The Reading is from the Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew (21:33-24; I Cor.

16:13-24)i + In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit + When the Lord speaks to us in parables we need to discern the message and allow the truth to reveal itself to us. In todays Gospel we must understand that it is God who established the vineyard, who established a covenant with the Hebrew people. And He set a hedge around it, that is gave the people the Law, the Torah, to protect and lead His people into truth, faithfulness, and salvation, and because the human heart is easily corrupted and left on its own can confuse right with wrong, truth from falsehood. After God set a hedge around His vineyard He dug a wine press. He gave the people their proper form of worship. Then God built a tower. He built them the temple and He gave it to them in Jerusalem of the promise land. Then vintage time drew near. And what is vintage time? It is nothing less than the fulfillment, the very purpose, for planting the vineyard. God planted the vineyard so that He might gather in its fruit, its produce, its vintage, the fruits of the labor. When vintage time was at hand God sent his servants to gather in His people. But the vinedressers beat and killed the prophets. But God, in His patient long suffering that He exercised from the beginning, sent more prophets, and still the people beat, mocked, ignored, and killed them. At last, the landowner sent His Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under the law, in the express image of the Father, so that when the Son came to the vinedressers it was as if the Father Himself was present. But when the vinedressers saw Him they said to one another, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. They rejected Him, took Him out of Jerusalem and killed Him on the cross. But little did they know that in this rejection the headstone of the corner was laid, set up on the cross. It is Christ crucified- the head cornerstone- a stumbling block to the Jews, folly to the Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, the power and wisdom of God. For the stone which the builders rejected has become the head cornerstone. It is the Lords doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Now its very easy to condemn and see the error of the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Hebrew people throughout the Old Testament; their pride, disobedience, and faithlessness. God did everything for them. He established the vineyard, set the hedge around it, dug the winepress, built the tower, and then just gave it to them with no questions asked. They have no excuse. 1

So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will He do those vinedressers? He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease the vineyard to other vinedressers, who will render Him the fruits in their seasons. Right? Brothers and sisters, we, every time we act without love, we are those wicked vinedressers. God has done everything for us. He has given us the vineyard. He has set the hedge of true doctrine around it to not only keep us in the bounds of truth, but to keep out evil and corruption. He has built for us a tower, the Church, and given us the winepress of the liturgy. The vintage time is at hand, and landowner has sent to us His servants: Apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and every righteous spirit made perfect in faith. He has sent us Bishops, priests, deacons, parish council members, Sunday school tearchers, and all those with us who bear fruit and do good works in this holy and all venerable temple, those who serve and those who sing and all the people here present who await Gods great and rich mercy. In the Epistle today Paul says, we must submit to and acknowledge those who labor and devote themselves to the ministry of Christ. Then Paul says, If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord come! Maranatha. Lord Come! The Lord will come again; the landowner will again send to us His Son. Therefore, because of what the Lord has done in being the headstone of the corner, having so loved the world, we must watch, stand firm in the faith, be brave and strong, and do everything that we do with love. Recently I saw a sign outside a church that read, Practice random acts of kindness. This little saying of pop-theology is not what Paul calls us to. It is not what the Gospel calls us to. There is nothing wrong with kindness, but kindness is nothing compared to the love of God, to Agape love. And that love is not something we practice randomly or sporadically, no. We are called to do it all the time, and in everything that we do. God is love. Love never fails. It is the greatest of all the gifts of God. Without love we are like drums without a beat. In this time of transition, in this age that we live in, let us love one another that with one accord we may confess: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: the Trinity one in essence and undivided. + In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Sources for this homily, and interpretations of the text come from include St. John Chrysostoms Homily, and Rev. G. Dimopoulos