A Fruitful Vineyard

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a lecture in an Introduction to Liberal Arts course at Monmouth College. The class was reading Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire, and the professor wanted the perspective of a botanist/theologian. I began with what are sometimes called ways of knowing, ways in which we make sense of the world around us (such as history, music, and science). Some ways of knowing, like theology, also provide meaning to our lives. We use them to explain the why of what happens, not just the how and what. Pollan happens to be a materialist, one who believes that nothing exists except matter. That in itself is a faith statement, although my guess is that Pollan would not see it as such.

The Bible, of course, is full of theology. It is concerned with who God is, who we are, and what our relationship should be to God and one another. It uses the how and what to illustrate the why, its chief focus. Sometimes we get mixed up and think that the biblical how and what are just as important as the why. Then the Bible becomes the basis for all ways of knowing, so that even science must yield to what the Bible says. That is not a fruitful approach, although I would not go so far as a former colleague who described it as “intellectual suicide.”

Remembering that the “why” is important, and that Scripture is about who we are in relation to God and one another, becomes essential when approaching the more difficult biblical stories. This Sunday we have two such passages. Both present God as judge and destroyer. Both repel us, for we would much rather hear about God’s love and mercy.

The first passage, from Isaiah, presents itself as a love-song for God’s beloved. It describes Israel, and more particularly Judah and Jerusalem, as a vineyard lovingly planted and tended, given everything it needs to provide a bountiful harvest of grapes. Instead, it yields wild grapes, the small, sour kind that no one wants. So the vineyard is destroyed and becomes a wasteland.

Jesus undoubtedly has this passage in mind when he tells his own parable of a vineyard to the chief priests and elders of the people. Ostensibly the story is about a landowner, but as Jesus describes the creation of the vineyard, it’s clear that he is really talking about Isaiah’s vineyard, and the landowner is God. In Jesus’ story, however, it’s not the grapes that are the problem. It’s the tenants who care for the vineyard. They are the ones who kill the landowner’s slaves, and eventually his son, when they attempt to get the fruits of the harvest. So when the landowner himself finally arrives, he is expected to destroy the wicked tenants and lease the vineyard to others.

Isaiah wrote about the vineyard as a warning to the people of Judah. They should not think that they can do whatever they want because they are God’s chosen people. God has expectations of them – and of us – expectations of justice and righteousness, not only as individuals but as a society. Instead, what God found was bloodshed and the cry of the oppressed. Later, when both Israel and Judah were conquered and the people carried away, their destruction was interpreted as God’s judgment on an apostate people. That theology provided the why of exile.

Jesus had a different object in mind. He expected the vineyard, God’s people, to bear fruit. It was the tenants of the vineyard, the religious leaders, who had gone astray from God And just in case they missed the point, Jesus made it explicit: “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 chief priests and the Pharisees heard him loud and clear, and plotted how to get rid of him.

In each case, the Bible tells how to act toward God and one another. We are to acknowledge that all we have comes from God, that we are living in a world that God created. Our response should be not only to praise and give thanks to God, but also to bear the fruits of the gifts we have been given. In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul lists some of those fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Yet it is essential that we do not forget that both Jesus and Isaiah are also concerned with the wider community, both the community of faith and the nation. Justice and righteousness must be found there as well as in our individual actions.

That is why theology, for me, is the most important way of knowing. It tells us how to act, not only as individuals but as a society. It tells us that our choices have consequences, that it is a matter if life or death which way we go. Jesus assures us that the kingdom of God, God’s vineyard, will bear fruit no matter what. The question is, are we willing to share that fruit, or will we try to keep it for ourselves and cast out those whom God sends to us?

[Pentecost 16: Isaiah 5:1-7; Matthew 21:33-46. The Galatians passage is 5:22-23, and not part of this Sunday’s lectionary.]