Our Cornerstone

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. 

He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 

What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?"

They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away. (Mark 12:1-12)

This parable reminds me of our nation with many of its tenants, those who prefer authoritarian rulers, wanting to kill our democracy.  They are willing to seize the country and throw non-believers [other tenants loyal to the rule of law] out of the vineyard. Not all, of course, but many of the tenants reject the “stone” that our builders [forefathers] painstakingly constructed: our Constitution. 

We are the owners of the vineyard with our inheritance being freedom, justice, liberty, and the common good.  Our inheritance belongs to us!  Those who would burn it down must be rejected.  Those who would smash our cornerstone must not be allowed to wield their hammers, such as semi-automatic weapons, to replace our vineyard with their crops of anger, hate, and fear.

God planted our vineyard: "One Nation Under God."  We must respect it, nourish it, and reject those willing to wield the thresher.

Deacon David Pierce