Year A, Lectionary 139
Are we producing God's fruit or are we trying to seize God's gifts for ourselves? God's plan is to grace us with divinity for our benefit but we may be trying to control God instead for our own benefit. God warns us to appreciate what God is offering and giving us, to use it for good and God's purpose or we may end up losing them.
“I think many of us would, would recognize that prayer is important but we tend to forget the second part which is to pray to God not just with supplication...but with the prayer of thanksgiving, in other words gratitude”
“We should bear in mind that unnecessary anxiety will rob us of inner peace”
“So even when things feel like they are falling apart...we can trust that God is right there with us and will bring forth goodness and life in, with, and through us. So it comes back down to: how are we going to embody this?”
“The vineyard belongs to the Lord but I can't give it back up again. I'm clinging so tightly to it because I love it so much. This happens to you and me.”
“We have all received life from God as a special gift on trust and it is our responsibility to bear good fruits with this life”
“What does God want to be known as? He doesn't want to show himself as a dictator, as a king that demands justice. He doesn't scream and yell and shout at us with condemnation. He reveals himself as king of mercy.”
“The greatest disasters in history have often begun not with evil intent, but with the stubborn conviction that there is nothing left to learn”
“God does not call us to work that we can't possibly do. And the mission of Jesus belongs to you and to me as much as it does to anyone holding positions of power.”
“Indeed, to what degree might we be judged and found guilty by our landowner, God, as wicked tenants? Not only for what we have done, but for what we have failed to do.”
“That is fruit. The child who feels safe with you. The worker treated honestly. The hungry person fed. The apology finally spoken. God's harvest takes shape in the lives touched by our choices.”
“In all these ways, sisters and brothers, when we give a compliment, when we uplift those who are downtrodden, when we encourage rather than critique, in all these ways we produce a harvest that is worthy of our God”
“Time and time again God will use the excluded of the world, those not seen or treated as if they don't matter, to create something new, something that will change the course of history”
“When we treat the world as if it is ours by possession and not by participation, we wind up doing more harm than good”
“What kind of crazy father would send his own son to a group of wicked tenants such as this? And the answer is well this isn't an ordinary father and it's not an ordinary son. It's an allegory here for God the Father sending Jesus his son”
“and if we produce justice and righteousness, then the Kingdom becomes a reality. If we do the right thing, if we have right ordered relationships, if we treat all people with the values of mercy and compassion, then the Kingdom comes.”
“That's the harvest plan of the Lord, it's that simple. That we be friends, develop friendship with one another and then bring those friends to Christ.”
“Isn't that what we're longing for today? A new awareness of our own goodness? The peace of God in our inner hearts?”
