Sermon for January 23rd
January 23, 2005
“A Great Light”
Isaiah 5:1-7 and 9:1-4
Mathew 4:12-23
As you may know, this past year I discovered or was discovered by several relatives that I did not know I had. So, I visited them on my trip to California last year.
Now, it turns out that my relatives – who did not know each other, it turns out either, until recently … have married well, as they say. One has a husband who is a neuro-surgeon. He is doing okay, financially, we may assume. And the other married a business and computer specialist and the two of them went over to England for a while and made enough money working for Bank America to retire before the age of 50. Now, they spend their time managing their investments! I should be so lucky!
Well, northern California is wine country, especially around the Napa valley, north of the bay. You drive through that area and whole hillsides, as far as the eye can see, are filled with grape vineyards. It’s enormous and impressive.
It turns out, that you can even have a hobby vineyard. Doctor Hunstock has one in his back yard. A few – acres - in total. He is so busy with his medical practice, however, he can’t always tend it -- so he has someone come and help out. I was amazed.
My other cousin doesn’t raise grapes – he invests in wine. He has maybe a thousand bottles in his wine cellar. Not that he is going to drink all of them – but rather, they are an investment. For, as they age, they increase in value. Some people buy gold coins – he buys bottles of rare and expensive wine. And, in the evenings, he and his wife enjoy a few glasses as they watch the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge. Something you can’t do with Gold Coins!
California is wine country, as I said. Something I know little about, of course, growing up in Minnesota. But, having spent some time in the arboretum in Golden Gate park in San Francisco – I learned that the climate along the Pacific coast is very similar to the Mediterranean ocean. It is hot and dry on the land and yet, because of the ocean it is also warmer in the winter …
This is the kind of climate that grapes do well in … think of Spain, southern France, Italy, and, of course the Middle East and Israel in particular. Israel – the land of Jesus and Isaiah. See, where this is going?
3. Now, for a little agriculture:
In the time of Isaiah a vineyard was labor-intensive to install and to maintain. Yahweh and the farmers of Judah had to carve vineyards into rugged hillsides. They cleared away stones, built retaining walls, and brought in new topsoil. Only then could they plow and plant.
They used hardy vines as rootstock, to which they grafted cuttings from choice vines. To protect the vineyard, Yahweh and the farmers planted a hedge of cactus or built a wall with the rocks cleared from the hillside. Both prevented grazing animals and strangers from eating fruit that they did not work to produce. The hedges were complemented by a tower where children watched for birds or raiders. Before the vines began to produce, they had to be hoed and pruned for as long as five years. The ground around the vines was hoed in January and February. The vines were pruned in March. Finally, a two-vat winepress was carved out of the bedrock. In one vat the grapes would be crushed into a mash. In the other the juice was allowed to drain from the mash, and the sediment would be allowed to settle before the juice was transferred to large storage jars to ferment.
This was backbreaking and time consuming work. It required much dedication, love, and faith on the part of the farmers who were poor. This deep understanding of the nature of planting, growing, and harvesting grapes becomes a powerful metaphor for the love of God for his people Israel as it is written in the 80th Psalm:
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
4. This intense literal and metaphoric relationship between agriculture and nationhood and between God and Israel is so real to Isaiah and his people that he sees them not just working the land, but “making love to it.” In Semitic languages, according to Biblical Scholar, Don Benjamin, the connotations of words for farming and procreation all overlap. Procreation and farming are interchangeable because fertility was understood as the ability of the household to have a child, just as the harvesting of the grapes produced the fruit of the farmer’s labors.
Not only Isaiah, but Jesus also, we remember, used images of vineyards and grapes in his parables and stories, as well.
So, you get the idea … now, let us move on politics.
There is just not time enough to get into all the complexities of Middle Eastern politics in the time of Isaiah – which was around the sixth century BC. Wait - did I say complexities of Middle Eastern politics going back to over 600 years before Jesus? That sounds like today! Question: Has anything changed? Answer: Nothing has changed! Amazing!
