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(Luke 20:9-19 NJB) (Luke 1:35-38a NJB) |
Meditation for the Fifth Sunday in Lent / Feast of the Annunciation
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WE beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
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he went on to tell the people this parable, ‘A man planted a vineyard and leased
it to tenants, and went abroad for a long while. When the right time came, he
sent a servant to the tenants to get his share of the produce of the vineyard.
But the tenants thrashed him, and sent him away empty-handed. But he went on to
send a second servant; they thrashed him too and treated him shamefully and sent
him away empty-handed. He still went on to send a third; they wounded this one
too, and threw him out. Then the owner of the vineyard thought, “What am I to
do? I will send them my own beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.” But
when the tenants saw him they put their heads together saying, “This is the
heir, let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.” So they threw him
out of the vineyard and killed him. ‘Now what will the owner of the vineyard do
to them? He will come and make an end of these tenants and give the vineyard to
others.' Hearing this they said, ‘God forbid!' But he looked hard at them and
said, ‘Then what does this text in the scriptures mean: The stone which the
builders rejected has become the cornerstone? Anyone who falls on that stone
will be dashed to pieces; anyone it falls on will be crushed.' And the scribes
and the chief priests would have liked to lay hands on him that very moment,
because they realized that this parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid
of the people.
he angel
answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called
Son of God. And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age,
has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth
month, ‘for nothing is impossible to God.' Mary said, ‘You see before you the
Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.'
arlier this
past week I received an e mail post from a list that I belong to, in which
the author claimed that the greatest gift God had bestowed upon mankind was
the ability to learn and grow and change our perspectives. Being the
Incarnationalist that I am, I could not allow that to go by without
commenting upon it. So I posted back that I thought Jesus was the greatest
gift given to us by God. A few days later another gentleman wrote saying
that in his opinion the greatest gift was the cross of Christ. Again, I was
tempted to respond, and began to compose an answer, but then I caught myself
and stopped. In a sense, this last writer was saying the very same thing
that I was, only looking at the other side of the same coin.