Tenants in the Vineyard: Saved by Grace, Made to Love

Preaching on the parable of the wicked tenants, Fr. Geoff Harvey holds together two truths that can seem to pull against each other: we are saved by grace and not by works, yet a faith that bears no love has no life in it. The tenants' great failure did not begin with murder but with forgetting whose vineyard it was. Fr. Geoff offers three simple charges — stand firm in the faith, serve one another in love, and show love to the Lord — and points us to the stone the builders rejected, who has become the cornerstone of our salvation.

Transcript

In the sovereignty of God, I'm preaching today. So there we go. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There are some words of St. Paul's that a lot of us know very well, in Ephesians 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." So we are not saved by buying our way into heaven by doing good things and all this kind of thing. That is not what saves us. Salvation is a gift freely given by God.

Some people, I think, are tempted to say when they hear verses like this, "That's wonderful. I have the gift of eternal life now. I'm going to go off and live my life the way I want for the rest of my days." And some people, unfortunately, do exactly that. But the same Apostle Paul tells us in this morning's epistle, "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed." Yikes. And at the beginning of today's epistle reading, which is really the last paragraph of St. Paul's long first letter to the Corinthians, we read these words: "Brethren, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love."

So we have to hold these two truths together. We are saved by grace, not by works — but grace is never idle. The grace that saves us is a grace that brings forth the fruit of love: love for God and love for our neighbour. And where there is no love, there is no salvation. Faith without love is dead. We cannot earn heaven; neither can we enter it without loving God and our neighbour. It is not a contradiction. God's grace does not leave us as it finds us. It is the fire that warms a cold heart until it begins at last to love — to love God, who first loved us, and to love the brother and sister standing beside us. Our works do not buy salvation, but a faith that bears no love has no life in it, just as a branch that bears no fruit has no life in it. And so our focus this morning is on that single fruit of the Spirit: love.

First of all, the parable that Jesus told in today's gospel. A man plants a vineyard. He makes a wine press. He leaves it in the care of tenants, and then he goes away on an overseas journey. At the time of harvest he sends servants to collect the fruit, but they are beaten and some are killed. We know now that he is referring here to the prophets whom God sent to the people of Israel. Eventually he sends his only beloved son, and they throw him out of the vineyard and kill him. These words are a perfect fit for what happened to Jesus, who was led outside the walls of Jerusalem and crucified. Christ spoke this parable originally against those who would reject him, to indicate that the vineyard would be given to others — to the Gentiles, to us — who would provide the fruit for the master who owns the vineyard.

It is easy for us to point our fingers at others for their failure, but we too are tenants now in the Father's vineyard. Have we ever responded badly to the messengers God sends to us asking for his fruit? The Holy Scriptures, the commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, our conscience, the promptings of our guardian angels, the example of the saints. Each time we sin, aren't we sharing in the throwing out of the master's son?

The tenants' serious problem didn't start with a murder. That is not where their problem started. It began with forgetting — forgetting who was the rightful owner of the vineyard. They stopped living as stewards and began to live as owners of what had only been lent to them, and lent to them with responsibilities.

So I have three points again today: stand firm in the faith, serve one another in love, and show love for the Lord.

First of all, stand firm in the faith. St. Paul begins today's epistle with a burst of short commands: watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong, and let all that you do be done in love. Notice that the Christian life is never divided from love. The Apostle Paul says that true faith is steadfast, persistent, and shows itself in love.

And here is how that same temptation as the wicked husbandmen can come to us. Sometimes we begin to say: my family, my talents, my career, my money, my life. But we have to remind ourselves that everything is first of all God's gift, and that we are only caretakers of all that God has given us. We are caretakers in his vineyard. St. John Chrysostom writes that God entrusts his gifts to us not because he needs our labour and our efforts, but because he desires our salvation. The vineyard is a gift of grace before ever it is a place of work.

So our first task is simple: remain faithful to Christ, and remember whose vineyard it is. Each morning, hand it back to its true owner with a single prayer: "Lord, all that I have is yours. Help me today to serve you in love." That small act of remembrance guards our hearts against pride. That is the first thing.

