Good Morning Friends,
There is a messiness in imagining the future unless Jesus is leading. Sure, we are to have a vision, but our creativity can turn to chaos soon enough. Our failure to imagine the continuing benefits from and to others is often the root of the evil that befalls us. There is no hiding from this pride, and it could be playing out in our nation this very moment. We can believe we are bearing the right fruits in the vineyard when in fact we are just ripping up the vine from the soil destroying our own future as well or perhaps we are just growing wild grapes. Frankly I am an advocate of bearing the fruit of joy, but the apparent joy of a good soldier who kills an enemy during war should be unsettling for us all. Still C. S. Lewis presented a case that our Lord finds our desires too weak. We fool around with the joys of drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy of Jesus is offed to us. We settle for good instead of great or perhaps something much worse. We are far too easily pleased with the wrong results of the seven deadly depravities. So, How Can We Seek The Right Harvest When We Humans Are So Sinful?
Scripture: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 (NRSV)
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:6-9 (NRSV)
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
Isaiah 5:1-7 (NRSV)
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Genesis 1:28 (NRSV)
Message: The focus of many people today is to acquire wealth and property and enjoy worldly pleasures thinking that is all there is. Some people in places called church do the same thing. People are concerned about building things. But if Jesus is not the cornerstone of a whole new way of building…a whole new Temple for worship in us, the desire is turned into rebellion. The thing is that Jesus is about building a whole new approach to experiencing God and the joy of Vineyard. That is why Jesus confronted the religious leaders of the Temple. Still to this day those with power are often accorded the most respect no matter the source of their wealth, even in the structure of the institutions we call church. But Jesus presents a very different option. In Christ we have a whole new way of worship that is not a transaction but much more. For as God chose Israel to point the world to God, now God has appointed the called-out assembly of God to point the way and we are not doing a very good job of it. Friends, as some of the first words of Scripture teach, we are to keep our focus on God. We are to be fruitful and multiply for God because God has provided in creation what we need. And friends, God has in a similar way to creation itself provided in Christ all that the believer would need to produce the fruits of the Kingdom. Maybe we need to be cultivating that focus to harvest the best kind of joy. But the history of the work of the church is bit tainted and the facts dispel the grand illusion that we are saving lives, when the reality is that those historically bringing the gospel also brought oppression for many. We must humbly depend on God to do the heavy lifting. Thankfully Jesus in today’s text is teaching us about ushering in a new way of worship in a Vineyard that does not produce so much wildness and rebellion. Friends, God’s desire for us is to enjoy the new wine of God’s lush vineyards. But we like our ancient tenant farming ancestors in today’s Gospel reading, remain oblivious to the splendors of God’s creative doctrine, which compels God to always provide enough for everyone. Still we want more than we need, even as the religious leaders in the Temple wanted more power. You see part of it is in seeking the right harvest, but the greater challenge is in sharing it fairly. The cycle of sin, punishment, repentance and renewal has worn itself out. We need a new way led by the Spirit on this World Communion Sunday.
And So, we are living in a time of many uncertainties and stress. We are bombarded with news of terrible things happening around the world daily. Many people are feeling anxious about all kinds of things. We wonder how we can find peace in such a time as we are living in. Still, God remains supreme, and God’s glory is assured, in our hearts and worship and ultimately in the victory Christ has won. So, we are to have no anxiety about anything and continue to pray for peace and justice and respect. So, thank God when you ask God. Then peace will reign in your hearts, whether external events are pleasant or not. And remember what Jesus’s last command was. Indeed we are to go in peace, proclaiming the Gospel of Christ by your lives. Because God wants everyone you know to be saved, to live by the new law: Love God above all things and love our neighbor as Jesus Christ loved us.
Pray we begin with love. Pray our fruit is not so wild as to be useless. Pray we discover a whole new way of worship in Christ. Pray we hear a cry for an awakening in the church. Pray we do it God’s way instead of our own way. Pray we are not so rebellious and envious. Pray our worship never bears the fruit of hate, injustice, oppression and idolatry. Pray we realize that God has provided what we need to produce fruit for the Kingdom of God and that the called-out assembly of God has been chosen to point the world to the way of God. Pray we choose the joy of Christ so others might see how a life that Christ at the cornerstone has can glorify God. Pray we bear fruit of love, holiness, justice and righteousness and joy for the Kingdom of God. Pray we rejoice that God has chosen us to experience grace and mercy. Pray we believe that God is sovereign, and we are not even though we have choices. Pray we realize that evil is initiated in our hearts, but the love can be initiated there as well in response to God’s love for us. Pray we know our spiritual enemies and face them in battle victoriously because God has chosen us to bear fruit for the harvest.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 