Lent 5 C To Forget, Remember

 Lent 5 C To Forget, Remember

March 20, 1983

By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell

The parable of the “Wicked Tenants” is just another version of an old problem. The problem of
ownership. We have all seen it rear its ugly head wherever human beings meet to work or play. It sounds like this: This is my toy, this is my house, this is my child, this is my school, this is my church, this is my block, this is my town, this is my life! Our Lord is merely retelling the Adam and Eve story--where the self-willed nature of man was first introduced in scripture. In short, it is human nature to want life on our own terms. To have “the last word” on what is right and fair from our point of view.

But, as we learned in today’s parable, our obsession to have “the last word” is our downfall. What this allegorical parable is telling us is… that when we deny God’s claims for justice and compassion the results are ultimately self-destructive. It will help to understand that; the vineyard stands for the nation of Israel, the owner of the vineyard stands for God, the tenants are the rulers of God’s chosen nation, the servants sent to collect the owner’s share of the vineyard are the persecuted Prophets, and the owner’s son represents Jesus. 

Jesus was telling this parable to the Scribes and the Chief Priests. He was reminding those in His audience, (especially those who imagined themselves to be superior) about another time…. when the Israelites tested God in the desert…. that God kept them wandering in the Wilderness until all who had been critical of Him were dead, including Moses.

When the Scribes and the Chief Priests caught on to what our Lord was saying, they didn’t like it! “For they perceived that he had told this parable against them.”  We can see one of the apostles coming up next to Jesus and whispering… “I think you’re making them mad.”

There are all kinds of ways to have the “last word” ranging from; murder to suicide, from divorce to living the life of a recluse, from yelling the loudest to pouting in silence…. all are destructive. Like the wicked tenants, we humans would like to be boss in life and we are all willing to reject, hurt and even kill each other to have it our way. We don’t have to be Scribes of Pharisees to see this struggle for ownership played out in our lives.

Example) A staunch Roman Catholic father who vowed to never speak to his daughter again because she married an Episcopalian. Who got the last word? ..... Separation.

Example) The commander of the U.S. Third Fleet, in the battle of Leyte Gulf during WWII, may have been influenced by his own jealousy of another Admiral, and made a questionable decision in pursuing a decoy Japanese force, instead of focusing on the main Japanese fleet. Who had the last word? .... Death.

We all have a list of things we would do differently the next time. The fact of our having that list is the proof of sin. As Paul put it, “I do the things I say I don’t want to do, and I don’t do the things I say I want to do.”

I would love to brag to you now and say that I used to have that problem, too. I would love to say to any visitors here this morning that we here at St. Paul’s have moved beyond man’s sinful ways… but, if I said it… you all know that it is not true.

What can we do? Our past mistakes haunt us and the scars we bear are painful reminders that we have sometimes been the victims… like the servants in today’s parable who were simply doing the Master’s will and who got beaten up for their effort.

What can we do short of more rejection, more hurting and killing? Let’s listen to Paul again….in today’s epistle…. “I do not consider that I am perfect, (nor is anyone else), but one thing I do… forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what lies ahead… God’s call in Jesus Christ. Think for a moment what Paul had to forget… we may be bad, but not many of us have held the coats of those winging stones at a saintly man’s head. Nor have we perused people to prison and execution for their religious beliefs. Paul’s secret of forgiving and forgetting was in his single-minded purpose… to put himself in the loving and forgiving arms of Jesus Christ. 

When we allow ourselves to get mired down in the muck created by thinking we are special … for putting each other down…it takes the joy out of living and the devil has “the last word.”

What can we do? Listen to Isaiah… “Remember not the former things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing; I will give water in the desert.” Do you know what water means in the desert? …… It means LIFE!   Jesus Christ is our water in the wilderness of destructive ways. As our Lord said to the woman at the well… “If you would ask me, I will give you living water and you will never thirst again.”

Yes, give us some of that water! Let us drink from the cup of our salvation... let us put our lives in the transforming presence of the Lord’s patience, kindness, and humility. The Lord is not rude, He is not self-seeking, not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. Can you imagine handing Jesus a long carefully composed list of wrongs you have suffered… then discovered He lost it? The Lord does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. In the way of our sojourn amidst the hurts we cause and suffer, we need to remember that Jesus; always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preservers…. we need to remember that Jesus never fails. 

What if we don’t?  What if we don’t strain forward to put ourselves in Christ? When God has the last word, the community is built up… when we have the last word, it is destroyed.

One of our heaviest loads in life…. causing all kinds of human pain… is that we can not forget what lies behind us. We should! We must! God surely does! The Bible tells us over, and over again that God’s memory is short, that His long suit is mercy. He told Jeremiah to say, “Tell them! I will remember their sins no more. Tell them I will blot out their sins from my memory.”

Forget what is in the past!

Drink of the cup of salvation!