Taken Away

 Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-46 for next week's lectionary.

They tried to take the vineyard away from the one who owned it.  They suffered the consequences of killing the Son in order to take what belongs to Him.

The Chief Priests and Pharisees knew it was about them.  They had been colluding with empire in order to get the trinkets that they could by serving empire.  They had twisted the Word, overstepped their authority and believed that they were the church of God, and therefore could do whatever they wanted with it.

It was the same under Pope Leo X in the 16th Century.  Thus the Reformation of the church.

It is the same in America since our Desolating Sacrilege in 1981 and following, when the Religious "Right" joined the Political "Right" to fleece God's children in America and across the world, in order that they might have power, wealth and status.  We are still waiting for the new Reformation to begin.  The false teachers and prophets of Prosperity and Church Growth and Personal Salvation, theologies designed to dupe, coerce and manipulate the desperate, greedy, power hungry and status driven in our nation, have had their way with God's children for far too long.  The political and religious leaders who represent empire here and now have taken their toll on the children of God.  It is time.  To this date, the prophets like Jeremiah Wright and Cornell West, among others, have been largely silenced or ignored, even by the "faithful."  The civil rights leaders of our past are dying, and the Rev. Barbers, Nadia Bolz-Webers and others are striving to bring people to see a faith that is faithful to the Gospel of Jesus, and are thus being vilified and devalued by many.  But folk still have itching ears to hear what they want to hear, and blow about in every wind of doctrine that will get them what they want as devotees to empire.

Miserable death, Jesus promised.

Destruction of the Temple, Jesus promised.

The Kingdom of God taken away from the false leaders and given to the people who produce the fruits of the Kingdom, Jesus promised.

The dashing of false teachings and those who promote them upon the solid rock of Jesus' Good News, Jesus promised.

I eagerly await.  I eagerly await.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.

The Reagans and Falwells, Grahams and Grahams, Whites and Trumps, Robertsons and McConnells, Copelands and Millers, Dollars and Barrs, Osteens and Pences, Oyedepos and Pompeos have been promoting empire through this desolating sacrilege long enough.  They have tried to steal the Kingdom from you.  They continue to kill your Son in hearts and minds of many who are gullible, desperate and duplicitous, out of devotion to the gods of empire.

Oh, Stone that the builders rejected, be our cornerstone, here and now.  Make it amazing in our eyes!

Take it away from them and give it to those who produce the good fruit of Agape Love and Grace!

AMEN

Pastor Jamie