The Fruit of Righteous Anger

Finally…it feels like fall! Football season! Or maybe you’re excited for soup season! A time for apples and pumpkins… for slow cookers filled with delicious food… a time for slowing down as the leaves change color… a time to prepare for the gathering of loved ones as holidays approach… and most importantly…a time to celebrate everything spooky.  

Spooky season…the time before the great day of candy and ghouls and goblins…is one if my favorites times of the year.   

Our house is filled with shrieks as we watch a horror movie or episode of a show every day. It’s one of the things that brought us together when we first started dating. Not dinners, nor long walks in the park.  It was horror movies – what made them scary…what made them funny or campy…what made a good psychological thriller and when was something too gory and more disgusting than scary.  

It may seem like an odd pastime or activity to bring us together, but it’s one we love. There is something about being frightened, jumping out of a chair, and then laughing together as the movie continues that is wonderfully bonding.   

The jump scare followed by laughter is always a fun moment. It’s a remarkable reaction that many people have to being frightened, anxious, overwhelmed…to respond with nervous laughter or giggles…sometimes a shake of the body.  

An article I read a few years ago in Psychology Today talked about these phenomena. When provoked or in a state of heightened emotions, our bodies respond with the opposite reaction to regulate our systems. It’s an effort for our minds and bodies to not be completely overwhelmed by nerves or anxiety or fear or other large emotions.  

When we’ve seen a movie numerous times, we become somewhat desensitized to the jump scares and stresses of the story. It can be like that with the world as well. We seem to have gone from gasping at news stories and things we hear and read…to scoffing and rolling our eyes, because surely, it can’t get any more bizarre.  

The audience hearing the parable would know where it’s going. They’ve heard this storyline before in Isaiah and other scriptures.  The vineyard… the landowner… the fruit… the wall… the watchtower.   

There is nothing new about these elements. Even having tenants isn’t new to those listening. The vineyard is the people of God. The landowner is God.  The fruit produced is the behavior of the people.  The walls and borders of the land are the Law, guarding the people. All of this is centered on the worship of God…the watchtower….and grounded in the very creation God made.   

Even the most dramatic parts of the story aren’t new.  Those who are sent by the landowner to the tenants to collect the produce…they are the prophets…faithful messengers beaten and destroyed by the tenants.  

So, who are the tenant famers? The leaders and those with authority. In the time of Jesus, they were the religious authorities…. those with the most power and influence… those who had authority over others and have a chance  to use that power in faithful and just ways… those who have a chance to be good stewards of the  power they have… the resources they’ve been given…the influence they  have. And they could be us.  

The parable sets up the narrative so that we…the listeners…expect bad treatment and failure of the tenants to do what is right…for the tenants to be poor stewards of what God has given.   

When the son of the landowner arrives, of course we expect him to receive the same treatment. The killing of the landowner’s son mirrors Jesus’ own torture and death… they threw him out of the vineyard (brought him outside the city walls) and killed him (crucified him). The Son of God was hung on the cross by the authorities so that they could claim everything for themselves… all the power…the influence…the authority… Faithful stewards must reclaim it…take it back…and  receive the authority given by God to those who are  faithful and just and kind and loving.  

Jesus then continues his teaching – the kingdom of God won’t be taken away from the people…and not as this scripture has been misused…the kingdom of God won’t be taken away from the Jewish people…that’s not what is happening here. Rather it will be given to true followers and disciples of God who will produce good fruit in great abundance… from powerful humility… not iniquitous power used only for the uplifting of a few. The power of a just God will be given to those who will not wield it as a weapon of violence…but will build up the reign of God right here.  

We have, for too long, been desensitized to the violent power of the world. It is the words and teachings of Jesus that can snap us back into ourselves and the good and righteous work we need in a world so filled with pain…There must be an end to violent power which corrupts and destroys the image and people of God…the violent power that willfully ignores the pleas of the most vulnerable who continue to be harmed and fear retribution and fear being publicly known. There must be an end to the harbinger of war that claims a psalm of peace as justification for a place of violence and exclusion. There must be an end to the violent powers that use words to alienate and make less-than-human the very creations of God who flourish more in their identity than most of us could ever imagine. There must be an end to violent powers that seek only power for the sake of popularity and not the humility it actually takes to lead a people into the vineyard that will produce good and righteous fruit. There must be an end to the violent powers who seek to garner their own power to the detriment of the least among us by threatening and removing rights and privileges of those who have so much to lose. There must be an end to the violent powers of those who claim to be “Christian” and spread only hatred, indifference, and willful ignorance. 

The tenants may be the religious authorities or those in power…and the tenants could be any one of us. We’ve heard it said that “not all tenants are bad…just these.” Then our work is to prove it. If we have power like the tenants…if we are the ones in authority…we must ask how we participate in the violence by choosing to not speak or act or intervene or say anything. 

It may be spooky season but we’re living in a spooky world and I am weary…exhausted… sometimes it feels like my heart cannot break anymore because it’s like dust. The violent tenants have had control of the vineyard for far too long. It’s past time for us to take it back…to claim the voice of the just, and righteous God we know in our Lord Jesus Christ.   

It should make us more than uncomfortable…we should be angry…indignant at the unjust world…we should have righteous anger over the way the unjust and violent tenants have usurped the creation of God. But we cannot live in a place of anger and hatred. It takes too much energy and wears on our hearts and spirits…minds and bodies.   

There must be something we can do…and there is.   

Jesus warns the authorities that their power will be taken away and given to those who are faithful, not to those more powerful…. those who are just, not to those who seek retribution.  

Beloved, this is how we begin…The answer was, is, and always will be to seek and follow Jesus. Plant your anger and weariness in the verdant field of God. Pray over it…prune and work…and that anger and hatred can sprout into action…one tiny leaf at a time…and before we know it…the vines have grown and woven together into the tapestry of vibrant fruit worthy of the kingdom of God.  

We have been given the heavy responsibility to produce good fruit…with anger transformed into action…with righteous indignation humbly molded into prayer that has feet and voice and patience.   

So, what action could we possibly take that bears the good fruit of the kingdom of God? How do we live into the work of the Spirit that inspires us and helps our diversity of gifts flourish for the sake of the world?   

We act in love…in peace…in joy and patience…in small acts of kindness and active choices to better the lives of those around us…we act in faithfulness and with grace as we strive to show mercy to ourselves and those around us.  

It is together we do this work…never alone…the vineyard is all of us…it our neighbors and friends…it is those who are most unlike us…it is those who would call us enemies… it is every part of God’s creation who will do this work and  bear fruit…It is all of us…and it is in particular you and anyone who might feel that  the violent powers…Or the unworthy tenants…Or the authorities…of the world continue to harm them…anyone who has felt the pressure of having your very  humanity and agency trampled on and your voice taken  away…you, too are worthy…you are seen and known by God…and there is nothing that can separate you from the love  and mercy and righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.