Lent 5-C                        R Lundquist+                                               3/25/07

Isaiah 43:16-21  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=42210196

Luke 20:9-19  http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=42210225

Jesus’ story of the wicked tenants in this morning’s reading is clearly presented as an allegory.  Jesus knew what in store for him.  He knew the gift he was to give … and its cost.

Another story – from a field medic in the war in Viet Nam:

            In a village w/ several wounded, a child was bleeding.

            There was no bagged blood available, so he had everyone tested for transfusion.  A young boy (age 9) had a blood type that matched.  Through a translator the medic asked, “Will you give your blood to save this child?”  After frowning in thought for a moment, the boy agreed.  Once the transfusion started, the boy’s face went from worried to peaceful.  Then he spoke through the translator to corpsman:  “When will I begin to die?”  The medic was shocked – “You won’t die!  Why?”  After a brief conversation the translator turned back and said, “He thinks he’s giving all of his blood.”

It’s a very human story.  It’s not about ministry, programs, theology,  or healing…  It’s a story about giving all.  It’s a story about serving another.

I think we misunderstand servanthood.

            It doesn’t mean doing everything for everyone;

                        It means being willing to do anything for anyone.

                                    That’s an important difference.

            After all, Jesus was nobody’s doormat.  But he was a servant.  He was willing to give all of his blood.  How prepared is any one of us to give all of our blood?…

The impact of the recent story seems to be absent from the gospel story,   maybe through the repetition & familiarity of the wicked tenants…  But it is no less powerful. 

It’s interesting that while Jesus told the story to the people, the scribes & chief priests heard it told against them.  They were used to being the judges rather than the ones being judged.

            Judgment comes from within,

                        It pulls us into ourselves.

We are not serving when we are judging…

            for judging is ultimately fruitless.

                        Remember, our wisdom is God’s foolishness.  God’s ways are not ours.  We can look at the owner of the vineyard & think, “How naïve, how foolish, how wasteful – to send his son.”

                        Thank God for that naïveté.

Our own service in Christ’s name really must be that free, that naïve, that foolish, and that total.

            “He thinks he’s giving all of his blood…”

            He thought he was giving his life to save another.

                        It wasn’t noble, not wise – just loving.

Preacher and author Tony Campolo tells of a man named Cyrill in Bulgaria in WWII.  Bulgaria was an ally of Nazi Germany.  The Church leaders, though, stood against Hitler.  Cyrill was the Metropolitan, the Orthodox bishop of Bulgaria.

            When the Nazis came they rounded up the Jews to ship them to Auschwitz.  At midnight before the trains were to leave Cyrill, a tall man, in full robes, strode down the boulevard, followed by 1000+ Christians, to the place were the Jews were being held.  Though the SS troopers tried to stop them, Cyrill laughed & pushed through their guns.  As the Jews gathered around this giant of a man, he raised his hands & spoke one verse of scripture.  From the book of Ruth:  “Wherever you go, I will go.  Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”  Not a single Jew in Bulgaria ever made it to Auschwitz during the war.

 Thus says the LORD:  “I am about to do a new thing.  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

            A new thing.  Naïve & foolish to our eyes, perhaps.  Our prodigal God whispers “Resurrection” even as we scream, “Crucify him!”  Jesus knew the cost of the gift – and he gave it freely.