Grace Cathedral
Isaiah 5:1-7; Phil. 3:4b-14; Matthew 21:33-46
We live close to lush, verdant and fruitful vineyards — an important part of the culture and economy of the Bay Area. The vineyard is a familiar image and metaphor for us. A metaphor is a figure of speech regarded as representing or symbolizing something else, especially something abstract.
This image appears to us today in our reading from Isaiah: the vineyard represents the Beloved, the holy nation, Israel and its people, the spiritual community.
Jesus engages this metaphor in the parable of our Gospel. We see, in our mind’s eye, the landowner planting his vineyard, encircling it with a fence, digging a wine press and building a watchtower. The tenants to whom he leased this vineyard kill the owner’s slaves who come to harvest the grapes. And when the owner sends his own son, he is also thrown out of the vineyard and killed. The owner then puts these miserable tenants to death and leases his vineyard to new tenants who will give him the produce at harvest time.
Jesus gives us the message of this parable: the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who produce the fruits of the kingdom.
We are asked to tend the vineyard of our spiritual community with the same attention, devotion and zeal shown by the Beloved in Isaiah. Where is your vineyard? And how can you produce more and better fruit?
Connie Holmes is a retired clinical psychologist and has been a member of the Episcopal Church since 1989. She is a second-year member of EfM, a lector and a member of the Congregation Council.
Isaiah 51:1-6; Psalm 138; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
Our texts hold up themes of justice, righteousness, trust and humility. In Isaiah, God expects mishpat (justice) but instead he sees mispach (bloodshed). Instead of tsedaqah (righteousness), God hears tse’aqah (a cry). Instead of the goodness God expects, there is violence. Yet God exhorts his people to lift up your eyes to heaven and to trust in my salvation and deliverance.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts his brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. With sober, modest and humble minds, we can belong to each other through the manifestation of our special gifts. In this way, we will know God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.
We learn how the achievement of justice and righteousness consists in small steps, taken consistently and in community with each other. We do best when we search out and value the gifts in each other.
Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say I am?” When Peter responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,” Jesus blesses him and gives him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; He names him Petrus — the rock upon whom the church is built.
As the church, the Body of Christ, we are called to seek and to value our own and each other’s gifts. How can we begin today?
Connie Holmes is a retired clinical psychologist and has been a member of the Episcopal Church since 1989. She is a second-year member of EfM, a lector and a member of the Congregation Council.
Jeremiah 28:5-9 Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 Romans 6:12-23 Matthew 10:40-42
Our readings for today focus on true prophecy, freedom from sin and the centrality of hospitality. Jeremiah speaks of the danger of false prophets and gives us the test for true prophets: their prophecy comes to pass.
We struggle today with what is true news and what is fake news. We struggle with whom to trust and whom to doubt. We struggle with how to separate reality from fantasy in our public as well as in our private lives.
Paul speaks to us today about the choice between sin and grace. We are freed from sin so that we may grow more fully into the image of God by whom we have been created.
How do we grow into this image? What actions can we take to demonstrate that we have chosen against sin and for grace?
Jesus in our Gospel reading tells us one clear choice we can make. We can choose to be hospitable. Hospitality is the act or service of welcoming, of receiving, of hosting or entertaining guests. Welcome says to the guest: it is so good that you have come. In Latin, the word, hospes, means both guest and host. Hospitality is the transaction between us in which welcome is both given and then received.
We can generously extend our hospitality to newcomers. Doing so is both a kind of prophesy and a choice for Grace.
Connie Holmes is a retired clinical psychologist and has been a member of the Episcopal Church since 1989. She is a second-year member of EfM, a lector and a member of the Congregation Council.