Sunday 8 October 2017
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Isaiah 5:1-7 (NRSV)
Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 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!
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This is a pretty sad reading. It should be pointed out that what is at the heart of this reading is not merely a vineyard. The image of the vineyard points to a beloved, of whom the lover of the beloved speaks here in lament. This is the picture of unfaithfulness and of the sorrow and pain caused by this rejection of loving relationship. Only, it's not merely unfaithfulness here in this account. Isaiah is the medium but not the lover. The one who truly speaks through the words of the prophet Isaiah is God. The one of whom God speaks is the people of God as a single being. Thus the unfaithfulness here is the breaking of the commandment and covenant that none other than God would be the first love of the people. And so in a very real sense this is idolatry and unfaithfulness.
I am a little surprised this makes it into the lectionary, given what I have said in the past about "omitted portions that make us blush." After all, the response initially of the lover is the rejection of the beloved who has first rejected the lover. For a moment, we are left with the image of God who turns his back to the people, the beloved of God, who appears to be confirming that he is no longer their God and they no longer his people.
And yet there is something interesting to note here. At this point Isaiah has yet not been called by God to be a prophet. That moment of call comes in the next chapter (Isaiah 6). That is a reminder that, as the prophet Joel proclaims, God "is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing" [Joel 2:13b]. From among the unfaithful and idolatrous beloved, God finds a prophet who will be faithful even when the masses are not. And in the call of Isaiah, there is the promise of a remnant who will, with Isaiah, turn aside from unfaithfulness and cling to their first love.
Alas, then, the sadness is washed away, even if by tears. And in that washing away, we are called in our own day and generation to remain faithful and committed to the God who is faithful even when we are not.
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Fr. Timothy Alleman
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