Between the prophet Isaiah, that was our first reading,
and the Gospel just now,
we have two images of vineyards.
The first vineyard was not producing fruits.
No fault on the landlord, no fault on the people
who were tending the vineyard,
it just didn’t produce good fruit.
There was no fruit being produced in that vineyard
and so therefore, the land owner had no other option
except to let it go, let it be trampled over
because it just wasn’t producing fruit.
In the Gospel reading that we heard today,
the vineyard was producing fruit.
In fact, great fruit, it was doing just fine
except the tenants were being stingy.
They wouldn’t give to the landlord
what was due the landlord.
They wouldn’t give to the owner what was due the owner.
They were being stingy.
They weren’t being good stewards,
they were being stingy
and not allowing the owner to take what was his.
So, we have two images of our vineyard here.
One where there’s no good fruit,
another one where people were not practicing good stewardship.
I suppose friends, we could take a look at our own lives
and ask ourselves those two questions:
How are we producing good fruit?
How are we being good stewards?
Both really worthy of our own investigation of ourselves.
As a pastor of a big parish on the North Side,
Queen of Apostles, as a pastor,
I have to take a look at our ministries
and take a look at how are we doing as a parish.
And I have to ask myself the question about our ministries.
Are they producing good fruit?
Are they being good stewards?
And we are grateful to God that for the majority,
by and large, our ministries are doing well.
But there’s some times in terms of stewardship
people don’t leave the hall clean.
They just don’t.
They don’t leave the hall clean.
Some people, some groups do,
are good stewards and leave the hall really clean.
They make it actually cleaner than the way they found it.
They’re being good stewards and some could care less.
Friends, I use that silly example today,
I use that silly example of how clean is the hall,
how clean was it left the last time you used it,
as a reminder that really we’re called to be stewards
of all that God has given us,
whether it’s stewards of the good fruit of our family,
stewards of our good work at our job,
stewards of our ministry at our parish,
stewards of all the physical gifts
and emotional and spiritual gifts that God has given us,
how are we very good stewards of all that God has given us?
You see, Jesus was really calling out the chief priests,
the elders of the people,
because they weren’t being good stewards.
And he said he was going to take away
everything that they’ve been given
because they weren’t being good stewards.
We have to check into our own hearts.
How are we producing good fruit in all that we do?
How are we being good stewards
of all the gifts that God has given us?
Stewardship is a good word.
It’s one that we don’t use too often in church.
It kind of came up about 30 years ago
into our common parlance as a Church.
It’s a good word that reminds us that God
has given us so many gifts and we’re called to use them.
They’re not for us.
They’re meant to be passed out and passed along
to all those that we encounter.
Our family, our job,
our extended family, our church,
the building up of our community,
the building up of the Kingdom of God,
all the gifts, all the abundances
God has given us is meant to be passed along
to build up the Kingdom.
May we generously remember that we’re on for producing
good fruit and we’re on for then being good stewards
of all the gifts that God has given us.
If we don’t, it’ll be taken away.
Let us ask for the strength and the courage we need
to produce good fruit and then to share with others.