Finding the Pony

Oct. 5, 2014                                                  

Isa. 5:1-7, Matt 21:33-46

Humorist Steven Wright once said, “If you must choose between 2 evils, Pick the one you’ve never tried before.”

Prayer

Our readings today are in some ways like 2 evils… especially our readings in Isa. & Matt. On one hand our story from Jesus is a tough one to preach on and… it’s about another vineyard. Talking with colleagues this week about our readings they were going to pass on the Isa & Matt readings… the Philian text was more appealing and less confrontational. They didn’t see much grace or joy here…. I thought it was a cop-out.

On the other hand… one could use these two stories and hit the Shift/Alt keys and try to shift the emphasis to the Jews or Pharisees. No matter how you flip the coin we go thru this every year at this time in our church year. Those who follow the lectionary calendar can count on the stories, found in our bibles that get used, and are difficult ones to read and hear, and many pastors shy away from them many times.

These stories are tough because they are reflecting the end of Jesus’ life. The intensity is accelerating as the Pharisees are applying more and more pressure… even Jesus’ friends are getting doubtful. In addition… these stories are hard and difficult because they hit close to home and they are a reflection of us… and we would rather here the stories that are more positive.

So for me…. Rather than cop-out I’d like us to look at these stories as opportunities to look for the pony.

My internship pastor told me a story of a little boy digging in a large pile of manure when his father asked him what he was doing. The boy responded by saying, with such a big pile of manure… there must be a pony in there somewhere.

So … unlike my colleagues… we’re going to look for the pony.

Our gospel readings from Matt & Isa are quite similar. And some look at these final stories of Jesus from a political perspective. I don’t believe it’s so much about the politics of Rome as it is about the politics of the Jewish faith. We can look at it like this…

The Vineyard landowner is God.

The tenants/renters are the people of Jerusalem/Pharisees

Slaves & servants are the Prophets… they get killed.

The Son is Jesus… he gets killed too.

When Jesus asks the Tenants/Pharisees what the owner is going to do to them…

They cowell because they know they’re toast.

We could look at this story as it pertains to us in our day similarly.

The owner of the vineyard/Church is God.

The Tenants are the people/Us.

The servants/Prophets are pastors… they die

The Son is still and always Jesus…

The outcome is the same… it doesn’t bode well for us…

Vs  43 Jesus says, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you & given to the people that will produce fruit for the kingdom.

Isa 5-6… God says, “I will tell you what I will do, I will remove the hedge, it will be devoured, and the vineyard will be trampled, I will make it a waste…”

Not a good scenario is it!!

Where is the pony?

I want to suggest the pony is found in Vs.42… “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus quotes Ps. 118:22-23. The point for Jesus and us is that even though the people…ie us…have killed & rejected him… he is still the one providing the opportunity to enjoy the promise of having the pony. More precisely… what God is looking for from this story & us is to be  disciples of His son Jesus.

To care for… and grow the vineyard… ie the church.

By growing… I’m suggesting it’s both more grapes & a greater quality of grapes.

Being in a disciplining relationship with Jesus and others accomplishes what God desires of his tenants/People… grow the kingdom and grow deeper in faith.

Produce Sweet Fruit.

Produce sweet fruit for the kingdom or God will deal with us in ways we may not like… just as this story from Jesus illustrates with the Pharisees… ie the religious folk. In a sense… Is Jesus is calling us out? I believe we can already see this by looking at the statistics of our church and see the decline. The vineyard is getting smaller across all of the church.

Commitment to Discipleship

Jesus’ words are our invitation and opportunity to draw closer to God by making a strong Commitment to discipleship values as a faith community. To practice the faith thru our 7 Core Values…

Welcome…Prayer… Worship… Learning… Service… Relationship Building… Generosity

The future sustainability of the church is tied to its ability to walk a discipleship path of faith. Without it… we simply wither away.

We talked about this earlier in the year…  What does Jesus command us to do at the end of His gospel? “Go…Make Disciples”

Closing: Story from Bishop William Willimon…  A Letter from Jesus to the Church called Mainline:
You know me, I love to make the old-line new. If you will stick with me, I shall give you a future, new wineskins, and all that. I am Lord of Life, not death. I shall move you from mordant decline to life. I've still got plans for you. You'll be smaller, but small can be good. Ask the Mennonites. You will no longer be in charge of the nation, if you ever were. Remember, the national church thing was your idea of church, not mine. Get back to the basics like worship, service and witness. Don't mourn the downsizing of your bureaucracy. You were once good at mission. Now that much of North America has never heard of me, it's about time to start thinking of yourselves as missionaries.

-William H. Willimon, You've Got Mail: Letters Jesus might write to churches today, Christianity Today, October 25, 1999, 69.

 Finding the Pony

Life in our world is often a big ole manure pile… Often we look at the pile and say it’s to big… I don’t want to deal with it. But, what if we looked at the pile with a sense of wonder & joy… like a child, believing that no matter how big & smelly the pile is… there’s a pony in there some place. And what will that pony be for Cana Lutheran? Could Cana as a faith community be willing to walk the path of discipleship? If we are able… we will begin to experience the life God has in store for us.