Our readings for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22) follow. For a combined link to read them all, go here.
- Matthew 21:33-46
- Isaiah 5:1-7
- Psalm 80:7-15
- Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46. A landowner sets up a vineyard and leases it to tenants. At harvest he sends servants to collect his share of the fruit. They either beat, kill, or chase off the servants, and later kill his son. They can expect a miserable death and for the vineyard to be leased to other tenants. Jesus tells the people that this means the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to another people who will produce its fruit.
Isaiah 5:1-7. Isaiah sings a song about the Lord’s planting a vineyard for his beloved Israel, but instead of edible grapes, all it produced was raw grapes. He will break it down and turn it into a wasteland.
Psalm 80:7-15. The Lord took a vine out of Egypt and planted and protected it. But now it will be devastated and broken down. They appeal to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies to come back, to restore and to deliver them.
Philippians 3:4b-14. Paul brags that he has many credentials in the faith, at least the way Hebrews have traditionally seen them. But he counts them all as less than nothing compared to knowing Christ. He aims to know him, experiencing the power of his resurrection, to share his sufferings, and to even die like hm, if he can attain resurrection from the dead. He has not yet attained this but strives “toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” May we all imitate him in responding to God’s call on our individual lives.
There are many facets in these readings comparing the fruit of the harvest and the call of God on Israel to be his Kingdom for the whole world. They have not responded and their vineyard destroyed. God has now moved to give his vineyard, his kingdom to all the people in the world. But we, too, must respond and produce fruit for the Lord. Let us all try in our own ways to be faithful workers in God’s vineyard.