How many of you are old enough to remember the music of the 50s and 60s. Do you remember how popular music changed from Doris Day and Perry Como to Elvis, Col Joye, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? But at the same time did you notice that although the music changed, the themes were fairly constant, the most common, of course, being love. Whether it was spooning in June under the moon or ’Sweet Sixteen’, ’Love me Tender’ or ’I Want to Hold your Hand’, it was the same basic theme. Mind you, some love songs were also laments: ’Don’t Be Cruel’, ’Day Tripper’, ’As Tears Go By’: love songs that expressed the unrequited desires of the lover.
Well today we’re going to look at a love song of that sort, written 2700 years ago, long before the hit parade, by Isaiah, to express God’s sadness at the way his people had rejected his love for them.
If you’ve been here over the last month or so you’ll realise that we’ve just skipped 300 or so years of Israel’s history, from the time of David and Solomon and the start of the kingdom of Israel to the time of Isaiah and the impending end of the Davidic kingship. But before we look at this love song, let’s just go back over what we’ve seen over the last couple of months as we’ve traced the history of Israel through the lives of some of the great figures of that history. We began, of course, with Adam and Eve and we saw that they were called to live lives of obedience to God’s word. We saw that to respond in faith to God meant listening to his word even when he wasn’t present with them.
Then we saw how God called Abram to leave his home and go to a place that he’d show him. God promised Abram that he’d give him offspring more numerous than the stars in the sky or the sand by the sea shore. He’d make his name great. He’d bless him and would bless all peoples through him. Next, we saw how Moses was called to follow God, with the promise that God would go with him and would give him the words to say. We read Joshua’s challenge to the people to choose to follow God, but to first count the cost. And then last week we saw how in choosing David as king God looked on the heart rather than his outward appearance. And we saw how great leadership depends not just on the gift of leadership but on the willingness to follow God’s direction not just human expediency.
You may have noticed as we’ve looked at all of these examples and the lessons we learn from them, that they’re all things that are still true for us as Christians. We’re still called to live lives that are faithful to God’s word. We too are promised, by Jesus himself, that he’ll go with us and that he’ll give us the words to say. Jesus challenges us to seek first God’s kingdom but at the same time to count the cost of being his disciples. He’s warned us, once having put our hand to the plow, not to look back. And of course God stills looks on the heart. Remember, Jesus said it was what was in the heart that defiled a person, not what they ate.
Well, today we come to this prophecy of Isaiah and his song of the vineyard, and again we’ll find that this is also a message for us.
If you were to read through 1 & 2 Kings some time you’d discover that after Solomon’s death we get a whole string of Kings who are either dismal failures or at best only mild successes at following God’s way. And as time goes on it just seems to get worse and worse, until at last God’s patience is worn thin and he decides to act in judgement. And that’s where we come to today. God sends Isaiah to his people with a message of judgement. But this message is presented as a song, a song that’s in fact a parable. He says: (Isa 5:1-17 NRSV) "Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard:"
It’s a good start isn’t it? You can imagine the people settling down to hear this song of love and devotion. After all they are God’s special people aren’t they? "My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it." If you’ve been out along the Yarra Valley lately you can probably imagine the scene. Rolling hills, green fields, rows of vines lining the road as you pass by. A stone farmhouse in the middle. It’s an idyllic description isn’t it? Everything that could be done for the vineyard has been done. The best position, the best soil, the choicest vines.
But then comes the crunch: "He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." Grapes, that is, that were too small or sour to be used. What’s gone wrong? All his expectations have been dashed. Did he do something wrong perhaps? That’s the question Isaiah puts to the people of Jerusalem. "3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?" The implication appears to be that the fault is not with the farmer but with the vineyard itself. There’s something that’s not right that’s stopping it from bearing the right fruit. And if that’s the case, then what should the farmer do?
"5I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briars and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." The only solution for a vineyard whose soil is tainted is to abandon it. To leave it to be overrun. To stop wasting your energy and resources on it.
Now I guess if you came from an agricultural economy you’d understand the harshness of this judgement wouldn’t you? A farmer can’t afford to waste his time and energy on a field that won’t bear good produce. Better to leave it and find another place to cultivate. So you can imagine the knowing nods from the listeners to this parable.
Finally, Isaiah delivers the punch line: "7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!" Suddenly the parable hits home. He’s been talking about us. We’re the vineyard. We’re the ones who have failed to bear good fruit, despite all of God’s care and attention.
Of course he’s right isn’t he? The whole history of Israel is a tale of failure after failure. They’ve repeatedly failed to follow God, to do what he said. Just as Joshua had warned them, it was all too hard for them. And now they’d come to the point where they didn’t even realise what they were doing. "8Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!" They thought they were just following a good economic rationalist model, but it was a self defeating strategy. Remember they were meant to reflect God’s plan for the world in the way they related to one another but here they are, isolated by their own acquisitive behaviour. What’s more, God saw this economic rationalism as a failure to provide justice and righteousness. But surely if you want to compete in a world economy, the only way to do it is to automate your factories and get rid of your workers. Or at least put them on AWAs that remove all of their rights. Forget the problem of unemployment. That’s someone else’s problem. Forget fairness. In the end the trickle down effect will fix them up won’t it?
