This week we went to see
lights in Vancouver. They had an Aurora (Northern Lights) festival at the PNE
grounds. Heather was able to go on stage and act out the part of Santa's
reindeer, Prancer; she was able to go on a lot of rides and we were able to
walk around and look at a lot of really interesting lights. A few days prior,
we were in Victoria. This year they have lights in Centennial Square. We took a
look at those with the girls’ cousin and my folks. We also looked at the lights
in Chinatown and on the Parliament Buildings. And a week ago today Heather and
I went to look at the lights at Milner Gardens.
That was really quite
something. Heather had been the day before so she knew exactly what she wanted
to show me in the garden. We looked at all the lights through these special
glasses that made them look like stars, candy canes, or reindeer. Then we
had story time, cookies and hot chocolate, listened to musicians and carollers
and had a very nice tea and scones. Heather was taken aback by a Christmas Tree
they had in the teahouse that was decorated entirely with tea cups. It was a
fun evening that Heather and I had together in the garden.
Our scripture today is
about a garden, a vineyard, in which God wanted to spend time with His
children, His people. Isaiah shares this song about a loved one who had a
vineyard on a fertile hillside. He loved it. He tended to it. He rototilled it
- or the ancient equivalent - he dug it up, picked the stones, built a watch
tower, made a grape press (a wine press). He loved it. He cared for it. He did
everything one could be expected to do for His vineyard. And he kept looking
for a crop of good grapes from this loved, tended to vineyard on fertile soil
but it refused to produce fruit.
The songwriter tells us
that the Lord's vineyard which was refusing to produce fruit is Jerusalem and
Judah. Later he reiterates that the vineyard are the people of Judah and
Israel. We know what Judah, Jerusalem and Israel are right?
Israel was an ancient
kingdom named after who? (Israel) and who was Israel? What was his other name?
(Jacob). And who was the person Judah in the Bible? (Jacob's son). The ancient
Kingdom of Israel were people descended from Jacob and they were made up of 12
or 13 provinces/tribes named after Israel's sons and/or grandsons. About 60
years after Israel became a Kingdom there was a civil war and the country split
into two. The southern country named itself after its dominant province/tribe:
Judah. That would be like if Canada spilt up and we just named the new entity
back east Toronto or Ontario or just called the West here BC, Vancouver or
Alberta. The southern country is called Judah. The northern country keeps the
name Israel. (As a result sometimes the name Israel can refer to just the
northern country and sometimes it can refer to both. Just like with present day
Korea. If we say Korea we may mean South Korea, North Korea or both the Koreas.
It was the same with East and West Germany when I was growing up.) The capital
of Israel is Samaria and the capital of Judah is Jerusalem. Jerusalem may be
mentioned here not only because it is the main city but because sometimes you
refer to a whole country by just its capital. In Canada we like to blame Ottawa
for things that that city is really no more to blame than any other city who
elected the same people to office and the world blames Washington - rightfully
or wrongfully - for a lot of our woes today.
So then this is what
Isaiah is saying in the song: he is saying that the Lord's vineyard that is
refusing to produce fruit is Judah and Jerusalem (the southern kingdom and its
capital) and Israel (the northern kingdom and all of both of the kingdoms).
These are the people of God and the One who loves them, provides for them, and
cultivates them is God.
In the song, he tells us
some of the ways God has been cultivating His people whom He loves. They,
however, refuse to produce fruit and as a consequence they will no longer be
His vineyard. They will instead be a wasteland in perpetual drought because,
even though God loved them and cultivated them, and planted them in fertile
ground, they still refused to produce fruit. The fruit that they refused to
produce, Isaiah tells us, is justice and righteousness and as a result the
vineyard is destroyed. Historically speaking this happens. The Kingdom Israel
is destroyed in 586 BCE and the Kingdom of Judah is wiped from history in
720BCE - never to rise again until the end of the age.
God has tended to our
country too - just like He did with Israel and Judah. He has provided us a very
fertile land. He has provided us a heritage of faith. Even many of the First
Nations here have been Christian as long as the Germans have been Lutheran or
the Scots Presbyterian. Our constitutional acts of 1867 and 1982 recognize the
supremacy of God, as does our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Order of
Canada's motto comes from Hebrews 11 and the country's motto comes from Psalm
72. God has provided many good things for this country, His Dominion. We are
among the best blessed nations on earth; so have we borne fruit in keeping with
repentance? Are we producing fruit of righteousness and justice?
Prime
Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau spoke about moving us towards a just society. His
government was the one that enshrined God and the Bible in the Order of Canada,
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Constitutional Act of 1982. How are
we doing today, about 40 years later, in the reign of Justin Trudeau at being a
just society? Let us look at what Isaiah says about what a just and an unjust society looks
like.
Isaiah says,
Woe
to you who add house to house
and
join field to field
till
no space is left
and
you live alone in the land.
He says in a just
society small family farms won’t be taken over by large corporate one - like is
happening all over the Canadian prairies today. And the wealthy will not
monopolize the housing so that the poor have no place to live in the land. Gene
M. Tucker says, “in the eighth century BCE, economic shifts in the direction of
capitalism were undermining the traditional ideas of stewardship of the land.”
