Jesus tells a parable this Sunday about the Community of God. He describes it metaphorically as a vineyard. The vines and their fruit, like all of creation, are given to us as a gift. If we receive the earth’s many gifts and care for them, the earth will continue to be a source of nourishment. Life will beget life. Unfortunately, not all people are able to give themselves to life. Thus Jesus’ parable also includes murderous tenants in the vineyard. The tenants represent people who do not care for the earth but instead pollute and destroy it. Because of their lack of care for the earth, death is the result.
There is a clear parallel between the murderous tenants in the parable and the deadly corporations wreaking havoc against the earth. Too many corporations show little if any appreciation for the gift of creation that supports them. They also have a murderous streak. British Petroleum (BP) not only pollutes the earth and harms its workers, it calculates doing so. BP sends out memos detailing how it is cheaper to pay damages from potential law suits due to worker injuries and deaths than it is to make their oil rigs safe. Freedom Industries ravages the land through its coal digging operations. As a result it pollutes the water of the people whose land it is destroying causing generations of sickness. 20 years ago Chevron dumped a massive oil sludge into Ecuador’s Amazon rain forest. The company is still, 20 years later, fighting a court order because it refuses to be responsible for its actions. Chevron will not clean up the oil sludge or provide reparations for the birth defects it is causing. The worst polluter in the world is the U.S. military. It releases devastating levels of greenhouse gas emissions and radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil. It is the U.S. military’s and every military’s perverse value for suffering and death that fuels the earth’s pollution and destruction. China’s corporate polluters are legendary. Its military leaders recently decided upon a typically military and thus murderous response – execute company officials. Thus the vicious cycle of death producing death is perpetuated.
As nature is life-giving so too are we life-giving. All people who give themselves to both are thus fruitful. People of every ethnicity across the world are giving care to a fruitful earth.
Prayer: Creator Spirit, help us understand we are all vines connected in a flow of life.
Question: How do I care for creation as a gift?
October 5, 2014 Gospel Matthew 21:33-43 Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time