Uppermill Oct

Lord, you have called us and equipped us to serve you; you have called us and equipped us to bear good fruit; you have called us and equipped us to share your blessings. We come to worship and bless your name. Amen.

A PRAYER OF ADORATION

Holy God, Father, Son and Spirit, creator, sustainer, empowered, we worship you. We give you thanks for all that is beautiful: for all that is fruitful, for all that is lifegiving, for all that is precious. And we thank you too for entrusting us with the privilege and the responsibility of passing on the baton of your creativity and your ministry of care for all you have made. Amen.

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Response after each phrase: Forgive us and help us, we pray. Faithful God, you give us chance after chance, opportunity after opportunity, yet we do not take them. You entrust to us things that are precious, and life-giving, yet we do not share them. You offer us a share in your kingdom, a path to fulfilment, yet we want our own way and go our own way. You invite us to work for the future, to bless the next generation, yet we live for ourselves and look only at now. You speak both words of wisdom and warnings, of security and salvation, yet we are in danger of missing out. We pray – in Jesus’ name. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

Patient God, you give us another chance to hear your message of hope, challenge and grace, through the words of Scripture and of others, through the silence of prayer, through the beauty of creation; a chance to act and react with hearts in tune with yours, and with that freedom to give our all in your service, rejoicing that it is never too late to begin again. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

StF 504 May the mind of Christ my Saviour.

READING

Isaiah 5: 1-7

5 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. 2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? 5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. 6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

7 The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

Matthew 21: 33-46

The Parable of the Tenants

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35 “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40 “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes’[a]?

43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”[b]

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

StF 351 In Christ Alone.

SERMON

Some people are described as having ‘green fingers’ (being a good gardener). Some have an allotment, growing all kinds of produce.

And some like me shouldn’t be left in charge of a plant pot!

In Psalm 80, that we heard a little of as the call to worship this morning Israel is described as a vine carefully transplanted from Egypt.

Throughout the Bible God’s people are described as a vine, a vine that was to bring forth good fruit.

Transplanting a vine can be done if it is done with care.

I have a friend who had an allotment who had vines, but as he grew older, and his ability to tend to them decreased they ran rampant, and the crop didn’t taste too good either. Due to lack of pruning and care they very much looked like the description we heard from Isaiah.

Isaiah says this transplant from Egypt has not gone well. Due to mismanagement, the vineyard goes wild, and the grapes turn bad.

Land can cause us issues.

Have you ever been involved in a dispute over land ownership, the property boundaries at our little Church does not extend beyond the building itself. So, people can park in front which caused issues for wheelchair users. Thankfully this seems to have resolved itself, but it did cause some distress.

Such conflicts can quickly spiral out of control and destroy previously harmonious relationships.

According to Matthew, Jesus told the story about the vineyard shortly after arriving in Jerusalem, at a time when there were frequent conflicts in his native Galilee between tenants and absentee landlords, who often lived in Jerusalem.

These disputes sometimes erupted into violence. So, when Jesus asks his audience what the landlord would do after his tenants had spurned a final attempt to get them to pay up, at the cost of his son’s life, they suggest that this landlord would naturally resort to violence in return.

But the question is this, is that how God would respond?

Hopefully no one here has had a final demand for something, or a repossession order.

But, in the current economic climate this may become more common. Some people are thrown into panic by these things and others can take them in their stride.

So, sending his son was a form of ‘final demand’ and one that may have been seen as foolish by fellow landowners, especially after the treatment of the previous servants who were sent to collect the landowner’s ‘cut’ of the harvest.

The landowner saw it as a last chance for them to pay what they owed, but the tenants saw it as a chance to grab the land for themselves. It was a crisis point, and sadly the tenants chose to make a bad situation worse.

There are also echoes of human beings in general mismanaging what has been entrusted to them or grasping for more – from Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, through to our current stewardship of the world.

And although the original context of both the Old Testament and Gospel stories was about the particular relationship between God and the nation of Israel.

The people of God in the Old Testament were those who God had a covenant relationship it was a formal solemn commitment made between two parties.

The covenant between God and God’s people, which was developed through the generations it was this two-way agreement in which they were called to live as God’s people and God would be their God.

The people’s responsibility is to live in such a way that God is shown to the surrounding nations, who would (hopefully) also come to God.

This pivotal story clearly shows Jesus’s relationship with the religious leaders. The landowner represents God, who has carefully cultivated his vineyard, Israel. The “farmers” represent the Jewish religious leadership that God has entrusted to guide his people.

