Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 5, 2008 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43]The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry! Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.
When an organization or society gets in trouble, the question arises as to the cause of the trouble. Is it the membership? Or is it the leadership? Isaiah speaks to a situation where the membership has gone bad. Jesus, in today's gospel, speaks to the leadership. In both cases, we have a disappointed "owner" of the vineyard. We can hear him asking: "Where are my grapes?" It seems to me that this contrast between membership/citizenship/nation on one hand and leadership on the other should prompt us to reflect on what God expects of us - whether we be rank and file or in power! It can be easy to defend the vineyard by saying that a vineyard needs care and that's the role of the farmer. The farmer, on the other hand can respond: "No matter what I do, these vines and grapes are resisting any efforts and the yield is poor." In short, there can be a lot of "finger-pointing" and "blame game" for the lack of a decent yield of grapes to the owner! In both Isaiah and in Matthew, however, the owner promises drastic action. The vineyard gets plowed under or the leadership is removed and given to others. In this election year, whether we be ordinary citizen or public servant, it behooves us to remember that we ALL are responsible for whatever trouble arises. We must ALL work together to bear good fruit - to produce a good crop of grapes. Blaming the elected leadership or a polarized-secular-consumer oriented society isn't going to help when the owner asks for the grapes. Whether it is our church, our community, our state or our nation - we are all collectively responsible for that crop of grapes. We had better pay attention or we can expect the owner to take action! AMEN
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