Giving good friut to God

Short sermon preached at St Alphege, Solihull at 8am Eucharist
5th October 2008 (St Francis tide around 4th October)
Trinity 20, Proper 22, Year A.

Readings: Isaiah 5: 1-7 (Philippians 3 :4b-14) Matthew 21: 33-46


When I picture St Francis I often think of him on his journeys through the countryside, passing by the olive groves and vineyards of the beautiful Umbria region of Italy. It is therefore a pleasant coincidence that our readings today include two parables about vineyards.
It is interesting to compare and contrast the two parables. Both parables compare God to the owner of a vineyard. In both cases God has invested in his vineyard, spending time, energy, money and not a little tender loving care. We can picture the vineyards. They are well dug and planted with choice vines. They are protected by walls, hedges, fences and by a watchtower. They are equipped with winepress and wine vats. In both cases God, the vineyard owner, is expecting a return on his investment in the vineyard. In both cases he is expecting a quantity of good fruit, grapes from the vineyard. In both cases he is disappointed!
But then the two parables are a little different in the way in which they represent God’s people. In the Isaiah parable God’s people are the vineyard itself, and especially they are the choice vines in the vineyard. God wants them to bare good fruit, cultivated grapes; justice and righteousness. Instead God finds that only wild grapes grow; he sees bloodshed and hears the cry of the oppressed. He is disappointed! God warns that if he continues to be disappointed then instead of tending and caring for the vineyard, he will break down its walls and let it go to ruin.
In the parable from the gospel, told by Jesus, God’s people are not the vineyard itself, but rather tenants who have rented the vineyard. The vineyard is more like the spiritual blessing they have from God, and the land in which they live. However the warning from God is the same; if the tenants do not deliver to God good fruit then they will suffer terribly and lose the vineyard. It will be given to others, who will deliver good fruit to God.
Traditionally Christians have seen this as a prophecy fulfilled in the opening up of the Church to the gentiles and in the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 AD; God’s promise and blessing passes from the Jews to the Church. This interpretation makes sense to the Church, but it is not the whole story. God continues to work with the Jews. Amazingly they did not die out in the first century AD and they continue to live in some covenant with God, that we in the Church struggle to understand.
However what is very clear is that we in the Church are now tenants of a vineyard. We have the same obligation to give to God good fruits of justice and righteousness, and where we fail to do this we can expect to see our world pulled apart. In these last days we have all marvelled at the collapse of financial institutions and at fragility in the financial sector. We know that the effects of this are fast spreading into our wider economy. It seems to me that it is now more important than ever that we in the Western world concentrate on delivering good fruits of justice and righteousness to God. Without this it is all too easy to envisage us being cast out of the vineyard, and the vineyard being handed over to others who will give God his rightful produce at harvest time. Let’s therefore try to grow in God’s love in our day to day lives, so that we grow some good fruit to offer to God.