For instance, here is a thumbnail sketch of the political realities which faced the Hebrew people in the time of Isaiah:
The war of 734–732 o.k. is called the “Syro-Ephraimite War,” because Syria and Israel, ruled by the household of Ephraim, attacked Judah. This military crisis erupted when the foreign policies of Assyria, Syria, Israel, and Judah collided. Assyria wanted to free its trade lanes in Syria-Palestine from taxation and piracy. Syria wanted to free itself from its covenant with Assyria. Israel wanted to free Judah from the isolationist policies of the household of David. Judah wanted to free itself from its covenant with Israel, which obligated it to follow Israel’s foreign-policy initiatives. By putting Judah on alert and fulfilling his covenant obligation to Assyria, Ahaz refuses to support the anti-Assyrian policies of Pekah (737–732 o.k.) and abrogates Judah’s covenant with Israel (Is 8:11–15*). Some in Judah supported Ahaz’s policy of seeking Assyrian aid to gain Judah’s independence from Israel. Some supported Syria’s policy of seeking Israel’s and Judah’s aid to gain independence from Assyria.[1]
Can you follow all that? No! But, you get the idea… sounds a lot like today, though, doesn’t it. Or - how about this for a sixth Century BCE version of “Face the Nation?”
“So, Ahaz, what is your current policy regarding whether you should ask Assyria for help in gaining Independence from Israel … won’t that just make you more dependent on Assyria?”
Sounds strange? … well it’s not … because that is just the kind of questions which Isaiah was raising – although not on television, of course.
So here is the problem in brief:
Assyria, the superpower of that area, was under the lead of their powerful King, Tiglath-Pilesar III. (What a great name! – I always have to stop and say that … Tiglath-Pilesar the 3rd). Well, anyway, Assyria wanted to either take over or extract taxes from all the surrounding states over which it held power and influence. This put the pressure on the Kings of Israel and Judah. “Pay up or become slaves.” -- It was, in a way, a form of state sponsored extortion or “protection money.”
Think for a moment, what do you suppose that the Assyrians would like most from Israel -- among other things? The Wine – of course! And so, King Jotham negotiates a clever treaty with the Assyrians which will allow him to stay in power … but will impoverish the people. In return, the Assyrians get all the wine they want. So, despite all the hard work that Yahweh and the farmers do for Jotham, the people of Judah starve. (The same historic vineyards which should have been prized possessions and whose produce would have brought them prosperity for generations.) Nonetheless, Jotham and the other Monarchs collected virtually everything as taxes.
Now, into this situation Isaiah is called to speak for God. You may remember last week how we talked about “being called” and how Isaiah said that “God had called him before he was born.”
This is still hard for us to understand – for what is “being called all about?”
Why? – we might ask – are some people called to be prophets? And why are most people not? What makes them special … and who gives them the right to speak for God? I wish I had more time to lay this out in more detail … but I will have to make just a few observations.
Or, I shall give you some observations from my favorite author on the prophets – the Jewish Rabbi Abraham Heschel.
Back when I was in the seminary I had a hard time understanding the prophets until I read Heschel. He wasn’t assigned reading because he was Jewish, I suppose, and most of the Christian writing on the prophets was focused mainly on the idea that they had predicted the coming of Jesus – that was all that counted. It didn’t matter, it was widely thought, what happened back in the six or seventh century in the little world of Israel – because all that was past – “that was then – this is now” – as the saying goes.
But, Heschel didn’t think so … for him the prophets were real and he brought them back to life for me … and I read the entire book cover to cover and underlined most of it … it literally exploded in my mind. I still have it.
Heschel was not only a great scholar and a great writer … he was also full of passion … and not at all like the dry and academic stuff I was reading in Old Testament studies up to that time.
Listen to this:
The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and Man. God is raging in the prophet’s words.” Wow!
And now this …
“There are no proofs for the existence of the God of Abraham,” Heschel wrote. “There are only witnesses. The greatness of the prophet lies not only in the ideas he expressed, but also in the moments he experienced. The prophet is a witness, and his words a testimony – to the power of God and His judgment, and to His justice and His mercy.”
His book is full of one great observation after another. But let us go on … for now Isaiah must speak. What will he say to the people of Judah and … to Jotham – the King?