That’s the sort of thinking that was going on then just as it is now. But they’d forgotten that the land was a gift from God, to be shared out equally among all the people. The rich were exploiting the poor and taking over their land. So instead of justice and the righting of wrongs, he found bloodshed and the inflicting of wrongs. Instead of righteousness, or right relationships, he hears cries of distress. There’s an echo there of the cries of the people when they were in slavery in Egypt isn’t there? Remember that the call to righteous living in Deuteronomy was on the basis that they were once slaves in Egypt and God had delivered them. But that had now been forgotten, and the people were now being enslaved by those of their own nation. And so God was going to act in judgement on them "9The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. 10For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah. [that is, about a tenth of what was sown]" What had been promised as a land of plenty would become the opposite. The land-hungry would end by being just plain hungry, despite all their land.
"11Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, 12whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine, but who do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands!" Their thirst for sensual indulgence has deadened their minds to what God is doing in the world. In fact there’s a sense in which this is the aim of their lifestyle. They rise in order to get drunk. They linger in the evening for the same reason. This has a familiar ring to it doesn’t it? How many people today turn to alcohol to deaden their perception or their experience of the realities of life? But of course it won’t help them. You can’t escape reality. "13Therefore my people go into exile without knowledge; their nobles are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst." This is a terrible word of judgement isn’t it, when you think of all the promise that was there as they entered the land, as they began to claim it as their own? When you think of the great advances made in the time of David and then Solomon. And now it’s come to this. The people are about to go into exile without really understanding why. Their leaders have so failed them that they don’t even understand what they’ve done wrong. Their knowledge of God is totally lacking. Yet ignorance is no excuse. It’s the leaders who have failed, but the whole nation will suffer.
But you know, this is a tragedy that repeats itself. The same sort of message is given by Malachi years after the people have returned from exile. (Mal 2:1-2) "And now, O priests, this command is for you. 2If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart." That’s the same message isn’t it? If you won’t listen to the Lord, his judgement will come on you.
Do you remember Jesus describing the Pharisees as blind guides? He said although they claimed to know the law, they were in fact blind to it. They’d closed their ears and their eyes to God’s revelation. And so the kingdom would be taken from them and given to others. That is, to us who follow Jesus.
But let’s not forget that these people were called by God to be his special people, just like us. The danger they faced of failing to live up to their part of the covenant with God is just as much a danger to us. That’s why Jesus warns his followers in today’s Gospel reading to stay connected to the vine, to keep bearing fruit. If we want to follow Jesus then he has to be priority 1. And listen to what God says at the end of the New Testament to one of the 7 Churches of Asia: (Rev 3:14-18) "And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ... 15"I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17For you say, ’I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see."" Here was a church that had grown up in the great spiritual awakening of the first century, but now only 50 or 60 years after Jesus death, they were in danger of being rejected by God, the same way the people of Israel were in Isaiah’s time.
And what about us? Never let us become complacent about our faithfulness to our calling or about our success as a church or about the warmth of the fellowship we enjoy here. Remember that "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8)". On the other hand, let’s remember that God is a God of grace and mercy. Listen to how he finishes that letter to the church at Laodicea: (Rev 3:19-21 NRSV) "I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. 20Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. 21To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."
God never rejects his people totally. The people of Israel were sent into exile for a short time to bring them to repentance, and then God brought them back again. The warning to the church at Laodicea was intended to bring them to repentance, to renew their devotion to God. We too need to read these accounts as warnings to us not to do the same things, not to become complacent, but to persevere, knowing that God has a great reward prepared for us as we join Christ seated on the throne with God the Father.
As I said earlier things haven’t changed all that much as far as being God’s people goes. We’re still called to live lives of faithfulness to God, to obey his word even when we don’t see him present with us. We’re still called to follow his leading. God still looks at our hearts to see how we respond to him. The difference for us is that God has begun the process of renewing our minds and hearts through the gift of his Holy Spirit. It’s through the presence of the Holy Spirit with us that we know how to live, where to go. The Holy Spirit enables us to bear good fruit, fruit that will last. The Holy Spirit works through us as we share the good news of Jesus Christ to others, opening their minds to the truth of the gospel. But to make that happen we need to do our part. We need to be connected to the true vine. We need to allow the Spirit to work through us. We need to continually turn back to God in repentance, asking him to come in and eat with us, asking him to continue the process of renewing us so we can bear good fruit.
Let’s pray that the Spirit would continue to do that sort of good work in us.
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