One of the special joys of the end of summer is the sharing in the harvest of the garden. As a child growing up near Kearney, Missouri I too had a garden, and in it was planted a single type of seed…Watermelon!! Many an hour was spent indulging in the bounty of that garden, cracking a watermelon open with my lawn-mower blade machete and eating only the middle and sweetest portion of that watermelon, and moving on to the next!
I want us to think of this week’s parable found in Matthew 20:1-16 in the same light, namely that the seed planted in God’s garden (vineyard) is that of grace, and what is grown and harvested from that garden is exactly what was planted—Grace! What we will find striking however is that not all consider the taste of grace sweet, but rather offensive. Our sermon this week is titled “Grace Grows in the Vineyard” and through it, I pray we learn about the grace God grows in His Kingdom.
Pastor Flaa