Let us, listen to the words of Isaiah, in light of what we now know about grapes and vineyards and about political corruption and injustice:
First there is a hymn of praise to God …
(Isaiah 5:1–2*)
Sing of Yahweh as a lover! Sing of Yahweh’s love for the vineyard of Judah!
My lover built a vineyard.
Yahweh built it on a fertile hillside.
My lover spaded it, cleared it of stones, Yahweh planted choice vines.
My lover built a tower to watch over it. Yahweh hewed a winepress out of rock.
Then comes an indictment, as if in a court of law … but Isaiah is speaking for God … to the people directly …
(Isaiah 5:3–4*)
When my lover looked for fine domestic grapes,
Yahweh found garbage.
“Let Jerusalem and Judah judge between me and my vineyard.
What could I do for Judah that I had not done?
When I looked for fine domestic grapes,
I found garbage.
And, then God gives out the sentence … the judgment:
(Isaiah 5:5–6*)
Therefore, the hedge of the vineyard will be cut down so goats can graze.
Strangers will breach its wall, and trample the vines.
The vineyard shall return to chaos.
The vineyard shall not be pruned or hoed,
The vineyard shall be overgrown with thorns.
The clouds will not open.
The clouds will not send rain upon the vineyard.”
And, lastly, there is one further indictment in which again
Isaiah makes the tremendous comparison between … Judah and the vineyard of God.
For it is, in God’s eyes, the people who have failed … to do justice … to live up to His expectations as the Chosen Nation … Powerful words of condemnation … so much so that we might want to run and hide … and yet … What a Great Vision! … to know … that in spite of all the shortcomings … God really still cares … cares enough to try to turn things around … AND THAT IS THE REAL MESSAGE … of Isaiah … listen now to the second indictment:
(Isaiah 5:7*)
The vineyard is the land of Judah.
The land is Yahweh’s chosen vine.
Yahweh looked there for judgment,
Yahweh found bloodshed,
Yahweh looked there for justice,
Yahweh heard the cry of the poor who farmed.
9. Justice and oppression … politics and deception … we are now put on notice … that God, too, notices … God is paying attention - for Yahweh has “heard the cry of the poor.”
Not only that … But God cares … God is not indifferent … God knows about every hair on our head … and when a sparrow falls – God is moved … Nothing, nothing, is lost to God. It all matters. This is the message of Isaiah and of Jesus … it all matters.
Think about it - if only the dictators of the world … and those who oppress the poor … and who pretend to be wonderful and speak fine phrases while they do evil … if only they understood this message of Isaiah that “nothing is lost upon God.” It all matters! What a different world this would be! But so often … they/we think … “Oh, it doesn’t matter … God doesn’t care … doesn’t see … is not all that interested” … and so people are full of themselves … full of their own ideas … full of their own plans … filled with taking advantage of the present opportunities as they appear … just like Jotham the King of Israel … “So what if the people are poor? … So what if they work long days in the vineyards and get little in return … so what?”
And Isaiah isn’t the only one to lament, for if we return to Psalm 80 we hear these words:
12 Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
13 Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it.
14 Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see!
Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire;
at your rebuke your people perish.
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you;
revive us, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O LORD God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
10. Now this raises for us the REALLY big question … which is: “What is God all About? Who is God … what is God like …?” For if Isaiah’s words of indictment and lament and judgment are all there is to God … then we might as well be doomed. But, all is not lost … for in the passage for this Sunday which we read earlier … Isaiah also speaks for God … when he says the great words:
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy; they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
11. “A Great Light has dawned on those who have walked in Darkness.”
Have you ever walked in darkness? Perhaps we all have at one time or another … whether it was illness … or other forms of misfortune. For who cannot say that there were not dark times in our life - which we thought would never end. Or, perhaps, that time is now … and you hear the stinging words of Isaiah … words of judgment … and feel that somehow God is punishing you for something or other …
“How long, Oh Lord, must we suffer … pain, misfortune, injustice, oppression …” Who has not said these words like Isaiah?
