Lent Exercises: Strive - A Parable of Warning

This week I’ve been up hours before dawn.  My mind races.  I can’t sleep.  

A friend and longtime mentor’s words ring in my ears, “Getting up to pray in the middle of the night is like the old days of radio, where a clear signal could be sent over massive distance because there was no interference.”  Easy for him to say.  I’d much rather be sleeping.  Still, Christians in the monastic tradition have been getting up to pray in the predawn hours for centuries.  They must be onto something, right?

Ten years ago, this was my daily rhythm.  I’d rise in the hours before dawn and settle at the table.  I’d spend hours in this candle-lit quiet praying with scripture.  This week I’ve resumed these patterns, more out of habit than desire.  It’s created time to reflect.  

In Luke 20:9-19, Jesus tells a story about wicked tenants and a vineyard.  Drawing on ancient prophetic traditions describing Israel as a vine, Jesus compares the scribes and chief priests to tenant farmers.  The expectation is that they would care for the vineyard on the landlord’s behalf. Instead of producing fruit and wine back or the landlord, these farmers want to enrich themselves.  They abuse and mistreat the landlord’s messengers.  They even decide to kill the landlord’s son in hopes of acquiring the property for themselves.  

The parable serves as a warning.  Jesus is the beloved son.  To reject Jesus demonstrates disdain for the God who sent him.  

It’s easy to keep this story at arm’s length.  After all, I’m a Jesus follower.  This parable warns of rejecting Jesus.  This doesn’t seem likely.

On the other hand, these early mornings have forced reflection.  Why did I get up in the middle of the night as a regular practice ten years ago?  Was it love for Jesus or was it drive to out-perform my contemporaries in devotion?  Was it the delight of knowing and loving God or a desire for spiritual potency?  Was the goal of the devotion life with God, or the hustle for a better life?  

The answer is, of course, mixed.  Today I can look back and see the drive, insecurity, pride, and ambition a little more clearly.  In that light, Jesus’ warning is for those of us who follow him.  It’s so easy to turn, even the good practices of our life with God, into a self-improvement project.  Instead of tending the vine of our lives in service of God and neighbor, we can start serving ourselves. 

Jesus’ parable, even in its warning, is good news.  It shows the patience and persistence of the landowner.  God’s posture towards us, even when we turn in towards ourselves, is generous, a chance to turn and be healed.  

Still not happy about these early mornings but grateful for the chance to reflect.  God is making something in the vineyard of my life.  I don’t have to strive.  

What is this parable stirring in you today?