Starter: (In pairs for 5 minutes)
Recall how you felt when somebody criticised you.
WORSHIP:
Perhaps a time of worship and reflection on the Beatitudes. [Matt5:3-10]
READ PASSAGE ALOUD(How would you feel as a priest listening to this?)
READING : Matt 21: 33-46
RE-READ PASSAGE AND COMMENTARY(Silent personal reflection)
PERSONAL FOCUS(Reflection on the passage / commentary & personal focus questions in silence 10 minutes)
Commentary:
The gloves are off! Once the chief priests and the scribes realised he was speaking about them….they would like to have arrested him but they were afraid of the crowds.(v46). In the parable Jesus pulls no punches. The landowner is God, who has created a vineyard-one of the many names by which Israel is known. The tenants are the authorities who are charged with the spiritual, moral and economic welfare of the vineyard (nation). But says Jesus, throughout the years, despite the landowner sending his servants-the prophets-to recall the leadership to its responsibilities under God they were thrashed and stoned (v.35). Eventually the landowner sends the son whom they seized… threw out of the vineyard and killed (v.39).
The consequences of this action is judgement by the landowner who comes in person for the reckoning in which the vineyard is leased to other tenants who will deliver the produce at the proper time (v41). Jesus' authority may well have been rejected, like the stone rejected by the builders, by those charged by God with the kingdom of God (v.43). But God will take their right to the kingdom and give it to a people who will produce its fruit (v.43). God's reign produces a fruit that is justice.
Sometimes we make the mistake of taking Jesus' teaching too individually. This passage is a clear warning to all leadership, that claims to act in the name of God, that unless it produces the fruit of justice in national life, it will come to a wretched end.
Peter Price Reflections on St Matthew's Gospel]
Personal Focus Questions :
(Initially just reflect on the question that chooses you. It may help to clarify your thinking to make notes in the spaces provided. This will also give you material to reflect on in the future)
1. What verse in this reading speaks to you? What is God saying to you?
2. How might you be missing or rejecting the goodness or commands of God?
3. What are you doing in your life to produce the' fruits of the Kingdom'?
PERSONAL FOCUS QUESTIONS (Discuss in triplets /pray for each other –25 minutes)
LIFE FOCUS (Discuss in whole group-15 minutes)
1. Where do you see the fruits of justice not being produced in our national life?
2. What practical outcome is there from our reflection?
Do we need to make any plans to make things happen?
Group Memory Time:
(Review the actions you agreed to carry out at previous meetings)
Review Time
What most helped you in this meeting?
What would you like to do differently next time?
Prayer Time :
Perhaps you should pray for national and local leaders in government, industry and church.
Next Meeting :
Arrange date and venue.
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