Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
Ocotber 2, 2005


Are you a victim of unrequited love?

Her name was Mary Kay. She had dark hair, beautiful hazel green eyes, and a wonderful trace of an Irish accent that just melted me each time I heard it. She was bright, witty, popular and talented. And I was hopelessly smitten during my eighth grade year of life. Hopelessly smitten. I would do all the wonderful things that an eighth grader would do to get her attention. Tease her. Make fun of her. Be loud and boisterous; be rude and obnoxious. Show off. I even learned to play the guitar because she played the piano. Anything I could think of that would make the object of my attention choose me as the object of her attention. All to no avail. No matter what I tried to do, the one I had fallen in love with was not in love with me. Have you ever fallen in love with someone who was not in love with you? Have you ever been a victim of unrequited love?

“Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard.” It’s a wonderful image of God in Isaiah. God, hopelessly smitten. God, head over heels in love with Israel [the vine]. God, doing everything he can think of for the good of his vineyard Israel. Then, comes the poignant moment. “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?” They’ve gotten the best I could give, and it seems not enough. Because there is no response on the part of the people. They have not born fruit. God, helplessly in love, waits for the response from the people. And you can hear the sadness. What more was there for me to do…” Unrequited love strikes again…

You see, for love to be love, and not just a one way infatuation, there has to be a response. Love that is unrequited love is not love in its fullness. But love that finds a response, that is freely given and received, grows into the fullness of all love can be for us. The metaphor in Isaiah, and the rather harsh retelling of that story by Jesus in the gospel invite us to know that truth about God’s love for us. It is always there. It is unconditional. But if it only remains in our life as “OFFER” and does not yield a response – if there is no reciprocal movement in our lives, then it bears as much (or as little) fruit as my 8th grade infatuation for Mary Kay. For it to reach fullness – love needs to be returned, responded to. God loves unconditionally, but invites a response; invites love to take root, to bear fruit…

And then, when Jesus retells Isaiah’s story of unrequited love, he sharpens the point of it. Set just after Jesus has thrown the money changers out of the temple, and challenged the religious leaders of his day, he wants them to make the connection to him. The seeming absentee landlord is God, and he, Jesus is the son. In HIM, the leaders of his day have to make a choice. Love is there as offer. But will they pick up on it by their belief and action? And notice, too, that Jesus doesn’t finish the story. Even here, in the retelling, in the re-inviting the readers of every generation to enter the story, he leaves us free. What will God do to those folks? Because those folks are us, those folks are the church, those folks are the people with whom we worship this day. You and I have been so loved. How do we respond to that love?

That is the invitation of every Eucharist you and I partake in. Jesus gives flesh to the yearning of God in Isaiah – what more was there for me to do for my vineyard? – I will give myself for it. My flesh, my blood will become life giving food and drink for all. And I will die for my own. I will empty my life in love for it. Each time we celebrate, we know the truth of God’s love for us as offer. And each time we celebrate, our song, our prayer, our participation is OUR response to God. The Eucharist is not about unrequited love, but about love that is returned by our bearing fruit.

So the two fold challenge comes to us – to trust that we are so amazingly loved. Pray with the one scripture line of today, and image it spoken from God to you alone. ‘What more is there for me to do for you that I have not already done…”
Secondly, it is pro-life Sunday. What more is there for you to do for the unborn, for those on death row, for those who lack health insurance? How can you and I produce a harvest of rich grapes in the life issues?

I close my eyes, and I can still see those hazel eyes staring back at me from eighth grade. And that experience of unrequited love still tugs at my heart. This week, may the living we do not make God another victim in a long line of unrequited lovers…