Consider, for instance, Nelson Mandela … spending over 20 years in prison … walking in darkness … for Apartheid in South Africa … now finally freed
Or, the people in Israel today … descendents of the great Holocaust in Europe which took millions …
Or, the people of Palestine … still struggling to become a nation … in a world of conflict no better today than it was in l948 … or perhaps even in the time of Isaiah.
12. Does God care …? That is the question … and does God care about me or you? Powerful questions … because, I can tell you this … if God doesn’t care then - Who cares? What difference does it make? And that is it – indifference … indifference to injustice, to suffering, to pain, to death … all the things that enslave men and women … whether it was the Tsunami disaster in SE Asia or the death of the young soldier from Cass Lake who was killed in Baghdad and whose funeral was this past week. And this morning’s message is that it matters … it really matters … God is not indifferent.
For why would Yahweh send Isaiah the prophet … who himself, went through terrible anguish …( for being called by God is no piece of cake) … why would God send Isaiah if he didn’t care?
Much easier, no doubt, for God to just write off the Israelites … after all, who cares? … nations come and go … the Assyrians … they are gone … the Persians they are gone … the Egyptian Empire … the Roman Empire … they are gone …
In fact, in the time of Israel … if a god didn’t deliver victory for his nation … he too was a goner … and so were they …
But, the God of Israel was not like that … Yahweh did not give up … and time and again … the prophets came … throughout the years … throughout the centuries as Israel struggled to maintain itself … a small nation in a very large world … and God didn’t give up when Israel acted badly and when it made mistakes … and when it made false contracts with neighboring dictators in order to survive … and, in turn, despite their infidelity and their narrow mindedness and their selfishness … the people didn’t give up on Yahweh either … when it comes right down to it …
And don’t think it didn’t worry on them … that God might not be what they thought he was … for, Heschel says, “there is no proof for the existence of the God of Abraham … only witnesses.”
That’s faith …. Faith in the witnesses of God … faith in the prophets …
13. So, it is true for us as well … for we also want to know … we want to see the light … which will redeem us from our sorrow … our shortcomings … our iniquities … and our pain …
Yet, we live, especially today … in seemingly greater darkness … for the world has not gotten better as of late … and there is danger and worry … and uncertainty … and trouble in the world … and the happier days of the nineties … seem now like a thing of the past …
And there is a tendency nowadays to see only the gloom and not the light …
And we ask ourselves … where shall the hope come from?
14. As part of my scripture preparation for writing sermons … I often read the Interpreters Bible in the library … it’s only about 60 years old … it probably cost a lot of money back in the l950s. It’s not one book but a whole set of about 15 volumes. Sometime we should get it updated … except that a completely new set … runs around $ 800 dollars hardback or on CD. I don’t need it that bad. And, besides, I have lots of other resources.
And also, every once in a while I find it interesting to read something that goes back a ways … just for perspective … because in the commentaries section of our Interpreters Bible the “current references” are to things that happened in the first half of the 20th century … over 60 and 80 years ago, now. And yet, strangely, they seem quite relevant to today … just as Isaiah’s world is very relevant to modern events in the Middle East. So, I conclude with this story … about World War I … and about Isaiah:
On November 11, 1918, the sun rose on the delivered city of Mons, in France. All night long the darkness had been shot through with the lurid flashes of gunfire, and the staccato chatter of the machine guns had echoed through the deserted streets. But at dawn the last German outpost withdrew, and from the barred and shuttered homes of men the people streamed. Down the street sped the cry, “Hang out your flags.” When the sun rose, it shone on a city of banners, and on the delirious joy of those who, having for four and a half years dwelt in a land of darkness, now walked free. So Isaiah in his moment of vision saw the future of his beloved nation and he projects on the screen of the future the great deliverance.
15. Yet, that deliverance for the people of Judah was not yet to come in Isaiah’s time … or a long time after that … and many centuries would pass before Mathew would write these words:
13Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali– 14to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 15“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles– 16the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
17From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Let us pray …
“A Great Light”
Isaiah 5:1-7 and 9:1-4
Mathew 4:12-23
As you may know, this past year I discovered or was discovered by several relatives that I did not know I had. So, I visited them on my trip to California last year.
