27th Sunday OT, A, The Fruit of our Vineyard

Posted on by

Matthew 21, 33-43 (27th Sunday OT, A, The Fruit of our Vineyard)

Focus: The Fruit of our Vineyard.

Function: To remind hearers about the fruit of their vineyard.

  1. Introduction
    1. So a duck walks into a bar and he goes up to the bartender and asks, “Do you have any… grapes?” The bartender says, “No, this is a bar, we have booze. Beat it.” So the duck waddles out of the bar. Then the next day the duck goes back into the bar and says, “Do you have any… grapes?” The bartender says, “Look, I told you yesterday, we don’t have any grapes. Now get lost!” So the duck waddles out of the bar. Then the next day the duck goes into the bar again and asks, “Do you have any… grapes?” The bartender says, “Look, I’ve told you twice already, no grapes! If you come back in here asking for grapes again I’m gonna nail your bill to the counter!” So the duck waddles out of the bar, all the while saying “Aflac, Aflac, Aflac… Then the next day the duck goes into the bar and asks, “Do you have any…. nails?” The bartender looks puzzled and says, “Uh, no, we don’t have any nails.” Then the duck says, “Well then, do you have any… GRAPES?!”
    2. You like corny jokes, don’t you?
  2. The Vineyards of the World
    1. Grapes—ripe juicy grapes—are picked from vineyards in the Fall of the year during the harvest season in many parts of the world. The harvest of grapes is the result of the efforts of a few, yet the fruit is shared by many. Today’s readings inspired me because I grew up on my parent’s vineyard in the Central Valley of California, where I spent many hours tending and pruning vines, as well as harvesting the grapes they produced. The grapes produced during the year and harvested in the autumn are from vineyards on which many humans and non-humans depended.
    2. Many people depend on the vineyard owner’s faithfulness in producing a rich harvest. Those who work to produce, pick, and process, as well as those who consume grapes, depend on a fruitful vineyard. The grapes produced from the vineyard can be served as table grapes, dried into raisins, processed into jelly or jam, squeezed into fresh grape juice, which in turn can be fermented into wine or distilled into brandy.
    3. In addition to humans, other creatures depend on a faithfully tended vineyard for their home and/or their sustenance: birds—raptors, quail, pheasant, sparrow; bugs—flies, gnats, wasps; and beasts—coyotes, foxes, mice, gophers, moles… Many depend of the faithfulness of the one to whom the vineyard is entrusted.
  3. The Vineyard of our Lives
  4. Likewise, fruit will be harvested from the vineyard of our life in its autumn—in the season at the end of our days (we do not know the day nor the hour; there is no escaping the end of “the season”), when either sweet juicy fruit or bitter dry produce will be picked. Today’s psalmist reminds us that the Lord gives us a vineyard to tend, as does the prophet Isaiah, who states: “Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard…” Each one of us has grown up in the vineyard that God has given us to cultivate daily; hopefully, we spend many hours tending and pruning, as well as preparing for the future harvest. Many depend on the fruit cultivated from our vineyard during the years of our life and harvested in the autumn of our days—a quality harvest that is meant to benefit many.
  5. Many depend on our faithfulness in carrying for the vineyard of our lives. The quality of the fruit of our harvest depends on our faithfulness to Christian sacrifice and service. Our crop is meant to be the result of our commitment and activity, so that we produce a sweet harvest of the fruits of faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These fruits —the theological and cardinal virtues—of our faithfulness are produced when we energetically collaborate with God’s grace.
  6. Producing the Fruitful Harvest from our Vineyard
    1. How do we cultivate the vineyard of our life in order to produce a fruitful harvest of Christian service and sacrifice? St. Paul offers us a suggestion of how to begin: “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” Therefore, essential to the cultivation of our vineyard and the production of a fruitful harvest is a life of prayer—of petition and thanksgiving. Such prayer combined with a life of study and action will result in what St. Paul affirms: “[t]he peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” This peace of God results from our understanding and acting on our Christian faith. In so doing, this God-given peace leads to purpose, which results in true freedom—freedom for knowing and loving God and neighbor. True freedom is not the unbridled pursuit of happiness built on the chimerical quest for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Happiness is not the goal of the Christian life, because happiness is transient. The goal of the Christian life is the peace and freedom that comes from a life of fruitful sacrifice and meaningful service on the behalf of others. Therefore, our lives of fruitful Christian service and sacrifice will produce these fruits of the Spirit of God. In fact, they will flower from our life of prayer, study, sacrifice, and service. Thus, St. Paul exhorts us: “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
    2. Perhaps, one of the saddest things that I have seen as a priest—sometimes even sadder than the sudden death of a loved-one or the tragic loss of a vision—is the slow self-destruction of the God-given vineyard of someone’s life. The God-given vineyard entrusted to us can be either a fruitful place of powerful dreams and realized potential, or a barren locus of tragic waste and unbridled negligence. The vineyard of our life can be fecund, the result of our tending and pruning, which leads to harvesting, or our vineyard can be a sterile and barren place, the result of carelessness. Jesus, who states in another Gospel that “the Kingdom of God is within you”, warns those who are not producing a life worthy of fruitfulness: “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” The prophet Isaiah echoes Jesus’ message: “he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.” The Prophet continues, “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 had not done?” What more can we expect of God?
  7. Conclusion

God has given us a vineyard in order to cultivate and offer something in return. We are endowed with the potential for greatness; we were gifted with the Faith. How much do we invest in learning how to cultivate our vineyards and produce ripe juicy grapes? Got any grapes?

Intercessions, 27th Sunday Ordinary Time, October 4, 2008, A

For the members of the Universal Church, may they seek to cultivate faithfully the vineyard entrusted to them, so that they might produce a fruitful harvest of faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

For those who hold religious, political, or ethical power, may they remember the marginalized, the poor, and the outcast, …and realize policies that benefit the common good, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

For all Christians who gather at this Eucharistic Feast, may they recognize and receive the sweet fruit of God’s mercy and compassion, which is present to all, regardless of differences of location, status, race, language, culture, gender, or orientation, …and thus, may they realize a closer union with God, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

For the millions who have been injured, displaced, tortured, or killed because of war and violence, …and for those who care for them, who advocate for them, who provide for them, or who bury and grieve for them, …may they be remembered and their needs be realized through the support of many, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

For our nation, as we enter into the election season, may citizens find ways to express differences with love and respect, and may all voters choose wisely, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

For the members of our community on retreat at McKenzie Bridge this weekend, may their time of prayer and community bear fruit in service and sacrifice, [pause] let us pray to the Lord.

And for your prayers…