, is limited by our imagination.  You are laughing, but we do.

     Part of our rejoicing, though, will be learning these things, experiencing these things first hand.  Like loving children in the presence of a loving Father, we will get to sample and tell each other how good the items taste.  We will get to celebrate with one another that all our tears have been wiped away.  And this feast that He sets will not last for a day or a season, but for eternity.  And like the slaves in the parable this morning, you and I are sent into the world inviting people to this feast, a feast for which we do not pay, do not set up, and after which we do not clean up.  That’s our primary job, inviting!

     How many self-described Christians relish in the idea of judgment?  How much money is spent on those billboards which threaten everyone who pass by them with “One day you will meet God.”  We so desperately want to judge, we so desperately want to make sure that we, and people like us, are the good people in God’s story of redemptive history, that we forget He takes no delight in the death of anyone, that He purposes that everyone should turn to Him and live!

     And if you think this feast imagery is nuts, look at our psalm today.  What does God do in the presence of our enemies?  Prepares a feast.  Most Christians know that psalm by heart.  Heck, many non-Christians know Psalm 23.  In the midst of enemies, God prepares a feast.  And our Gospel lesson reminds us that it is like a marriage feast for a son.  What if we embraced that messaging?  What if our billboards said “Don’t miss this party!” instead?  What would be the result?  Some would choose to skip it, but I bet more people would want to know the details of the party.

     You and I have an advantage in this.  We are liturgical Christians so we remind ourselves all the time, every time we gather.  Our primary service is an offering of praise and thanksgiving to God for what He has done for us in Christ Jesus.  We remind ourselves intentionally of God’s redemptive and judging activity in the world  in the Liturgy of the Word and in good preaching.  We remind ourselves each time we gather of our need to repent.  And we go to that rail to be nourished by His Body and Blood, reminded of the fact that it is a foretaste or pledge of that heavenly banquet about which Isaiah prophesied several centuries before Jesus’ birth.  Then we are sent out into the world to do the work He has given us to do, that others might be drawn into His saving embrace!

     Some of that work we do speaks directly to this invitation.  How many of us serving the food insecure in our midst have heard the wonder of those whom we serve, the criticisms of our brothers and sisters that we cannot keep doing this, regarding simple feeding?  And we never know what some of that food means to those whom we serve, unless they tell us.  A grandma speaks of her love of catfish with her own grandma and the joy that she gets to prepare the same meal for her granddaughter.  A woman crazily thanks us for allowing her to serve cow tongue tacos to her friends coming to town.  Thankfully, all were from a culture that esteemed and loved cow tongue.  Lol People ask how we can afford to give them lobster or steak or fresh produce, with thanksgiving and wonder in their voice.  Others take the wisdom of the world and instruct us that we cannot keep serving them this kind of food in God’s Name.  And we get to truthfully answer that God gave it to us to share with them and that He invites them to that feast where death is swallowed up and the sad things are untrue.  Moms have needed chocolate.  Adults have been blessed with the good ice cream.  I could go on and on, and I bet the Holy Spirit is reminding each of you of your own experiences or perhaps a story I or volunteers have shared over the years.

     And how much better are we prepared by our Lord for this work than our spiritual ancestors?  You and I know how the shroud of death was torn!  We know the robe that must be worn to that great feast.  And because we know that it was God coming down from heaven to live among us, who was betrayed by us and condemned to death, and who was raised from the dead as the firstfruits of that great Marriage Feast, we can speak even better to that celebration, even though our descriptions and dreams will, in the end, fall far, far short.

     Like the Church year, time is drawing closer to the eschaton, the day when our Lord returns and God calls His people to this amazing Feast.  And for reasons we do not yet understand He has entrusted this invitation to people like us, men, women, and youth who call upon His Name for salvation.  Men, women, and youth, who like those 70 men from Exodus, have His Spirit within them, transforming them and equipping them to do the work He has called them to do, until that Day when the work is ended, and we are called to His mountain, to His feast, to rejoice in His love of us for not just a day, not just a season, but for eternity!

In His joy and hope!

Brian+

On the Cornerstone and our Temple . . .

      I suppose the simplest way to describe my sermon this week is that I will mostly be focusing on a part of Matthew’s Gospel today, though you might notice a bit of all four readings included.  I am also of the opinion that maybe this should be a set of readings for Epiphany rather than the Season after Pentecost.  So many commentators that I read talked about the passage directing us to manifest fruit worthy of the Kingdom of God, which is certainly one of the lessons from Matthew today, that I was convinced the reading might need to be moved.  Good.  Some of us are awake and caught the wordplay.

     Our lectionary editors did a great job putting these readings together.  The Isaiah 5 passage serves as the background illustration of both Psalm 80 and our passage of Matthew.  The vineyard planted by God in Isaiah spares no expense and gives the vineyard everything necessary to bear good fruit.  The best vines are planted, the plot is cleared of stones, a wall around the plot protects the vineyard from larger beasts and people from passing through the plot and damaging the vines or eating the fruit, a winevat is hewed in the center for convenience, and a watch-tower is built to provide security.  God asks the rhetorical question “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?”  And, yet, the vineyard is yielding wild grapes rather than grapes.