Now, it turns out that my relatives – who did not know each other, it turns out either, until recently … have married well, as they say. One has a husband who is a neuro-surgeon. He is doing okay, financially, we may assume. And the other married a business and computer specialist and the two of them went over to England for a while and made enough money working for Bank America to retire before the age of 50. Now, they spend their time managing their investments! I should be so lucky!
Well, northern California is wine country, especially around the Napa valley, north of the bay. You drive through that area and whole hillsides, as far as the eye can see, are filled with grape vineyards. It’s enormous and impressive.
It turns out, that you can even have a hobby vineyard. Doctor Hunstock has one in his back yard. A few – acres - in total. He is so busy with his medical practice, however, he can’t always tend it -- so he has someone come and help out. I was amazed.
My other cousin doesn’t raise grapes – he invests in wine. He has maybe a thousand bottles in his wine cellar. Not that he is going to drink all of them – but rather, they are an investment. For, as they age, they increase in value. Some people buy gold coins – he buys bottles of rare and expensive wine. And, in the evenings, he and his wife enjoy a few glasses as they watch the sun set over the Golden Gate Bridge. Something you can’t do with Gold Coins!
California is wine country, as I said. Something I know little about, of course, growing up in Minnesota. But, having spent some time in the arboretum in Golden Gate park in San Francisco – I learned that the climate along the Pacific coast is very similar to the Mediterranean ocean. It is hot and dry on the land and yet, because of the ocean it is also warmer in the winter …
This is the kind of climate that grapes do well in … think of Spain, southern France, Italy, and, of course the Middle East and Israel in particular. Israel – the land of Jesus and Isaiah. See, where this is going?
3. Now, for a little agriculture:
In the time of Isaiah a vineyard was labor-intensive to install and to maintain. Yahweh and the farmers of Judah had to carve vineyards into rugged hillsides. They cleared away stones, built retaining walls, and brought in new topsoil. Only then could they plow and plant.
They used hardy vines as rootstock, to which they grafted cuttings from choice vines. To protect the vineyard, Yahweh and the farmers planted a hedge of cactus or built a wall with the rocks cleared from the hillside. Both prevented grazing animals and strangers from eating fruit that they did not work to produce. The hedges were complemented by a tower where children watched for birds or raiders. Before the vines began to produce, they had to be hoed and pruned for as long as five years. The ground around the vines was hoed in January and February. The vines were pruned in March. Finally, a two-vat winepress was carved out of the bedrock. In one vat the grapes would be crushed into a mash. In the other the juice was allowed to drain from the mash, and the sediment would be allowed to settle before the juice was transferred to large storage jars to ferment.
This was backbreaking and time consuming work. It required much dedication, love, and faith on the part of the farmers who were poor. This deep understanding of the nature of planting, growing, and harvesting grapes becomes a powerful metaphor for the love of God for his people Israel as it is written in the 80th Psalm:
You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. It sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.
4. This intense literal and metaphoric relationship between agriculture and nationhood and between God and Israel is so real to Isaiah and his people that he sees them not just working the land, but “making love to it.” In Semitic languages, according to Biblical Scholar, Don Benjamin, the connotations of words for farming and procreation all overlap. Procreation and farming are interchangeable because fertility was understood as the ability of the household to have a child, just as the harvesting of the grapes produced the fruit of the farmer’s labors.
Not only Isaiah, but Jesus also, we remember, used images of vineyards and grapes in his parables and stories, as well.
So, you get the idea … now, let us move on politics.
There is just not time enough to get into all the complexities of Middle Eastern politics in the time of Isaiah – which was around the sixth century BC. Wait - did I say complexities of Middle Eastern politics going back to over 600 years before Jesus? That sounds like today! Question: Has anything changed? Answer: Nothing has changed! Amazing!
