The Gospel
Jesus said, “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, `They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
`The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
The Offering
From Jonathan Sanders
“The stone that the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone”
I grew up wanting to be God’s little church buddy. I wanted to be the perfect child of God. I went to church every time the doors were open. It was my life. However, through a series of events, I was no longer involved in the church for 15 years. It was during that time, that I began using drugs and alcohol. I spiraled into depression and was rife with fear every single day. I was rejected by those who went to not only my church, but others as well because I did not have any sort of relationship with God at all. In fact, I waffled between not believing in Him at all to hating Him with every fiber in my body. After 15 years of this, I got sober. It has been a difficult life journey, both through addiction and recovery. I do know that I’ll never be perfect. But I also know even though I was once rejected, I can be a cornerstone of hope to the still suffering alcoholic and addict.