Saint Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Pentecost 20 Series A. October 3 + 6, 2002 Isaiah 5:1-7

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. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

People of God—educated in that one thing needful—the Gospel that rescues us from the very fires of hell:

It is about 4,333 miles from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany. It is another 3,025 miles to Lagos in Nigeria. Then several hundred more miles from Lagos to Calabar or Port Harcourt. Every time you get on an airplane the flight attendants give that little safety talk. You know the one that begins with, “Please fasten your safety belt!” I looked around the plane and no one seemed to be paying any attention! What were people doing? They are reading magazines, newspapers, paperback books. They are mushing their little pillows against the window squeezing their eyes shut against all the brightness. They are holding hands and doing other stuff to show their neighbor how much they like them. The flight attendant is saying something about emergency exits—doing that funny little hand motion thing—and saying “keep in mind the closest exit may be behind you”—and nobody is looking behind them. There is the part about the cabin suddenly losing pressure and oxygen masks tumbling out. But nobody really expects that to happen—so they don’t pay attention to that. The admittedly unlikely event of a water landing is unthinkable—because it’s not a landing—it’s a crash and so nobody is worried about life jackets and floating seat cushions. Nobody seems to take any of this seriously! They have heard it all many times before—and after all—flying is safer than being in your own bathroom—so what’s the big deal? I’m afraid sometimes it’s the same with our immortal souls! We’ve heard law and gospel countless times before! I’m feeling pretty good—just was to the doctor the day before I left—for blood work. I take my vitamin every day—avoid salt—limit caffeine—exercise regularly! Death or Judgment Day today? What are the odds? What’s at stake? Where our immortal soul will spend eternity!

Today we want to thank God for the priceless blessing of Christian education. We will consider the song of the vineyard—Hebrew poetry breathed by the Holy Spirit into the heart and mind of Isaiah—written down for our eternal benefit. Today God’s Word asks:

What will the LORD find?

1. When he looks for justice

2. When he looks for righteousness

Christian Education means studying the scroll of the prophet Isaiah--the Word of the LORD, the changeless I AM—the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah wrote law and Gospel—of sin and grace—of judgment and mercy. Always the law comes first, exposing the painfully awful deadly ugliness of our sin! Your Heavenly Father asks, Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.” Isaiah 1:5b,6 They are advertising on the radio that for how many dollars—around $600—you can have a full body scan! They will run you through this wondrous piece of machinery and take pictures of every part of you—deep deep inside! The benefit of course would be to find out if something—if anything is wrong deep inside. To find anything that needs to be repaired or removed or replaced or redone—before it is too late—before fatal damage is done! Would you want one of those tests? Do you want to know how you are deep inside? Or are you in denial? Do we have the suffocating cough of the emphysema of sin and tell ourselves it’s only a cold? God’s Word talks again and again about attitude—attitude—pride and arrogance are abhorrent in God’s sight. Only the LORD can judge our hearts. When the LORD says—the women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles… Isaiah 3:16 If even young ladies—young women in grade school and high school—are proud of their clothes—jewelry and hair and look down on and tease and mock and bully those plain, not pretty and popular? In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and …ankle chains…the perfume bottles and charms…the purses and mirrors and linen garments…instead of fragrance there will be a stench, instead of well dressed hair baldness; instead of fine clothing sack cloth; instead of beauty, branding! Isaiah 3:14-24 Imagine having burned into your flesh the brand that marks you a slave—property of your owner! The LORD’s discipline can be exceedingly fierce—because He loves His children so much! The LORD’s judgment is always just. In a very sad Hebrew poem the LORD recounts to His people how very good He has been to them in every way! 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. This is very realistic! Israel is a land of hills and valleys. Find a fertile hillside and it is work to pick all the rocks and cultivate the soil. Only the best vines are planted. No expense is spared. A watchtower to keep guard—to protect the vines. To cut out a winepress—again not an easy job—but no effort is spared. Now—where are the good grapes? Nowhere to be found! Only the bitter, wormy, sour spoiled rotten raisins of rebelling against God and harm to your family and hurt to your neighbor. Who is to blame? Who is at fault? Who is responsible? The LORD—the Holy One of Israel? Or the people of Jerusalem and Judah? You tell me? What more could the LORD have done?

