1,500 pounds of grapes with a divine purpose stolen from Missouri winery, church says

In what a Missouri church is calling “The Great Grape Mystery,” nearly all of its grapes were stolen from its vineyard.

And these were not your average grapes. These grapes were to serve a divine purpose at Hosanna! Lutheran Church, soon to be transformed into what Christians consider the blood of Christ.

Annually, once the church’s grapes are ripe, members pick the grapes from their vineyard at Four Horses and a Dog Winery. Then, once the grapes are picked, the winery produces the communion wine. The grape harvest was scheduled for Sunday after worship, according to the Liberty church’s newsletter.

“We love bringing the kids out here, and they cut all the clumps of grapes and then we turn the grapes into communion wine and that’s the wine we use for communion each and every year,” Pastor Michael Kern said, according to KSHB.

But when church members arrived for the annual tradition, KSHB reported, they found that someone beat them to the picking. Someone had taken more than 1,500 pounds of grapes worth about $1,500.

“Given the method of removal and the quantity involved, we’re confident it wasn’t from animals or a casual picking of a few grapes,” church leaders said in an updated newsletter. “We’ve filed a report, but we’re not concerned with the monetary value, and there will still be Communion wine thanks to Four Horses and a Dog Winery.”

Liberty police are investigating, KSHB reported.

“This wasn’t really about theft of grapes,” Kern said, according to WDAF. “We don’t care about the value. It was more of a theft of joy. We love doing this. We love the kids coming out and having fun.”

After local media reported on the missing grapes, another church congregation in the Kansas City metro area reached out to Hosanna! leaders, according to a Facebook post. At that church, “someone took all the apples out of their orchard.”

St. Peter and All Saints Episcopal Church donates its apples to the Community Assistance Council, a local food pantry and a downtown homeless shelter, WDAF reported.

“So it’s just really sad because for somebody to take that quantity of fruit, they’re probably going to sell it,” the Rev. Jonathan Frazier said, according to the local TV station.

Despite the unsolved mysteries, Hosanna! Lutheran Church will be hosting its Sunday, Sept. 12 “joy-filled” worship service outside at the vineyard.

“We’re bummed, but we are so blessed and so grateful for so many things that we are not letting it get us down,” the newsletter says. “No one can steal our joy.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:47 PM with the headline "1,500 pounds of grapes with a divine purpose stolen from Missouri winery, church says."