October 8, 2017
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 139
IS 5:1-7
PS 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
PHIL 4:6-9
MT 21:33-43
After we left the hospital in Chicago Friday, Julie and I walked for about an hour back to Union Station to catch a train back to Elgin. The stress of driving in downtown traffic had begun to weigh on me. The hour-long walk back and forth was well worth not having to go bumper to bumper for the same amount of time, sometimes more, with people yelling, beeping their horns, and throwing up pleasant finger salutes at my skillful driving. I try to pay attention to the people in the area as I walk. I don’t know if it’s paranoia or my fascination with watching others, maybe even a combination of the two. Shortly into our walk, I noticed a woman standing on the corner of an intersection turning slowly.
Then I heard her calling out “Someone, please. I just need some help. I need some directions.” I don’t know downtown at all. I informed her of that. I noticed she had a dog with her. Julie hadn’t noticed that I had dropped out of step with her and was walking ahead of me. I asked the lady what I could do to help. She wanted to find her way to Michigan Avenue and all she wanted to know is which way was East, or at least which way the Lake was from here. That would help her figure out where she was. I told her I think the lake was behind me. That didn’t seem to help. I couldn’t figure out why I was confusing her. I figured it was because my directions weren’t making sense. I told her Julie was good at figuring out directions and would be back soon.
Julie came walking back and I explained the situation. She pulled out her phone and pulled up a map. We both began to make motions to the street signs, the phone etc. The lady asked, “Are you showing him or me?” At this point, I figured I should stop pointing too. I thought she was getting upset that we were both talking at the same time. Julie said I’m showing you. The lady laughed. “That won’t help. I’m blind.” Everything began to make sense. The reason my directions weren’t helping? I was talking about landmarks, pointing at buildings, motioning this way or that. I’d point and say Over there by that sign. So I told her that if she would follow the direction I was standing in, it would get her to Michigan Avenue. She said that didn’t seem right, but she was going to trust us. I walked on with Julie and when I got to Michigan Avenue, I turned around and waited. A few more minutes and here came the lady with her trusty pup. I called out to her, “Michigan Avenue is the street right in front of you.” She thanked me, turned to the right and started walking confidently as if she knew exactly where she was now.
In the Gospel for this Sunday, we see Jesus talking to people with a parable that two thousand years later, after his death and resurrection and the establishment of the Church, makes complete sense. I wonder if the men listening to him stood dumbfounded like me wondering what on earth he was speaking about? The imagery of the vine probably made sense. Easy enough for an observant Jew versed in the Torah to get that image of Israel from what he was saying. The prophets, Kings, Judges, and so forth they probably got as well. What about the landowner sending his Son? The Son being killed? The owners being kicked out and new owners taking over? That would have been a very strange message. A hard one to hear, a scary one maybe.
Like me standing on the corner in Chicago, I was just as impaired as the lady I was trying to help. I had a lack of vision to the situation. Even though the clues were right in front of me. Cataracts on her eyes. The specific harness on her seeing eye dog. The way she moved when I spoke. All of it should have given me a clue that she couldn’t see well at best, and likely had no idea where I was pointing. It wasn’t until my “eyes were opened” that I was able to see clearly to help her.
I think that’s part of the message of this parable to us now, 2000 years later. Even today we miss Jesus because we don’t open our eyes to the people right in front of us. He might be standing right in front of us and the clues are right there. Until we look back on them, we just don’t see him. We don’t take the time to really look at what’s going on and why. Luckily Julie had enough patience to come back and help me to meet Jesus in this woman in Chicago, who then helped us to help her. How often do we fail to find him though? Do we like the owners of the vineyard refuse to accept the message he has for us in our lives?
There are so many things in this world that try to pull us this way or that way. Pleasures and temptations, joys and excitements. Things that constantly entice us and draw us into a continual stimulation of the mind. St. Paul reminds us that the true goal is not to simply live in the world and enjoy its pleasures, though having pleasure is not in and of itself a bad thing. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.” That’s really the key. It’s when we fill our lives with all of those things, take time to really open our eyes to God standing right before us, that we find Jesus has been there all along.