For instance, here is a thumbnail sketch of the political realities which faced the Hebrew people in the time of Isaiah:
The war of 734–732 o.k. is called the “Syro-Ephraimite War,” because Syria and Israel, ruled by the household of Ephraim, attacked Judah. This military crisis erupted when the foreign policies of Assyria, Syria, Israel, and Judah collided. Assyria wanted to free its trade lanes in Syria-Palestine from taxation and piracy. Syria wanted to free itself from its covenant with Assyria. Israel wanted to free Judah from the isolationist policies of the household of David. Judah wanted to free itself from its covenant with Israel, which obligated it to follow Israel’s foreign-policy initiatives. By putting Judah on alert and fulfilling his covenant obligation to Assyria, Ahaz refuses to support the anti-Assyrian policies of Pekah (737–732 o.k.) and abrogates Judah’s covenant with Israel (Is 8:11–15*). Some in Judah supported Ahaz’s policy of seeking Assyrian aid to gain Judah’s independence from Israel. Some supported Syria’s policy of seeking Israel’s and Judah’s aid to gain independence from Assyria.[1]
Can you follow all that? No! But, you get the idea… sounds a lot like today, though, doesn’t it. Or - how about this for a sixth Century BCE version of “Face the Nation?”
“So, Ahaz, what is your current policy regarding whether you should ask Assyria for help in gaining Independence from Israel … won’t that just make you more dependent on Assyria?”
Sounds strange? … well it’s not … because that is just the kind of questions which Isaiah was raising – although not on television, of course.
So here is the problem in brief:
Assyria, the superpower of that area, was under the lead of their powerful King, Tiglath-Pilesar III. (What a great name! – I always have to stop and say that … Tiglath-Pilesar the 3rd). Well, anyway, Assyria wanted to either take over or extract taxes from all the surrounding states over which it held power and influence. This put the pressure on the Kings of Israel and Judah. “Pay up or become slaves.” -- It was, in a way, a form of state sponsored extortion or “protection money.”
Think for a moment, what do you suppose that the Assyrians would like most from Israel -- among other things? The Wine – of course! And so, King Jotham negotiates a clever treaty with the Assyrians which will allow him to stay in power … but will impoverish the people. In return, the Assyrians get all the wine they want. So, despite all the hard work that Yahweh and the farmers do for Jotham, the people of Judah starve. (The same historic vineyards which should have been prized possessions and whose produce would have brought them prosperity for generations.) Nonetheless, Jotham and the other Monarchs collected virtually everything as taxes.
Now, into this situation Isaiah is called to speak for God. You may remember last week how we talked about “being called” and how Isaiah said that “God had called him before he was born.”
This is still hard for us to understand – for what is “being called all about?”
Why? – we might ask – are some people called to be prophets? And why are most people not? What makes them special … and who gives them the right to speak for God? I wish I had more time to lay this out in more detail … but I will have to make just a few observations.
Or, I shall give you some observations from my favorite author on the prophets – the Jewish Rabbi Abraham Heschel.
Back when I was in the seminary I had a hard time understanding the prophets until I read Heschel. He wasn’t assigned reading because he was Jewish, I suppose, and most of the Christian writing on the prophets was focused mainly on the idea that they had predicted the coming of Jesus – that was all that counted. It didn’t matter, it was widely thought, what happened back in the six or seventh century in the little world of Israel – because all that was past – “that was then – this is now” – as the saying goes.
But, Heschel didn’t think so … for him the prophets were real and he brought them back to life for me … and I read the entire book cover to cover and underlined most of it … it literally exploded in my mind. I still have it.
Heschel was not only a great scholar and a great writer … he was also full of passion … and not at all like the dry and academic stuff I was reading in Old Testament studies up to that time.
Listen to this:
The prophet is a man who feels fiercely. God has thrust a burden upon his soul, and he is bowed and stunned at man’s fierce greed. Frightful is the agony of man; no human voice can convey its full terror. Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profaned riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and Man. God is raging in the prophet’s words.” Wow!
And now this …
“There are no proofs for the existence of the God of Abraham,” Heschel wrote. “There are only witnesses. The greatness of the prophet lies not only in the ideas he expressed, but also in the moments he experienced. The prophet is a witness, and his words a testimony – to the power of God and His judgment, and to His justice and His mercy.”
His book is full of one great observation after another. But let us go on … for now Isaiah must speak. What will he say to the people of Judah and … to Jotham – the King?
