In our readings from God’s Word this week we see that there is an old way of doing things, shaped and formed by the ways of man; and there is a new way created by the Lord. Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah sums it up well:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
This remarkable change of how things work was instituted by God and God alone. As Jesus was born into this world and as he gave his life for us, a new order came into the world, as dramatic as a cleared path through the wilderness and as rivers of water in the desert.
St. Paul experienced this new way. He was on the road to Damascus preparing to persecute Christians in the first generation of the church and Jesus appeared to him with a new way. “Saul why are you persecuting me?” Jesus implored Paul to abandon his old ways, Jesus changed the life of this man of devotion to the law who proudly traced his lineage from the line of Benjamin.
In our Epistle reading from Philippians Paul writes: “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.”
Paul could see what efforts he had made, he could see his background in the faith, and he had from a human point of view a blameless record. Like straight A’s and perfect attendance in school. Never getting a cavity, never even coming close to a speeding ticket, never missing a worship service or a Bible study, or a board meeting.
We could look to our own record in life and wish we had the discipline to make it better, to make it more perfect. We could focus on and count on all of the accomplishments in life we have to be proud of, times serving in church, times of rejoicing in our identity as God’s people. But what does Paul teach us?
“But whatever gain I had I count as loss for the sake of Christ.” Paul saw that it is not his works that save him, but the Lord Jesus. Paul saw that the things he felt pride about in life were misleading to him. In the long run it did not matter so much how many scripture verses he meditated on each morning, or how many traditions of the pharisees he followed in a manner of devotion- if these things only led him to look inward at his self righteousness. And if they took him away from knowing Christ as his Savior, he was ready to cast them aside from his win column and his source of pride, and count them instead as all a loss.
Are you ready to count your sources of pride as loss? Consider how you will feel at the end of your life, what difference will your accomplishments make to you? In the light of the place Christ prepared for you in eternity, our accomplishments are just momentary distractions from the time we will be with Jesus.
This is what St. Paul is teaching: “not having a righteousness of my own, but through faith in Christ.” To have our righteousness in Christ alone is to have the humility to see that I am no better than other people, I am full of sin, I am only a beggar before the Lord, a beggar seeking and trusting in the Lord’s promises to me.
We sang in our sermon hymn: “My song is love unknown, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.” We are empty compared to Jesus, we are essentially without pure love, because of sin we are loveless. Perhaps we don’t even understand what pure and perfect love is.
This perfect love is the new way Jesus shows us. We leave behind the way that seeks to earn our way and look out for ourselves first. We come forward with a new way, as the hymn says Jesus showed love to us so that we would lovely be. In other words, so that we would live with the love Jesus rejoices to give to us. Jesus changes us from loveless to lovely! That is the new way.
And yet we live in a world where the old ways and the old order of things dies hard. Self righteousness rules the day in our society. We live in a time of outrage, people are blaming one another for everything they can find. Whether it is over traffic slights or something someone writes on social media, people are always looking to call others wrong and themselves right and desiring for others to pay.
You may have heard how in the state of Florida the governor signed a law that protects families from indoctrination of young children in schools from teachers and school boards from topics that are both developmentally in appropriate for ages like 5 and 6, and are of values the vast majority of parents do not want taught to their children. We know from God’s Word that Government has been established by God for the order and safety of society.
And the response by our culture: a high profile corporation such as Disney calls the government in Florida evil for seeking to protect the safety of children. In an expression of self righteousness, social activists and upper level producers within Disney have pledged to continue to do all they can to indoctrinate young children into their anti Biblical beliefs, believing they are doing a good thing by attacking traditional values about marriage and God’s design for family on the foundation of the union of man and woman.
The way of self righteousness is a way that says I am right and God is wrong. In our gospel lesson Jesus describes the violence in which the tenants of the Vineyard meet the owner’s contact with them. This violence is symbolic of the violence that Israel has met Old Testament Prophets with. “I am right and God is wrong” Jesus understood how the leaders of Israel did not want to hear from a prophet when they felt sufficiently righteous in themselves.
This parable is remarkable in its turn of events. The tenant owner goes from a desire to collect goods from a vineyard to losing his son and destroying the tenants in response and giving it to others.
The parable does not account for the resurrection of the Son. Jesus tells this parable to address the hardness of hearts of the Scribes and Pharisees he is talking to. It is an unusual parable because of how tragic it sounds. There is destruction done first to the servants, then the owner’s son and then the wicked tenants. It is clear as Jesus teaches this parable that the son who is killed represents Jesus, the Son of God who is soon to be killed by Israel on the cross.
But Jesus makes a marvelous connection, The Stone the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone. The Son may be murdered and rejected by Israel, but He has been raised to be the cornerstone of the New Israel, the church. Even though the parable does not talk about the vineyard owner’s son coming back to life Jesus does teach about his resurrection. As Jesus is talking with the leaders about the destruction of the tenants, they say ‘surely not!’
Jesus looks directly at them and asks: “What then is this that is written?” The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
Vineyards are used in the Old Testament as imagery for representing Israel, as in God is the gardener and Israel is the grape vine which produces good or bad fruit. Amazingly, Jesus connects himself with Israel as the vineyard when he uses a vineyard to tell a story about the violence of Israel toward the prophets.
Although the original vineyard tenants were destroyed, although the self righteous of Israel are destroyed, there is a new vineyard being built upon which Jesus is the cornerstone.
Although Israel so often has disobeyed the Lord, a new thing has happened where God’s own son has joined us in the vineyard. He is our Cornerstone and he makes an entirely new thing possible, to abide in him and bear much fruit. “I am the vine you are the branches.”
Today take hold of the good news that Jesus firmly establishes a new thing in your life. Jesus allows you to walk with God in righteousness and in love.
If you find you struggle to feel the most comfortable in the various social situations of our society and even in our church, see today that the Lord has brought a new thing into your life, the ability to like St. Paul count all things of pride and accomplishment and self righteousness as loss but for the unsurpassing worth of knowing Christ as your Lord.
Today you can relate with brothers and sisters in Christ with the freedom of the gospel where the old things are forgotten. It no longer matters who left the coffee machine for you to clean, or if you left it for someone else to clean more than you would like. In Christ we are a community of believers that values more forgiveness and hope and prayer, than grudges, slights or misgivings.
In Christ we live in a new creation where the things of God’s kingdom stand immovable, and where even the violence of the world cannot separate us from God’s love. Rejoice today, that there is indeed a new thing here, our blessed life in God’s vineyard, the church.