God’s Plan

 Scripture.  Isaiah 5:1-7 New Revised Standard Version     

5 Let me sing for my beloved

    my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.

2 

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.

3 

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and people of Judah,
judge between me
    and my vineyard.

4 

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?

5 

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.

6 

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.

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!

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Message God’s plan? 

It is one of those Sundays again.  You know, the kind of Sunday that has a bunch of different things going on that we are supposed to be paying attention to.  It is Reconciliation Sunday, when we pay particular attention to the Anti-Racism, Pro-Reconciliation emphasis of our denomination - and take a special offering for that program.  It is World Communion Sunday - the one Sunday a year when Christians around the world celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, even those who only celebrate once in a very great while.  In case you hadn’t heard, we have a special service planned for 12:30 this afternoon on the front lawn of the church where we will all share in the Lord’s Supper - with individual communion sets, wearing masks and appropriate distancing between your lawn chairs.  But we will all be in one place together for the first time in over 6 months!    

And it is the first Sunday in Stewardship Month.  It is also the Sunday before I take a week off because we are having awesome preachers the next two weeks!  Our Regional Minister Toni Bynum will preach next Sunday and Terrell McTyer, Minister of New Church Strategies for our General Church the following week.  You can bet that I will be glued to our YouTube channel during worship those days!  I am really looking forward to hearing both of those sermons!  

In the reading we heard this morning, Isaiah speaks to the people and tells them a story about a man with a vineyard, who did everything exactly right to make the vines grow and be exceptional.  But they didn’t.  They were like wild grapes. So he abandoned the vineyard.  He asks the people of Judah to judge whether he had done the right thing.

Clearly, Isaiah is not talking about an actual man with a vineyard.  Rather he is telling a story much like the one that Nathan told David, after he committed adultery with Bathsheba - the story about the rich man with many sheep, and the poor man with only one.  But the rich man stole the poor man’s one sheep - so what should be done?  David said the rich man must be punished severely; Nathan pointed out that he was the rich man with many wives, while Bathsheba had been Uriah’s only wife.

Isaiah says to the people of Judah, God gave you everything, everything you could possibly need to be an excellent nation.  A righteous nation, where all the people were cared for, where no one was oppressed, where God’s will was the will of the leaders - not greed or lust for power, but the desire to serve God’s people as they were commanded to do. And you aren’t doing that.  My people are crying out.  They are hungry, and sick and mistreated. Should God abandon you, as that man abandoned his vineyard?  God had a plan, and it didn’t happen the way it was supposed to - you all did not follow the plan.

We, humans, can mess up God’s plans in a heartbeat.  We might like to think that God’s plans are carved in stone, but there’s that pesky free will thing.   All we have to do to derail God’s plan is think about ourselves first, and not God.  All we have to do is put the love of money first, not the love of God.  Meanwhile, God waits for us to do what is expected of us . . which I imagine is as frustrating to God as watching an update load when we have something important to do on our computers.

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We will spend this whole month talking about Stewardship, which can easily translate into Preaching about Money.  It is, and not. 

When we were talking over the theme for our Stewardship Campaign, it was pretty clear to us that we need to look at giving in a different way.  Not giving to the budget, but giving to God’s mission and vision.   I know some of you will say God doesn’t need money and you are absolutely right.  God does not need money.  But if we are expected to feed the hungry and heal the sick and bring hope to the hopeless, and end every kind of oppression - if we are expected to do these things to carry the Good News as God has commanded us to do, planned for us to do - We need money to provide education and materials and work space and storage space for the people doing that work.

See here, God  does not complain that there isn’t enough lamp oil in the Temple, or that the quality of the incense has gone down.  God complains because God’s plan is not being brought to fruition. God complains because the people of Israel have been given every advantage and pretty clear directions on how to live, how to take care of each other.  The harvest expected from the Chosen People was justice, but God saw bloodshed.  God expected righteousness but heard the people crying out under the weight of oppression. 

God did not just tell the people of Israel to tithe, but also how the gifts they gave to the Temple were to be used, and a good portion of it was intended to care for the poor, the widows and orphans, and the strangers among them, the sick and hungry.  God told the people how to take care of each other, knowing that if they followed directions the harvest of righteousness and justice would be bountiful.  It wasn’t just the leaders who were told how to do these things - it was all of the people.  All of the people are responsible for acting justly, with mercy, compassion and generosity.

Here’s the other piece about Stewardship.  Stewardship is also about people doing the work.  A vineyard cannot thrive no matter how much is spent on setting it up. It requires workers to care for the vines, to make sure they are watered, and no pests are threatening the grapes.

A congregation can be rolling in funds - they can have enough money to buy up all the land around them and build education wings and start a coffee shop inside the narthex and buy the pastor a private jet - but if the people do not go out to serve those who need their help, that congregation is not fulfilling God’s plan.  So Stewardship is two things - giving from your wallet, and giving of your gifts and talents - of the things that bring you joy.  When Liz and her helpers prepare a meal for the Christian Cafe, or when Karleen picks up the food to distribute at the SMART Center, or when Jordan spends half his week making sure this worship service is planned and music selected and recorded and all the different parts spliced together and finally uploaded so you all get to participate - they are doing things that bring them joy.  When Jennifer goes out with the Selma Beautification team to pick up trash and make our city a better place to live, when Alan goes out with the teams that count the homeless, when Omar and Jessica staff our table at a Bringing Neighbors Together Block party - they are doing things that help the people in our community.  Laurie plans and teaches our Children’s Church, Aubrey educates all of us about chronic illness and mental health issues . . .they are sharing what they are passionate about as a service to God’s people. When any of us speaks out against any kind of oppression - racism, homophobia, sexism, economic oppression - we are working toward a world where God’s justice is done.  We are working toward fulfilling God’s plan.  IF you have a thing you love to do, or a thing you would love to try to do, write that on your pledge card and we will find a way for you to do that thing to serve God’s people.

God provides everything we need to produce a fruitful harvest of generosity and justice and righteousness.  We are showered with gifts in abundance.  It is true that right now, in the middle of a pandemic and an economic recession, many who were doing ok before suddenly have no job, and no way to earn a living.  People who were doing ok before are suddenly finding themselves depending on food distributions to feed themselves and their families.  This is the reality we are living in.  And this reality means that some who could give before cannot right now.   Not money, anyway.  God’s gifts are not all financial.  For those who cannot give from their wallets, this is the opportunity to give from your hearts.  To reach out to someone who is alone, and let them know that they are not alone.  Share your passion for justice, or teaching, or music, to help heal the hearts and spirits of the depressed and tired.  Share the gifts, which God gives in abundance, so that all the world might come to know God’s love and compassion.

God’s plan for the world is for it to be a place where following God’s will is the rule, not the exception.  In order to bring that plan to fruition, God has showered each of us with gifts that know no ending.  Let us use those gifts and follow God’s plan for us, providing that bountiful harvest of righteousness and justice that God desires.