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For the last several months, I have been listening to long-form reporting about a church that self-destructed and left people spiritually wounded in its wake. I can only listen to bits and pieces of it at a time because it is so heartbreaking. But this week, a phrase that the journalist, Mike Copser, stated the accounting with caught my attention: [This is a story about] “waking up to loss and disillusionment, and still it’s a story about looking in the rubble for the fingerprints of God, a God who wept in the garden and at the grave of a friend, who leaves the ninety nine for the one, and who promises justice to the wounded and oppressed.”
That idea of still seeing God’s fingerprints in the rubble is the heart of this love song that Isaiah is trying to convey to people who quite frankly, didn’t want to hear it, as he was sent out as a messenger from God.
God, through the prophet, is trying to plead with people to remember is that he was the one who planted a vineyard for them, this place of fruit and beauty, on the most lush hill. God picked out the perfect place for the vineyard. He took away the stone and he picked the best vines. He even put in a watchtower to keep it safe.
And after all of that work - well, there were rotten grapes.
Now, I am not a good gardener. All of our attempts as a family to garden have not ended well. One of my congregations even went so far as to plant me a garden as a welcome present, and even that ended up not great. But here is what I read into what the prophet is saying. God did all of the work. Because good garners know that the planting of the garden begins well before the seed ever goes into the ground. It’s int he preparing of the soil. Picking out the spot that has tbe right space, sunlight, and water.
God did all of that work and the crop failed. Which leads us, and the people Isaiah is speaking to, to ask “why?”
The people start judging God and saying all of the reasons they think that God didn’t do enough. And God boldly says, “what more could I have done?”
The problem, as God knows, is not with the planning and toil that God put in with the vineyard. No, the problem is that Jerusalem is correct. That the people of God, those who are to be representing him, bearing his fruit in the world, are exploiting the poor, worshipping idols, and denigrating the land. Their hearts are filled not with the love of God, but with pride.
The problem is that God needed to be more faithful; it’s that the people of God were unfaithful.
The problem isn’t that God wasn’t loving; it’s that the people are not living into that love.
And yet.
And yet, God is trying to salvage the ruins.
It’s just not the way that the want.
God says that the way to redeem this vineyard that is producing rotten fruit is to tear it down. Remove the hedges and the walls. And start it over again.
We don’t often think of tearing it all down and the remaining wasteland as salvaging the ruins. But in this particular case, that’s what God has arrived at. Think about it this way - for those of you who are gardeners. If a particular plant is not producing, what are you going to do? Dig it up and start again.
A word of caution, however, Church. Notice who is doing the digging. Who is doing the uprooting. Who is starting over. It’s God. I think sometimes we put ourselves in the seat of the Holy One when we act as judge and jury over this world - saying that it would be just be better to start over. That is not our work. Not in this passage and not in our daily lives.
I also want you to notice something that we don’t often look at when we look at this text - friends, this is a love song. It may not sound like the love song that we heard together over the summer in the Song of Solomon, but this is a love song God is singing is over his people.
God is starting again, church, because he isn’t impersonal, far off and uncaring about his people - not minding one way or another if they bear fruit. No God’s grief and anger come from a place of tenderness and care for the people. In other words, God is not dispassionate.
God passionately expects the people who are made in his own image to be rooted in justice and righteousness. He wants them to bear fruit.
Think about in terms of today, brothers and sisters. You know who can cause the most pain - those that we care about the most. And the places where we have unmet expectations - like the church, when we fail to live into the image of God that we bear in this world and our mission in the Kingdom of God.
The church hurts when we fail to bear fruit.
Like the church I was listening to this reporting about.
Like the Israelites that Isaiah is prophesying to.
Like you and I when we are the ones who harm and don’t reflect the heart and love of God.
It hurts, doesn’t it church, when this hurts a little too close to home.
But that is not the end of the story for God. It’s not the end of Isaiah’s words. No an image of hope of what could be starts to emerge. In the rebuilding of the vine year, a future with hope is coming!
For the people of Israel - Assyria, their enemy, will fall. Yes, David’s house also sees to be falling, but something new will emerge. A branch that will come from its roots. And all of this will be birthed out of the loving spirit of God.
Not only that but in this newness, there will be a peace like has never been known before. The lion will lay down with the lamb - this striking vision of peace because it isn’t what we have seen. It is a beautiful, rare, gift of God, like precious gem.
So why does this all matter? Because we worship a God who is the business of salving something from the rubble. We worship a God who transforms us and this world out of love. We worship a God, who even in the midst of our own sin and failure, says hope is on the way - even if it isn’t what you thought hope would look like.
So maybe this is our story as well - “waking up to loss and disillusionment, and still it’s a story about looking in the rubble for the fingerprints of God, a God who wept in the garden and at the grave of a friend, who leaves the ninety nine for the one, and who promises justice to the wounded and oppressed.”
Amen and amen.