Jesus addresses Jewish leaders who have historically always been against the men who God has sent. Instead of welcoming God's servants, they would beat and murdered them. The pinnacle of their rebellion is seen in their murder of the Son of God. It's important for us to remember this parable as we are now God's people, who are the tenants in the vineyard.

In Jesus’ parable, it’s not the fruit, it’s the tenant farmers that turn bad, in the parable the vineyard is planted and ready but instead of bearing fruit the relationship between them and the owner spirals out of control.

Matthew says that the Chief Priests and the Pharisees knew that this story was aimed at them, and this was the ‘final straw’ causing them to look for a way to arrest Jesus but how to do this without the crowd turning on them.

So, was this the story that got Jesus killed? Was this story of the killing of the landowner’s son sent as a last chance, in effect became a self-fulfilling prophecy?

The religious leaders chose the path of violence resulting in even more of the bloodshed – just how Isaiah had shown the treatment of the prophets in the Old Testament.

Do we embrace God's prophets in the pages of the Scriptures? Do we hold Jesus Christ as the one and only Lord and Saviour of the world, or will the Lord's vineyard be stripped away from us to be given to those who love and live for Christ?

The landowner in Jesus’ parable offers the tenants one last chance. Sadly, they do not take it. I ask you are there, ways in which God is offering us, as individuals and as a people, another chance to do something different?

What do we do, do we seek to bring out good fruit.

There was a little village in the mountains of Italy where the people grew grapes. The mountain sides were covered with vineyards and each family in the community contributed to the making of wine. It was some of the finest wine in the world. Each village had several different recipes. Each family would bring their wine to the centre of town and pour it into one large keg. As a result, the wine was a mixture of many recipes which made it unique.

One particular year the weather did not cooperate, and the vineyards did not produce an abundance of grapes. One of the wine makers decided that since things would be tight that year, he would sell his wine elsewhere. He then filled his barrel with water and poured it into the town keg, thinking that one barrel of water in the gigantic keg would go unnoticed and not impact the outcome of the wine.

The wine in the keg aged for seven years. At the end of seven years the villagers all gathered around that keg to sell their wine to merchants who had come from all over the world. The entire community depended on the sale of their wine to provide for them until the next season. The villagers gathered around the giant keg, and it was tapped. A pitcher was placed at the tap and out came nothing but pure water. It seemed that everyone in the village that year had the same idea.

As we look around our dwindling congregations, empty seats that were at one time full, we can feel like we are the last bastions of Christianity, but take heart there are places in the UK and around the world where God is moving, we just need to look outside. We may need to get onboard even step out of our comfort zone.

Providing good wine rather than water.

What does it mean to live as the people of God in the 21st century?

I heard a statement in a recent podcast it said. “We give the name Social Media to a technology the makes us far from social.”

We can get most information instantly at our fingertips, just a click of a button, which is good as long as we are discerning it what we select to look at, and what we use it for. But it can lead to, isolation.

I remember some years ago now a friend and I had lunch, and a young couple came into the café, sat facing each other and stirred at their phones, without speaking.

So, yes, we need to embrace technology, but not at the cost of real interactions.

I think we are distinct our distinction comes from where we are today meeting together sharing face to face.

But how can others see God in and through us?

How do we display our faith without shouting in the streets? It has to be in our actions, how we respond to those around us who may appear different.

How do we make God known to those who feel they have no need for a divine creator.

How do we be good tenants who nurture and grow the vineyard God has placed us in.

We are called to grow good fruit, to share the fruit of the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and importantly is alive.

Lets not water down the good news of the gospel.

That is the challenge for us today.

OFFERING DURING HYMN

StF 277 My Song is Love unknown.

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

God of all creation, thank you for calling us to be stewards of your earth and your treasures, for calling us to tend your Gospel, to share the fruits of your Spirit, to encourage your disciples in their daily lives, and to work together for the good of all – joyfully, humbly, and urgently, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God of one and God of all, we pray for: those who don’t know who they are, who can’t understand themselves or their place in society – God of all, we pray for them. Those who don’t ‘fit in’, who are or seem to be different – God of all, we pray for them. Those who don’t know where they come from, their heritage or home, their family or bloodline – God of all, we pray for them. Those who feel lost and isolated, confused and afraid, rudderless or homeless, strangers in a strange land – God of all, we pray for them. Those who wish they were someone else, or somewhere else, in some other time and place – God of all, we pray for them. In your great mercy, Lord, hear our prayers and grant surer journeys for them all. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,

For ever and ever Amen.

StF 545 Be, thou, my Vision.

BLESSING

Go in Jesus’ name, restored and renewed. May you know God’s face shining on you, and the God’s Spirit flowing through you, So that your life may be fertile ground for good news. Amen.

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