30 May 2016 - garden variety

[ Today's Readings ]

We have been leased a vineyard as tenants. It is an impressive one. It has a hedge and a tower for protection. It even has a wine press so that we can be not only safe but also joyful. What does the man who leases us this vineyard ask in return? Simply, "some of the produce of the vineyard." It seems fair. It is his, after all. We're just borrowing it.

The trouble comes when we forget that. We forget that Jesus "has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion". We forget and start trying to run the vineyard by our own strength and ability. Then, when the master wants the produce, we don't want to let go. After all, we struggle so hard for every piece of fruit that grows that we feel entitled to the entire harvest. Jesus sends his messengers to us to remind us whose vineyard it is. He does this with patience, mercy, and compassion.

But they seized him, beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent them another servant.
And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.

He says to us, 'Look at the kindness I've placed in your soul, how about using it this way?' And we're ready to stone him at the very suggestion of it. But he keeps trying. He reveals his love for us more and more until, little by little, we loosen our grip on the fruits that are rightly his. We have to, because ultimately, he is the most essential part of the whole operation.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes.

Is the gardening getting tough? 

make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.

These are gifts we are given along with the vineyard. We don't have to get them from Lowe's or Home Depot. In fact, the world only has cheap imitations. Trying to use them makes gardening not just a drudgery, but ultimately impossible. But in God we bear fruit.

Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress.