God Promises
to Renew the Vineyard
Pentecost + 23 – November 17, 2019
“Isaiah’s Vineyard Song”
· It’s a song crying out against betrayal and hurt and
anger and accusation
· “Baby, now we got bad blood – you know it used to be
mad love. So take a look what you’ve done – ‘Cause baby now we got bad blood!
· Now we’ve got problems, and I don’t think we can solve
‘em; you made a really deep cut; and baby now we got bad blood – hey!”
· It’s not quite as subtle as what the prophet Isaiah
sings
· Maybe it’s the song you’d get if you went just a bit
further from where Isaiah starts
· But both are kind of this unrequited love, the way a
relationship can turn sour and seem unfixable;
· That’s what we’re hearing in Isaiah 5
· And like most love songs, it starts out so well – so
much hope and anticipation for the future
o (if this sounds a little like last week’s reading, it
should; similar themes – Hosea to northern kingdom/Israel; Isaiah around the
same time period to southern kingdom/Judah + Jerusalem
· The beloved shows such tender care for his vineyard –
chooses a fertile hill that he digs out and clears of stones – getting the soil
ready
o Plants it with choice vines; good stock whose history
he knows; heirloom quality, perhaps we’d say
o And fully expects a bountiful and delicious harvest in
due time – builds the watchtower with the wine vat so that the grapes will
eventually become great wine
· The beloved, the vineyard owner, has such love for the
vineyard, showers such attention on it, and has every reason to expect that the
harvest will be all that he has dreamed
· And that’s where Isaiah does the shocking reveal
o This is no ordinary love song; it’s a metaphor for God
as the vineyard owner and the people of God as God’s vineyard
o And all of God’s expectations for this beloved
vineyard have gone so astray – God expects grapes and instead gets wild grapes
– or “rotten” grapes –
o God expects the people to be living into the
horizontal dimension of the covenant with God
§ It’s not just that they are being drawn toward idols
§ But that they are no longer defending the orphans and
pleading for widows; they aren’t caring for the needy and the stranger in their
midst
o In fact, in chapter 3, God says, “What do you mean by
crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?”!! (vs. 14)
o God has not been about the business of cultivating
this people in order that they may selfishly pursue their own needs and greeds
– but in order that they may show forth the kingdom of God to the wider world;
They are blessed to be a blessing, and they are doing just the opposite!
· And so God throws up God’s hands!
o “What more was there to do that I have not done?” God
asks.
o So God’s going to abandon the vineyard, take away the
hedge and wall that protected it from being eaten and trampled over; God is going
to let it become overgrown with briers and thorns, let it dry up instead of
watering it
And
there Isaiah 5 leaves it for now – an abandoned vineyard left to fend for
itself
· And sometimes it feels like we’re still living in that
vineyard
· We feel overrun by wild grapes; sour; rotten. It’s all
around us in this world – people taking advantage of one another;
o Growing distance between the rich and the poor
o Violence (another school shooting, in CA this week)
o The changing climate that will lead to devastation for
the most vulnerable of people, as well as all of creation
· We can imagine the ancient people of Israel, as the
prophet’s declaration of God’s displeasure and the consequences that will
result (military conquest and exile and destruction of their nation) finally
come to pass (as they will not too long from now)
· We wonder sometimes where we can find hope in a world
that feels like it has been trampled and left to fend for itself.
· And from a different angle, sometimes we feel this as
a congregation, don’t we? Trampled? Abandoned? Carried off into an unknown
world where church as usual no longer brings the same results and we can’t be
sure how much longer this vineyard will survive and if we dare to dream of the
promise of new life…
And yet! God does not abandon the vineyard
forever!
· The Taylor Swift song makes it clear that they are
done and over forever – because now they’ve got bad blood…
· But Chapter 11 of Isaiah gives God’s people another
message!
· “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall
grow out of his roots…”
o It’s a shift in metaphor,
but still, we can imagine this poor old trampled, beat up, knocked down
vineyard suddenly showing signs of new life
o The tree stump that
sprouts a new tree from what remains
· Though God will let destruction
come to this ancient people, Isaiah speaks God’s transcendent promise,
declaring a word from the future into their present time
o Isaiah shares God’s vision for a future in which
things will be turned right-side-up at last
· God is sending a leader who will lead with the
righteousness and justice that is currently missing from their lives
o Unlike their current leaders (both the priests and the
kings) who have led the people astray and taken such advantage of them, this
leader is one who will stay connected to the Lord, one who will be faithful to
God and will help the people to follow that path as well
· It’s a compelling vision to capture the faith and
imagination and the lives of all those who hear
· Because God is promising a fresh start
And the promise of God in the Bible is still God’s
promise to us who are waiting for it to be completely fulfilled
· From a Christian point of view, we hear this prophecy
from chapter 11 as telling us of Jesus – because we know that he indeed is the
one who comes in the name of the Lord, who delights in God, who defends the
vulnerable and the poor, who reaches out to the sick and the sinful,
· Instead of bad blood, we have Christ’s blood, shed for
us and for all people as the sign of a new covenant
· He has ushered in this new vision of God’s kingdom on
earth as it is in heaven
· And he calls us now to live into it – to be living
shoots, sprouting up in places where hope seems to have died – to bring God’s
light into dark places, to bring joy where there is sorrow
· Knowing that God never leaves us abandoned, but in
Jesus promises to be with us always, and ultimately, to return with a new
heaven and a new earth, where God will reign in justice and righteousness.
· Come, Lord Jesus.
· Amen.
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