Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, year A, October 8, 2023
Isaiah speaks symbolically, starting with a pleasant pastoral image, telling a story that takes two surprising twists.
Of all the churches addresed by Paul, the Philippians received the gospel most enthusiastically and supported Paul's missions most vigorously. The Apostle expected the most from them. From prison, where he knows he might never leave, Paul writes them a fond farewell.
Saint Matthew's community were Jews who had become Christians. But they still had to deal with Jews who had not accepted Jesus. Their refusal confounded the believers. It helped them to remember some of Jesus' parables and applications of their Scriptures to similar questions.
The Historical Situation: In the late eighth century B.C.E., God's people in the promised land had become divided into a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern kingdom, Judah (where Jerusalem was the capital). Assyria was the dominant power in the region, and lay especially heavily on the northern kingdom. Concerned about both kingdoms, Isaiah prophesies relief for both in this way: A new king will come to the throne in the southern kingdom, Judah, and will see to the reunion of the north and south and the expulsion of the Assyrians from the north. However, in the early chapters of this book, the prophet is not criticizing the foreign oppressors, but his own unfaithful people.
A Favorite Literary Device of the Prophets: A footnote in The New Jerusalem Bible says this of the vineyard image:
Isaiah's Plan and Your Proclamation: So the grapevine images in this reading and today's gospel stand for real people defying their real God. The prophet feels God's frustration in his own heart, and expresses that emphatically. What you want to convey, as lector, is Isaiah's feeling, "I've got to let these people know the seriousness of their sin." Follow the prophet's lead:
The Historical Background: The Christians at Philippi had received the gospel enthusiastically and continued to support Paul after he had evangelized them. The Apostle had great affection for the Philippians, as the intimate tone of this letter shows. In today's passage he shows his high expectations for them. (Paul loved all his congregations, but didn't have the same deep affection or high expectations for them all. See the letters to the Galatians and the Corinthians.) Prior chapters have some theological highlights and a moving autobiographical passage. This last chapter, as with most of Paul's letters, contains moral instruction and particulars that pertain to individuals in the addressed community.
The phrases "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, ..." are a kind of list used by Greek moralists of the time. But Paul returns to his usual style when, in the next sentence, he says "Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me."
Proclaiming It: To capture the Apostle's tone when you proclaim this, imagine yourself saying a fond farewell (Paul was in prison, perhaps facing execution, when he wrote this) to a small group of beloved intimates. You need not imagine your deathbed; you could pretend to be a beloved college professor at retirement time, or a parent on the eve of your child's wedding. Just do what it takes to make your congregation feel loved, that you believe in them, that they're capable of whatever is true, honorable and gracious.
OCTOBER 4TH, 2020: TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43
Today's first reading shows us that the image of Israel as Yahweh's vineyard goes back at least 2,700 years, to the ministry of First-Isaiah. Yet it also shows us that Yahweh's problem with the lack of produce from that vineyard also goes back at least that far. “(Yahweh) looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes. . . . He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry!” Why go to all the trouble to plant and cultivate a vineyard when it produces nothing but frustration?
Matthew's Jesus blames the problem on those who are “sharecropping” the vineyard, an obvious reference to the community's leaders. They've basically stolen God's property, refusing not only to turn over the produce, but even killing those who demanded an accounting of it.
Our gospel pericope is obviously an early Christian allegory. Though its roots most probably go back to the historical Jesus' ministry, some of the “slots” have been filled in (for instance, the murder of the owner's son) by the reflections of second and third generation Christians. But it's important to see that the gospel Jesus isn't rejecting Judaism in favor of Christianity, he's simply saying the Jewish followers of his reform would make better leaders of God's community. Or better, they should make better leaders.
As we'll see later in this particular gospel, Matthew's Jesus only criticizes Jewish leaders because the evangelist sees the same behavior in leaders of Christian communities. It's a gentler way of confronting them than by attacking them head on. Matthew wants his readers to ask, “We'd never do that . . . would we?” Of course, the answer is, “Yes! You're already starting to do it.”
Leadership in Christian communities has always been a problem. It contains the same pitfalls all leadership faces, especially the temptation for the leader to become more important than those he or she leads. But as Mark's Jesus reminds — and warns - his followers in chapter 10, “That shall never happen among you.” Flying in the face of popular culture, among other things Christian leaders are not to be served; they're to serve. Very difficult to pull this off when people are constantly fawning over you. Maybe one way to avoid such a pitfall is to give up your plush medieval palace apartment and actually rent two small rooms in a Vatican City guesthouse. Or . . . . every morning you can read and think about Paul's advice to the Philippians which we find in today's second reading.
“Keep on doing,” Paul insists, “what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.”
The Apostle is obviously much more concerned with passing on an example than with passing on a collection of dogmas. He expects his communities to imitate him, not just listen to him. If he can't demonstrate how this new-fangled faith makes a difference in how he lives his life, then it's not going to make a difference in their lives either. That's why in his letters he so often tells people to live the way he's living.
I've been disturbed by recent articles probing into the dilemma Pope Francis faces in choosing new bishops. It seems he has no problem finding priests who are dogmatically “safe;” they're all over the place. But he frequently can't surface priests who are committed to imitating both his servant, biblical approach to leadership and his simple lifestyle. Such characteristics seem to be rare commodities among the present younger clergy.
Perhaps Matthew should have been more direct in condemning bad Christian leadership. His gentler, indirect approach doesn't seem to have worked. I presume Pope Francis would agree.
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Vineyards with Their Watch Towers, detail, between 1886 and 1889, by James Jacques Joseph Tissot, 1836-1902, French. The drawing is now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum in New York City, U.S.A. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial ShareAlike 3.0 License. Click here for links to larger versions of the complete drawing.
The Wikipedia article about the artist says that in 1885, he experienced a revival of his Catholic faith and spend the rest of his career depicting Biblical scenes.
This page updated October 5, 2023