New Years Day 2016
Sermon Jan.1 2017
Today is not only the first day of a new year , but is also the first Sunday of
the new year,the time when some things come to an end and others are just
beginning.
This is a time when everyone is given an opportunity to give up bad habits,
temporarily for some and permanently for some. Others use this time of year to
make changes in their lifestyle. Whatever you think or do at this time of year,
it is a special occasion for everyone to make a fresh start. Not necessarily a
new start, but at least a turning point in order to correct past mistakes, or
take a new direction.
Today is also celebrated in some churches as Epiphany Sunday. The day of
Epiphany is actually the 6th of January but some churches choose the closest
Sunday to the sixth and others use the first Sunday of the new year. An epiphany
is a sudden understanding of something that previously didn't make sense to you,
or something you realize that you had gotten wrong before, or maybe something
you had been told but didn't understand.
I have had two turning points or epiphanies in my relationship with God. The
first at a very early age; I was only five years old at the time, but if you had
asked me I would have said five and a half. At that age a half a year is
important. A lot of things were important then as there are now, and there are a
lot of things we don’t understand any better now than we did then. Our version
of reality changes as our
understanding grows.
I stood in an open doorway of a small farmhouse looking out at a
stormy night and
thinking about what I had just been told, “there is no such thing as a boogie
man and even if there were, God is out there with Jesus and all the angels. They
are there to protect us”. I knew all about God, I even knew what He looked like.
I had seen pictures of Him in Sunday School. He was an old man with a
beard and he sat in a great big chair looking angry and we were supposed to be
afraid of him.
As I stood there watching the storm clouds, one of them seemed to reach out and
touch me. I felt a shiver start at the base of my spine and quickly run up my
back until I felt it at the top of my neck. Then my five and a half year old
brain exploded and I knew! I did not just think! I did not
just believe! I knew! And what I knew terrified me. I felt like I had
been let in on a terrible secret, that I had to keep to myself. I was on my own,
and until I could make sense of it all it would have to stay a secret.
God was not an angry old man somewhere “up in heaven”! God was right here,
right now,God was the wind, God was the clouds,
God was the darkness, God was the coming storm, God
was all about love. God was everything and everywhere all at once. God was not a
vengeful old man, God just WAS! I did not really understand, but I
knew.
What I didn't know was that I was not the first one to make this discovery. As a
matter of fact when I recently started to study the history of Christianity,
people were questioning things right from the beginning. Jesus did not start a
new religion and that was never his intention. His purpose was the same as all
the prophets God sent many times over the centuries; to get the people to change
and go back to what God wanted for them.
Martin Luther did not start a new church; his purpose was the same as Jesus; to
bring the people back to behaving as God intended, and neither did a lot of the
the other great leaders of the last two millennium. If you pay attention to what
most of these people had to say it will become obvious that their purpose was to
bring people back to what Jesus really taught. It seems that rather than listen
to what Jesus had to say people concentrated solely on
his crucifixion , and his
words were relegated to send place. It was the followers of all the great
leaders who found it easier to throw out all the old ways and start over with
their own ideas. Even king Henry did not really start a new church. He simply
usurped the pope, declared himself
the head of the church, and changed the name.
My second turning point was in my mid teens and was linked to our gospel reading
for today. It is a parable told by Jesus, one of many he told in conjunction
with his teaching. As far as I can find it is the only parable that is repeated
almost verbatim in all three of the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
I have only heard one sermon preached about this parable and that was when I was
about fifteen years old and I cannot remember a
thing about it. Probably because
I was not really listening, my teenage mind was running away with thoughts of my
own.
The sermon that day was based on the parable Jesus told of the wicked tenants of
a vineyard, as recorded in Matthew chapter 21: Mark chapter 12: and in Luke
chapter 20. All three texts tell exactly the same story, an unusual occurrence
for Bible stories. There are usually some significant differences in the way the
gospel writers tell these stories.
My favourite place to find God has always been outside in the dark, and that day
was no different. I lay on my back outdoors late on that warm Sunday evening
thinking about that parable and listening to the sound of country silence broken
only by the occasional howl of a wolf or the yap of a coyote. The northern
lights were just starting to create a display of unbelievable beauty. If you
have not seen the northern lights close up you have really missed the wonder of
God in action.
Thinking of the way Jesus spoke in parables whenever he wanted to make a point
made me wonder if the reason we have trouble understanding the bible is because
a lot of the bible is one big parable. This would explain the differences in the
details of some of the bible stories that are told in more than one place. The
parable of today’s gospel lesson is one exception, The details are identical.
Let me read it once more, this time from Mark's gospel
Then he began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, put a
fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he
leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the season came, he sent
a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the
vineyard.
But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he
sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. Then
he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some
they beat, and others they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son.
Finally he sent him to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But those
tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the
inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of
the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and
destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
I found this parable different from all of Jesus' other parables.
Most of his parables could be interpreted as examples, riddles, or
challenges, but to me this parable has a different interpretation, that of a
warning. I felt there was definitely something different, and I thought it must
have special meaning, otherwise why did Matthew, Mark and Luke all repeat the
words of Jesus almost verbatim, instead of using their own words like they
usually did. Laying there in the dark I translated that parable into words that
I understood.
"Once there was a god who had created a special world of his own. He created all
kinds of animals and birds and sea creatures. He planted all sorts of beautiful
flowers and plants for food for his animals. Then he created humans and put them
in his world as tenants. They were free to do as they pleased in his world in
exchange for being caretakers to protect and look after everything. When they
failed to live up to their obligations he sent prophets to remind them. Over the
centuries he had to send many prophets all to no avail.
The humans took the god’s world and everything in it solely for their own
convenience. They abused the Prophets and ignored their warnings. Finally in
desperation the god who owned the world and all that was in it said, “What shall
I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.” Instead of
respecting the son they murdered him in a very brutal way. What do you think the
god would do then?"
But God did not destroy his wicked tenants! I spent a lot of time trying to
figure out why! It did not make sense to me. He had already destroyed most of
mankind before with a flood. What was different this time? What could possibly
make the god relent and spare the murderers from the punishment they deserved?
Why did Jesus tell this particular parable, and what does it really mean? Most
of Jesus' parables had a moral object lesson that was not too difficult to
recognize even if there were other possibilities as to meaning, but this one is
a little different. All the gospel writers felt it was so important that they
all told the same story with the exact same details.
I struggled with this knowledge for many years trying to make sense of what I
knew as compared to what I was being taught in Sunday School. According to the
church my parents attended, humans were sinful and disobedient, and had to be
punished. Rather than destroy mankind completely God sent his son Jesus to earth
to be punished and die in our place. This was called substitutionary
atonement.
It was a theory proposed by an Irish bishop in the year 1095 and took
two years of study by the Vatican council before being approved by the Pope in
1097. That Jesus died
trying to save us from our sins has always
been
acknowledged, but not until then, as a substitute for our own punishment and
death.
The very idea that the loving God I knew would deliberately arrange the brutal
murder of his only Son as some kind of twisted sacrifice, is one concept I have
never been able to accept. But
I repeat, what could possibly make the god relent
and spare his son's murderers from the punishment they deserved?
I can think of
only one thing. What father could deny his dying son his last deathbed
request;
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?"
I am a long way from knowing all the answers, and I
never will, but in the meantime I am satisfied not knowing. God will
provide us with the answers we need to know when God feels we need to know.
Amen