Prayer

Lord as we ponder your words open our hearts that we may understand and know you. Amen 

Sermon    

 Inspiration can come from the most unusual places. Several years ago I had a house fan that had fanned its last. In taking it apart to put in the garbage It dawned on me that the cover of the fan looked like a dome.  Hmmm, a dome, something that let’s in lots of light, that would be good for growing plans.  A dome for a conservatory with big Palladian windows. An idea was conceived and the Conservatory miniature with it palm trees wicker furniture was created. Oh on a winter’s day I could just lose myself in it.  Funny something that was about to be tossed became a center piece. 

Todays Gospel Comes after Jesus clears the temple. 

The Temple was God's house and Israel was God's people; they were God's vineyard meant to produce fruits of love and justice for God. The Priests and Pharisees were using God's Temple and people to their own political and financial advantage.
Jesus in good Jesus form tells a story One that is surprisingly violent. 

   The key to understanding this story is that it is an allegory. Everything in the story stands for something else.  · The landowner is God  The vineyard is Israel. · The tenants are the Israelites. · The servants are the prophets. · The son is Jesus. · The other tenants, to whom God gives the vineyard, are the church.

The danger is to read to much into what Jesus is saying. it’s a parable. allegory. It is written for interpretation

What we take away from this scripture is that God just does not give up on us.   Never stops believing in us.

We are called to strive to be the church in the same way. To be persistent in being a holy place in this community.   

Alex Stevenson writes. The Church of England in Wesley's day was not reaching the masses. So God moved Wesley and Whitefield and others to take the Gospel out into the streets. And they brought forth fruits of the salvation of millions. The established churches in Wesley's day were silent in the face of slavery. But Wesley and others preached against it. The result was an eventual end to the practice in England and its colonies.   They brought forth fruits of justice and mercy.

We are not owners of this building we are only the custodian for a short time. More over we are custodians of the faith 

    We are called to be persistent in being a holy place for our communities.   Part of that is naming for us what does it mean to be the holy place. How are we a part of our community.  The simple answer is to ask the question from a biblical story stand point. 
 

What rent ("his fruit") did the landowner expect from the farmers?

“Love God with all your heart and soul and neighbour as self” Or as I prefer Johns quote love one another as I have loved you. Persistently and unconditionally. 

Good answer but again what does that mean for us in this day 

In an Iconostas which is a large floor to ceiling icon screen in a Russian Orthodox churches all the figures look towards one place. One Icon It is in the center. It is that which pulls all things together. 

It is Jesus.  The stone the builder rejected becomes the corner stone.  The corner stone which all the structure is build that one center point that brings it all together. 

Jesus is that center point.

We are reminded of this as when gather around the table to celebrate and remember the gift given to us in Christ. We are reminded of this when we gather around the fount to celebrate someones journey in faith.  We are reminded of this when we have laid the flowers on the grave of a loved one.   

If we know that Jesus is our center point the corner stone of who we are as a people of God then we begin to name who we are as the Church in this community from that starting point.