Creating a mess of the perfect opportunity

Isaiah 5:1-7


Psalm 80

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon
In both Isaiah and the Psalm today, we see an image of God as a vineyard keeper. Now, the process of growing and tending to grapes, of selecting and fermenting the fruit of the vine until is produces a luscious wine may be lost on most of us. But it would not have been lost on an ancient Hebrew audience. Ancient Israel was a rich, arid country and thus well suited to the task. And yet, they knew that cultivating a vineyard was demanding and tedious work because it took a long time to bring a vine to maturity. “Vinedressers must be dedicated, patient people, not unlike shepherds. Both are dealing with living things that follow their own laws of growth, which the ones tending cannot really control. They must be willing to forgo their own comfort in the face of long hours and inclement weather." 1

So while this image may not be as familiar to us, what a beautiful and accurate description of God- both then and now. God had certainly put in long and tedious hours with his people Israel. God had transplanted the Jewish people out of Egypt where they had been oppressed. He had listened to their cry when they feared starvation in the desert. He had led them to a fertile land where they could live in prosperity. Indeed, the scripture makes clear that God had set up the perfect conditions- the stones had been cleared, the vines planted, the watch tower built, the vat dug, shade provided, irrigation- accounted for. There was no loose end that God had not accounted for. In its description, it sounds like a new Eden- a paradise where all was perfect.

Having created the ultimate setting to which life could flourish, God turns over the vineyard to his chosen people. Imagine being handed a successful business, a livelihood where if you but follow instructions, you are guaranteed to profit. You’d be excited right? And yet, when God leaves the tending of the vineyard in the hands of the chosen people, God returns to find the paradise trampled. The well-manicured fields are now overgrown. The hedges left in disarray. The grapes crushed beneath the tracks of wild animals.

What had happened? How could the people have gone so wrong? How could the perfect situation have been turned upside down so quickly? Luckily, this is one parable that the scriptures give us a direct explanation. In Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 7, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!” The full turn around that took place is made even more poignant in the Hebrew- the word for cry, tse'aqah, is particularly important and revealing. “When God’s people were being victimized by Pharaoh in Egypt, their response was to cry” or tse’aqah to God for help. This is a famous phrase in Exodus that Isaiah is using for a purpose- The people of Israel have recreated the oppressive conditions of Pharaoh’s Egypt- only this time it is their leaders and actions that have followed a system that created victims who cried out to God for their help.

So, why do they not tend the vineyard? Why do they not follow the will of God? God created the conditions by which the people could flourish- why not follow through? We can speculate about human nature, about the persistence of evil, about the oppressive economic and political systems of those ancient days. But, perhaps the more poignant question to ask is, given those same conditions, given that same vineyard to tend, how are we doing?

I don’t know about you, but if I suddenly inherited a vineyard, I’d make a mess of it. It sounds as if it requires considerable patience, never-ending attention, and a green thumb that I’ve never managed to develop. Amidst my crazy schedule and at times non-stop life, where on earth could I find the time to care for it? I might be able to squeeze caring for the garden in for the first few weeks, but eventually my attention would stray so that the vines would wither and the yield would dry up.

In these last few weeks, many of you know that we’ve been having a series of coffee chats so that I could get to know you better through some small group discussions. Thank you for taking the time to host or attend one. By the way, if you couldn’t make it, next week I’ll have a signup sheet for one last coffee chat that will take place here at church the last week of August. But one of the consistent struggles that I heard people express was how busy they were and thus how difficult it was to fit more activities, including those in the church, into their busy schedule. Now the reasons for the business varied, including those who were already ensconced in a number of church activities, but finding time without dropping from exhaustion was nearly a universal concern.

Theologian Richard Gaillardetz, in Transforming our Days- Finding God amid the noise of Modern Life, argues that one of the quintessential features of western culture is the desire to control and manage time. He points to the myriad of devices that are advertised as time savers, the prevalence of microwave meals instead of those prepared from scratch in the kitchen, and the constant need to be digitally connected as ways in which society tries to control, take back and conquer the ever moving clock. He continues that in today’s society, the new normal is a kind of hyper-reality in which any time spent at rest or in leisure is considered to be wasted, or at the very least, boring.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Gaillardetz isn’t saying that we should try and turn back the clocks and ignore modernity, but simply to consider the tradeoffs that are occurring so that we might use timesaving devices to create more space rather than pack more into every minute. For instance, I have both a “smart” cell phone and an Ipod that allows me to organize my time and stay connected to the world. I can always get my email, be available by phone, and know my schedule. This frees up my tendency to double schedule and helps aid my brain in remembering tasks and appointments. But, it also creates in me an urge to constantly check the news, my email, and the events of the world in any free moment I have. It even can intrude into my face-to-face conversations as I habitually check my email or news updates and ignore what is right in front of me. In essence, I allow the timesaving device to consume more time and effort rather than create more space and leisure.

I think one of the more interesting parts of the vineyard analogy are the duel roles in which we play. Yes, God gives us a vineyard to tend and we hold the very real potential of destroying it. But, we are also part of creation, this vineyard that God himself is trying to tend to. We are the fruit of that creation that God wants to flourish, we have to take time to- and I know I’m starting to take this too far- to ripen on the vine. We have to give time over for prayer, study, reading, meditation, some form of quietness in which God can intrude in our lives and expand our range of vision. The time to do this can be difficult in our modern lives, but without it, we can become self-centered and exhausted.

But as people created to be vinedressers, we must find the time to care for those around us and the world in which we live. We must take the time to serve in mission so that we might help those who are struggling to get by in the world. We must be patient and supportive of those who struggle with the grief and to actually be present with them as they go through the healing process. And we must make space for those whose doubts and ideas may not conform to our understanding of God’s will in the world and be open to give both them and ourselves time to grow so that we might reach new understanding. If we fail to do this, the part of creation that we can touch will inevitable wither and go into disarray.

Today we have an opportunity to renew our pledges as God’s vinedressers. We have the honor of baptizing Kody. As part of this process, we will make several pledges. First, we will vow to renew our own baptismal commitment in which we declare ourselves to be children of God and set out to live out our lives in accordance with the divine will. And second, we vow to be an extension of Kody’s family, one that will take the time to ensure his best interests and to help him as he grows. We will have to commit the time to teach Kody in our Sunday schools. We will have to support him as he grows and cheer him on. We will have to help his family create the perfect environment so that he too may go forth to tend fields of his own. This is a difficult commitment. We are signing up for many years worth of work. But it is a mission to which we are called. It is one of the purposes for which we were created. Let us take the time to do so so that God need not come in response to his or the wider world’s cry.