Let us, listen to the words of Isaiah, in light of what we now know about grapes and vineyards and about political corruption and injustice:
First there is a hymn of praise to God …
(Isaiah 5:1–2*)
Sing of Yahweh as a lover! Sing of Yahweh’s love for the vineyard of Judah!
My lover built a vineyard.
Yahweh built it on a fertile hillside.
My lover spaded it, cleared it of stones, Yahweh planted choice vines.
My lover built a tower to watch over it. Yahweh hewed a winepress out of rock.
Then comes an indictment, as if in a court of law … but Isaiah is speaking for God … to the people directly …
(Isaiah 5:3–4*)
When my lover looked for fine domestic grapes,
Yahweh found garbage.
“Let Jerusalem and Judah judge between me and my vineyard.
What could I do for Judah that I had not done?
When I looked for fine domestic grapes,
I found garbage.
And, then God gives out the sentence … the judgment:
(Isaiah 5:5–6*)
Therefore, the hedge of the vineyard will be cut down so goats can graze.
Strangers will breach its wall, and trample the vines.
The vineyard shall return to chaos.
The vineyard shall not be pruned or hoed,
The vineyard shall be overgrown with thorns.
The clouds will not open.
The clouds will not send rain upon the vineyard.”
And, lastly, there is one further indictment in which again
Isaiah makes the tremendous comparison between … Judah and the vineyard of God.
For it is, in God’s eyes, the people who have failed … to do justice … to live up to His expectations as the Chosen Nation … Powerful words of condemnation … so much so that we might want to run and hide … and yet … What a Great Vision! … to know … that in spite of all the shortcomings … God really still cares … cares enough to try to turn things around … AND THAT IS THE REAL MESSAGE … of Isaiah … listen now to the second indictment:
(Isaiah 5:7*)
The vineyard is the land of Judah.
The land is Yahweh’s chosen vine.
Yahweh looked there for judgment,
Yahweh found bloodshed,
Yahweh looked there for justice,
Yahweh heard the cry of the poor who farmed.
9. Justice and oppression … politics and deception … we are now put on notice … that God, too, notices … God is paying attention - for Yahweh has “heard the cry of the poor.”
Not only that … But God cares … God is not indifferent … God knows about every hair on our head … and when a sparrow falls – God is moved … Nothing, nothing, is lost to God. It all matters. This is the message of Isaiah and of Jesus … it all matters.
Think about it - if only the dictators of the world … and those who oppress the poor … and who pretend to be wonderful and speak fine phrases while they do evil … if only they understood this message of Isaiah that “nothing is lost upon God.” It all matters! What a different world this would be! But so often … they/we think … “Oh, it doesn’t matter … God doesn’t care … doesn’t see … is not all that interested” … and so people are full of themselves … full of their own ideas … full of their own plans … filled with taking advantage of the present opportunities as they appear … just like Jotham the King of Israel … “So what if the people are poor? … So what if they work long days in the vineyards and get little in return … so what?”
And Isaiah isn’t the only one to lament, for if we return to Psalm 80 we hear these words:
12 Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
13 Boars from the forest ravage it and the creatures of the field feed on it.
14 Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see!
Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
16 Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire;
at your rebuke your people perish.
17 Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
the son of man you have raised up for yourself.
18 Then we will not turn away from you;
revive us, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O LORD God Almighty;
make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
10. Now this raises for us the REALLY big question … which is: “What is God all About? Who is God … what is God like …?” For if Isaiah’s words of indictment and lament and judgment are all there is to God … then we might as well be doomed. But, all is not lost … for in the passage for this Sunday which we read earlier … Isaiah also speaks for God … when he says the great words:
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy; they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
11. “A Great Light has dawned on those who have walked in Darkness.”
Have you ever walked in darkness? Perhaps we all have at one time or another … whether it was illness … or other forms of misfortune. For who cannot say that there were not dark times in our life - which we thought would never end. Or, perhaps, that time is now … and you hear the stinging words of Isaiah … words of judgment … and feel that somehow God is punishing you for something or other …
“How long, Oh Lord, must we suffer … pain, misfortune, injustice, oppression …” Who has not said these words like Isaiah?
