Our Scripture reading for Sunday is Isaiah 5:1-7.

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As you read this passage, you read about the expert care of the one who prepared, planted, and cared for his vineyard. Everything was done to prepare the land, to protect the crop, to allow it to bear fruit in season that would produce choice wine.

But then there is a problem: the grapes stink. They are rotten, useless, wild grapes that are no good. All the care put in, all the effort, was all for naught. Was it the fault of the one who prepared, planted, and cared for his vineyard?

No.

That's where the song turns on the people, and where it turns on us. This is a song about God's faithfulness and His people who don't bear the fruit they are supposed to.

As we prepare for Sunday I invite you to reflect on the fruit of justice and righteousness that God seeks from His people (essentially: Love of God and love of others). It's easy to rest in grace, to assume that it's all up to God, that Christ has done it all, and that we don't have to do anything. After all, if we have to do something that sounds a lot like works righteousness! But, what God says here is that we are created, we are called, and we receive grace in order to bear fruit. We are called to bear the fruit of love for God and love for others, and that includes our neighbours, the poor, the hurting, the widow, the orphan ...

And this passage begs us to ask, what kind of fruit are we producing?