Symphony Best Left Unfinished

White Bread

October 5, 2014
Best-Left-Unfinished Symphony

We heard a pretty good sermon this morning. The tall, narrow, serious man with the white hair and white beard, the incongruous high-pitched voice, knew what he was talking about, until he got carried away, because he couldn’t preach for five minutes – he had to preach for at least fifteen. But, he began:

The parable is a simple one. A householder puts much work into a vineyard, but he is willing to entrust it to others. He sends servants to those whom he trusted. They kill the servants. He sends his son, knowing they will respect him for the good he (the householder) has done them.

            “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves: ‘This the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’”

The choice before us is simple. Do we wish to inherit the vineyard – the good things of the earth? And, are we willing to kill for it?

The earth is full of good things, some we cannot have – the sun and the moon and the stars at night – but some we believe we can: especially a home, a car, and HBO –  a “way of life,” an American dream. And these may be worth living toward; they may even be worth dying for. But, are they worth killing for?

He didn’t stop there, of course, the serious man with the white hair and beard but went piping on.

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