     Isaiah, in case you have forgotten quickly this summer as we have considered the prophetic readings for Year A, served God during the 700’s BC.  Isaiah famously encouraged King Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians when they reached Jerusalem.  By that point, Assyria had carried the northern kingdom off into Exile.  The king of Assyria did not like King Hezekiah’s fortitude in the face of an overwhelming army and predictably threatened the king of Judah.  Isaiah’s encouragement to resist is proved right as the angel is sent against the encamped Assyrians and destroys them, pretty much ending Assyria’s threat against all its enemies and ensuring that Babylon will easily conquer it.  Good, I see some nods.

     Part of Isaiah’s ministry is to exhort the southern kingdom to keep the Covenant with God.  They do not want to be carried off into Exile like their northern brothers and sisters.  God, of course, knows that the southern kingdom will not heed the lesson of the northern kingdom.  Some in Jerusalem will interpret the defeat of Assyria as God being forced to defend His Temple to ensure His strength in the heavenly spheres, much as their neighbors understood such things.  Isaiah reminds them that if they reject God, if they fail to produce good fruit to use today’s image, God will remove the hedge of protection, and allow others to destroy the vineyard.  Because we are Adventers and read other passages during our patronal season, we know that Isaiah tells Israel that at some point in the future, after they have experienced the carrying off and destruction, God will restore them.

     All that is background to Matthew’s passage today.  Everyone, but especially the priests and other leaders, would have known the vineyard story as their own.  When Jesus tells the parable, they would have heard the prophesy of Isaiah.  Keep in mind that prophesy was from the early part of Isaiah’s book.  One did not have to read sixty chapters to hear it!

     The arrangement Jesus describes is rather normal, except for the fact that the landowner spares no expense building the vineyard.  People would have expected the landowner to cut corners where possible to save on cost, much as we expect landlords to do the same today.  What happens next would seem as nuts to the original audience as it does to us.  The landowner sends slaves to begin collecting the rent.  The renters respond by beating one of the slaves, killing another, and stoning yet another.  The landlord responds, generously I might add unless you are a slave, by sending more slaves to collect the rents.  Jesus says they were treated in the same way.  Finally the landowner decides to send his son, assuming they will respect the son.

     At this point, Jesus gives the motivation of the renters.  They plot to kill the son, because he is the heir, thinking they will get his inheritance.  So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  I assume Matthew intends that little detail as a bit of foreshadowing of what happens to Jesus.  What will the leadership do with Jesus when the time comes?  Yes, try Him and kill Him.  But where?  Right, Golgotha.  Which is where?  Inside Jerusalem or outside?  Good!  We are thinking today.  Some in the Church have taught this is both a parable and a prophesy because of that added detail.  Plus, who plots to do all that?  You got it!  The priests and other leadership of Israel.

     Now, I want to stop and remind us of an important detail.  When this passage is preached, it is often interpreted as judgement on Israel.  Specifically, in Christian circles, it is often interpreted as God giving up on Israel and transferring His efforts to the Church.  First thing I want to remind us, since we just read it last week, what is God’s character?  Does He constantly search and reach for those whom He created, or does He love zapping them?  Right.  He takes no delight in the death of anyone, as we read last week.  Second, who is Jesus in God’s covenant with Abraham?  I guess that was a toughie.  He is the seed of Abraham’s faith in God.  God promises Abraham way back in Genesis 12 that salvation will come through his descendant, that God’s purpose in making a people out of Sarah and Abraham is to create a nation of priests whose calling it is to draw the nations into a right relationship with Him.  Good, I see nods of reflection.  That means Jesus is the Jew or the Seed or the Messiah, to use capital letters signifying His unique role.  To teach that God has divorced Israel, not the country but the people, is simply wrong.  Over and over and over again, God renews and redeems His people, just as He over and over and over again renews and redeems His Church.  If you have friends or family who heard in church this week that God has abandoned His people, you might want to push back gently.  God never gives up on us, even when we give up on Him.  And it is His desire that everyone turn to Him.

     Plus, there’s that pesky reminder about our role in eschatological judgement.  What is our role in deciding the eternal state of another’s body and soul?  That’s right!  Never!  Jesus instructs us that it is His job to judge, that when He comes again He will judge.  Yes, the angels apparently get to gather humanity before Him, but He is the Judge.  He is the only one whose judgment matters.  But that seems just since, you know, He is the One who died on the Cross in accordance with the Will of the Father, right?

     Our job in salvation history is to draw others into the loving embrace of our Father in Heaven.  You and I are called to live as a redeemed people, a people tasked with representing the character of God in the world around us.  That’s it.  We are like Jonah.  We do not get to decide who is worthy of God’s love and who is not.  We serve them all in His Name, trusting that He gives meaning to our thankful service.

