St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
August 14, 2022
Year C, Proper 15: The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18
Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
When There’s Trouble in the Vineyard…
A few years ago, Sue and I took a winery tour out in beautiful Sonoma County, California.
Visiting the various wineries and vineyards, we were both struck by the obvious pride that the staff took in their work. It was fascinating to hear them describe how they carefully tend the fragile vines and how they painstakingly transform the grapes into wine that they were happy for us to taste, and even happier for us to purchase!
In a way that I hadn’t before, I came to appreciate how winemaking is so delicate, and even personal.
But, of course, despite tender care, and despite the knowhow earned from lots of experience, sometimes the weather is too wet or too dry, or the vines get attacked by pests, or weakened by disease – and, as you probably know, in recent years there has been horrible destruction caused by wildfires.
Sometimes there is trouble in the vineyard.
During biblical times, growing grapes and making wine was a major economic activity in Israel and other parts of the Near East.
Aside from being a significant source of revenue, wine was also a part of everyday life, at least for those who could afford it.
And even for others, no celebration was complete without abundant wine –Jesus averted a real crisis for the hosts at the wedding at Cana!
Since vines played such an important part in people’s lives, it’s no surprise that the image of the vineyard appears throughout the Bible.
In fact, Israel saw itself as a vineyard – a vineyard lovingly planted, tended, and protected by God.
We heard that beautiful image in today’s lesson from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah.
In what’s sometimes called “The Song of the Vineyard,” God recalls the care that God has taken with God’s vineyard, digging into the soil, clearing away the rocks, and planting not just any vines but “choice vines.”
God does so much for God’s vineyard, creating the best possible conditions to produce the healthiest and most delicious grapes.
But, there was trouble in God’s vineyard.
Instead of producing the beautiful and delicious grapes that God hoped for and expected, the grapes have gone wild.
There was trouble in God’s vineyard – but we’re not talking about an agricultural problem here. No, this isn’t trouble caused by the weather – this isn’t trouble caused by an infestation of bugs or the destruction of fire.
No, there was trouble in God’s vineyard - there was trouble in Israel - because God had expected the people to live justly, but instead God saw bloodshed – God expected the people to be righteous, but instead God heard the cries of the oppressed.
In the most haunting image of Isaiah’s “Song of the Vineyard,” God seems to give up on the vineyard, deciding to remove its protective hedge, breaking down its wall, allowing it to be trampled and overgrown, and finally even denying it rainfall.
It must have been sobering for the people of Israel to hear these words of God through the Prophet Isaiah – and, if we’re really listening, these should be hard words for us to hear today, too.
It’s been yet another week of “unprecedented events,” but it’s also been another week of events that are so routine that we hardly notice: another week of violence across the land, another week of bitter political division, yet another week of a rich few having a whole lot and many poor having so little.
Once again, God sees bloodshed and hears the cries of the oppressed.
Now, if the only Scripture we had was this little snippet from Isaiah, or even Jesus’ startling announcement in today’s Gospel lesson that he has come to bring fire to the earth, well, we would be a people without hope.
But, of course, this is not the only Scripture we have.
And, when we look at the whole sweep of the story of God and us, we see that God never gives up on the vineyard – God never gives up on us.
During our Sonoma County winery tour, one of the vine-growers explained to us the process of grafting vines.
Just in case you don’t know, vine-growers graft vines by making a small incision in the base of the vine (called the rootstock) and then adding another vine that is inserted into the incision.
It’s through grafting that a new grape vine is produced.
Although, as you might guess, I know next to nothing about gardening or agriculture, I actually already knew about grafting.
I knew it because St. Paul uses that image for the relationship between Gentile (non-Jewish) followers of Jesus and the people of Israel. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul imagines God grafting the Gentiles onto the vine of Israel.
This is the work of God.
This is what God does all the time.
Especially when there is trouble in the vineyard, God is at work, grafting us together, creating something new and beautiful.
Last week, Betsy Wilmerding and I attended an event sponsored by a remarkable organization called Thread. Maybe some of you know it. Thread’s mission is to “weave a stronger social fabric” by making a ten-year commitment to children in Baltimore City. Thread provides them with mentors to guide them through the many challenges of life, especially life in the city.
I can imagine the mentor/mentee relationship as a kind of grafting, requiring incisions - requiring sacrifice and trust as people from different places and backgrounds come together to create something new and beautiful.
And you know, I couldn’t help noticing how many young people – young people of all different backgrounds – were at this Thread event, and how excited they were to be there. I’m pretty sure they are drawn to Thread by the promise of grafting – being grafted with other volunteers, being grafted into meaningful work, and being grafted into relationships with the children of Baltimore.
Especially when there is trouble in the vineyard, God the grafter never gives up on us.
And sure enough, we see God the grafter at work right here at St. Thomas’.
At the Men’s Breakfast on Thursday, I was talking to a relatively new parishioner, someone who arrived here right around the same time that Sue and I did.
We were talking about our new community and he said that he was really struck by – actually kind of surprised by – the warmth of the welcome he and his wife had received.
In a place like this, where a lot of people and their families have been here for a long time, he had assumed that it would be kind of hard to “break in,” you know? But that hasn’t been his experience at all.
I was so glad to hear that – and it certainly matches what Sue and I have experienced over the past year. Now, of course I had expected you all to have good manners, but you’ve offered us way more than that, inviting us to more than just living and working here, but really wanting us to be grafted into this community, for this to be our true home.
And, as I look around our church these days, I see this holy grafting happening all around us – here in church, during fellowship, on the Altar Guild, in Bible Study, among the Handicrafters, and on and on.
God is grafting new people into our community, creating something new and beautiful right here, in our little corner of God’s vineyard.
At the end of today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus notes that we may be good at predicting the weather but not so great at reading the signs of the times.
Jesus is right, of course, but even if we can’t read the signs of the times, this past week offered several pointed reminders that there is most definitely big trouble in the vineyard.
So, as we step together into an uncertain future, it’s essential to remember that God will not give up on us, no matter what.
Especially when there is trouble in the vineyard, God works with us and through us, grafting us together, creating a vineyard of justice and righteousness - the beautiful vineyard that God has always meant for us to be.
Amen.
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