(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, this week comes courtesy of The Vine at Home and Twelve Baskets
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Opening Prayers
Find a comfortable place to sit and close your eyes. Rest your hands on your lap and allow
your fingers to settle in place. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and slowly let it
out through your mouth
Lock your fingers together.
Think of the people you share your life with…the connections you have…the networks you
are a part of…your loved ones, friends, family, colleagues.
Allow your clasped fingers to tense slightly, then relax them.
Consider the way our relationships can sometimes feel strained, uncomfortable and tense.
Hold all of your relationships in your heart and offer them to God.
Cup your hands in front of you.
Think of all the precious gifts you have received from God: the strength to face difficult
situations, friends and family, an everlasting relationship with Jesus rooted in a love
beyond all understanding.
Hold out your hands palms-up in front of you.
Allow God to challenge you, to open your eyes and your heart, through this time of
worship, may you hear God’s voice, and feel called to serve, to love radically, give
generously and stand for justice.
Relax your hands, and rest a moment in the silence.
Amen
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which
you are familiar.
Reading:
Matthew 21:33-46
Responding to the reading
Today’s gospel reading is a difficult parable, often called the Parable of the Wicked
Tenants, and on the surface it seems to be a straightforward story of rejection, violence
and judgement. A landowner plants a vineyard, entrusts it to tenants, and expects them to
share its fruit. Instead, they become increasingly violent towards those who come to collect
what is owed, eventually killing the landowner’s son.
Jesus’ listeners quickly understand the accusation. The religious leaders recognise
themselves in the story. They are the ones entrusted with something precious, but who
have begun to behave as though it belongs to them. Perhaps that is where the parable
becomes uncomfortable, and useful, for us.
Because the question is not simply, “Who are the wicked people?” Rather, it is: What have
we been entrusted with, and have we started to mistake stewardship for ownership?
Faith is something we receive, not something we possess. Churches are entrusted with
communities, buildings, traditions, stories, resources and, most importantly, people.
Leaders are entrusted with influence. We are entrusted with relationships, opportunities,
gifts, time and the fragile lives of those around us. But there is always a temptation to turn
“this has been entrusted to me” into “this belongs to me.”
And once we believe something belongs to us, we can become remarkably protective of it.
We can guard the church we know rather than make room for the people who have not yet
found a home within it. We can defend our traditions rather than listen for what the Spirit
might be saying now. We can become more concerned with being right than with bearing
fruit.
The vineyard, after all, was never really the tenants’ vineyard, they were supposed to be
caretakers. Perhaps discipleship is partly about remembering that we are caretakers too.
The fruit the landowner seeks is not religious success or institutional survival. Throughout
Jesus’ ministry, the fruit that matters looks much more like compassion, justice, mercy,
generosity and love.
There is another challenging thread here. The story describes servants being rejected and
abused, and finally the son being killed. Matthew’s Gospel connects this with Jesus
himself, and Christian tradition has often read it as a prediction of the cross. But we should
be careful not to turn the violence of the story into a picture of God as a violent ruler
demanding blood.
The God Jesus reveals is not most clearly seen in the violence done to the son, but in the
love that refuses to give up on the vineyard — and in the life, death and resurrection of
Christ that follows. The stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone.
In other words, what we dismiss may turn out to be what God is building upon. That is a
powerful warning for people of faith. Who have we written off? Whose voice have we
decided doesn’t matter? Who doesn’t fit comfortably into our understanding of what a
Christian, a church member, a leader, or a “good” person is supposed to look like? And
what if the person we are tempted to reject is carrying something of God that we
desperately need to hear?
The challenge of this parable is therefore not simply to identify the wicked tenants out
there, it is to look honestly at ourselves. Where have I confused stewardship with
ownership? Where have I become defensive when I should have been listening? What
fruit is my life producing? And who might I need to make room for?
The good news is that Jesus tells this story to people who are still capable of changing.
The vineyard remains, but the possibility of fruit remains. God’s purposes are not defeated
by our failure. Perhaps that is the invitation for us this week: to stop guarding what we
think is ours, and start tending what has been entrusted to us.
To make room, to listen, to share the fruit, and to trust that God’s vineyard is always bigger
than our particular patch of it.
Where am I holding too tightly to something I have really only been entrusted with?
What kind of fruit is my discipleship producing?
Whose voice might I need to hear, especially if it challenges my assumptions?
Where could I make more room for God’s love to grow?
May we have the humility to remember that we are caretakers, not owners; the courage to
listen when we are challenged; and the generosity to share whatever fruit our lives have
grown.
And may the Christ whom others rejected teach us to recognise God’s image in the people
we are most tempted to reject. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Song – STF 152 – This is the day, this is the day
Blessing
May you go out into a world seeking renewal, and listen for the life-giving Spirit of God.
May you go out into a world craving justice and discover the inclusive Christ everywhere.
May you go out into a world looking for love, and share the unconditional love of the
Creator with all whom you meet.
Go in peace, the Spirit of God goes with you.
Amen.
