Proper 22 / Year A
Today we hear the last of
Jesus’ “vineyard parables.” The vineyard
was a common Old Testament metaphor used to describe the people of Israel, so
it is not surprising Jesus draws on this imagery as much as he does. If you recall, two weeks ago we heard the
parable of the workers called to the vineyard at various hours of the day who
all get paid the same amount, regardless of the time they spent laboring. Last Sunday we heard the parable of the father
who directs each of his two sons to work in the family vineyard. One refuses, but later goes. The other agrees, but then does nothing. And today we hear the parable of the tenants’
revolt against the absentee landowner.
Martin Heidegger, the
German-born philosopher who died in 1976, has been described as a nearly
unreadable author, a racist and a bigot who never fully disavowed his support
of Nazism, and one of the most important thinkers of the 21st century. Now
that is some résumé! He wrote a great deal about nihilism; a Latin word meaning
“nothing.” It is a philosophical belief our
modern life lacks a shared meaning and direction by rejecting fundamental
aspects of human existence, such as knowledge, morals, and values. Those who write about nihilism point to
society’s desire not to be under any authority beyond the individual, to have
nothing and no one able to make a claim on us, and no commitments required of
us. It is precisely what the tenants in
Jesus’ parable are after.
One professor sums up our
times by pointing out “the things that once evoked commitment – gods, heroes…,
the acts of great statesmen, the words of great thinkers – have lost their
authority.” He is saying our society,
like the tenants who shed the rightful claim of the landowner, has dispensed
with any such notion of objective norms or values or moral good existing beyond
the individual’s preferences. We tenants
are the ones who pick and choose the ingredients we want to add into the stew
of meaning we cook up for ourselves (if we even want to take the time to think
about it).
Heidegger points out life
in an ownerless vineyard has some serious consequences. He held we become isolated in our existence,
alienated from one another, and suffocated in a life devoid of meaning. The same professor put it this way:
“When there
are no shared examples of greatness that focus public concerns and elicit
social commitment, people become spectators of fads and public lives, just for
the excitement. When there are no
religious practices that call forth sacrifice, terror, and awe, people consume
everything from drugs to meditation practices to give themselves some kind of
peak experience. The peak experience
takes the place of what was once a relation to something outside the self that
defined the real and was therefore holy.”
To the degree I understand Heidegger I am
intrigued by his thinking regarding how technology fosters nihilism. In a nutshell, he says we have reduced
creation to efficiency and adaptability, with little or no thought to its
intended, greater purpose. He holds we view
the environment as being “a gigantic gasoline station, an energy source for
modern technology and industry.” Most of
us also see nature as something spiritual, particularly when, for example, we
are moved by a beautiful sunset. But for
us, both endeavors – industry and inspiration - share the common understanding
that creation exists solely for our benefit and use. It is our vineyard, not God’s.
Cardinal Celestin Suhard,
who served as Archbishop of Paris in the 1940’s, famously said, “to be a
witness [is to be] a living mystery. It
means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not
exist.” And while the world wants to
live like there is no God, just as the tenants wanted to live as if there was
no owner, we are the opposite - people who, in the absence of the vineyard
Owner, live in such a way that makes sense only because there is a vineyard
Owner. We live in such a way that our
lives are a mystery in a nihilistic world. We adhere to a meaning and direction from
beyond ourselves. We accept Jesus as our
Lord and seek to live out his word and example; forgiving when forgiveness is a
challenge, giving generously even when we have very little to offer, extending
hospitality to all – especially to those people on the margins of society,
picking up our cross and daily dying to self.
In a world that has either
dispensed itself of God or perhaps just tamed God to suit its own purposes, our
lives should not make sense at all. But
our witness does make sense because there is a God who owns the vineyard and
has a rightful claim on each one of us.
