The Fruit of the Kingdom

Good morning and welcome again to Cedar Grove United Methodist Church. I want to thank each of you who come to the live 10:30 Sunday service for your faithfulness and your concern for the other people in our church family. I’ve noticed that you have continued to wear masks and practice good social distancing, which has allowed us to continue our live services safely so far. I realize that the temperature in our sanctuary isn’t always ideal, but keeping open the sliding doors to the outside are part of what keeps us safe. I also appreciate each of you who watch and listen on our Facebook Live stream and who share it with others, as well as those who listen at 9 AM on V96.9 FM and who are telling their friends about our broadcast. And I especially appreciate all those who are making these new technologies and our twice-monthly newsletter possible with their talents and financial gifts. If we are making a difference in your life, please let us know – and perhaps send in a gift or donation to help us continue to reach you.

You will remember that a few weeks ago, I asked each of you to make a list of twelve names, a list of people who apparently know little about Jesus Christ nor follow him. I asked you to begin to pray for these people and to attempt once a week or at least once a month to engage them in a discussion of God and Christ.

There are many reasons to pray for people and to help them understand what it means to follow Jesus Christ. I could point out that those who attempt to follow Christ make great neighbors. I could point out that those who acknowledge and fear God are usually good members of our community. I could point out that Jesus has directly asked us to tell others of His love and teachings. But perhaps the greatest reason we tell other people of Christ’s love is so we can one day have a chance to be with these other people when this life is over, walking under the Tree of Life beside the river that flows through New Jerusalem on the New Earth.

Of course, many people in this world say they don’t want to hear about Jesus. They believe that they’ve heard quite enough about Jesus, and furthermore, they’ve met people who claim to be followers of Jesus who were obnoxious, abrasive, and generally weren’t the type of people that the world says to associate with. Maybe you’ve had these feelings yourself – or even have them this morning. I’ve even had these feelings! But I’ve learned a few things over the years, and so this morning, I’d like to share some of these nuggets of wisdom with you today.

There is an episode in Matthew 21:33-46 where Jesus has met up with some of the religious people of the day, people who were more concerned that the rules were followed than understanding that the purpose of the rules was to help people. Rather than deal with them head-on, Jesus tells a teaching story, a parable. He talks about a wealthy landowner in ancient times who plants a vineyard, like one of those big Napa Valley vineyards that we’ve seen in the news lately. The landowner puts a wall around it, builds a winepress in it, and even puts a watchtower in the middle so a guard can watch for fire or wild animals or thieves that might steal the grapes. It is a substantial investment. Then, the man rents the place to some farmers and he moves to another place. And when it is time for the harvest, he sends three of his servants to collect his share of the grapes, the fruit.

But the tenant farmers grab the servants, beat one up, killed the second and threw stones at the third. So the owner sent more servants, and the tenant farmers treated them the same way. Finally, he sent his son to the vineyard, saying “They will respect my son.”

But when they saw the man’s son, they decided to kill him and take his inheritance. And so they killed him.

Jesus asks the people around him what will happen when the owner of the vineyard comes? And the people respond that when the owner shows up, he’ll have the farmers killed or put into prison and then he’ll rent the vineyard out to a different group of farmers who will give the owner his share of the crop at the harvest.

Now clearly things were a bit wilder in Jesus’ time than today, because we know that today the police would have been called in at the first attack, but in those days there were no police, so wealthy men had their own private armies. But nobody in Jesus’ audience disputed that the farmers were in the wrong and deserved whatever happened to them.

