December 5, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“I will sing for the one I love a song about His vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.
Then He looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.” (Isaiah 5.1-2)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the First Week of Advent 2024:

If we didn’t know better, we might believe that Isaiah was a fan of Solomon and his songs. In the Songs of Solomon, we are treated to the delights of a balladeer who sings songs to the “one” he loves. On the surface we would be tempted to indulge in the passions of the heart of a man for a woman, a husband for a wife, a lover for a partner. Keeping the songs in context, we know that Solomon is singing and teaching about the intimate spiritual relationship between God and His creation. The ultimate expression of that creation being, of course, humanity. That humanity was created in the form of His image as to what man and woman so not only look like but act like: form and function. One is drawn from the other. The life of one is the life of the other. Ultimately, the life of humankind only lives because the “breath of God,” ruach, lives within them. Without such breath, there is no life. If there is no life, there is no love to share. If there was never any love to share, then there was no life. This is the essence of understanding creation as a whole as the consequence of a love that lives and a living love. It is the revelation of the nature, character and form of God. In the words of the Christian music artist, Bart Mallard of MercyMe, “I can only imagine.” What we can only imagine, and that is a powerful tool, God fully has brought to life. What we can only do in part, God has done in full. Again, reflecting back on the teaching of the apostle Paul to the community of faith in Corinth, “Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13.12) It is the essence and presence of God’s love which gives life its true vitality and beauty. It does so because it rises up out of the heart and soul and not of the things of this world.

Is this not the true and authentic “song” of Advent and our “Christmas” celebration? Is it not intended to be the inspiration of love which draws out the truth of the One who loves for the one who is loved? It is the heart of the gospel of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, who wrote “For God so loved the world that He gave us His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3.16) The world, the population which exists on earth, is the beneficiary of God’s love. As an extension of John’s “creation” story (In the beginning was the Word….), Jesus becomes the very reality of what God had imagined for all the people. It was and is a complicated endeavor to be both objective and subjective in the matters of the heart, mind and soul. Truly only God (yes, the Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is capable of such an endeavor. It is a dynamic and fluid work of love to not only create life but to maintain it while allowing it the freedom to exist on its own. We have reflected on that before with the concept of free will. John captures that tension in his “heart of the gospel” where he declared “…so that EVERYONE who would believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Mighty ones of God, what happens when we lose contact with what we truly believe in? How does life feel to us in that moment, in those moments, in that season of life? While we may still be alive, we feel as if we are dead. Again reflecting on the work of John as he recalls the gospel of Jesus Christ, “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though that one dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11.25-26) Martha, the sister of Lazarus who had died and was, at that moment, four days dead and buried, had believed but waned in her belief in Jesus. She entertained the idea that somehow He had betrayed her by not coming immediately “to the rescue.” She was caught in the vortex, as was her sister Mary, of “If only….” Life and love as they had known it ceased to exist because Jesus was not there. In response, which we know Jesus had already declared to the disciples saying “…so that God may be glorified and the Son of God may be glorified in it,” Jesus was about to sing this new song over the circumstance and bring to life the hope for the world. We can declare it ourselves believing “Our God reigns.”

So it is in our Advent preparation to worship in spirit and in truth the birth of this “new song,” that we promote “Our God reigns.” For Isaiah, the one who is loved is God who is the owner, creator and sustainer of the vineyard. The vineyard, as we learn in verse 7a, is “…the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines He delighted in.” Isaiah, in the voice of Solomon, sings a love song about God and His vineyard. It had a great beginning indicative of the effort of the One who loved the land so much He would cultivate it to bring a taste of new wine to a weary world. However, as is the way of love, the vineyard, which was God’s, was left to those whom He loved to carry on the work. Let us not forget “those whom He loved,” according to verse 7, are themselves vines. It might seem like a difficult image but let us waltz our way through it to see its impact. The vines did not produce good grapes and thus there was no good wine. We will find a similar truth in John’s gospel where he remembers Jesus’ teaching “I AM the vine and you are the branches; you cannot bear good fruit if you are not a part of the true vine….” (John 15.5ff) As God is the Master vintner, He takes control of the situation gone wrong and reduces the whole of the land to just the fruit of the earth. (Isaiah 5.1-2) In essence, God is giving the land its sabbatical not only from producing fruit but from being under the care of those to whom it had been left. When they lost their spirit and will to live for God, they became as good as dead. The depth of that sabbath and despair is evident throughout the chapter. God’s judgment and the execution of that judgment is complete and without question. It was a dark time in the life of Israel and God’s chosen people. He had chosen them to bring new wine, good fruit and great joy into the world so that all might know of life beyond death. It was time for a new song. It was time for a song of true love sung to and over those who would believe and trust only in Him.

This is our Advent and Christmas celebration. It is bringing to life the joy of being grafted into the true vine which is Jesus the Christ. In Him we have life and have it abundantly. The execution of justice is not death but life and life everlasting. It is actually the greatest gift we can give to the world- this new song. David sang of it (Psalm 33, 40, 96, 98, 144, 149) as did the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 42) as did the Resurrected Christ (Revelation 5 and 14). It is our song as well to declare the goodness of God to restore what had been lost, to revive what had died and to redeem what had been given away. It is not an easy journey from death to life but the consequences are worth the effort. Come, mighty ones of God, and let us sing this song of the One we love who is Christ the Lord.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.