A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 4, 2020 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Isaiah 5:1-7. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the prophet Isaiah, the fifth chapter:
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; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men 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 looked for 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 briers and thorns shall grow up; 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 men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It's fairly obvious today that Jesus in our Gospel lesson is borrowing from this exact prophecy from God in Isaiah. After all, He starts it in exactly the same way and the people there, especially the Pharisees and the chief priests and the scribes, when they heard Jesus telling this tale, their minds would have been taken immediately to Isaiah. They knew their scriptures well, and they know, they know what's in store. They know that, at the end, God will let that vineyard go into nothingness. But Jesus turns the tide on them. He tells them a parable about tenants living in the vineyard and what they do to the master’s servants and even the master’s son. He turns the tide on them there, but the story ends the same, in that there is destruction and there is the forsaking of a people.
That is what Isaiah foresees when he gives us this prophecy that God spoke. Whether God gave it to him in his ear or into his heart, we don't know, but Isaiah wrote this down. God speaks to us out of Isaiah. But first, Isaiah sings about God, and all that He has done. Isaiah sings to his beloved God, and how good God is to have this vineyard, this place where He puts all that He cares about. And who is that God cares about? Of course, the whole world, but, here this is about the Church. In fact, you can even say that they Church is beloved by God, just as God is beloved by Isaiah.
The Church of God are all those saints who have hoped in the Messiah for their salvation, and the Jews were meant to be in the Church forever. But we know how the story goes, don't we? We know that unfaithful people forsook God and they prostituted themselves after false idols, even being taken away into captivity. When the Jews came back from Babylon, it seemed to go well for a time, but they forgot God again and finally God went silent. In fact, the last time God speaks in the Scriptures is through the prophet Malachi, and then He is silent for 400 years until Jesus. God spoke to no prophet that we know of until Jesus came. And then we see Jesus grafting in a new people to have that hope of the Messiah, not looking forward to His coming salvation, but looking behind to the salvation won for them. That is our story. And here, in this prophecy, and in Jesus’ parable, we find the story of how it is that we become the Church.
God gave to His beloved people a vineyard to grow and thrive in. This is His Word and the hope they have. And in this vineyard, they are expected to grow and bear good fruit. That’s what the Church is called to do, just as grapes are called to do it. God takes care of His people there, He tends to them. He gives them all that they need. Here we see the Church in a vineyard, a place where good works were to were to flow out from it. This fertile hill is a place where there is just enough rain, where there was no flooding, but a place that was safe and secure, a place that He put a tower on top of it. You would see enemies approaching from all around. He dug out a wine vat, clearing the stones and hill away that the fruit of the vineyard’s labor would be collected easily. It was hard work to clear it out, but God did it. And He planted it with choice vines, the best.
We're not talking about stuff that you can just find out there in the wild but the best vines, cultivated by Him, that produce the best grapes. And He looked at those vines and His vineyard and He expected it to yield the best and most wonderful grapes, the best and most wonderful works according to the Law. But it only yielded wild grapes. We might read that, instead, and say sour grapes. The vines yielded that which was not good. Why?
We are not given to know, but we do know that when we turn away from that which is best for us, when we turn away from the Law of God, our works are sour, they are not pleasing to God. We call that sin. It yielded wild grapes, sour grapes. It went against God's Word in every single way. Well, the master needs to do something now, doesn't he?
Then God speaks. He takes over Isaiah’s song, and He speaks to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the men of Judah. This is His holy city, His chosen people, the line from which the Messiah would come. That’s how you can tell this is about the Church. He says to them, Judge between me and my vineyard. You judge between me and my Church. Last week, we heard God saying to the people of Israel, Why indeed do you say that my ways are not just; it it not your ways that are not just?
God here invites us to judge between God and the Church or the people who are supposed to be the Church. What more was there for me to do for my vineyard? What more? God has done all things in this vineyard that He could have done. I'm sure He put down the fertilizer. I'm sure He attended each of those vines, pruning them back when they needed to be pruned, helping them grow onto the vine so that they could be strengthened and secured. What more was there for God to have done? When I looked for it to yield grapes, good grapes, why did it yield only that which is sour?
God is asking us to look at this and judge. Yes, when we look back to Israel, they did go sour, they indeed broke the Law. But, I think we have to ask this of ourselves. If God is looking at this vineyard, he's looking at us. When we chase after sin, or forget God’s Law, then our works are not pleasing to God. We break the Law of God in every way.
So, God says I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I'm going to remove its hedge. That means that every wild animal and enemy of the master can come in and have its way with the vineyard. It's going to be devoured. I'm going to break down its wall. I'm going to make sure that it's trampled down. I'm going to make it a waste, meaning you can see God setting fire to the vines as they dry in the fall. And in the winter, it will not be pruned. It will not be hoed. Briers and thorns will grow up. He will command the clouds concerning it that they do not rain upon it.
God does not have pleasant words for those who would turn away from him. God indeed will look at those chosen people who are forsaking him, and maybe it is even us, and He will make sure that we do not grow anymore. No grape, to God, is more pleasing than a sour grape.
You see the problem with us? We sit here and we come in week after week in this Church, and we do everything that we do. We go through the motions, we go through our liturgy, we go through our prayers, we go through our hymns, and I think, if you're anything like me, if you're anything like most of the people that I know, I think when we leave this place, we don't remember it very often. We leave thinking that we’ve done our duty, but all we’ve done, so often, not always, but often, is pay lip service to God that we may go about the way we think best.
We don't remember what it is that we're supposed to be going out into the world and doing. What we’re supposed to about is the works of God. Yes, we do live out our vocations, and God is so pleased when we do so, because that’s what He’s called us into. But, often, I would say we only stumble into that which is right. We take care of the people that we love, we make sure that they are safe. We make sure that they are secure. How are we doing, though, with the widow and the orphan? How are we doing with those who are disenfranchised? How are we doing with the people who don't really know God?
We might think to call the new widow in our congregation. But what about the mother who’s husband left her? What about all the fatherless kids in our school? Are we bearing good fruit? Or is all we have sour grapes?
Luther once said that the Gospel of God is like a passing rain shower. It stays for a little while and it rains in that place and then it moves on. I think that's what God here is describing, that no more rain shall touch His chosen, beloved people for they have forsaken him. And so He is passing on.
We see this in the world all over the place. I mean, think about Germany in the 1500s. We’re into October, where we find our celebration of Reformation Day. You go back to 1517 and you start seeing the Gospel take hold in Germany and all these European countries. But look what's happened to them since. We have European countries who are celebrating the fact that they abort every Down Syndrome baby that they can predict. We have European countries who are not letting refugees in for fear of them changing their “culture.” We have European countries that have forsaken the Law of God and even the Gospel of God and churches that were built to His glory now sit empty, turned into museums, just an interesting place where people used to go. Sure. Sure, everybody over in the European countries are baptized into the state church and they say, Oh, yes, I am a Christian. But do they gather around God's word? Do they receive His Sacrament? Do they go out and live lives that are pleasing to God according to the Law? No. They have forsaken God. And they are on their way to a place we dare not even mention.
We would be foolish to think that that can't or that it isn't happening here in America, where our churches sit empty. You might say, Well, Pastor, that's because of COVID, but COVID didn't change anything. Churches close their doors all the time. The people go away. They move on. They have not brought anybody new to the Church. They've not invited the people who live around them to hear the Word of God. They do their own thing.
I would say that the Gospel rain shower that has been so prevalent in America, a shared religion that has guided us, in this country for almost 300 years is passing away. And if you look at where the Gospel rain shower is now, it's in the global South, taking over in South America and in Africa, where Christians are growing in the faith and in number. They’re hearing the Word of God and they are rejoicing, for, indeed, they’ve been brought out of their paganism and brought to the true knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ. And we in America look at them and judge them because, you know, they're not quite like us. But I tell you they will endure, for the Gospel is there.
