It’s vintage time, the time to produce fruit in now.  God’s time is the perfect time but God’s time is always the present moment for us to respond before becoming “wild grapes” in the world of sin.  The Lord prepared the “fertile hillside” for us to grow in his word of wisdom and in the flesh of the word.  He gave us the word made flesh in his son Jesus to yield a fruitful harvest. 

The Lord asks the question “why…did it bring forth wild grapes?  Without giving the answer he gives the consequence that comes to the “house of Israel and the people of Judah” which is the ruin of its land.  Isaiah speaks of “bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry!”  Jesus is the bloodshed for justice the sacrificial lamb and the outcry is the call to crucify him, all still to come in God’s time.  The vintage time for us to produce fruit is now, we must answer for ourselves, for our own wild grapes of sin we live.  With each sin is the outcry “crucify him”. 

It’s vintage time to produce “whatever is true” we must hold onto in a world of personal truth over universal Godly truth; whatever is honorable in a world that dishonors life in abortion and euthanasia; whatever is just in a world that justifies retribution for past sins with current violence; whatever is pure in chastity in a world of perversion; whatever is lovely in a world seeking to destroy a heritage and culture of faith “in God we trust”; and whatever is gracious in a “me to” world of victimization.  Wild grapes are sown daily in the outcry to silence those who seek to produce the best we were created to be in God’s vintage time.

What are we to do?  St. Paul reminds us to “keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard, and seen in me”.  What we have learned, received and heard is Christ himself.  Keep on doing the work of the Lord in all humility and perseverance bearing “fruit that will remain.”  The fruit we bear is the legacy that remains by having followed the teaching of the Church which is the teaching of Christ, bringing our children to the waters of baptism, to the table of the Lord to receive Communion, to the altar of worship to give thanksgiving, and to the confession of our faith by “prayer and petition with thanksgiving make your requests known to God…Then the God of peace will be with you.” 

The choice of our times is as divided as darkness is to light.  Be strong, be faithful, and remain in our Lord Jesus Christ.  It’s our time now…vintage time!