Then Jesus quotes Psalm 118 to the people around him. He reminds them of Scripture that says: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Those of you who work construction probably realize that a cornerstone, the first stone laid in a foundation, must be a particularly good, strong stone, and this scripture talks of a stone that is rejected by the builders; they don’t even want to use it, but God has made this rejected stone the cornerstone of the building. It is an example where the builders have used their human wisdom, but God has used the much greater wisdom that He, the Creator of the Universe has, and put the rejected stone in the most important spot in the foundation. God can see things that ordinary people can’t see.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Jesus then says to the people listening, a group of very religious people who followed the religious rules, but did not treat people well: I tell you that the kingdom Of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

Jesus was talking to a proud people, a group of people who were very proud of their standing in society, a group of people who were mainly wealthy, respected, well-dressed, had political power, and were seen as the leaders of the community. But Jesus spoke this parable against these well-off people.

In the parable, God is the wealthy landowner who had built up the vineyard, which was the land of Israel and in particular Jerusalem. The tenant farmers were the people who lived well in Jerusalem because of everything that God had done before they were born – they had a safe city, a productive land, and primitive factories, for decades and centuries before, God had led other people to build the city wall, God had fine-tuned the land to be fertile, God had given the weather, and God had led other people to build the barns and storage bins and cisterns and homes that these people lived in at Jesus’ time.

The servants that God sent to the people were the Old Testament prophets. Now many people believe that a prophet is a person who can speak of the future. That’s only partially right; a prophet is simply someone who speaks on behalf of God. Sometimes that’s about the future, but it doesn’t have to be about the future. It can be about the present. What is consistent about prophets is that they speak on behalf of God, usually because they have been given a message by God.

Throughout the centuries, God sent prophets to Jerusalem to bring souls to God, the harvest that is spoken of. But also, throughout the centuries, the prophets had been beaten and killed and rejected by the leaders of Jerusalem who didn’t want things to change – people who didn’t want to change their behavior, their attitudes, their daily lives. They preferred to follow the religious rules as they interpreted them rather than bow down to God.

Finally, God sent His Son – Jesus – to speak to the people of Jerusalem. But they killed Him also. In this story, Jesus is predicting His own death at the hands of the leaders of Jerusalem. And He has just drawn out the leaders into predicting what should happen to those who kill the prophets and the Son of God – God should and will bring them to a wretched end, and give the city over to a different people, people who will provide fruit at harvest time.

The parable was told directly to the people of Jerusalem. But it could just as well apply to most parts of our country today. This parable can apply to America today, for we have leaders – both political leaders and social leaders like actors, actresses, sports figures, news anchors, journalists, company leaders, and even leaders of churches who are not listening to Jesus, the Son of God, just as they did not listen to those who spoke on behalf of God over the last centuries. Our leaders are more concerned with being leaders than with leading people to God.

Do you realize that the Bible does not mention America anywhere? There is no promise made to us that was not also made to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece, of Rome.

Thirty-some years after Jesus told this story, the city of Jerusalem was attacked by the Romans and burned. The Temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD by the Romans to end the Jewish War. In 135 A.D. after a second Jewish War, the Romans ordered all of the Jews to leave Jerusalem. They were not able to return until the 1900’s, many centuries later.

There is nothing in the Bible that says we Americans are more special than the Jews of Jesus’ day. God has given us grace – a beautiful land, ancestors who were very focused upon doing what God asked, borders which protected us from our enemies. But there is nothing that says our country must continue until Jesus returns. There is nothing that promises we will not be defeated by enemies.

What has kept our country strong for many years has been the fact that most of our leaders have truly believed that Jesus Christ was and is God’s Son, and therefore everything He said was of great importance. They studied Him, listened to Him, and made decisions knowing they would one day face Him. But starting about 50 years ago, it became fashionable among our political leaders, our professors, our social leaders to say that they knew better than those who believed that Jesus was and is the Son of God. Our leaders began to believe that they were wise, and thus they became foolish. Worse yet, they led other people to become foolish, doing things that were fun for the short term, but which led to trouble for the long term. And we followed them because we thought it more important to make money than follow God. We thought it more important that our children played sports instead of learned Biblical ideas. We thought it better that someone else taught our children subjects we had found difficult rather than buckle down, learn those subjects ourselves, and work directly with our children so they would learn good character skills and Biblical values at the same time they were learning their literature and history and math.

