Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Matthew 21:33-43

Proclaimed on October 2, 2005

There was a certain man who was on trial. He was charged with first-degree murder. Knowing his guilt and concerned about the final verdict, he approached a member of the jury, offering him a huge bribe. As the juror was accepting the bribe the man gave him these precise instructions, “Now remember, whatever happens in that jury room, don’t be swayed. Hold out for manslaughter.” The bribe worked marvelously. When the jury returned with its verdict, the man had been found guilty of manslaughter. After the trial the elated man approached his bribed friend on the jury. “Did you have a hard time holding out?” he asked. “I sure did.” said the juror. “From the very beginning all the other jurors wanted to bring in a verdict of ‘not guilty.’”

As this guilty man stopped at nothing to get the verdict that he wanted, so it was true for many of the religious authorities of Jesus’ day in order to maintain control of Palestine. The most politically powerful of these authorities were the Temple priests who were called Sadducees. While many other groups throughout the nation were looking for the long awaited Messiah, these Sadducees were quite the opposite. The last thing they wanted was a Messiah. Such a leader could only lead to trouble for they saw their Roman overlords as being invincible. Any who would rise up and make messianic claims could only bring down the wrath of Rome. Such wrath could lead to the loss of the Temple, and even their disbursement from the land. Because of these views, the Romans rewarded the Sadducees by granting them great political power. Along with this power, the Sadducees also did not believe in angels, a resurrection, nor did they accept any writing other than the five books of the Pentateuch as being Scripture. In trying to hold people of such diverse beliefs as Pharisees and pagans together, their beliefs focused on inclusivity and diversity. By citing all truths as being equally true, they in essence did not believe in any truth. Many viewed them as being cultural and political compromisers.

The majority of the other religious groups in Palestine, led by the Pharisees, viewed this culture as being morally bankrupt. They believed the Scriptures to contain not only the Pentateuch, but the Prophets and Wisdom literature, as well. Not only did they believe in angels and the resurrection, but also they believed the Law to be Supremely true. Indeed, they created long commentaries filled with intricate detail on how to obey the very letter of the Law under any conceivable circumstances. So rigid were they that Jesus often complained that they were a people without any compassion. Therefore, while the Pharisees longed for a Messiah to clean things up, they believed strongly that Jesus was not that man.

In today’s Gospel reading we have both the Sadducees and the Pharisees cornering Jesus in the Temple, for they perceived in him a dangerous messianic leader. They were attempting to verbally trap him, trick him into saying something incriminating, something whereby they could put him away. They got to their point quickly, asking Jesus bluntly, “Who made you boss?!” While sidestepping the issue of his own authority, Jesus did not waste any time describing what he thought of their authority. He did so by telling the story of an absentee landlord, who planted a vineyard and fully equipped it. This was not an unusual situation in Palestine at that time, and these landlords would lease these vineyards to tenants for only twenty-five percent of the profits. In this story, however, the tenants became greedy and like the man who rigged the jury for his benefit, these tenants decided to rig their own circumstances. When the landlord sent servants to collect the rent, the tenants abused them, sending the servants away empty handed. When the landlord sent his only son, they killed him, thinking that this would legally give them the vineyard.

In telling this story Jesus was using a thinly disguised allegory to condemn the religious authorities. To Jesus the landlord was actually God and the vineyard was the common metaphor for Israel. The tenants were the Sadducees and Pharisees who did not immediately recognize themselves in this little story. Not only did they miss their place in the story, but also they missed the prediction Jesus was making about his own impending death at their hands. Indeed, when Jesus asked them to judge the evil tenants, these unwitting religious leaders unknowingly predicted how God would eventually deal with them when they answered Jesus’ question, saying, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.”

For the early Church this parable became an explanation for the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This event brought about the destruction of the Temple, as well as the removal of the Sadducees. Members of the early Church saw themselves in competition with the Pharisees as the Lord’s new tenants whose job was now to take care of God’s vineyard. This story also served as a warning to the early Church not to get too comfortable with their new authority, for now they were the ones accountable for the work of God’s Kingdom.

As we read this story today, do we--like the early Church--view this message as speaking of us? And if so, . . . in what way? I remember a day when the Episcopal Church was a very broad church. Indeed, it was a place where people representing many different backgrounds and perspectives peaceably worshipped together under one roof. This is what drew me to the Episcopal Church, for I found it to be a place where everyone was free to be his or herself. It was the thinking person’s Church, which provided a fertile ground for one to grow spiritually. Indeed, it was the worship that united us. Coming together in the presence of Christ made all of us with all of our differences--one people.

But is the same true today? I dare say that much has changed in the last thirty years. Indeed, so have our entire culture and the role that Christianity plays in it. How can we explain this? Why do our differences now divide us so severely? Why does culture now all but ignore us?

Not long ago I attended some classes taught by Bishop FitzSimons Allison, retired bishop of South Carolina. In one lecture he spoke of a warning given by Jesus to his disciples, “to beware of the leaven of the Sadducees and Pharisees.” He then disclosed how the Sadducees were the cultural compromisers of Jesus’ day, and how the Pharisees were the harsh fundamentalists, and why Jesus warned his disciples against both of them. He then bravely showed how each of these groups presently live under the roof of the Episcopal Church, each fighting to control the hearts of the people, and each contributing to the destruction of the Church.

A similar case is made by the Rev. Dr. F. Earle Fox, who states, “On most Christian floors today are a fractured, anemic, defensive, compromised, trying-to-preserve-what’s left biblical Christianity and a psychologically sophisticated, aggressive paganism advertising itself as Christianity with all the clothing of compassion, love, and inclusiveness.” In a nutshell he defines their primary differences as, “Conservatives concentrate on truth, liberals on compassion.” Interestingly, the Rev. Dr. Fox finds that both have lost their way, stating, “Liberalism and conservatism are complementary in a healthy society. But a culture which has lost its biblical foundations, or never had them, will find themselves wrongly pitted against each other.” For the Rev. Dr. Fox, as these camps attempt to gain control over one another, like the Sadducees and Pharisees of old, they also lose their ability to deal with either truth or compassion. It is these same conflicts which garnered the judgment of Jesus, but which eventually killed him, as well. These conflicts also brought about the end of an ancient Hebrew society and the religious structures that had built it.

Where are these conflicts now taking us? Perhaps instead of our seeking the Christ in one another, maybe we like the Sadducees and Pharisees of old are instead crucifying the Christ that is in each other. Could it be that in our various drives to control the Church we may now stand on the verge of God’s judgment?

Perhaps we as a Church could benefit from the experience of a parish that was located next to a supermarket. Since the congregation was short on parking spaces and the supermarket was closed on Sunday, they asked the owner of the supermarket for permission to park in their lot. The owner of the store allowed the church to park there fifty-one weeks a year, but one week a year the lot would be chained. When asked why, the owner replied, “So you remember that the lot belongs to me and not to you.”

A reminder of this sort would be helpful to us, especially when tempted to act like the man rigging the jury or the Sadducees compromising with the culture, or the harsh Pharisees defending the faith against that culture. Like them, are we not in the same danger of losing our status and being stripped of our authority? If so, how much longer will we be allowed to serve in the Lord’s vineyard? How much longer till we are driven out and new tenants take our place? Do we not realize we are killing the Christ again? In the midst of our differences and debates let us come together again in worship, coming together before a common Lord where Christ is not only crucified in the breaking of the bread, but where he is raised again in our beings, helping us to once again humbly find Christ in each other, and by doing so, binding truth and compassion together.