Posts Tagged ‘Isaiah 5:1–7’
Justice and Righteousness: The Fruit God Desires – Br. David Vryhof
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Br. David Vryhof
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 15C)
The message of Christianity is a message of love. We declare that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:16) and that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” to rescue us from death and grant us new life (Jn 3:16). We believe that Jesus, the Son of God, “became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14) to reveal to us the God of love, the God he knew and loved intimately from before all time, and that he summoned us to live in loving union with God and with one another, serving and caring for one another with genuine affection. In Christianity, the message is all about love.
The Scriptures that are at the heart of our faith have a lot to say about love, but the love of which they speak is not always a warm, cuddly love. Love, when it is rooted in truth, doesn’t always wrap us in its arms and protect us. Sometimes it does the opposite: it exposes us, confronts us, and makes us uncomfortable. Jesus spoke the truth in love – to his disciples, to the religious and secular leaders of his day, and even to his enemies – and it wasn’t always pretty. Read More
The Dream of the Vineyard – Br. James Koester
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Isaiah 5: 1 – 7
Psalm 80: 7 – 14
Philippians 3: 4b – 14
Matthew 21: 33 – 46
Everything I known about vineyards and growing grapes comes from watching several seasons of Falcon Crest, a Friday night TV soap drama that competed with Dallas and Dynasty. I preferred Falcon Crest over Dallas because there was a priest, Father Bob, who would show up every so often in Falcon Crest, and who wouldn’t love a night time TV drama with a priest in it.
You’ll perhaps remember that the drama of Falcon Crest centered around two branches of a family, living in California’s Napa Valley, one of which had extensive holdings and the other quite a modest operation. Week by week we were offered up a menu of greed, corruption, competition and family dysfunction, with a little sex and murder thrown in for good measure.
What I leaned about vineyards and grape growing from Falcon Crest is that grapes are pretty temperamental. They demand just the right amount of sun and rain and certain soils. But even more important, vineyards are not only big business, and at times a cut throat business, but they are also a long term business. You can’t plant a grapevines in the spring and expect a profitable harvest that same fall. It takes years, and a great deal of hard work before you will see the results of your labours. Read More
Grapes and Pumpkins – Br. James Koester
Isaiah 5: 1-7; Psalm 80: 7-14; Philippians 3: 4b-14; Matthew 21: 33-46
First of all, a disclaimer: I don’t know anything about vineyards or growing grapes. I don’t know how to graft one kind of grape onto another. I don’t know why you sometimes get good sweet grapes and at other times you get wild, sour, rotten ones. All I know about grapes and grape growing can be poured out of a bottle and into a glass, and even then the only thing I know about the end product is what I like, and what I don’t. So I don’t know much about vineyards and growing grapes. Read More