17th sunday after pentecost year a

1 17th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST YEAR A There is a lot of discussion in the media etc., about religion and the effects it has on people and so on.

At the moment much of it revolves around Islam and the way in which it influences people’s behaviours and indeed their world view.

This week there has been a lot of heat generated around the head coverings and clothes worn by Muslim women.

There has been also a lot of discussion as to the more static or perhaps more correctly the regressive nature of current Islam and how that is dragging adherents back into the horrors of medieval society.

Also, Islam is being compared to Christianity which has been through major periods of Reformation, the effects of the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution and the like, resulting in an institution that can more easily speak to the contemporary world.

It would seem that a number of sects within Islam, such as the Taliban, where there is the desire to retreat to a primitive/fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran, and a retreat to a medieval life style are gaining real power – especially of deep concern is their attractiveness to young Muslims in the West; these seem happy to abandon the modern west for something that is of very deep concern because of the brutality that they espouse, apart from anything else.

Too often we see religion move to religionism – where human interpretation takes religious practice beyond what has been revealed and makes it into a monster fulfilling base ambitions of its exponents.

This morning’s Gospel passage takes into this space. The scribes and Pharisees rejected Jesus because He was challenging both the power they were exercising and the way they had distorted Judaism to suit their own ends.

In the Parable of the Vineyard, the landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel, and the fence is the Torah – the Law; the tenants are the religious leaders – the scribes and Pharisees. Those who come to collect the rent were the prophets - and these Israel rejected. The son, of course, is Jesus – the Son of God, the Messiah – whom the tenants kill in the false belief that the vineyard will now be theirs, and they will be able to retain their power and prestige.

One of the lessons of the Parable – which is very relevant to our world today, is how religious leaders can take hold of the institution and so pervert it, that it becomes their plaything, their source of power and control.

This is why, e.g. Christianity has throughout its history, undergone changes, reformations and renewals.

The brilliant stage play “the Last Confession” showed how the Roman Curia could not abide the changes that followed Vatican II and their fear of what Jean Paul I might do if he was allowed to continue his reign.

2 In Anglicanism, the origins of the Oxford Movement lay with John Keble’s (and others) distress at the effects of 18th century liberalism on the Church, and the need to restore the vision of the Church of England as of Divine Institution, rather than being a servant of the State.

Through our understanding of Scripture and the role of the Spirit - leading us unto all truth, we understand that we are being lead into a fuller and richer understanding of truth, rather than being locked into a time warp which is disconnected from the world in which we find ourselves.

So we can look at Paul, who previously in his life as Saul, the Pharisee, was a great defender of the Temple and the religious system Israel had set up for itself.

Through his encounter with the Risen Christ, Paul discovered that true religion is found in one’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ. As he writes to the Philippians, we must be found in Christ trusting Him sharing His sufferings sharing in his resurrection and responding in love to the one who has loved us.

Our religious institutions have to be built around that dynamic, not shaping Christ to our world view, but letting our world view be shaped by God. In Christ God has reconciled failed humanity to himself, This is the Good News we are called to share and to live.