Grapes Gone Wild

Our summer journey with the prophets of the Hebrew Bible has made me want to do anything but invite them along on my vacation. I was tempted to text Pastor Jeff on Friday morning and ask if we could skip the sermon this week. “Maybe an extra song or an earlier dismissal to brunch?” I thought to myself.

According to Professor Walter Brueggemann, the prophet has two tasks. This first is to critique dominant thought and structures and, in doing so, announce God’s destruction of that which is unjust and oppressive. The second task is to use the “prophetic imagination” to energize and proclaim the good news of God’s justice and new creation. They are building up after tearing down. 

The prophet Isaiah does the first part of his task with his love song turned parable of judgment. The Lord “expects justice but instead saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry.” The prophet calls attention to Israel’s failure to live up to their expected standards.[i]

Isaiah drew his audience in with the smooth notes of a love song. Subtle. Inviting. But as the story unfolds, the prophet prepares a sledgehammer.

“Let me sing for my loved one
    a love song for his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
He dug it,
    cleared away its stones,
    planted it with excellent vines,
    built a tower inside it,
    and dug out a wine vat in it.
He expected it to grow good grapes—
    but it grew rotten grapes.

What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I haven’t done for it?
When I expected it to grow good grapes,
    why did it grow rotten grapes?
Now let me tell you what I’m doing to my vineyard.
I’m removing its hedge,
    so it will be destroyed.
I’m breaking down its walls,
    so it will be trampled.
I’ll turn it into a ruin;
    it won’t be pruned or hoed,
    and thorns and thistles will grow up.”[ii]

In the Lord’s eyes, remember the prophets are the earthly spokesperson for the Lord God, Judah, and Jerusalem – Israel – had been well-cared for and set up to be a fruitful people. The Lord looked after them. The Lord had cleared away any stones that might prevent the fruit from growing. The nation was to be sweet fruit while the world around them turned to wild grapes.

Grapes of the vintner versus grapes gone wild.

The Lord expected justice – the marginalized would be cared for, not exploited.

The Lord expected righteousness – the people of Judah and Jerusalem are to live into the Law they received from Mount Sinai after the Lord led them to freedom from bondage in Egypt through the Red Sea.

The people forgot who they were. The people forgot whose they were.

It can be easy to look back on the words of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible and think their words, Isaiah’s, were for the people of the 8th century. But the truth is that the words of the ancient prophets continue to speak a word of judgment and grace to the people of God today and will speak a word tomorrow as well.

Five years ago, this week the Unite the Right rally ripped through Charlottesville, VA. White Supremacy has been front and center – no longer under the whispered breath by relatives we see once a year – and acceptable by many ever since the polo shirt-wearing and tiki torch-carrying mob paraded through Charlottesville in the summer of 2017. The rhetoric and violence in Charlottesville in August of 2017 showed a light on what White Supremacy truly looks like; what their motives and agenda are. The rhetoric and violence in Charlottesville in August of 2017 showed light on how we are guilty participants – active and passive – in a system that props up White Supremacy; by the purchases we make, the jokes we tell under our breath, the people we choose to involve in our lives, and so much more.

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In the rhetoric shouted in Charlottesville back in 2017 and in the political rhetoric shouted today, there is little focus on what the Lord would define as justice; righteousness for many in Charlottesville in 2017 and still today has less to do with what the Lord expects of us and more to do with pandering to a certain political base or certain individual.

The Lord expects justice but instead sees an idolatrous addiction to weapons of war; righteousness but instead sees a pro-life movement that does not have the stomach to ensure a sustainable quality of life or dignity for all people.

You might think, “Pastor Teer, that’s a biased analysis. You have oversimplified complex issues, reducing them to a one-sentence sermon illustration.”

Okay, let’s look for another illustration.

Throughout the pandemic, we heard, even said, “We’re All in This Together.” Was that a statement of fact or a cheap slogan to help hide the fact that the economic divide in our nation, in our community, grew wider? Many of us were happy to stay at home and allow those who could not do so to deliver our groceries, Amazon orders, and takeout dinners. While I huddled behind a door secured with a fresh layer of disinfecting spray, it was easy to set a delivery timeline and click deliver.

The lower-middle class and low-income workers bore the brunt of the pandemic's economic consequences, if not the health consequences. In contrast, others grew their income and wealth, furthering the divide within our community. Pushing people out of communities because the cost required to barely get by is too high.

The Lord expects justice but instead sees portions of the community exploited or forgotten; righteousness but instead sees neighbors forgetting one another.

Parables of judgment always feel like a smack on the nose. Like a teammate, launch a firm chest pass your way when you are not ready, and instead of a quick layup, you have a broken nose and blood on your new sneakers.

But the Good News in the doom and gloom of the parables of judgment is that judgment does not equal punishment. God does not tear down the walls of the vineyard and allow the beasts of the wild to trample the vineyard.

Isaiah does not forget the second part of his prophetic task – to energize and announce the good news of God’s justice and new creation. Building up after tearing down.

The prophet tells another vineyard story.

“Sing about a delightful vineyard!

I, the Lord, am its guardian.

Every moment I water it;

    night and day, I guard it from attack.

I’m not angry,

    but if it yields thorns and thistles for me,

    I will march to battle against it;

    I will torch it completely.

Or let them cling to me for refuge;

    let them make peace with me;

    let them make peace with me.

In coming days,

    Jacob will take root;

    Israel will blossom and sprout

    and fill the whole world with produce.”[iii]

Grace is getting the exact opposite of what we deserve. What we deserve for our idolatrous obsession with guns differs from what we get. What we deserve for our failure to live up to the expectation that we love our neighbors as ourselves, caring for the marginalized and forgotten, is different than what we get.

Judgment does come our way but is followed quickly behind, if not, a step ahead is the grace of God. The love of our Creator cannot be erased, forgotten, or undone no matter what they have done, no matter what we have done.

Jesus told a story about a vineyard.

He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. He removes any of my branches that don’t produce fruit, and he trims any branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already trimmed because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me.”[iv]

There is nothing that can undo the fruit already produced in you. Clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, new life because of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we have been set free from the ways we miss the expectations of God. Free to seek justice, to live righteously, not because of our ability to do so, but rather because of Christ.

This is not a free pass to create a theocracy or to exploit our neighbors. No, this is an invitation to seek justice and righteousness in all we do. Not for the sake of ourselves but because we have been judged and found guilty when our grapes went wild. But Jesus assures us that the gardener is not done with us and has not given up on us.

[i] Isaiah 5:2-6

[ii] Isaiah 5:1-2, 4-6

[iii] Isaiah 27:2-6

[iv] John 15:1-4