The Rev. Joshua Rodriguez-Hobbs
Let me sing for my
beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard…
That’s how Isaiah begins our Old Testament lesson this
morning, one of the
most heart-breakingly beautiful passages of scripture. It moves
back and forth between Isaiah’s voice and God’s, speaking
of the back-breaking work of planting and tending a vineyard that never produces good
fruit. It is
beautiful and poetic, but
it is also hard to hear, especially
on a day like today, when we have a
baptism. Actually,
the lectionary cuts off the reading before we get to the really hard parts. The rest of
this chapter is a list of the sins that the leaders of Israel have committed. Isaiah
calls them to account because they
join house to house and add field to field, until there
is room for no one but you. And for
this, Isaiah says, God is sending Israel into exile.
This portion of Isaiah was written immediately after Israel
went into exile in Babylon. The wounds
are fresh, and the grief is raw. Isaiah and
his community are trying to make sense out of why God has abandoned them, why
the temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed, why
their people has been scattered to the four winds. The explanation Isaiah offers, the
explanation that Israel eventually finds satisfying, is that God
has punished them for being unfaithful to the covenant they swore with God. Now, when
we talk about this, we usually talk about idols and worshiping false gods, and
that is certainly one of the things that prophets like Isaiah decried. But more
than idolatry, the prophets talk about economic injustice. The reason,
Isaiah tells us, that God’s vineyard has not borne good fruit is because God’s people have exploited one another,
and have pursued their own profit above the common good. The covenant Israel swore with God was based on the Exodus: the story
of God delivering the children of Israel from slavery. The Law God
gives them at Sinai is based on this experience of slavery and deliverance. Because
they have been slaves, the
children of Israel are not to exploit one another. Because
they have been slaves, the
children of Israel are not to pursue profit at all costs. Because
they have been slaves, the
children of Israel were supposed to rest from labor every seventh day. They
were supposed to let the land rest from agriculture every seventh year. But they
did not. And so,
they went into exile, devastated,
wondering how they could sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land.
Jesus takes up Isaiah’s vineyard song in our Gospel reading
today. Like the
vineyard song, this
isn’t an easy parable to hear, is it? There’s a
strong element of condemnation. We’re told
that the owner of the vineyard will put the wicked tenants to a miserable death. But who tells us that? It’s not Jesus. It’s the chief priests and
Pharisees who prescribe this punishment for the wicked tenants, not
yet realizing that this parable is about them.
How many times have you done that? How many times have you pronounced a harsh word of judgment
against yourself, sure that
God would judge the same? What is your response when tragedy strikes? Is it that
God must be punishing you for your sins? You can point to a few verses in the Bible that would
support that: "I
the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of
parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the
thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.[1]" It’s easy to focus on that first half, isn’t it? The thing is, in the story of God and God’s people, the
emphasis is always on what follows after the but. And there
is always a but. Always.
Isaiah sings other songs for the vineyard, later, songs of how God will replant it and how it will bear fruit. Jesus never tells us what happens to the tenants. He tells the chief priests and Pharisees that the rule of the kingdom of God is going to be taken away from them, but he doesn’t tell them that they will be kicked out of the kingdom. God’s story never ends in judgment. God’s story always ends in redemption, in grace.
That’s why it is good for us to hear stories like Isaiah’s
vineyard song and Matthew’s parable of wicked tenants today, when we are going
to baptize two beautiful girls. They are a
reminder that our unfaithfulness is never the last word. We’re about
to make a lot of promises when we renew our baptismal covenant. You know
the drill; we've
talked about it for three weeks in a row now. But
this morning, I hope you notice the exact response we each make to the promises: I will, with God’s help. We don’t do it on our own. God’s people never have. We are tenants in God’s kingdom by God’s grace. The only possible response we can have to this is humble
gratitude. Gratitude
because God’s love for us is so great that it always comes in mercy. Humility
because we can never earn or merit God’s love, but
God loves us anyway, just because we exist.
The growth in the knowledge and love of God that we each
began at baptism ends with God's perfect love casting out all our fears. It may take
a long time for us to get there, but
when we do, we
learn to focus on what comes after the “but:” God’s
steadfast love to the thousandth generation, the
return from exile, the
patience of the master of the vineyard, and
love made concrete in water and in bread and wine. Amen.
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