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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
We Are One
Welcome and Theme: Welcome to all. We are once again, in the vineyard this morning with the gospel story customarily known as the “parable of the wicked tenants.” We will reframe it today as the “parable of the powerless.”
Taken together, our readings explore remaining silent or feeling powerless in the face of injustice— especially when the injustice is baked into the system, the customs, the structures of power. However, as followers of Jesus and believers in a Creator as the source of love and life, we possess the keystone of hope, the cornerstone of a relentless voice.
Our Opening Prayer is set to music so please feel free to sing along.
Opening Prayer: Invocation by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/PVA33tsG-pY?si=In5Qo-sc4-p854nz
Opening Song: Oh Spirit Guide Me Now by Sara Thomsen
https://youtu.be/tUJ8HrsIytM?si=zfvDWtYuLNjw2BGU
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Reading 1: “Anger: A virtue for our time, because silence is not working” by
Joan Chittister
“Generally speaking, “ the Dalai Lama said, “If a human being never shows anger, then I think something’s wrong. He’s not right in the brain”
Conversation is not easy these days. It’s hard to talk to anyone about anything these days without wandering into their politics. And that’s dangerous territory. Conversation that was once scintillating, educational now trails off into nothingness. “Nice” talk agrees with everything, listens but pursues no point, develops no new ideas; saying nothing contrary adds nothing to the wisdom or the honesty of the human race.
“Niceness” —silence for the sake of peace— is not a virtue; niceness is at most an escape from reality, the camouflage of honesty. And so, it fixes nothing.
Silence is not working. We need a new virtue for times such as these.
The virtue for this time of pent-up frustration is what I call Holy Anger.
Anger does not set out to destroy. It sets out to demand a resolution. It is the point at which something must be done if our lives are ever going to balance themselves. Healthy anger is not mean or unkind. Holy anger simply says, “enough!”
Holy anger does not harden us in our position, it moves us to do something; to understand the needs that underlie a different position from someone else. Holy anger does not insult or demean or judge the other person. It seeks middle ground to meet needs across the human spectrum and not just our own needs. Anger pursues a concern but it also listens. Listening is the only way we can come together with respect for different ideas.
Healthy anger does not simmer and fume; it joins the call to find another way.
These are the inspired words of Joan Chittister. We affirm them by saying, Amen.
(excerpted from: https://ncronline.org/opinion/spirituality)
Reading 2: Psalm 118 (condensed):
I thank you, Yahweh, for your goodness!
Your love is everlasting!
In anguish, I cried to you, Yahweh,
And you answered me with freedom.
Better to take refuge in Yahweh
than to trust in human beings;
Better to take refuge in Yahweh
than to follow leaders.
God is my strength and my song;
Raise shouts of joy and victory
Open the gates of justice for me,
Let me come in and thank you, Yahweh!
It was the stone that the builders rejected
that became the keystone;
this was Yahweh’s doing and
it is wonderful to see.
This is the day Yahweh has made
Let us rejoice and be glad!
These are the words of our ancient Hebrew ancestors and we affirm them by saying, Amen
Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk?si=Vvq2qWtzmnk2t7o8
Gospel: Mathew 21:33 -43
To the chief priests and the Pharisees and the surrounding crowd, Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a property owner who planted a vineyard put a hedge around it, installed a winepress and erected a tower. Then the landowner leased it out to tenant farmers and went on a journey.
When vintage time arrived, the owner sent his servants to the tenants to divide the shares of the grapes. The tenants responded by seizing the servants. They beat one, killed another and stoned a third. A second time, the owner sent even more servants than before, but they were treated the same way. Finally, the owner sent the family heir to them, ‘They will respect my heir.’
When the vine growers saw the heir, they said to one another, ‘Here’s the one who stands in our way of having everything. With a single act of murder, we could seize the inheritance.’ With that, they grabbed and killed the heir outside the vineyard. **What do you suppose the owner will do to those tenants?
Some listeners replied, “the owner will bring that wicked crowd to a terrible death and lease the vineyard out to others who will see to it that there are grapes for the proprietor at vintage time.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you ever read the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone;
It was our God’s doing
And we find it marvelous to behold”?
That’s why I tell you that the Kin-dom of God will be taken from you and given to people who will bear its fruit. Those who fall on this stone will be dashed to pieces, and those on whom it falls will be smashed.”**
These are the inspired words of the gospel author known to us as Mathew and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
** this portion of the gospel was probably added long after Mathew wrote the original
(silent pause)
Shared Homily - Lynn
The gospel parable before us today has travelled a long and winding road. Like three courses at a dinner, we will consider three versions which we hope will leave you fully satisfied. The appetizer course is found in the Gospel of Thomas (written anywhere from 50 – 200 AD). Thomas’ parable is shorter and simpler without the heavy-handed ending that was added to Matthew’s gospel.
Servants are beaten and only the son and heir to the vineyard is murdered. Jesus doesn’t draw a moral or pass a judgement. It seems only to present a realistic view of the tenant farmer system that allowed the rich to take advantage of tenants who owed crops in flush times and drought, no matter what.
The Jesus Seminar scholars believe this to be the earliest version and most reflective of what Jesus probably wanted listeners to hear about power relations and inequality in his times.