But there is hope for our country – and for each of us. For Jesus compared himself to the cornerstone that was rejected, yet made into the foundation cornerstone of the building. He said that anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and anyone on whom it falls will be crushed. He was reminding us that He is the Son of God and will not be defeated. He is still there, waiting for you and your family to return to Him.

The chief priests and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time, when they heard Jesus’ parable knew he was talking about them and looked for a way to arrest him but “they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that He was a prophet.”

Today, there are many members of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God. Whatever happens in this election – there are many members of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God. You know, some people claim to be Christians but don’t recognize Jesus as Son of God. Some people go to church regularly, but have not bowed down to Jesus as the Son of God. Some leaders of the church and our country claim to be Christians but can’t tell you what Jesus Christ did to merit a religion named after him. They say, “Jesus Christ founded Christianity” as if He opened up a shop one day like a businessman and things kind of took off from there. That’s not really true. But millions of people around the world in the crowd know exactly what Jesus Christ did.

They know Jesus claimed to be God on the earth and was arrested for this crime, for the crime of blasphemy. They know Jesus was put to death for this crime on a Friday afternoon, and then came back to life on Sunday morning and was seen by over 500 people in over eleven separate appearances. And those people in the crowd know that Jesus promised that those who follow Him will also have eternal life.

"But people don’t come back to life, pastor!" Exactly. Yet we have the witnesses. The witnesses have always been there in the crowd. We have seven recorded witnesses who wrote the New Testament. Those writers have always been there in the crowd, writing what they know of Jesus. We have other facts that are backed up through archeology, through historians, and through literary analysis. Those specialists have always been there in the crowd. And ordinary people in the crowd knows that Jesus is the Son of God.

Have you ever been to a hospital? The first hospitals were built by Christians, who recognized that Jesus’ teaching of “Love your neighbor as yourself” meant something needed to be done to help sick neighbors. Hospitals are a fruit of the kingdom of Jesus.

Do we have humane prisons compared to many countries? This was largely an effort of Christian clergy and lay people forcing law changes, for in the old days, prisons didn’t even provide meals. That was up to your friends if you were a prisoner. Humane prisons are a fruit of the kingdom.

Do most people know how to read? That’s because early American Christians thought it important that everyone know how to read the Bible, to search out for themselves the words of Jesus and learn what He asked of each of us? Widespread reading is a fruit of the kingdom.

Have you thought about attending college or even attended a college? That is because the first colleges were all established in England and America to train pastors – even Harvard and Princeton and Yale were originally to train Christian pastors. Colleges and universities are a fruit of the kingdom.

Have you purchased something from Good Will Industries? Founded by a Methodist pastor in Massachusetts. Have you every enjoyed the low prices of Walmart – Founder Sam Walton was a Christian deacon. Low-cost stores are a fruit of the kingdom of Jesus.

Were your ancestors slaves? An evangelical Christian, William Wilberforce, led the charge in England which abolished the slave trade and started the dominos falling which eventually brought down slavery in America. A slave-free country is a fruit of the kingdom of God.

It is the kingdom of God that Jesus began that has changed things for the better over the centuries, the kingdom that is inhabited by the crowd of Christian witnesses. And it is the crowd of Christian people who know that Jesus is the Son of God who will continue to change things for the better as time rolls on.

And today, those who would accomplish good in this world associate with other Christians in churches so that working together, they may accomplish that good. It is the people of the crowd who know that Jesus is the Son of God who have the real power in this world, for they are supported by God, the One who Created the Universe and continues to create all things. Join a church. Work together as part of the crowd.

Father, I pray for these people in this church and all those watching and listening at home. Fill them with your Holy Spirit, teach them Your ways, help them bring the Good News of Jesus’s love into their hearts so that they may do great things by trusting and following Your Son Jesus and Your Holy Spirit. Give them the courage to step away from their old life, to forgive others daily, and joyfully do Your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.