In our time and place, how are we doing at providing accessible housing and the
like?
Isaiah says,
11
Woe to those who rise early in the morning
to
run after their drinks,
who
stay up late at night
till
they are inflamed with wine.
12
They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
pipes
and timbrels and wine,
but
they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,
no
respect for the work of his hands.
He says a just society
is one where people do not spend their days in idle pursuits such as drinking
and their nights out partying abusing their bodies with noise, food and booze;
gorging themselves completely forgetting that it is the Lord who provided these
resources for us to use and to share with our neighbour. The inference here can
be made that the rich are indulging themselves while the poor go hungry.
Geoffrey W. Grogan says, “in an affluent society all do not always profit from
increased wealth” if that was the case then how are we doing at taking care of
our neighbour today as well as not abusing our own mind, body, and spirit
through overindulgence?
Isaiah says,
18
Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit,
and
wickedness as with cart ropes,
19
to those who say, “Let God hurry;
let
him hasten his work
so
we may see it.
The
plan of the Holy One of Israel—
let
it approach, let it come into view,
so
we may know it.”
He says that in a
righteous and just society, people will not be deceptive and we will not
challenge God. A just society is one who perseveres and waits upon the Lord
rather than one that whines and grumbles reminiscent of the Hebrews in the
desert after the LORD delivered them from Egypt or in Judah of Isaiah’s day.
What about our day? Do we remember what the Lord has done? Are we appreciative
of what He is doing in our lives or do we bait Him, challenge Him, and mock
Him; demanding that he perform for us when summoned like a genie in a bottle?
How do we do today at loving, trusting, and waiting upon the Lord?
Isaiah says,
20
Woe to those who call evil good
and
good evil,
who
put darkness for light
and
light for darkness,
who
put bitter for sweet
and
sweet for bitter.
21
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and
clever in their own sight.
He says that their
society had become so unjust that people were calling good evil and evil good.
I have heard that same complaint more than once in our contemporary Canadian
society. I think in this age of twitter, facebook, social media; mainstream
media, parliament, and universities, many of us have become wise in our own
eyes projecting, accepting, rejecting things based simply on how we feel inside
ourselves about it. I think there are many these days who think that they, that
we are so clever; has our wisdom really become so limited? Have we become wise
in our own eyes?
Isaiah says,
22
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine
and
champions at mixing drinks,
23
who acquit the guilty for a bribe,
but
deny justice to the innocent.
He says woe to those who
are heroes at things as harmful or as inconsequential as imbibing but ignore
the importance of justice. Woe to those who give preferential verdicts to those
who can afford a lawyer to argue their case eloquently over the working poor or
others who are not able to afford for justice. The justice system in this
country is one that is particularly skewed in favour of the wealthy, the
educated, and the eloquent; leaving the rest outside in the cold. Maybe there
are outright bribes in some western countries. The US elects their judges. It
costs money to get elected. Who are the judges indebted too? But even if there
is not individual corruption there or here, this passage is not speaking to
individual rights; it is speaking to societies that deny justice to the poor;
is that us?
These aren’t just
rhetorical questions that I am asking. I am not looking to be upset and
downcast on this new year. If these condemnations do apply to us as well as to
Israel then Isaiah offers us the same consequences. Isaiah does say,
24
Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
and
as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
so
their roots will decay
and
their flowers blow away like dust;
for
they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty
and
spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
But Isaiah also has this
to say. In Isaiah 4, just prior to this pericope, Isaiah spoke about the branch
of the Lord and look here at Verse 15. Isaiah always embeds hope in the midst
of distress. Isaiah always includes good news. Isaiah often speaks of the
coming Messiah and as a result Isaiah has even been referred to as the fifth
gospel. Isaiah says,
15
So people will be brought low
and
everyone humbled,
the
eyes of the arrogant humbled.
16
But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and
the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.
He says people will be
brought low; everyone will be humbled including the arrogant; and the Lord will
be proved holy by his righteous acts. This is important. When we are humble the
Lord will lift us up; when we are down He will restore us; He will make us
holy. But when we exalt ourselves we will be brought low. And once we are humbled
He will lift us up again.
This is how it works.
What God wants is for us to love Him and our neighbour the same way that He
loves us; He wants to care for us and give us the joy of the Lord even when
life is miserable. Sometimes, however, we try and do things on our own;
sometimes we think that we can handle things just fine; sometimes we do what is
right in our own eyes, under our own strength. That is sad because if we only
rely on ourselves, who do we turn to when we are humbled? But
when we rely on the Lord seeking His justice and righteousness, seeking His
face, He promises that we will find Him and He will comfort us when we mourn
and He will embrace us as we grieve; as we seek the Lord we will find Him and
as we hold onto His embrace, He will never let us go. Let us in this New Year
resolve to seek the Lord for it is from Him that we get our strength, our love,
and our power to continue on.
Let us pray.
1. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001), 93
2. Cf. Geoffrey W. Grogan, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, p.50
3. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001), 95
Let us pray.
1. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001), 93
2. Cf. Geoffrey W. Grogan, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, p.50
3. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001), 95
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