Exodus 20:1-4,7-9,12-20

Then God spoke all these words:

 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work.

 Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

 You shall not murder.

 You shall not commit adultery.

 You shall not steal.

 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

 You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.’

Matthew 21:33-46

‘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 watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ 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.’

 Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
   and it is amazing in our eyes”? 
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. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.’

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

A minister once asked me, “What was Jesus’ profession?” `As I thought about this, a few possible answers came to mind – a carpenter? A healer? A revolutionary? I ran each of these by the minister, and was given the same response, “That’s definitely something that Jesus did, but not what I’d call his profession.” Finally, I caved and asked him to tell me the answer: “Jesus was a storyteller.”

Whether we agree with this assessment or not, we can’t help but recognise the wisdom in this. The gospels are full of parables and stories that are attributed to Jesus. And if Jesus thought that stories were important, then we need to think so too. Stories define who we are. Stories are what we learn from, Stories are how we remember the past, and consider the future. It is in stories that we can find truth.

Someone who can tell a good story is an author named Terry Pratchett. He happens to be my favourite author, writing in the fantasy genre. In one of his books, Pratchett discusses the power of stories, and how people use stories to learn and grow. There is one concept that he developed that I would like to share with you. It is something that he called ‘Lies-to-Children’. Now this concept is not as strange as it the name suggests. The concept ‘Lies-to-Children’ doesn’t mean just telling lies to children, it instead refers to the telling of simplified stories that lead a child towards a more accurate and complex explanation, which can only be appreciated if the child is first primed with the lie. We have all participated in ‘Lies-to-Children’, either providing them or receiving them. But perhaps the best way to understand this concept is through an example.

Take the rainbow. Think back to the first time that you were told about rainbows. What were you told?

You were probably told that rainbows were the result of sunlight shining through raindrops (or something similar). This, my friends, is a Lie-to-Children. In itself it is true, but it is a lie in that it doesn’t tell the whole truth. It doesn’t explain the shape of the rainbow, the position of the colours, and so on. There is more to it, but for the child in primary school, it is enough for now. This idea of ‘Lies-to-Children’ does not just apply to the teaching of children; it is used in all forms of teaching. I have often been involved in ‘Lies-to-university students’. I did my undergraduate degree in engineering, and in my early engineering subjects, we would have to do calculations of speed and acceleration of moving objects. In these calculations, it would often be noted that we were to ignore wind resistance. Now wind resistance can be a horrible thing to try and calculate. So we would ignore it and do the simplified problem. Now the maths would work out and we could figure out what we needed to, but the calculations were inaccurate in that they did not tell the whole truth of the problem, including the effect of wind resistance. But we needed to be able to learn how to do the simple stuff without worrying about the complex stuff, if we were ever going to have a chance to learn the complex stuff later on.

The important thing about teaching using ‘Lies-to-Children’, is that there is always more to it. There is more there to be understood, when you are ready to move on to the next step. Bad ‘Lies-to-Children’ occurs when the learning is stopped, when no room is provided for future understanding, when the story doesn’t continue.

For me, there is something very humbling and exciting in the idea that there is always something further, something more to understand, more of the story to explore when we’re ready to take the next step.

Good teachers know the power of stories. Personal recounts and narratives mean so much more than facts and figures, because the facts and figures mean nothing without a story behind them, to make them engaging and relevant to us.

Jesus understood the power of stories, he used stories to teach all the time. Our Gospel reading for today, the Parables of the Bridesmaids, is a good examples of Jesus’ teaching through stories. But first we need to remind ourselves – what is a parable? At first glance, parables just seem to be simple stories that Jesus used to make a point. I also like to think that Jesus also knew about ‘Lies-to-Children’ and that the parables were in fact “Lies-to-Disciples”, simplified stories used by Jesus to lead his disciples into understanding one of truly great but complex ‘truths’, the kingdom of God.

The next question for us then is: – Why? Why did they work in teaching the people?

I believe there are a couple reasons. First, Jesus brought the parables to the people. He gave them stories that they could relate to. He talked about farming, he talked about cooking, he talked about fishing. He talked about weddings. These are the things that the followers of Jesus understood, so Jesus brought the Kingdom of God to them in that context.

A second reason, is that the parables are not as innocent or simple as they first appear. They contain layers of meaning, levels of “lies-to-disciples” that become more accessible as we learn more and more on our own discipleship journey. And that brings us to today’s parable – the parable of the wicked tenants.

