First Thursday in Advent

Amos 4:6-13;; 2 Peter 3:11-18; Matthew 21:33-46

I don’t want to believe Jesus told this parable.  Sorry, but there it is.  It’s a great parable, but I believe it was crafted by the early writers to make a point that has been misused too often.   Matthew says the parable was told against “the chief priests and the Pharisees,” but Christians have used it to justify their hatred of Jews.  The Jews have been made into the “bad tenants” who lose their vineyard to the “good tenants” (that’s us Christians, if you’re wondering).  It’s hard to undo 2000 years of supercessionism.  This Advent is a good time to try.

This was a story to distinguish the new Christian path from other groups within Judaism, to say “we are the real heirs.”  It might have been useful then, but now, after millennia of imperial, triumphal Christianity, the only way to redeem this parable is to ask: Is this about me?

So often the Advent readings, the readings about judgment, sound as though the pain of judgment will land on those “others” who have failed to follow Jesus (see yesterday’s reading from Second Peter, for example).  But what if I’m the one who has been taking the vineyard for granted?  Have I forgotten that I’m just a steward on God’s land?  Well, yes.

Our modern cultures are all about “mine”: my achievements, my money, my people.  But Jesus claimed only one thing as his: his relationship to God, a relationship he wanted to share with us.  All I have comes from God, and is meant to serve God.  And I forget, and I “kill” those who come to remind me.  I do that by drowning them out, ignoring them, ridiculing them, patronizing them, diagnosing them.  And in killing them, I commit suicide.  I lose my chance for the abundant life Jesus wants for me.

Take some time today to ponder where God’s messengers have been trying to collect from you, and how you might respond.  This parable is not about those other sinners.  It’s about us.  

Oh God, make speed to save us.