Oct 08, 2023 |
Sunday Sermon
| The Rev. Jeanne LeinbachSunday Sermon
“The one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully," Frederick Buechner.
Frederick Buechner, the beloved writer and theologian, gets us started this morning with our reflection on Scripture. “The one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.”
This morning’s Scripture, the Old Testament passage from 1st Isaiah and the Gospel passage from Matthew fit neatly together. And, both radiate judgment. In Isaiah we hear, “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.” In Matthew we hear, “There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.” In both cases, the harvest did not go as planned. In Isaiah, the gardener expected the vineyard to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. During this era of 1st Isaiah, the twelve tribes of Israel were split into two Kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The fall of Jerusalem was triggered, in part, by infighting between these two kingdoms. The vineyard yielded wild grapes; God’s loving cultivation of the vineyard is rejected. In Matthew, God sends his messengers to receive the fruits of the harvest, but the tenants (the religious establishment) first kill the slaves (the prophets) and then kill the son, Jesus. God’s messengers are rejected. Judgment sets in. In Isaiah, we hear, “Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.” In Matthew we hear, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” Judgement - a harsh, difficult message.
The problem is we do lose our way. The garden is so carefully prepared: cleared of stones, planted with choice vines, tended to with a watchtower. The environment is prepared for growth, for enriching, abundant life and yet, we lose our way. Once upon a time, there was a corporation named Enron and there was a Big 8 Accounting Firm named Arthur Andersen. Enron was an energy, commodities and services company. During the bull market of the 1990s, Enron traded derivative contracts for any numbers of commodities: electricity, coal, paper, steel, even the weather. By 2001, they were executing trades worth about $2.5 billion a day. And then, the boom years ended. Competition increased, the company’s profits shrank, and executives began to rely on dubious accounting practices to hide the troubles. Arthur Andersen was Enron’s auditor. When the SEC began investigating Enron, some misguided employees at Andersen started shredding documents. In December 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy. In June 2002, Andersen was found guilty of shredding evidence, and lost its license to engage in public accounting (Peter Bondarenko, Enron Scandal, Encyclopedia Britannica).
I worked for Andersen in the 90’s. I remember interviewing someone who had applied for a position, and he asked me a question I had never gotten before. He was wondering about the long-term prospects for this organization. I remember thinking what a strange, rather uninformed question. Andersen was a model of integrity and stability. Why wouldn’t it be around forever? Well, that young man turned out to be rather prescient. What I find so disturbing about this historic event is that, between Enron and Andersen, 100,000 employees lost their jobs and billions was lost in retirement and pension funds because of the decisions made by a few. We are accountable to one another.
The garden is so carefully prepared: cleared of stones, planted with choice vines, tended to with a watchtower. We are given the foundation for just and right living, and yet, we lose our way. The Wagner-Steagall Housing Act was passed into law on September 1, 1937. This law established the U.S. Housing Authority (USHA), a loan-granting agency to build low-cost housing around the country. At that time, mortgage loans required a 30-50% down payment with terms of just 5-10 years. With USHA, down payments were reduced to 10-20% with terms of 20-30 years – affordable housing.
More than one million African American men and women served in the US armed forces during World War II. Yet, on returning from serving our country, they were denied these loans over fear that their presence in communities would devalue real estate. Thus, the term redlining: a policy of refusing to make federally insured mortgages in areas with significant African American populations, areas coded red on maps used in determining loan worthiness. Being denied these loans reverberates into future generations. Black people were pushed into the rental market. As housing values increased in white neighborhoods, the wealth gap grew between white and black people. Wealth accrued through home equity is passed down to the next generation. The average black family has 1/8 the net worth of the average white family. We are accountable to one another.>God is just, and we are called to live as God intends, with justice and righteousness, with compassion and love. There are consequences of living outside of God’s intentions. Directly, we hurt one another. Indirectly, allowing systems of injustice, we abandon one another. In Scripture, the words of judgment are harsh, meant to capture our attention, meant to draw us back into this divine love song. The passage from Isaiah opens with these words: “Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard.” God wants us to experience the goodness of justice and righteousness, of compassion and love. The harsh words of judgment are warning us of the consequences of living outside of God’s intentions. Within our souls, we will be unsettled, lonely, empty. But judgment is not the end game. Judgment is the door opening. Judgment invites us back into a place of being right with the world. God wants us to know the peace, which surpasses all understanding. “The one who judges us most finally will be the one who loves us most fully.” Amen.