Isaiah 5: 1-7; Philippians 4: 6-9; Matthew 21: 33-43
‘When the season for fruit drew near, the master sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.’ Matt.21:34
‘When the season for fruit drew near, the master sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.’ Matt.21:34
On this Harvest Thanksgiving, today’s gospel challenges us to reflect on our human need and our human greed. The owner of the vineyard needed the fruit from his vineyard, but the tenants were so greedy that eventually they killed the owner’s son, planning to inherit the vineyard for themselves.
I remember some years ago reading a poster outside the Quaker Meeting House in Lewes quoting the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed’. Centuries before Gandhi, Jesus’ parable shows how greed can lead to conflict, suffering and eventually murder.
Harvest Thanksgiving is the time of year when we traditionally look back over the past year and give thanks to God for ‘our daily bread’ most which come the supermarket.
Since this is a time for looking back, please forgive me for indulging in a little retrospection.
Over the period of 37 years living in Falmer, I ministered in two contrasting settings. First as Anglican chaplain at the University of Sussex and also as parish priest of Stanmer with Falmer.
When introducing myself to new people I would sometimes joke and say that I cared for faculty and students, farmers and sheep. And at times it was difficult to tell them apart as the farmers often had a particularly wisdom lacking in the academics, and the students in the 70s mostly had a woolly appearance!
During the intervening years between 1975 and 2012 I witnessed enormous changes in the Universities, the farms and villages.
When I first arrived Stanmer Farm, Mary Farm, Housedean, Balmer and Court Farm were all dairy farms. None of them are now – they have all become arable farms .
There were, as I remember, at least three market garden farms producing a wide range of vegetables and eggs around Falmer village. Now there exists only the Farm shop which buys in its produce from outside markets.
The Amex Stadium was built on Blackman’s market garden and Mac Davitt’s, by Falmer station is now a new block for student accommodation.
When I first arrived in late 1975 many of those who lived in the villages were agricultural workers or stockmen. Others were employed by the universities ranging from porters, cleaners to administrators of various kinds. These services have now been outsourced and other people have moved into the villages with no connection with either the farms of the universities.
Not all villagers in those past years were regular church attenders, but they did attend at Christmas, Easter and particularly for Harvest Thanksgiving.
The farmers brought gifts of the produce from the fields to the church. And there was a sense that people knew intuitively what meant to depend on the seasons and to live off the land they had cultivated over the past year, and to offer thanks to God
I remember after a particularly wet or very dry summer, I would ask old farmer Harold West what kind of harvest we could expect this year, ‘Oh,’ he’d say ‘you know there’s always a harvest!’ It was an expression of faith of someone who lived many years close to the land. This lead to a genuine deep sense of thankfulness as the congregation sang:
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, then thank the Lord for all his love.
This year, the longest and hottest on record, has meant that the grain harvest has been the lowest in living memory. This has led to a crisis in the farming industry.
Farmers tell us that they are already using reserves of winter feed for their livestock. And the present crisis is also compounded in the farming industry by the huge increase of fuel prices for running the necessary machinery, thanks to President Trump.
England now produces only half the food we need to feed the nation leaving us dependent on the rest of our food coming from overseas. During these unstable times this leaves us in a vulnerable state.
In terms of Jesus’ parable today, the greedy and violent tenants prevail against the owner of the vineyard. And we have to face that we all have a share in the crisis through our own present human wants and needs.
The word ‘crisis’ comes directly from the Greek word meaning ‘judgement.’
As Christians we recognise all live under the judgement of Christ.
In the parable the son of the owner of the vineyard is cast out and killed by the tenants. Jesus relates this directly to himself and to his forth coming passion and death.
Then Jesus quotes verses from Psalm 118:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;[
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvellous in our eyes’?
Jesus is identifying himself as ‘the rejected stone’ which God will use as the cornerstone to do something ‘marvellous in or eyes’, which is Jesus’ resurrection after his death.
For God now intends raise up Christ and through him bring into being a people who are willing and capable of producing fruit worthy of him – the fruit of the Spirit.
The message of Jesus is that God in his mercy is the Lord over all his creation. For in his love God transforms all human adversity by the power of the resurrection of his Son, who is himself the first fruits of that resurrection life. And it is this fruit of the resurrection of Christ we come to share in in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.
Now to him be all praise and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
Father Andrew