Secondly, serve one another in love. Now, at first the epistle and the gospel seem to have nothing to do with each other — it happens sometimes. St. Paul is all warmth, sending greetings to his friends and commending people. Jesus is all judgement, speaking of tenants who kill and who are going to be destroyed. But the gospel and the epistle actually counterbalance each other. On the one hand we have the wicked husbandmen of the gospel; on the other, St. Paul points us to the good labourers in the vineyard — the household of Stephanas, and the church that gathers in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. These are what faithful tenants look like. And they are not famous apostles. They are just ordinary believers: Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. And St. Paul says something beautiful about them: they refreshed my spirit. Set them beside the wicked tenants: the one grasps, the others give.

I hope you will forgive me if I indulge myself slightly this morning. I would like to think that if St. Paul were writing today, he would add Khouria Janet's name to that list — as someone who was an ordinary believer, but who refreshed our spirits, certainly mine, and who served many, many people in love all her life.

St. Maximus the Confessor tells us that the purpose of the saints is to express the very unity of the Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son, who loves the Holy Spirit, who loves the Father. They all love each other perfectly: perfect unity. And this unity in the Trinity is expressed by selfless love. The uncreated selfless love of the Holy Trinity reveals the glory of the Cross, where the ultimate selfless love was expressed by God from all eternity, and is revealed over and over and over again today by all who selflessly love. This is our calling.

So this week, let us ask ourselves one question: whose spirit can I refresh? A telephone call to someone who is lonely. A task quietly done in the parish, or for someone, without wanting to be noticed. A word of courage to someone carrying a heavy burden. Often the sweetest fruit in the vineyard is a simple kindness done in love.

So the third thing: show love to the Lord. In the parable in Matthew 21, the master says, "They will respect my son." So before judgement came, there was mercy; before the sword, the Son. And when he is rejected, our Lord then takes up Psalm 117 — 118 in the Western Bibles: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." The one thrown out of the vineyard becomes the foundation of a new people: the Church.

And so Paul's final words are not about merely believing the right things, but about loving the right person: "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." For those of you who have come today to go to the foundations course, you are learning a lot of material, a lot of information, a lot of right doctrine and so on. But that is not the top priority. The most important thing is not to learn what to believe, but whom to believe. And whom to believe is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That is where our focus has to be through all this learning that you are doing. St. Ignatius of Antioch, on his way to martyrdom, wrote that his one desire was to belong wholly to Jesus Christ. That is the heart of our faith. It is not a duty, but a communion with the one who first loved us.

Stop for a moment at that word in Psalm 117: marvellous. It is marvellous. What is marvellous? What is marvellous in your life? Really, what is marvellous in all of our lives? It should be this truth: that the Son who was rejected has become the foundation of our salvation. That is what is marvellous. The one cast out of the vineyard has opened for us the gates of paradise. The Cross, which looked like humanity's greatest failure, became God's greatest victory. From rejection came resurrection. From death came life. From the vineyard flowed the wine of the kingdom.

And every Divine Liturgy is our own entrance into that mystery. We stand here not as condemned tenants awaiting judgement, but as forgiven labourers invited once again to bear fruit for a gracious master who would rather send his Son to die for us than lose us.

So we return to where we began. We are saved by God's grace, and not by works. But the grace that saves us is a grace that makes us love. And if we are not loving, we have to ask ourselves: have we got the grace? So let us stand firm in the faith, remembering that the vineyard belongs to God and that we are tenants. Let us serve one another, refreshing weary spirits. And above all, let us show love to the Lord, the rejected stone who has become our cornerstone.

When we come to receive communion today, to the holy chalice, don't come merely out of habit. Come with one prayer in our hearts: "Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to love you more." Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to love you more. Janet is in his presence now; she knows what that means. We are still here on earth, but we can pray that prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, teach me to love you more. That prayer, sincerely offered, is itself the fruit the master is looking for. And may all that we do in this vineyard, in this life, for the rest of our lives, be done in love.

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion and praise, now and forever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.