A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 18 –A

October 8, 2017

Matthew 21:33-46 – NRSV

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

33 “Listen to another parable. 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.

34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;[a]
this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?

43 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.[b] 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”[c]

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Footnotes:

Matthew 21:42 Or keystone

Matthew 21:43 Gk the fruits of it

Matthew 21:44 Other ancient authorities lack verse 44

A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 18 - A

Unrequited

No peace,

no Prophets.

Know Prophets,
know peace.

Cast aside all illusions

and see what God

has in store

for the unfaithful tenants:

Sending prophets at every turn,

God’s deep love constantly yearns

for a people of mercy and grace

infecting the whole human race.

Know the prophets when hearts of stone

either ossify or crack from the drone

of prophetic voices that cry

“Repent, change, don’t live a lie.”

Hearing the cry of repentance and change

the tenants fight back and murder the slaves

sent to announce God’s reign is now

harvesting fruits of mercy, love renowned.

The Divine finally sends the Son,

the final Prophet and hopeful one

who cries out in the dark day:

“Come follow the new Way.”

But rejection, judgment has its sway.

Tenants plot murder that very day

the Son arrives and is unwelcome

“This is the heir, come, let us kill him.”

Grace and mercy a stumbling block to those

who constantly control and enclose the Divine

by creating rules and rows

unchanged for all time.

The Prophet speaks of the ‘Rejected Cornerstone’

that the tenants disown

when they stumble and fall

under crumbling Temple walls.

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