March 25, 2007

‘The burden of all that love is too much to bear.’

The Gospel lesson today is a challenge for us. It portrays God as demanding despot who at the end of the story will destroy the people who have frustrated him. This has to be the most unchristian story in the Gospels. It is the direct opposite of the Jesus who dying said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

This parable of The Wicked Tenants was not used in the 1928 prayer book and it will quietly disappear again next year when we will be using a new revised common lectionary. But this year it challenges us. The easy way around it would be to simply ignore it and preach from the Epistle or the Old Testament lesson. But we accept the challenge. However, I am not going to threaten you with God’s wrath and destruction if you do not stop cheating the owner of the vineyard. I believe I have found the some “Good News” in this allegory.

As it stands in Matthew, Mark and Luke God sent Prophets like Jeremiah, Judges like Samuel, and evangelists like John the Baptist to warn the people of Israel to repent and respond to the demands of God. In every instance the people rejected the messengers and often they killed them. Finally God says, “I will send my own son. Surely they will listen to him.” But the story says they killed him, too. Then we are asked how we think God will deal with those wicked tenants . . . and we are told that Jesus said, “I tell you he will kill those tenants and turn over his vineyard to other tenants.” That doesn’t sound like the same Jesus who says forgive them for they know not what they do.

Actually, if we change the story just a little bit, it does sound like Jesus. Suppose the story said, “The wicked tenants were not paying the owner the rent they owed but he forgave them, and sent prophets to warn them. They treated the prophets shamefully but he forgave them and sent more prophets, judges and an evangelist to preach to them. Then even though they had still rebelled the owner of the vineyard again forgave them and sent his own son to be one of them and reassure them of his love and trust” . . . and as we know they killed Jesus. I think it possible that Jesus would have ended his story with reassurance that the owner would still forgive them accept his forgiveness. That was exactly the point of story of the Prodigal son.

The prodigal son took all that his father would give him, squandered it and came home when he got hungry. The son did not confess his sinfulness. He did not apologize or make any promises. He just came home. And the father forgave him and celebrated his return.

So I think it possible that Jesus could have used the story of the wicked tenants to show that God is always ready to forgive, if we are ready to accept his forgiveness.

However, again we have to note that the author of the story we get was not ready to forgive the Jews who killed Jesus. So throughout Christian history, the parable of the wicked tenants has been used to explain why God has treated the Jews of history so poorly. In fact the religious fanatics have used the parable to justify Jewish persecutions. You may have heard that a religious fanatic is someone who does what God would do if God had all the facts.

We are not as forgiving as God. Can you imagine a president saying, I believe it Christian to forgive our enemies and those terrorists who attack us. No. If they attack us we will declare war on them for insulting us.

Not too long ago in our EFM class we discussed the problem of forgiving. We asked ourselves exactly what does it mean to forgive.

One of the famous stories about forgiving is that when Eleanor Roosevelt was returning to Washington from Warm Springs with the body of the late President in the baggage car, she learned from Franklin’s cousin, Laura Delano that Lucy Mercer was in the group of women who were in the Little White House when Franklin died. Eleanor was furious. Laura said to her, “Well, Eleanor, we must forgive and forget.” “No,” Eleanor said, “We must forgive because we can’t forget.”

I told the story to the EFM group and asked them what does forgiving mean? Can we really forgive if we can’t forget? Maybe it means, fake it till you make it. Suppress your anger at the offense. Go on as if the offense never happened. In our EFM class the only thing we could agree on is that we really don’t know what it means to forgive your enemies as God forgives us. Does God really erase our sinful records when he forgives us? John Calvin and a lot of pious people say no. If you have sinned against God, you go straight to hell.

I consulted with a theologian friend for his understanding of forgiveness. He said it is to be understood as fore – giving; like “be – fore giving.” And he gave me the example of the prodigal son. The father loved his son before his son offended him and he loved him after his son offended him. The prodigal’s offense had nothing to do with his father’s love, and the son’s offense had nothing to do with his love for his father. They loved each other before the offense, and they loved each other after the offense. There was love and there was an offense. The love was permanent the offense was an event – a thing apart from their love.

I thought about my love for my children. Now I would love for them to be trophy children. They believe that I love those best who are most successful. But I don’t love them for their trophy value. I love all my children to the max. There is nothing they could do that would affect my love for them. If and when they offend me, my forgiveness is already there. My forgiveness precedes their offense. My love for you precedes your offense.

I believe that our sins are pre-forgiven by God if we can accept his forgiveness. Our problem with God turns out not to be him forgiving us. Our problem is living with such a loving God.

If we return to the parable of the Wicked Tenants, the problem the tenants had with the owner was that he loved them too much. They could not stand being loved that much. The tenants wanted to end the relationship with the owner because they could not stand being loved that much. As long as the owner stayed away from them, they could just go beating up his messengers, but when he sent his own son among them, that was too much. They killed the son to end the relationship with the father.

We are guilty of the same sin. If God loves us that much in spite of all our offenses, we can’t stand it. The burden of all that love is too much to bear.

We secretly believe that our sinfulness is a shield against the magnificent love and respect that God has for us. It is as though we owe God an enormous debt that he never mentions. What a burden. It makes our confession meaningful doesn’t it? “Oh God the burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us. Forgive us.”

Amen