Notes on Isaiah 5 - Pentecost 12C

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This week’s text from Isaiah seems to offer little hope and redemption is far away. The condemnation is real from God, and I have to say that preaching through the prophets this summer has been rough to find the edges of hope and to preach what is evident in the text.

Chris Haslam seems to have hit on the defining moment for the vineyard, knowing that recovery can be present in this ruin of a vineyard with a  little grooming in the fields, to prune it up, clear the weeds, add some fresh spring water by way of irrigation and the hope of the previous jewel of the vintner is restored.

 

As such I am reminded of two stories…

One extra-canonical

KEEPER OF THE SPRING

As Told by Charles R. Swindoll

 

The late Peter Marshall, an eloquent speaker and for several years the chaplain of the United States Senate, used to love to tell the story of “The keeper of the spring,” a quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village along the eastern slopes of the Alps. The old gentleman had been hired many years ago by a young town council to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise choke and contaminate the fresh flow of water. By and by, the village became a popular attraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clear spring, the millwheels of various businesses located near the water turned day and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated, in the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description. Years passed. One evening the town council met for its semi-annual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man’s eye caught the salary figure being paid to the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, “Who is the old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. He isn’t necessary any longer!” By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man’s services. For several weeks nothing changed. By early autumn the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in the spring. A couple days later that water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks and a foul odor was soon detected. The mill wheels moved more slowly, some finally ground to a halt. Swans left as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease and sickness reached deeply into the village. Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they hired back the old keeper of the spring…and within a few weeks the veritable river of life began to clear up. The wheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps once again.

 

 

 

The other is from the New Testament, where the vine is restored to its precious place in the field, and hope is restored, with some serious pruning and trimming and some clearing of the fields as well.

 

John 15:1-17

John 15

The Vine and the Branches

 1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17This is my command: Love each other.

Footnotes:

1. John 15:2 The Greek for prunes also means cleans.

 

 

Isaiah 5

The Song of the Vineyard

 1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

3 “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

5 Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

6 I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”

7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

 

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Notes on Pentecost 11C: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

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Isaiah 1

1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

This Amoz is not the same as the prophet Amos.

The kings listed reigned from 783-687BCE.

This vision from Isaiah looks backwards, forwards and at the present situation to provide a context for where Israel has been, where God is taking them, and what the current state of affairs looks like.

One thing to note is that the City and Kingdom remain the same and four kings are listed, and so one is pressed to consider that none of the kings did anything substantial to change the state of affairs and how the Kingdom would present itself before God.

10 Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

God calls out Israel in very direct and affronting language. God calls Israel by the names of the those nations best known for being burned to the ground and destroyed from visual memory, though they remain in the memory of the people for their blatant disregard for the laws of the Lord, especially hospitality. Sodom and Gomorrah are the great sinner cities of all time, and Israel is now being compared to those cities, and should sit upright and take notice of what God is saying next. For some, it might be like when your parents called you by all your names, rather than the name you went by regularly – you knew you were going to be in trouble, so does Israel.

11 “The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?” says the LORD.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

Israel was trying to buy off God with their show and their sacrifices. Consider how this might happen in your congregation:

-Give more to missions

-Tithe more than 10%

-Feed enough homeless

-Give enough rummage to the church (without taking the tax write-off)

-Worship so many consecutive Sundays that no one can tell when the last time you missed was.

-Offer thanksgiving prayers for everything, including cavities, broken bones, deaths and the like.

 

We should also hear Psalm 51 here, where God desires first and foremost a broken and contrite spirit, more than any offering.

 12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?

God takes Israel to task asking them to show where it was told them to offer these sacrifices in this way,  and to do it in such a place.

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

All the festivals of joy seem to have been overrun with the desire to “please” God, rather than out of the joy of having from the great abundance that God has given. Giving has become a chore and a responsibility rather than a genuine response of thanks.

14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

God reminds Israel that the feasts that were to release them from their bondage and be celebrations of the freedom that God has given them is now turned to bondage of God.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

Remember that blood is life and to show ones hands full of blood to God is to delight in taking life. This is not the plan God has for the people, but instead God offers hope in new life, through giving ourselves first to God to be willing and obedient to the hopes and dreams God has for us.

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

When I read this I think of Psalm 24:4 “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.”

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. ^[a]
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

God once again lays it out plainly for the people of Israel to do what is right, to defend the persons who are least able to defend themselves. To bring up by the bootstraps not just oneself, but others as well. Stump to give what each deserves to have a life in this world, not out of anything other than the abundance of which God has so graciously given each of us, and that in gratitude, rather than to appease some angry God.

18 “Come now, let us reason together,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

This image is wonderful. God sits down to reason with the people, and to lay out the case that has been brought, but that the whole thing can be swept aside and made as though it never existed. I think of the image of “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” The power of that image is one for anyone who has ever put a white shirt in with a red garment in the wash, only to find a pink shirt at the end of the load. Then try whatever amount of bleach and mixture of chemicals/solutions you’d like and get the red out of the formerly white/now pink shirt. I have never gotten it back to white, and yet God is saying that He will wash it so clean that it will be whiter than before, and that isn’t just the formerly white/now pink shirt, but the red garment that caused the mess in the first place.

19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;

And here is where the Lord puts the simple part of the agreement for Israel to have all their sins wiped from the face of the earth, and to be made all the more clean – just be willing and obedient. The kicker to it is that God lays out another prize for Israel if they are to be willing and obedient. Not only will the former things be put away, but now they will be treated as kings and queens who get to feast on the best of the land. God places them in a new place, alongside the throne where God is seated that they might experience the greatness of God.

20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The story does not end with sheer happiness and the Lord’s release of Israel from all culpability, but offers the truth before them. God reminds Israel, that even though they can be made white as snow and pure as wool, they have to choose to do what is right. If they do not, then the bloodletting that began with animals in sacrifice will conclude with bloodletting of the people of Israel as the sacrifice before God, devoured by the sword.

Footnotes:

1. Isaiah 1:17 Or / rebuke the oppressor

 

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

2 Kings 5:1-14 and Psalm 30
or
Isaiah 66:10-14 and Psalm 66:1-9
Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20