Yearly recommitment is a Church of the Saviour tradition. It creates a period of questioning, of pruning away what doesn’t work, and attending to what does. It makes space for stepping out of a mission group or stepping into deeper commitment to the community, for examining our level of giving — and receiving. Consideration of aging and energy also enter the picture as we wrestle with the needs for leaders and followers in each community. For some, recommitment is a time of agonizing choice. Others question the need for commitment or recommitment.
Commitment isn’t a popular word in our consumer culture. To many, commitment is limiting, narrowing, even binding or inhibiting. We prefer to keep our options open, our choices many. That’s behind a lot of the dis-ease over pandemic limitations right now.
This week’s gospel reading suggests the value of intentional preparation.* In Jesus’ pointed story, a wealthy owner has prepared a vineyard carefully: planted the crop, dug a winepress and erected a tower for surveillance. He obviously expects a good harvest. So do the managers, who plot to keep the profits, killing first his servants, and then the son of the owner.
The obvious point is that his listeners are guilty of keeping the “profits” of commitment instead of honoring God, the implied owner. The less obvious point is the vineyard’s careful preparation which precedes an abundant harvest: tilling the soil, adding nutrients where needed, pruning the vines, tying them up to catch the sun. All of that work takes commitment and care which the owner has invested. It’s an intriguing image of God as the owner who is expecting a good harvest.
Commitment to the inward/outward journey of self-reflection and service to others is surely a lifelong path that will have seasons of plenty and seasons of scarcity, perhaps in different vineyards. Having a regular season of recommitment is one way of saying we trust the cycle of seasons, the wisdom of human experience, and the importance of a particular community to guide us into an unknown future. Preparing the vineyard is simply part of that process. We invite you to your own season of recommitment.
–Marjory Zoet Bankson, Editor of InwardOutward.org
- What is the main vineyard in your life?
- How do you invest in a good harvest there?
- How are you tempted to keep the profits?