     Back to our parable.  After everyone responds that the wretches will be put to a miserable death for killing the son, Jesus asks the question about the cornerstone.  He asks if they have read in the Scriptures, Psalm 118 specifically, about the cornerstone.  Understand that in antiquity, cornerstones served at least three purposes.  One, and perhaps most important, they helped to make sure the building was using right angles both for the horizontal exterior wall of the building and for its vertical.  If the cornerstone was cut correctly, builders could use rope or wood or any number of materials to make sure that the building was constructed properly and not given to falling over.  Another purpose was for history.  Has everyone noticed our cornerstone and what is on it, even though it was not the cornerstone laid for the foundation of this building?  That’s right!  Dates.  Each date that we began constructing one of our locations is carved into the stone.  It reminds us of our history, that we have survived two moves.  That tells professional Christians something, too.  Few churches survive more than one move.  The third purpose was cosmological.  I suppose some of us would say it was astrological, but some builders would claim it was astronomical.  When building sites were chosen in the ANE, there was a belief that they needed to mirror what was happening in the heavens.  We often accept that pyramids and ziggurats and stonehenge and other big monuments were constructed in accordance with the heavens, but we need to understand that arguments over where to put buildings followed that same understanding.

     Now, when Jesus calls Himself the Cornerstone, what is He saying?  It is really the same thing, right?  He is the focus of Salvation History.  Our temples, our hearts, are being built based on His teachings and His pattern of living.  Remember, Jesus is not only concerned about our eternal destination but also with how we represent the will of the Father who sent Him.  We can parrot actual theology all we want, but if we do not live it, we are white washed tombs.  When our theology forgets its Cornerstone, we know we have erred and need to knock it down to where our theology was accurate and proper.

     Jesus also tells us the history of God’s love for all of us.  Way back in Eden, God promised Adam and Eve that He would draw them back to that intimate relationship He intended in creating them.  Yes, life will be hard because of their sin, but He will restore them.  Everything in Scripture points to Jesus.  The prophets announce His coming.  The Psalms announce His coming.  The histories often point to our need of His Coming.  And all of that reminds us that God promises to dwell with us forever.  Heck, we all know Isaiah’s famous prophesy of Immanuel, right?  And of course, Salvation History is God’s doing.  No matter what goes on in the world, God’s purposes in heaven is to draw His people back into that intimate relationship He intended in the beginning.

     Then comes the word of judgement from Jesus’ mouth.  The one who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.  Yes, Jesus warns the chief priests and Pharisees that the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a people who produce the fruit of the kingdom.  But Jesus knows the heart, the will, of those with whom He is speaking.  They have ignored whichever miracle they thought would be The Sign of Messiah.  Healing on a sabbath?  Casting out demons?  Causing the lame to walk?  Curing lepers?  Feeding 5000 men besides women and children?  Like us, they had their favorite miracles.  And Jesus does those miracles as a sign of His identity.  Like John the Baptizer, they are expected to understand all the signs and discern who Jesus is by virtue of them.  But they reject the signs and the One who does them.  In fact, we would say they are the wicked tenants in the parable.

     But notice, does Jesus call them the wicked tenants?  Who discerns the parable is about them?  We would say that the chief priests and Pharisees discern their role in the parable through their own wrestling faith with God.  They recognize the signs; they know the people regard Him as a prophet; and they refuse Him of their own free will.  In fact, despite all this, they conspire to put Him to death, just like the foolish tenants in Jesus’ parable, reminding us of Jesus’ identity to us yet again..

     Had they considered the signs and understood the parable, what should have been their response?  That’s right, repentance.  Had they repented, what would have been the result?  That’s right!  Forgiveness.  And to carry it a bit farther, what would have been the fruit of their repentance?  That’s right, the fruit of the Kingdom of God.  Or, to be more accurate, either that or the need to repent again.  Sound familiar?

     I realized my sermon needed to be both an instruction against the confident declaration that God has divorced His people and a reminder of our work in light of His teaching.  You and I encounter people at the gym, at work, at parties, and who knows where else that such is the lesson they are given with respect to the parable.  But this parable is just one parable in a string of parables and teachings by Jesus.  Consistently, Jesus warns us to give up our selfish ways and death and turn to God and live.  And the living He promises is not subsistence; it is abundant living.  Again and again He lives the life that God called Him and us to live.  And when the time comes, He suffers the betrayal by His friends, the mocking of those whom He came to save, and the death He did not deserve.  Time and time again He instructs us that, while we sojourn in this place, we are to pick up our own crosses and follow Him, that the cross is the path to that abundant life offered by God.  More challengingly, He teaches us that some will work the whole day, some will work part of the day, and some will work very little.  But it is ever His purpose that all should be drawn into His saving embrace, that we are no different than those who turn to Him on their death bed.  And with all of the instruction, and fortified by His Body & Blood, we are sent back out into a world that needs to learn that selfishness leads to death and that life built on the Cornerstone leads to abundant living and, eventually, eternal presence with God.  

In His Peace,

Brian+