Fruitfulness is examined as the result of our relationship to God through Christ.

Collect: Proper 22

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

Exodus 21: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 . . .  God outlines the fruit of faith—the Ten Commandments.

Psalm 19 . . .  A Hymn to the Universe

Philippians 3:4b-21 . . .  Paul speaks of turning from his past and pushing on toward the prize of God.  “He makes all things new” by John Skaggs

Matthew 21: 33-46 . . . Jesus issues a call to repentance through the parable of the wicked tenants

Jim Somerville, Pastor of Richmond’s First Baptist Church  preaches a sermon from Matthew 21:33-46 called, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” He begins: “Before we sink our teeth into the meaty parable that is this morning’s Gospel reading, we need to spend a little time talking about allegory…” Because this parable is an allegory in which object or persons inside the narrative have a one-to-one correspondence with meanings outside the narrative. The “wicked tenants,” for example, may represent actual people, and, actually…the very people Jesus is talking to