Holy Brit

The passage about the vineyard owner and the bad tenants is, I find one of the most terrifying in the whole Bible. Not so much because of God's destruction, which does frighten me, but more because of the depths to which the workers in the vineyard are able to fall. Cold heartedly and carefully the plot the demise of the owners son with absolutely no thought for the reality of their situation - their thinking is fundamentally flawed, and still the son pays the price with his life.

The problem seems to have been that the workers got an idea of ownership which they never could attain. Killing the son would ensure only their own demise. Yet, many of us, everyday wander the hard path between riches and holiness. We have been taught, within our tradition, that we should give our riches away and we have been taught that we should make money and use it to the better good. We have never been taught that the life of even one person is worth less than our personal gain and yet, so carelessly, we fall into this casual consumerism which does not consider consequenses.

The "this is mine and I should have it" mentality only goes one way, and that is away from the heart of a God who gives so generously. I have written about Fair Trade before - the practice of examining goods and services for their human cost. The problem is, when we really look at the ethical standards of many corporations, when it comes to their operations in Africa, South America  and Asia,  there are some very big questions - those questions are the messengers to the vineyard of the developed world and when we ignore them......suffice to say God seems to be a lot more patient and merciful that we are.

 So do we cripple ourselves by refusing to buy anything anymore? Our world is not set up that way. But the Son comes and says "what you do for the least of these you do for me". We can listen to the message and choose what we can change, we can pay the rent for the goodness we enjoy by really looking at ourselves and our options and writing an email, changing brand or woking towards sustainability issues both in human and ecological terms. Or we can claim that this bounty is ours, of right, and we can turn our heads away from the relationship of life which we are offered. In this new covenant the offer remains, but whilst we walk in our own foolishness, God weeps with grief.