The great patriarch, Abraham, spent much of his life in the desert. One day he saw a stranger walking in the distance and he called out, inviting the traveler to dine with him and stay the night. The man readily agreed. But as Abraham was preparing to serve the meal, he learned that his guest was a fire-worshipper. He immediately threw him out of his tent without so much as a date to eat.
That night, God appeared to Abraham in a dream and asked, “Why did you treat your guest as poorly as you did?” “Because he did not worship You, the one true God, my Lord,” came the reply. The voice continued, “Abraham, Abraham, I have put up with that unbeliever for eighty years. Couldn’t you have borne with him for one night?”
The story is not unlike Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel Lesson…
A man comes into his vineyard, observes a fig tree that has borne no fruit, and…
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