The Vineyard of God’s People
In the Lessons for this week, we look at evil confidences,
which cannot stand under the light of God’s Holy Law. God’s people constitute a
vineyard. The Gospel and Old Testament lessons complement each other in the use
of a vineyard as a metaphor for God’s people. In both the vineyard is at fault;
in the gospel, the tenants refuse to render fruit; in the Old Testament. The
fruit is wild. In the Epistle lesson, the wild fruit are those who are “enemies
of the cross of Christ” and serve as an example of the right kind of fruit
Christians produce. Because God’s vineyard is His people, He has the right to
ask for proper returns from the vineyard. Both the Old Testament lesson and the
Gospel pronounce judgment upon the vineyard for failing to produce the fruit of
acknowledging Christ as Lord and the fruit of justice.
Collects for Proper 22 – Gracious God, You gave Your Son
into the hands of sinful men, who killed Him. Forgive us when we reject Your
unfailing love, and grant us the fullness of Your salvation; through Jesus
Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one god, now and forever.
Gracious God, You gave Your Son into the hands of sinful
men, who killed Him. Forgive us when we reject Your unfailing love, and grant
us the fullness of Your salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
O God, whose almighty power is made known chiefly in showing
mercy and pity, grant us the fullness of Your grace that we may be partakers of
Your heavenly treasures.
A prayer for Agriculture: You bless the earth to make it
fruitful, bring forth in abundance whatever is needed for the support of our
lives. Prosper; we pray the work of farmers as they bring food to our table.
Grant them seasonable weather that they may gather in the fruit of the earth,
and thus proclaim Your goodness with thanksgiving. Cause all people who give
thanks over their food to treat those who produce it with honor and respect.
May we see by this noble vocation that through them You feed the world.
A prayer before we study the Word Almighty God, our heavenly
Father, without Your help, our labor is useless, and without Your light, our
search is in vain. Invigorate the study of Your holy Word that, by due
diligence and right discernment, we may establish ourselves and others in Your
holy faith.
Monday, September 26, 2011 – Psalm 118:22-24-Antiphon, V.
1:“O Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His steadfast love endures
forever.” – This is a call to praise the Lord. David offers a song of
thanksgiving for deliverance and victory. The people rejoice over what the Lord
has done. Thereafter, the king speaks his final word of praise. (See verse. 28)
We praise and exalt the Lord because He is mighty to save. This is why He is
good – His mercy, His steadfast love endures forever.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 – Psalm 80:7-19 - This week’s
Psalm has as the key verse, verse 7. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is
Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant He cherished (Isaiah 5:7). After
making a lament over the Lord’s severer punishment of His people the Psalmist
looks to the Lord who will vindicate His own as He restores, and makes His face
shine upon them that they might be saved.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011 – Isaiah 5:1-7 - God’s people
receive judgment for evil fruit.
Confidence in violence and bloodshed leads to judgment. In the Old
Testament reading, God’s judgment upon His people is shown for their failure to
produce proper fruit. The prophet sings a love song to God regarding God’s
vineyard, his people. God is his “beloved.” God loves His people. Proof of this
love is that God’s vineyard, His possession, is His people. Out of love, God
accepts and owns His people. And look what God has done for His people! He has
placed a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug the ground, cleared away the
stones, and planted it with the best vines. Then He built a watchtower and a
wine vat. God is love and He deals lovingly with His people: claiming them as
His own, and providing for them by giving them the best of everything to be
fruitful.
Thursday, September 29, 2011 – Philippians 3:4b-14 – God’s
people strive to be examples worthy of Christ. Confidence in the flesh cannot
stand. Forgetting the past, Paul presses on toward the goal of Christ and lives
as an example for others. Paul defends himself as a Christian of the first
order through the mercies of God. Yet, he does not think he has it “made,” but
keeps striving for complete devotion to Christ by becoming one in the
sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ. Because he imitates Christ, he
is able to ask his people to imitate him in both faith and life.
Though we are in the world, we belong to the kingdom of
heaven. When Christ returns, He will transform our earthly bodies to spiritual
bodies.
Paul uses this phrase “I press on” twice in this passage. It
must have been important to him in getting across his plan. He is not idly
waiting for perfection to come to him. He is not neutral. He is urgent,
pursuing, and energetic in getting to his goal. To become like Christ is a
process over a lifetime — ever striving to be like Christ in every area of
life. At the same time, Paul would say that God was in him pressing on, working
in him. A Christian dare not be content with his life. He is ever seeking to
improve it.
Friday, September 30, 2011 – Matthew 21:33-46 - God’s people
refuse to return God His due. Confidence in one’s own faith will fail. This is
another parable of the kingdom. It is an allegorized parable. The vineyard is
Israel. The tenants are the religious leaders. The servants are the prophets.
The son is Jesus. The murder was the cross. Jesus is saying that time after
time God has sought to redeem his people through the prophets, but each effort
was in vain. In desperation, He sent His Son whom they crucified. This is in
accord with the psalmist who says the rejected stone became the cornerstone.
The outcome of it is that the religious leaders of Israel will lose the
kingdom, which will be given to those who produce the fruit of righteousness.
Because of their rejection of Christ, the Jews lost, but the Gentiles gained
the kingdom.
The owner has a right to receive fruit from the tenants.
People owe something to God. Time after time God comes for His due until
finally He makes the ultimate appeal in His Son, Jesus. Rebellious tenants kill
the Son in hope of taking over the vineyard. Here can be seen the patience of
God, trying repeatedly to get the tenants to respond; here can also be seen the
greed of people.
Saturday, October 1, 2011 –Matthew 25:1-13 - Our reading is
the inspiration for the hymn “Rejoice, Rejoice Believers” (LSB 515) The believer rejoices
only in Christ. The days are getting shorter, soon the harvest will commence.
We pray for the safety of all who work to bring food to our table. We also
anticipate a harvest of souls. As God’s vineyard will be harvested at the end
of days so look to Christ the lord of the harvest, the one in whom the believer
rejoices.
Sources:
Lutheran Service Book Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
MO © 2006
Lutheran Worship Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis MO ©
1980 pg. 83
Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series A by John Brokhoff ©
1980 CSS Publishing Lima OH pg. 253
Image © Ed Rojas Higher Things
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