I'm not saying that God is pouring out His wrath against this congregation specifically. Still, we’d be remiss if we didn’t think that it could happen here. If it’s not us, it certainly could be just about any other church we see in this land. Is there a judgment of God against this Church this people? I'm not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, and I could not tell you how God is judging us, but I can encourage us is to look at our works.
We need to look at what it is that we are called to do. Now that we are in Christ, now that we have been saved from the wrath which is to come in hell, what is it we are called to do? For each of us, the answer is going to be different, because, for each of us, our vocations are different and the people we serve are different. But there are things that we can do to bear the good fruit of God in this place.
We indeed can keep living out our vocations. We indeed can keep gathering around Word and Sacrament. We indeed can go out into our communities and into our friends’ houses and we can tell them of the love of Jesus Christ for them. And as we go and as we do, and some of you have, maybe many of you, we can take confidence that we are still the Beloved of God and that even if we do fail in these things, even if we don't do it just the way we want to, even if we don't do it in the way that we are sure is right, even if we sin, we know that our Jesus can always bring the rain shower back to us. And He does, washing us in the living water of Baptism, washing us on the inside with His blood. The Gospel lives in us through His Word and Sacrament and there we can find confidence and hope that we will not be those who are cast away. We will not be those who are cast out of the vineyard into utter darkness. We will not be those who have nothing. If we have the Gospel, we have it all.
The Gospel will bring about the good works in us. In fact, it is the only thing that brings us to good works. The Law accuses us and shows us the right thing to do, but it is only though the Gospel, the Good News that you have been redeemed by Christ, that your sins are forgiven and you have His righteousness, it is only through the Gospel that we are motivated to do the right thing, the holy thing. It is only through the Gospel that we love and follow Jesus Christ in all that He has said and all that He has done. The Gospel brings us to Salvation.
The vineyard is God's pleasant planting. He rejoices in you. He even takes comfort in you, knowing that He has worked for your good. He loves you. He loves you.
And yet do not mistake that love to think that God will not bring also His judgment. The judgment of God may fall swift or it may fall slow, but the judgment of God for those who forsake His Son will come. Instead of finding the good works of God, He has found bloodshed, and instead of finding the good works of God, He's found an outcry for those who are persecuted.
What are we doing then? Are we living according to God's word and helping our neighbor in their bodies and helping our neighbor in their possessions and helping our neighbor in all the things that they may need in this life? Most importantly, are we helping our neighbor by bringing them the Gospel of Jesus, being Christ to them? I pray that you are. I pray that you are. I know there's so much that we can do that could be better. I know that. Please do not hear me condemning those efforts that are good within us. But I ask, is there a way that we can be the Church yet again and make sure that we do not fall into the same trap that Judaism fell into, where they forsook God for something else? It could be that our new idol is Americanism. Perhaps it could be the growth of the church. Anytime we pursue a god that is not our God and we do works that are not His works, we are in danger of becoming the vineyard that is forsaken.
But do not fear, my friends. For the Son of God Himself came into the vineyard to die at the hands of angry men that God would forsake Him and not you. In that leaning on Jesus and falling upon Him, we are dashed to pieces that He may rebuild us as He wills: perfect and holy and blameless in every way, the way that God has intended. That is His promise to you and He will fulfill it.
God gave this prophecy to Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus came in the flesh and Jesus himself fulfilled it in every way. Giving the vineyard to us now, we who were Gentile sinner have been grafted into the True Vine, which is Jesus Christ. Now we are the Church. You have been grafted into that Vine, my friends, and you will bear the fruit of God. As we gather around His Word and Sacraments, we find that is His promise to you. You will bear good fruit and not sour grapes any longer, for He rejoices in you and will bring you full to the harvest. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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