The Fruits of Righteousness

Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas, Plymouth
October 5, 2014
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Psalm 19
Philippians 3:4b-14
Matthew 21:33-46

“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an
acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

Our Gospel lesson is a strange story. A landowner planted a vineyard, fenced
it, and built a wine press and a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and
went to another country. At harvest time, the landowner sent servants to
collect his share of the produce, but the tenants beat them and killed them.
Then he sent another group of servants, presumably warned about the
violent tenants, but the tenants mistreated those servants as well. Then the
landowner sent his son, thinking, “They will respect my son,” but the tenants
killed the son.

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