We come to the entrée or main course with the longer version in Matthew that reads like a symbolic tale or allegory. In it,
God = Rich owner of a thoroughly new vineyard
Wicked Tenant farmers = Pharisees, elders, chief priests and scribes and generally, the People of Israel; Jews whose faithlessness means they will be replaced
Servants/messengers = Prophets
Heir or son = Jesus
Pharisees, scribes and chief priests who make up the audience for the parable are plotting to arrest and do away with Jesus who is the “son” and heir in the parable. They are rejecting the keystone of the new church. The others who will be the next tenants are Gentiles in the growing church—they will replace the Jews.
Let’s note that this allegorical view of the story is all about obedience to God, the judgement that awaits everyone for terrible deeds, and punishment of the evil Jews. This is one of the scriptures that has fostered antisemitism for millennia. Since the temple has been destroyed, the new Chrisitan tenants look forward to a new structure or Kin-dom with Jesus as the keystone or cornerstone.
I don’t much like that dinner and I’m betting you don’t either. Good thing we have dessert coming.
If we see the function of a parable as intended to provoke discussion and get folks thinking for themselves, then why would Jesus provide a leading question (“What do you suppose the owner will do to those tenants?) and answer his own question with the dashing of the faulty to pieces and being smashed? That doesn’t sound like the Jesus we know.
Our own instincts and common sense tell us that God is not an absentee landlord, away on holiday. Tenant farmers just like sharecroppers in our own land after the Civil War and many in foreign lands today, live a precarious existence. They will always be poor and vulnerable.
Our awareness of exploitation is our sweet dessert because it is the precursor to change. No one condones murder but we also have to have a sense for the violent system of tenant or sharecropper farming that takes much from the poor peasant and showers it on the rich landowner. This story — as the gospel of Thomas knew — is about a tradition of structural inequity and systematic oppression. So often, our “progressive” view is actually a return to the earliest church view of the ministry of Jesus.
The Jesus-keystone upon whom our love and hope rest is a neat reminder for who it is that always supports us. Likewise, the first reading by Joan Chittister reminds us that we need to find our voice perhaps, through “Holy Anger” that seeks out middle ground while always respecting the other.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you today
but it has been lovely to have dinner together.
Statement of Faith
ALL: We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Prayers of the Community
As we prepare for the sacred meal around our friendship table, we bring our blessings, cares and concerns. Please feel free to begin your prayers with the words, I bring to the table…
We pray for these and all the unspoken prayers in our hearts. Amen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
Presider: Let us join with open hands to pray our Eucharistic prayer together:
ALL: Source of Love and Light, we join in unity of Spirit, love and purpose with people everywhere, living and crossed over. With all of creation across billions of galaxies, we open our hearts and souls to become One.
Holy, Holy, Holy by Karen Drucker
In your loving embrace we are liberated from division, fear, pride and injustice. We are transformed into wholeness which we resolve to bring to all whose lives we touch. With gratitude, we meld ourselves within Your Divine Presence which knows all, shelters all and transforms all into love, abundant and eternal.
We thank you, Holy One, for Jesus, a man of courage whose exquisite balance of human and Divine points our way and who strives with us in our time of need. We yearn with passion to live as Jesus, one with you and your Spirit, in peace and justice.
Our desire to be one with You joins us to all living things. We seek to heal the differences that isolate us so that we may live in unity with people, of every ethnicity, skin color, gender orientation or class. We also seek to live in harmony with plant life and animals and the environment.
May we have imaginative sympathy that moves us beyond the confines of bias, miscommunication, ignorance and hurt and into the healing place where Divine light and love abide.
Presider: Please extend your hands in blessing of bread and wine.
ALL: Your Spirit is present in these gifts - bread that satisfies our hunger and wine that quenches our thirst – to make us more deeply One, living in the fullness of Sophia wisdom.
Anticipating the likelihood of betrayal, arrest and pain, Jesus wanted more than anything to be with his friends, to share a meal, exchange stories and create fond memories. To underscore the humble call to be of service and to strengthen the bonds of friendship that evening, Jesus washed the feet of his friends in an act of love and humility.
lift the bread.
Back at the table, he took the bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, go and share my love with one another
lift the cup.
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
Communion Song: The Justice Song by Selorm Tamakloe and Kaign Christy
https://youtu.be/IASdERt3-m0?si=w-lwh2ax_9hlkWi8
Prayer After Communion:
ALL: As we celebrate and recognize you in this bread and wine, we recognize you in each other. Sharing the bread of life and wine transforms us and opens us to your Spirit. We accept the gift of grace which enables us to see with the eyes of Jesus, touch with the hands of Jesus and heal with the heart of Jesus. Amen.
Presider 2: Let us join in the Jesus prayer:
O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
We celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come.
Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen (Miriam Therese Winter)
Closing Blessing: Presider 1: Please raise your hands in blessing and join together in our closing prayer:
We pray to find middle ground and harmony in the midst of division and
inequality.
May we know the deep peace of the running wave.
May we know the deep peace of the flowing air.
May we know the deep peace of the quiet earth.
May the moon and stars pour their healing light upon us all. Amen.
Closing Song: Send Down the Fire by Marty Haugen
https://youtu.be/2cSkl0IiioM?si=Ie_xhgQKSeQalzu-
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