A woman I know is an editor of book publishing company. She tells me the best writers need a good editor: someone to read their manuscripts, give feed back and suggest changes. Her job is to make notes in the margins making suggestions to improve the quality - eliminate this paragraph, this is too long, cut here, add there, explain this term.

Now you wonder if the Bible had had an editor, what of the scriptures might have been considered impractical, unrealistic, naive or too idealistic. What would an editor do with the line about loving our enemies or turning the other cheek or forgiving seventy times seven times? These are hard sayings that some of us ‘editors" might like to eliminate or at least adjust. An editor dealing with today's parable might suggest that one could make it more acceptable to sensible listeners like us by dropping out the center section of the parable - the part right after the first servants who were sent to collect the produce from the vineyard were seized and killed. Why not proceed quickly to the part where Jesus asks the question "What will the owner of the vineyard do to these tenants when he comes?" Certainly you would keep the answer the religious leaders very sensibly gave to Jesus: "The owner will put these wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times."

Most editors would suggest to the author to cut the part that says, "Again he sent other servants." And certainly eliminate the line "Finally he sent his son to them." Any good editor would make it clear that these parts will offend a practical reader...the story is very unrealistic, who would be so foolish to send more servants, even a son, into such a dangerous and risky situation? Cutting these verses would make the story far more acceptable.

If these details were cut we would be left with a sensible and practical story that would suit our world and sound more realistic. But what we would lose is the God Jesus is describing who, even when first rebuffed keeps coming back to make an appeal to us. A God who keeps inviting us to live more faithful lives in the vineyard in which we are called to live the gospel. Have you noticed the parables of the last few Sundays have taken place in either a home or business setting. It is clear that Jesus is addressing our daily lives, the work we do and the places where we spend most of our energies - at home, school, supermarkets, the playing filed or at our computers. Isn't Jesus speaking to us about how God is present and is working among the people of our everyday life and at the places that take up so much of our time and attention? The parable is set in the workplace and Jesus is inviting us to see that our faith is to lived not merely inside of synagogues or churches but in public places - in our homes and at work. We must be guided in all of our activities by what we believe: about the value and dignity of every human life, about the dignity of our own work, our willingness to live our faith by how we act and, when the occasions arise, how we speak about what we believe and what motivates our lives.

We all fall short of the ideals of faith that we profess here each Sunday. Who among us can not claim, "I could do more for God?" Or, "My actions could be more consistent with the faith I profess at church?" It is good there was not an editor who cut out the middle section of the parable we heard today - the part about all the additional servants being sent to the rebellious tenants in the vineyards. And we especially need to keep the part about the son being sent, because in these essential sections, Jesus is telling us something abut God that we need to hear. God does not give up on us even when we have turned away from God. God is willing to risk looking foolish in our eyes, willing to come again and again to us. God's love does not diminish even when we reject God or live lukewarm lives of faith.

So today the parable asks us if there is someone in my life who has been a persistent voice urging me to change for the better? Is it possible, in that person's persistence, God is urging me to make some necessary changes and God is using that person to reach out to me? God's messengers are sometimes irritating - and they come into our vineyards, our lives in a variety of forms: a spouse asking us to change our ways, a child needing more attention, a parent giving a child strict guidelines, a teacher calling us to greater responsibility, a needy family in our community that invites greater generosity from us, a pro-life worker asking us to look at the sacred dignity of every life, a returning wounded soldier asking us to contemplate the destruction of war, a TV show that makes us aware of our excessive waste and the pollution of our environment, a sick friend who moves us to greater compassion. The voice of God is rarely silent - God is persistent - let us open our ears, our eyes, our hearts - God invites us to live life to the full - to be more fruitful members of God's family - God sees into our hearts and knows our goodness and God will be forever persistent, calling us to be his holy people.