Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday October 5, 2008

There are no sour grapes in God’s vineyard.

Several years ago in what I might characterize ’ the age of optimism,’ the economy was booming or was about to boom in a bullish market. People by and large were feeling good about themselves despite the perplexing challenges of a post cold war era. The iron curtain—torn wide-open—exposed atheistic communism for what it was. The Berlin wall was in shambles as were the draconian political foundations on which it was constructed.

Playtime and work-time competed for the attention of mother and father with the interesting realization that one cannot exist without the other—playtime and work-time. How much or how little of each was always in question and never in balance but the promise of early retirement with pay for unused sick days and stock options compensated for the hard work that was not always sufficiently remunerated.

It was during this period that the human potential movement flourished. Oddly enough, this ‘new age’ phenomenon grew out of the conviction that everything is good and nothing is evil. If you listened to the music and went with the flow, everything would be okay.

I think there were songs incorporating these very words that captured the spirit of the age. Invulnerability was the hallmark of the day; ‘Be Happy!’

It was ironic that despite this ‘worldly enthusiasm’ there was a concomitant spiritual optimism evidenced by the surge in religious practice by the children of baby boomers who were now having their own children. Coming to the realization that something was missing in third-party relationships with God, they returned to the church of their baptism. The classrooms of catholic schools long in recession swelled again making it necessary to cap enrollment and create wait lists. Many private and expensive Catholic schools embarked on ambitious expansion programs.

But nothing lasts forever. Comfort gave way to complacency and complacency bottomed out to the reality that we can’t have it all in one lifetime. In some respects this may have been nothing more or less than a new dose of Irish guilt or just plain traditional Catholic guilt—you know, the feeling it’s payback time! Things are going along too smoothly. God doesn’t want me to be this successful or happy. If it feels good, it must be sinful.

Of course, I am overstating the case to make the point. There was much about which to be optimistic but optimism is short-lived without a firm foundation in reality. Optimism is not always a virtue; it’s an external disposition that may also be accompanied by the internal denial of truth.

Hope is a virtue built not on “whistling a happy tune” but on truth and the confidence that truth is guiding the human affairs that make nations work; a truth that guides the political and economic forces that impinge on the common good and the good of individuals with fairness and equity; the truth that should guide religious institutions making them icons of the divine presence and purveyors of the perennial wisdom that spans the ages and raise our consciousness to the moral imperatives that yield justice and integrity.

Hope is built on the acknowledgement of the good despite evil in the world and the temptations that surround us. It is the firm acceptance that we are not our own masters; that we cannot control the laws of nature. Hope is built on the conviction that there is an eternal force for good that has been implanted within us. The great spiritual writer, Matthew Fox calls this inner force, “original blessing.” Hope is based on the belief that indeed, God created the universe and “saw that it was good…” that is, God made sure that it was good. It is rooted in the conviction that we are created in God’s image and likeness and, in the words of the five-year-old theologian, “God don’t make no junk!”

The readings this weekend support this hope and this theology but also recognize the fragile nature of this earthly life.

Isaiah’s beautiful love song about Judah surely gives testimony to the inherent goodness placed within the heart of humanity by God. But the lyric verses that follow reveal the tragic outcome brought on by the pursuit of its own agenda—the repercussions of ‘Adam’s’ rebellion that is the rebellion of humanity:

“Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!”

“… For [you] have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

In his allegorical description of the fall of Jerusalem, Matthew builds a case against the Jewish people and virtually against all who would ravage God’s dominion. Normally in such parables, the moral is not in the details but in the whole story. However, in this case, the details are important so that the lesson is not missed.

God is the landowner; the tenants are the religious leaders; the landowner’s servants are the prophets and the son is Jesus Christ. Although just a story, the details are not farfetched or distant from the reality of Matthew’s contemporaries around the year 80 so they would not need a commentary to get the point. They knew it was about a just stewardship and accountability to God.

In essence, Matthew wants his listeners and us to get the message that the realm of God is about people who will go to extremes in their stewardship of God’s dominion instead of going to extremes in the pursuit of their own agenda.

Finally, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul assures us that there is indeed every reason to hope but we must activate the grace of God that is already within us.

We used to call this ‘actual grace,’ the gift that impels us to respond to life “enthusiastically!” It’s a good word; it comes from two Greek words, en-Theos, i.e., to be in God. Indeed, “God don’t make no junk.” Our life is a gift and each of us has been empowered, indeed, impelled to goodness (Godness) by God. There is no room for sour grapes in God’s vineyard.

“Dismiss all anxiety form your minds. Present your needs to God in every form of prayer and petitions full of gratitude… Live according to what you have learned and accepted… Then will the God of peace be with you.”

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