Today’s Old Testament reading continues
to focus on the life and times of the prophet Elijah. Today’s story about Naboth’s vineyard is a
cautionary tale about the misuse of power.
It is contemporary in every sense of the word as we still live in a
world where despots (and/or those close to them) will use the authority
entrusted to them (or, in some cases, taken by them) to get what they want by
any means necessary. Surely Naboth
stands as a victim. But there is much
more to him and that is what I want to explore with you. To me, before Jezebel manipulates his stoning,
Naboth is an inspirational figure who embodies what it means to be a godly and
goodly steward of what has been entrusted to him.
Ancestral land was deeply valued in
Israel. It was a gift from God who
commanded the people to “take possession of the land.” The book of Deuteronomy describes the land of
Israel as an “inheritance from the Lord.”
If you want to twist your tongue into a knot, go home, open your bible
to the Book of Joshua, and read aloud chapters 13-21. It describes with great specificity the
boundaries between one tribe’s region and another. This exacting detail points to the sacred
nature of the land given by God who orders a census be taken and the land
divided among the people. The Book of
Numbers describes which person received what lot (again, it is a tongue twister
to read aloud). It matters to God that
each and every person has a plot of land.
If you own the deed to your property, it
indicates on it that the land is not yours.
It may surprise you to learn you are leasing your property from the
state. The people of Israel owned their
land. It passed from one generation to
another. It was understood not so much
to be a legal right as it was held to be a gift from God. The writer of the 16th Psalm says:
O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; *
it is
you who uphold my lot.
The
Old Testament contains several admonitions against moving a property marker
because it was both a theft against the owner and a sin against God. God directs Israel to have a Jubilee every
fifty years where land that had been sold for purposes of survival was to be
returned to its original ancestral owner.
So at
one level, when Ahab approaches Naboth about trading or selling his land he is
asking him to forsake what God has entrusted to him and Naboth will have none
of it. His commitment is to what God has
given to him. It is more important than
money or moving up in the world. He does
not want cash nor does he want to trade up for a better lot.
What
has God entrusted to you? Your spouse,
if you are married. Your children and
grandchildren. Parents, if they are
still alive. Siblings. It is easy to let other things get in the way
of family. Perhaps you have received an
inheritance or a trust fund. While resources
such as this should be enjoyed, good stewardship demands you do not consume it,
but rather shepherd it wisely so that it can be passed on to the next
generation. The good you can do with
what you have is more significant than the myriad of ways you might spend it
frivolously.
As I
have mentioned, I am in the midst of reading through our church’s historical
documents and as I do so I come away with a deeper sense of how this parish has
been entrusted to us by 18-some generations of faithful people before us. We are stewards of an impressive legacy of
faith and far from being a burden, it gives us a sense of perspective and
purpose. What we do here matters, not
only for today, but also for generations to come. What has God entrusted to you?
God
entrusted a vineyard to Naboth. We are
not told if the vineyard was started by Naboth or by one of his ancestors, but
surely it required a great deal of work and care. The PH of the soil has to be just right. There is planting and pruning and training
and trimming. It can take up to three
years before a new plant can yield grapes.
It is no small undertaking, especially when compared to the vegetable
garden the king wants to plant.
The
writings of Wendell Berry reminds me of the importance land holds for each of
us. Listen to his poem The Man Born
to Farming:
The grower of
trees, the gardener, the man born to farming, whose hands reach into the ground
and sprout, to him the soil is a divine drug. He enters into death yearly, and comes back
rejoicing. He has seen the light lie
down in the dung heap, and rise again in the corn. His thought passes along the row ends like a
mole. What miraculous seed has he
swallowed that the unending sentence of his love flows out of his mouth like a
vine clinging in the sunlight, and like water descending in the dark?
Berry writes about how when we are thinking about ‘the
environment’ we have made a division between it and ourselves:
Our land passes in and out of our bodies
just as our bodies pass in and out of our land; that as we and our land are
part of one another, so all who are living as neighbors here, human and plant
and animal, are part of one another, and so cannot possibly flourish alone.
Naboth is a person who understands this: the spirituality of
place – how a specific place shapes and sustains us. Just as it cares for us, we have a
responsibility to care for it. Without
this connection we are diminished; we are lost.
Do you have a place like this?
We live in a transient society that creates a sense of
rootlessness. I have moved a staggering
twenty-six times in my life, and while several of these involved going to
college and coming back ‘home’ for the summer, I sense how modern mobility has had
an affect of me – some for good, some for ill.
Are you spiritually connected to your ‘place’? How might you build and deepen a relationship
with where you?
Naboth’s ‘place’ meant something to him spiritually and this,
as well as an allegiance to inheritance, were factors in why he would not sell
or trade. There is one more
component. Ahab’s palace in Jezreel was
a rather new addition to the community and served as his winter
headquarters. No doubt others sold their
land to the king so he could build it.
Far from being a private transaction, this kind of decision affected the
entire community. The sale or exchange
of property altered the social fabric of Jezreel.
We are not told, but let’s assume, Naboth’s vineyard is
the only one in the region. He supplies
wine not only for his household but for many of his friends and neighbors. They, in turn, give to him from what they
produce – wheat and honey and milk, etc.
If it isn’t produced locally it is brought in either from far away (at a
cost) or done without. Who knows what
the community lost when the king bought the land for his palace, but it definitely
had an impact. Naboth was not willing to
have his vineyard removed from the local economy and life of his friends and
neighbors.
To be a good Christian steward is to have a place in the
community. This encompasses the work you
do and the integrity with which you do it.
It involves how and where and why and when you connect with others. It involves how you use what is yours to benefit
others. Christian stewards gratefully
and faithfully accept their role in the community. Where and how do you fit in?
Ahab is the antithesis of all this. He has no respect for the inheritance God has
given to each and every person he rules.
He wants Naboth’s lot merely because it is convenient, sitting next to
his winter palace. He cares little about
the spirituality of place as he pouts and refuses to eat. And he wants to isolate himself from the
community around him: if he grows his own vegetables he will not need to go to
the local farmer’s market every Saturday.
And Jezebel, well, she is even worse. Her most obvious offense is setting up the scheme
to take Naboth’s life. Less obvious, but
equally as telling, once Naboth is out of the way, she implores Ahab to “take
possession of the land”. It mimics the
very phrase God speaks in promising the land to the people of Israel and thus
usurps God’s rightful place and promise.
In the end this sad story is a reminder that goodness is
not necessarily a protection from evil and harm. Naboth’s reward for being a good and godly steward
is found completely within the context of being a good and godly steward. He is not delivered from his enemies. Still, he lived his life in a way which was
holy and admirable and marked with integrity – qualities no amount of money or
power can procure. He used well what was
entrusted to him, connected deeply with the place where he lived, and was a
part of the fabric of his community. You
may only have a single dollar in the bank or $100 million dollars or more, but
the only way to be truly rich in life is to live as Naboth did.
