Text: Matthew 21:33-46
Focus: the fruit
Function: to help people discern good vs evil
33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 34When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41They 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.”
42Jesus 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’?
43“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. 44The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
Good morning to the beloved children of God.
This passage is about those who reject Jesus. And it is an interesting passage because it isn’t about what people are saying about the Christ, it is about what the people are doing with what He is teaching them. It points to the fact that believing in him means that we have changed our lives to prosper by living in the community that Jesus established and we call the Church. We produce the fruit of love.
On a Kairos weekend, we focus on who we are as a Church. And in yesterday’s wrap-up session from the previous week, the leader gave a talk on the importance of the church and I would like to share the essence of that talk as a way to understand this scripture. I choose it because it is timely for our church and our future.
Brothers/sisters in Christ. We have come together today to talk about just what that phrase means. "Brothers/Sisters in Christ." Christ, of course, is in all Christians. If you've opened your heart to him and invited him in, he's there.
It is us being “in Christ” which we sometimes find difficult to understand and accept. The phrase, "in Christ," refers to the fact that Jesus calls us to be the Church, His body.
The Church, scriptures tell us, is the body of Christ. In Paul's letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, verse 18, we read: "He (Christ) is the head of his body, the Church, he is the source of the body's life."
It is a concept which Paul uses repeatedly. In First John 1:7, the author of this letter says, "But if we walk in the light ... just as he is in the light ... then we have fellowship with one another."
It is also important for us to understand this phrase, "have fellowship with one another." The Greek word from which the phrase is translated is "koinonia.” It has been said that God "wills" community. "He intervenes in human history to heal the brokenness and disruption we have created." Let me repeat that: God intervenes in human history to heal...
Or said another way: "To say Christ means to say community , coexistence, a new life, peace."
In Christianity there is no "Jesus and me" closed community. True Christianity, like Jesus, always includes others, and never excludes. That is why I print Inclusive sermons on our sermon page, I want people to know that everyone who is seeking is welcome.
Jesus himself is repeatedly portrayed in community. Even when he withdrew to pray he was in the habit of taking his own small community with him ... Peter, James and John. Our relationship with Jesus always takes place in community; it is a triangular relationship ... God, self, and at least one other person. Even when we are alone and talking to God, the other people with whom we share the world are a part of our relationship with him, for our relationship with him is necessarily tied to our relationship with each other. We don't gather in community because it is more fun ... sometimes it is not. We don't gather in community because it is safer ... sometimes it is not. My desire is to create a safe place where everyone can seek out what Christ is doing in their lives. But we are human and we are not perfect and we are not in a perfect community, but one inspired by God to be loving and forgiving. Forgiveness is the key.
The Apostle Paul who wrote this suffered the consequences of conflict in his ministry and he pressed on without giving up. Instead, he called us to walk in forgiveness We gather in community because it is the starting place for the redemptive activity of God. It is in community that healing occurs, that we find our wholeness
We gather to find community and as it happens on the Kairos weekend, it focuses on forgiveness.
God’s Spirit calls us to forgiveness. Here is a story about how important forgiveness is. One of the residents in the room was having a private conversation with our table leader. It was distracting.
Meanwhile, the rest of us at the table had a sort of lull in the conversation. And all of a sudden, our of nowhere I had this thought pop into my head. It didn’t seem related so I kept it to myself. But it persisted, so I blurted it out and by then the private conversation that was distracting our table ended and I said my piece.
I said, “Imagine how hard it was for Adam and Eve to forgive Cain for murdering Abel.”
I wasn’t aware of the private conversation but it was about about how it felt impossible to for this resident to forgive his brother for befriending the man who shot him 6 times over a woman. He was pouring out his heart in distress because he didn’t think he could forgive.
It was a God moment because forgiving family was the point and it convinced him that forgiving his brother will set him free.
Forgiveness sets us free. It helps to release the pain of the hurt. All we have to do is ask God not to hold them accountable for the harm they have done to us.
It is a step of faith because it believes that God will ultimately judge with the same mercy we ourselves need.
When we walk in forgiveness, we walk in the faith that God wants to heal and restore this world.
Or, as our text declares, we are the ones who produce the fruit of love for the Savior.
