Producing the fruit of the kingdom

In tomorrow's Gospel reading Jesus takes us back to the vineyard through a parable. In the story a landowner is denied the fruit of his vineyard by the tenants. Finally, he sends his own son to take care of the issue, and the workers kill the son. Jesus then warns that the landowner will then take the vineyard away from those wicked tenants and concludes with a warning aimed at those who teach the scriptures but do not act on them, "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom."

John Kavanaugh, S. J. of Saint Louis University writes the following of this passage

When the church applies this gospel story merely to Jesus' context, two things happen. A crude conclusion is drawn that the chief priests and elders (and even the Jewish people, as the story was later diabolically interpreted) were the source of Christ's rejection.

More foolish yet, we Christians presume that we ourselves do not reject Christ in our own lives.

At our safe distance, we can shake our heads. See the results of their rejection of Jesus? They are all brought to a bad end, and the prized vineyard is left to others. That's us. We are the inheritors of the new promise. We harvest what Israel did not. It's as simple as that, we think.

But if we stop there, the gospel will never strike us. We simply avoid its force....The parable of the vineyard, in both Isaiah's account and Jesus' reformulation of it for his contemporaries, must in some way be a message given to today's church. Although we believe in Jesus' promise that the armies of hell will not prevail against us, that should not lead us to think that we ourselves cannot squander the gift of the vineyard.

The "always reforming" church must always ask itself whether it seizes the vineyard inheritance for itself, rather than for the Lord of the harvest. It is only at great peril to themselves that the preacher, the mediator, and the institution, present themselves, rather than the Savior-Son, as the way of salvation. We put our very stewardship at risk if we follow a gospel other than that of Jesus.

Kavanaugh, in his writing above, echoes Jesus' challenge to those of us working in the vineyard, warning that if we do not bear fruit for the kingdom, then what we have will be taken away. As King of Peace is faithful to God's calling for us as a congregation, we are blessed and bear fruit. If we were to ever turn inward at some future date, and make the church a social club for those already in, then God's blessing would be withdrawn. We are no less challenged to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God than the Pharisees whom Jesus rebuked.

Reminder:There will be a Blessing of the Animals service at the gazebo in Waterfront Park in St. Marys at 11 a.m. today. King of Peace is joining with Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Joy Lutheran Church and Christ Episcopal Church for this service in honor of St. Francis and our pets, which is sponsored by the Friends of Greyhounds.