Consider, for instance, Nelson Mandela … spending over 20 years in prison … walking in darkness … for Apartheid in South Africa … now finally freed
Or, the people in Israel today … descendents of the great Holocaust in Europe which took millions …
Or, the people of Palestine … still struggling to become a nation … in a world of conflict no better today than it was in l948 … or perhaps even in the time of Isaiah.
12. Does God care …? That is the question … and does God care about me or you? Powerful questions … because, I can tell you this … if God doesn’t care then - Who cares? What difference does it make? And that is it – indifference … indifference to injustice, to suffering, to pain, to death … all the things that enslave men and women … whether it was the Tsunami disaster in SE Asia or the death of the young soldier from Cass Lake who was killed in Baghdad and whose funeral was this past week. And this morning’s message is that it matters … it really matters … God is not indifferent.
For why would Yahweh send Isaiah the prophet … who himself, went through terrible anguish …( for being called by God is no piece of cake) … why would God send Isaiah if he didn’t care?
Much easier, no doubt, for God to just write off the Israelites … after all, who cares? … nations come and go … the Assyrians … they are gone … the Persians they are gone … the Egyptian Empire … the Roman Empire … they are gone …
In fact, in the time of Israel … if a god didn’t deliver victory for his nation … he too was a goner … and so were they …
But, the God of Israel was not like that … Yahweh did not give up … and time and again … the prophets came … throughout the years … throughout the centuries as Israel struggled to maintain itself … a small nation in a very large world … and God didn’t give up when Israel acted badly and when it made mistakes … and when it made false contracts with neighboring dictators in order to survive … and, in turn, despite their infidelity and their narrow mindedness and their selfishness … the people didn’t give up on Yahweh either … when it comes right down to it …
And don’t think it didn’t worry on them … that God might not be what they thought he was … for, Heschel says, “there is no proof for the existence of the God of Abraham … only witnesses.”
That’s faith …. Faith in the witnesses of God … faith in the prophets …
13. So, it is true for us as well … for we also want to know … we want to see the light … which will redeem us from our sorrow … our shortcomings … our iniquities … and our pain …
Yet, we live, especially today … in seemingly greater darkness … for the world has not gotten better as of late … and there is danger and worry … and uncertainty … and trouble in the world … and the happier days of the nineties … seem now like a thing of the past …
And there is a tendency nowadays to see only the gloom and not the light …
And we ask ourselves … where shall the hope come from?
14. As part of my scripture preparation for writing sermons … I often read the Interpreters Bible in the library … it’s only about 60 years old … it probably cost a lot of money back in the l950s. It’s not one book but a whole set of about 15 volumes. Sometime we should get it updated … except that a completely new set … runs around $ 800 dollars hardback or on CD. I don’t need it that bad. And, besides, I have lots of other resources.
And also, every once in a while I find it interesting to read something that goes back a ways … just for perspective … because in the commentaries section of our Interpreters Bible the “current references” are to things that happened in the first half of the 20th century … over 60 and 80 years ago, now. And yet, strangely, they seem quite relevant to today … just as Isaiah’s world is very relevant to modern events in the Middle East. So, I conclude with this story … about World War I … and about Isaiah:
On November 11, 1918, the sun rose on the delivered city of Mons, in France. All night long the darkness had been shot through with the lurid flashes of gunfire, and the staccato chatter of the machine guns had echoed through the deserted streets. But at dawn the last German outpost withdrew, and from the barred and shuttered homes of men the people streamed. Down the street sped the cry, “Hang out your flags.” When the sun rose, it shone on a city of banners, and on the delirious joy of those who, having for four and a half years dwelt in a land of darkness, now walked free. So Isaiah in his moment of vision saw the future of his beloved nation and he projects on the screen of the future the great deliverance.
15. Yet, that deliverance for the people of Judah was not yet to come in Isaiah’s time … or a long time after that … and many centuries would pass before Mathew would write these words:
13Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali– 14to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 15“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles– 16the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
17From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Let us pray …
posted by Anonymous at 10:53 AM
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