As far as parables go, this one seems to be fairly straight forward. We have the landowner, the creator of the Vineyard, who is obviously a metaphor for God. Then we have two sets of slaves, who might they be? Well it’s not 100% specified, but it’s not hard to imagine that the first set of slaves represents the Prophets, while the second set represents John the Baptist. The Son is, of course, Jesus himself. And the wicked tenants? “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realised he was speaking about them.”

The tenants are the chief priests are the tenants of the story. The ones who are responsible for the death of Jesus. So there we go, the parable of the wicked tenants. But is that it? Is that all we get? A parable that is really just another way to foretell the crucifixion of Christ? What does this have to do with us?

And that really is the key question – because it’s the question that begins to open up the depth of meaning of this parable. Because on the surface, it’s not easy to place us in the story. We generally don’t think of ourselves as prophets or John the Baptist. We’re certainly not Jesus. So where do we fit in?

Our familiarity with the Biblical text is a great gift, and something we should all strive for, but sometimes it hinders us as we immerse ourselves in the narrative. We’re conditioned to hear of Pharisees, or Sadducees, or high priests, and then think either “idiot” or “enemy”. And this is not without reason, as they are regularly set up to be the adversaries of Jesus. The problem comes that we automatically disassociate ourselves with them. I mean, that couldn’t possibly be us, right?

But let’s think about them for a second. The Pharisees (and the like) are the religious types. They are the keepers of God’s law. They are the holders of God’s truth. They are the church-goers. And when we begin to see them in this light, the parable begins to change.

The real problem of the Pharisees, is that they became box-tickers. They became so concerned with the rules – the Purity codes, the laws about food, and so on – that they forgot about the very reason for why those things existed – because they were set apart by God, to be a light to all the nations.

The tenants of the parable wanted to take the inheritance for themselves, and the Pharisees ultimately became self-serving, building their own systems of power and control. And they did it in the name of God.

What this parable has to do with us is as a caution, that if we are not careful, we might become the Pharisees of the story. That we might become self-serving, focussed upon ourselves, and keeping control of our patch, rather than following the call of Jesus. The danger is that instead of being builders of God’s kingdom, we become try to build our own kingdoms. And we do it in the name of God.

So, if the caution is to not become Pharisees, then what is the remedy? I think you can probably guess – the remedy is faithful discipleship, following Jesus even when it takes us away from our comfort zones, even when it takes away our control.

It’s interesting that this parable sits alongside the Ten Commandments in the lectionary. The Ten Commandments are a big part of our story. They offer us some simple directions on how we can live life together. But there’s an interesting thing to consider about the 10 commandments – all but two of them are about what not to do. Thou shalt not! And that’s important to consider because whilst the Ten Commandments are important to hold to, they don’t give us a model for faithful discipleship. Look at it this way – I’m not a good disciple just because I managed not to murder someone. I’m not a good disciple just because I didn’t cheat, or steal, or commit adultery. Being a good disciple isn’t just about not doing the wrong thing, it’s about doing the right thing.

The story of the rich young ruler is a great example of this. He comes to Jesus and asks how he can inherit eternal life, and Jesus effectively asks whether he’s held to the 10 commandments. Feeling like he’s onto a winner, the ruler happily states that he has done so. And that’s when Jesus shows us what discipleship really is. “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’”

Discipleship isn’t about box-ticking, or following a set of rules. Discipleship is about faithful obedience to the Risen Crucified One, bearing the Good News of God’s love and grace with the world. It’s about being good neighbours. It’s about breaking down barriers. It’s about living as Jesus lived.

As I finish this morning, there’s something important that we haven’t touched on yet. Jesus tells this parable to the religious authorities, and then asks them the question: “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and least the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” The authorities, before realising that they were in fact the subject of the parable, effectively condemned themselves. But Jesus doesn’t, at least not in the same way.

What Jesus does is identifying himself as the cornerstone of God’s Kingdom. He then goes on to say that “The one who falls on this stone will be broken into pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” And perhaps that is where judgement and condemnation reside.  But I wonder, I wonder…..I wonder if this is more about discipleship than judgement, that rather than invoking punishment, Jesus is invoking a model of discipleship, that when we follow him, when we fall upon the Cornerstone, that we break apart, that we lose our selfish selves, that we have no identity except in Christ. It’s just an idea, but I believe it’s consistent with the Biblical understanding of discipleship – Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let the deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.”

Brothers and sisters, let us be disciples, not Pharisees. Kingdom builders, not box-tickers. At his installation service, the new moderator for the NSW/ACT Synod Rev. Simon Hansford offered the challenge: Are we guardians of the past watching the world go by or are we witnesses of now, of a God who is with us now?

Let us be witnesses of now; seeing, proclaiming and sharing in God’s liberating work of reconciliation and love.

Alleluia, Amen.