I remember growing up in the Barossa Valley in South Australia when people who had planted vines in the hope of them producing wine and an income were pulling out those vines because there was no market for them. People had planted in hope but those hopes came to nothing. God describes his people and his gifts for his people to be like a vineyard. He plants them and his gifts for them in hope. Do they produce good fruit? The Old Testament people of Israel and Judah rejected God. The New Testament Pharisees and leaders rejected Jesus. How do we receive him? God has his very best gifts to give us. Will we receive them and grow or do we also reject them? [Pentecost 19]