Proper 22A + Freedom + 10.4.20

 

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Exodus 20:1–4, 7–9, 12–20 Psalm 19 Philippians 3:4b–14 St Matthew 21:33–46)

 

“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him….”

We know that it was Paul who wrote these words to the Philippians, but they could just as easily have been written a thousand years later by Saint Francis of Assisi, back before he was known as that. Born Giovanni after John the Baptist, the man stood in the chapel. Although named for a saint, he had lived his life as anything but. He had caroused and spent Daddy’s money. And now, trying to listen to God, he heard the simple words, “rebuild my church.” And he went and sold some of his father’s cloth to literally rebuild the physical church at San Damiano, Italy. He didn’t understand that God wanted him to spiritually rebuild the church. But slowly he began to understand, as he kissed a leper and as he let go of everything that bound him, including his wealth. St. Francis showed us how to connect with each other beyond money. And his simplicity connected him with the animals. He was famous for so many things, including interfaith dialog but we really connect to the way in which he saw and honored animals. So we bless them today.

Francis knew what it was to cast off something that was tying him down and to find freedom in a new way of living.
In today’s reading from Exodus we see the Israelites, now released from slavery. They receive a set of laws. This seems counter-intuitive. Surely they want to have freedom, not more laws. But what they find and what Francis found was that in following the laws and ways of God they found freedom. They are a free people, free to follow these laws so that they can live in a free society. Francis’ brothers and sisters followed a more austere life than their neighbors, sometimes to an extreme, but in their simple rule, they found freedom. To love God and each other.

It seems fitting that Jesus’ parable of the unjust tenants of the vineyard today was directed at the elite of Israel. He was not telling ordinary people on the street this parable. It was earmarked for the religious authorities of his time and place. Because too often we get our heads turned with greed and we reject the message that God is sending us of his loving son who came for us and for our salvation.

Some of you may have watched a very silly and sometimes crude show on TV. It is called “S. Creek” (the name sounds crude but it is spelled as a surname so forgive me for saying only part of it). Alene and I have been catching up on the episodes and the premise is that there is a family that is very wealthy and they were so comfortable in their wealth that they trusted an unscrupulous business manager who never paid their taxes and they come to a moment of ruin. And the only asset they have is that they own a town called S. Creek that the father jokingly purchased for his son. They come to live in this town and they have lost everything and they think they can’t relate to the simple people of the town. But eventually they find purpose. Simple work that before was below them becomes a place for them to learn and grow as people. This is a secular tale but I think it says something to us as Christians. Do we look to wealth? Or do we look for where God can best use us? Even if it will not make us as much money, we might be more fulfilled.

St Francis too gave up everything and showed the elites of his time how to truly follow Jesus. If there were ever a time when we need a return to simplicity and away from greed, it is now as we prepare for an election. What do we look for in a leader? The ability only to make money, regardless of how many commandments are broken? That is the way to an unfree people and an unfree world.

Or do we look for people, not just in the president but in our local and state leadership, who will listen to the animals, to the earth, and to needs of the poor? Who will care for our planet as much as for profits?
God has sent his son to the vineyard of this world. Let us embrace him with open arms as we would our favorite pet. Let us reach back. Because he reaches out to us from the cross with loving arms. He does not care if we are a success; he only wants to love us and to show us how to love others.

Let us say, with Paul and I imagine with Francis, too, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Amen.