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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving! When I lived north of the border, I had to get used to the earlier observance of the date, which earlier observance there of course made sense because the harvest season itself comes earlier there. Down here, especially if we do not live off the land in any way, we can lose track of the various seasons for different produce. In fact, the only seasonal rhythm I get in that regard is thanks to the members of the congregation who generously share with me the fruits of their gardening labors. In today’s Gospel Reading we hear Jesus tell a parable that relates to people’s “producing” (or “giving”) fruits in their seasons. So this morning we consider the Gospel Reading under the theme “Fruits in their seasons”.
Generally, parables have one main point of comparison, and, when it comes to the parable in today’s Gospel Reading, that one main point is that just as the vineyard was taken away from the wicked tenants and let out to other tenants who would give the owner of the vineyard the fruits in their seasons, so the kingdom of God was taken away from the Jewish leaders and given to a people producing its fruits. The one main point has to do with the tenants’ stewardship, not per se with the vineyard’s productivity, which largely is taken for granted in this parable, although it is discussed in greater detail elsewhere in the Bible. Our consideration this morning might most naturally compare the tenants of the parable to pastors today, but in some sense we all are stewards of God’s resources, and so we all should give “Fruits in their seasons”.
Today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 5:1-7) provides helpful background for the parable of the Gospel Reading. In the Old Testament Reading, the Lord describes His chosen people as a vineyard on a very fertile hill, cleared of stones, and planted with choice vines. In the midst of that vineyard, He built a watchtower and hewed out a wine vat. In fact, there was nothing more to do for that vineyard that the Lord had not done in it. But, when the Lord looked for the vineyard to yield grapes, it yielded only wild grapes, “inferior fruit that [did] not reflect the effort of the [Lord]” (TLSB, ad loc Isaiah 5:2, 1096). The parable of the Old Testament Reading applied to the leaders and people of Israel and Judah, and the parable promised the vineyard’s destruction, but the parable of the Gospel Reading applied to the Jewish leaders and promised the vineyard’s being given to a people producing (or “giving”) its fruits.
Like the Old Testament Reading’s leaders and people of Israel and Judah, like the Gospel Reading’s Jewish leaders and Jesus’s other hearers, you and I, pastor and people together, are to hear the parables of the two Readings, be outraged at their hypothetical injustice, realize that the parables are actually about us, and ultimately pass judgment on ourselves (TLSB, ad loc Isaiah 5:1-7, 1095). So, when it comes right down to it, what more could the Lord do for us that He has not done? Why do we yield only inferior fruit, if we yield fruit at all? Are we in danger of being destroyed or having the vineyard taken away from us for failing to give back to the Lord properly of all that He has entrusted to our care?
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther was one who found in Jesus’s Gospel Reading interpretation of Psalm 118 (Psalm 118:22-23) a call to repentance: a call for us to fall on the stone and be broken to pieces, that is, be humbled in repentance, rather than to be crushed by the falling stone, that is, impenitently be destroyed now and eternally as we otherwise deserve (AE 11:499; 12:62‑63). Dr. Luther even points to today’s Epistle Reading (Philippians 3:4b-14) and says St. Paul so fell upon the stone and was shattered (AE 68:128-133). Unlike the Jewish leaders who certainly had read Psalm 118 but did not take it to heart (Davies and Allison, ad loc Mt 21:42, 185), we, as we prayed in the Collect, repent of rejecting God’s unfailing love and of all our sin, and we trust God to grant us the fullness of His salvation through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord.
As we sang in the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 544), God’s deep, broad, and high love for us in sending His Son for our sake is beyond all thought and fantasy. All that the Incarnate Son did, especially His death on the cross, was for us. There is nothing more to do for us than He has done for us. As we will sing in the Third Distribution Hymn (LSB 566), by God’s grace His Son, our only Savior, came down to earth to bear our sin; it was grace, and grace alone, that brought Him from His heav’nly throne. Dr. Luther says that in the Gospel Reading Jesus, Who knew what the Jewish leaders were plotting to do to Him, even provokes the Jewish leaders so that they would not hold back from their plans (AE 68:113-116). But, the stone that the builders reject becomes the capstone! As Jesus prophesied elsewhere, He was rejected, killed, and on the third day raised (for example, Luke 9:22). As we believe (or “trust”) in Him, God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. And, as we will sing in the Closing Hymn (LSB 909), to this place He comes with all His loving‑kindness and sheds His fullest Words of blessing, gives all of His richest gifts—the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
We are no longer under the wicked tenancy of the Jewish leaders but under the tenancy of the faithful apostles and their successors, including pastors today. With water and the word, they baptize us into the vineyard that is the Kingdom of God, and so forgiveness of sins is worked for us, we are rescued from death and the devil, and we are given eternal salvation as we believe the words and promises of God—not unlike Noah (Genesis 9:20; confer Scaer, JTtC, 367‑368), the water of the baptismal flood leads to our being planted in the vineyard. In that vineyard, after our privately confessing to our pastors the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, our pastors individually absolve us, that is, validly and certainly forgive us as God Himself so does. After we are so absolved, our pastors give us bread that is Christ’s Body and wine that is Christ’s Blood, and so we are, as we will sing in the First Distribution Hymn (LSB 540), nurtured by the True Vine to remain fruitful branches in His vineyard and to bear fruit abundantly.
Indeed, also in our Second Distribution Hymn (Lutheran Worship 273) we sing of ourselves as the Lord’s chosen branches. As such, at times, we feel His knife in the form of suffering and afflictions (confer John 15:1), but we remain the objects of His care: from Him we draw the juice of life, and so we supply His winery with fruit from which true joys derive. The Lord has done and still does it all. He has chosen us and appointed us, that we should go and bear fruit, and that our fruit should abide (John 15:16). Our fruit includes giving to Him proportional first-fruit offerings of all that He has entrusted to our care—our time and talents, as well as our monetary “treasure”—so that our congregation and the church‑at‑large are sufficiently supplied not to do only some of the work but to do all of the work that God would have us do in His Name.
This past week I visited with St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s new pastor, who when I dropped in, was working on what he called a special “stewardship sermon”. I told him that many faithful Lutheran pastors would say that regular preaching on the appointed Readings would provide ample opportunity for the Holy Spirit to bring forth the fruits of good “stewardship”. God being willing, this sermon is an example of such preaching and also will be an example of such results. God has done all for us in Jesus Christ, especially forgiving our sins, and He brings forth from us the fruits of faith. Dr. Luther’s Small Catechism prayer for asking a blessing before a meal quotes from Psalm 145 (Psalm 145:15-16), that the eyes of all look to the Lord, and He gives us our food at the proper time (“due season” KJV, ASV). We, in turn, we give to Him our “Fruits in their seasons”: personal service and monetary offerings, yes, but also thanks and praise, both now and forever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +