Parable of the tenants & our celebration of creationtide

     Matthew 21: 33-46       Psalm 80: 7-14

 

One of the great things about the parables of Jesus is that you can read and re-read them and they can hit you with different meanings at different times.

 

Reading this parable of the tenants in the vineyard this week, I was struck by the actions of the owner of the vineyard, compared with the actions of the tenants.

 

The owner plants the vineyard

                  builds a wall and a tower to protect it

                 and prepares the winepress ready for the harvest.

Then he lets it out to tenants.

 

All they have to do is move in, care for the vines, water them, prune them, and be ready to take in the harvest. Then they will be able to pay the owner his share from the takings.

It seems quite simple.

 

But instead, the tenants are monstrous.

         they seize the servants who come to collect rent

         they beat some of them and throw them out

         they kill others – even the son of the owner himself.

 

When Jesus asks the question “how do you think the owner will deal with those tenants?” it’s easy to see that he will punish them.

We know what is right – we can see who is in the wrong – tenants should respect the property of the owner.

 

The Chief Priests and Pharisees didn’t like this and other parables of Jesus “because they saw that Jesus was referring to them”.

 

We could get ourselves into a big knot about the relationship between Jesus and the faith in which he grew up – Judaism.

But what if the parable is supposed to make anyone listening to it feel a bit uncomfortable.

What if, when we read the parable, Jesus is referring to us?

 

Psalm 80 uses the image of a planted vine to describe the relationship between God and the people God has made.

God brought a vine out of Egypt, planted it, cleared the ground for it and allowed it to grow and flourish.

The vine of life doesn’t exist because of its own efforts – God has planted it.

 

And when the earliest stories of human life were being told, in Genesis, people used the image of God making a beautiful garden and then placing human life in it, to tend it and care for it.

 

It’s not a big stretch to imagine that God is the owner of the vineyard in the parable.

God makes a beautiful place, and plants it, protects it and prepares it for tenancy.

Human beings – all of us – are the tenants. We settle in, enjoy our home, but do we then act in the right way?

Are we good tenants of this earth, who care for the earth, tend its plants, nurture life and pay God back in gratitude and praise?

Or are we sometimes careless, selfish, abusive, thoughtless and cruel?

 

We end our celebration of “creationtide” today, St Francis Day. Are we any further forward in appreciating the world God has made, the world God has given to us to tend and steward?

 

In 2015 Pope Francis wrote a papal letter about the state of the planet.

It begins with words from St Francis of Assisi

“Laudato si’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.

 

The Pope explained

“In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.

‘Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs’.”

 

The Pope used that arresting phrase “the earth, our common home” to explain our relationship with one another and with the planet.

And although the earth is our home, we have not made it, we do not own it. We are tenants, not owner-occupiers.

We are perhaps more like the tenants in the vineyard than we want to admit.

 

The parable helps us see how the tenants in the vineyard should behave. So if we feel that Jesus is talking about us, how do use our insight of how to be better tenants in order to be better inhabitants of earth?

 

Pope Francis was a chemist before he trained for the priesthood, so when he wrote about caring for the planet, some people expected something of a scientific treatise.

 

Instead, Pope Francis set his stall out right at the start  - “Laudato si” ‘praise be to you’. He begins by thanking God for the wonders of creation, and he suggests that if we all want to be more aware of our responsibility for the planet we should be more grateful.

And Pope Francis’ suggestion to us all was to start being thankful on a global scale by saying grace before meals. When we learn to say ‘thank you’ to God for what we eat we begin to see our relationship to the things that surround us. Ultimately that leads us to the conclusion that as grateful tenants we must care for the planet – our home.

 

I could give you a whole list of things that you could do to be more environmentally careful and you could probably write a list of your own.

 

So I’m going to suggest just one thing to you.

It is inspired by something said by another saint and prophet of our age, following in the steps of St Francis of Assissi – David Attenborough.

He has said

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they haven’t experienced.”

 

So I’m going to suggest that to be changed by this “creationtide” you look at one thing God has made, and learn to love it more deeply.

It’s not hard in Pembrokeshire to find a view, a hill, a tree that speaks to you of the wonder of God’s creation.

Or you even just look at a single flower or a small piece of bread or the redness of a glass of wine.

 

God made this to speak to us of his love for us.

God made it for us to enjoy.

God asks us to receive it with gratitude and to care for it so that others may enjoy it too.

 

So today, at this communion table, take, eat, drink, and be touched by the love of the creator.

Amen.