The LORD says: Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge and it will be destroyed; I will break down its walls and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. Did you catch that last part? God will tell the clouds not to rain? He can do that! He can turn clouds off like a faucet and it will not rain! It won’t leak or drip—not even a little bit!

The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his delight. And he looked for justice but saw bloodshed…When you go home today read the rest of Isaiah chapter 5. See what the LORD is saying to Jerusalem and Judah and us! Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. People call evil good when they try to defend abortion and the putting to death of little unborn babies as a right to choose and a right to control your own body. People call evil good when they defend hugs and kisses—men with men and women with women as happiness they were born for! People call good evil when they claim marriage is only a piece of paper. They call good evil when they consider carrying babies in their tummy harm to your physical body—new born babies a burden and expense or small children little monsters and two year old children terrible! Darkness for light and bitter for sweet—small children do not have to be darkness and bitter! I was at a wedding where a mother holding an infant was told, “Just wait! Soon your baby so sweet will be as undisciplined and hurtful as her children!” No! Jesus works powerful changes in little people’s hearts! God has blessed many little children with much energy. Jesus gives parents and little children his powerful love so that that energy will be directed—not out of control—but directed to obey parents and help not irritate or provoke brothers and sisters. Jesus gives little people much energy to learn and to sing and to play and to love and forgive—so that these little people two and three and four years old—know what it means to be held and blessed in Jesus’ arms! Then these little people will be good and sweet and light—and Jesus will be glorified!

The LORD looked for justice, but saw bloodshed….for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. In the original Hebrew the word for justice sounds very much just like the word for bloodshed. The word for righteousness sounds very much like the word for cries of distress. It is exceedingly striking! It’s kind of like the missiles we have in silos our west called peacekeepers—which in fact explode people into itty-bitty pieces! Justice means a right and fair and God-pleasing outcome. In fact what we have is bloodshed—violence in Milwaukee just the other day where children—10 years old—what is that—5^th graders shed a man’s blood—so that it was literally everywhere! We ought not be surprised—if in fact the thumbs of the children in this country are actually changing in shape and function—as a result of the countless hours spent playing video games—which have as their object violence that it is would be shameful to describe. And yet 5^th graders I know—own these games that cost the better part of $100? Surely there is a critical need for Christian Education. For our children to learn God’s Word—first in our homes—from their fathers and mothers. And then to continue to learn God’s Word in Church, in Sunday School, in our Trinity St. Luke’s School, our Luther Preparatory School, our Lakeside Lutheran High School, our Martin Luther College, our Wisconsin Lutheran College, our Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, our Adult Bible Class. We need to continue to study God’s Word so that we will be equipped with the full armor of God—as the devil continues to attack our faith!

The LORD looked for righteousness, but heard cries of distress. Righteousness is rightness—goodness—holiness—the way God intended everything to be. The LORD looks for husbands to love their wife like Jesus loved the Church and died for her. Does he hear wives crying in distress because their husband says things that are hurtful and cruel or rude and boorish or mean and demeaning? Are there cries of distress in your home—children out of control—doing what is hurtful and self-destructive because they would rather be scolded than ignored? Jesus of Nazareth IS the Righteous One! Jesus never ever sinned—when he was little—going to school—learning his memory treasures! Jesus went to school and studied hard and was always respectful of his teachers because he knew he was about his Heavenly Father’s work! When Jesus was a man he was always pure in everything he said and did. Then Jesus died carrying the blame for all my sins and failures!

While I was in Nigeria—there was no TV—no videos or video games—no CDs—no DVDs. So what do you do in your free time? You can read. I read God’s Word and I read a short story about some small children. Their earthly father went away on business and never came home! Their earthly mother drank whiskey from a jelly jar and smoked cigarettes until she had to go into a hospital for 6 months! What of the little children? They had to go into an orphanage—where caregivers didn’t really care…where teachers were hard and other children were mean! Why so many stories like this--from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist to The Best American Short Stories today? Because being an orphan is very painful? Our Heavenly Father says, “I will not leave you as orphans. We are adopted by our Heavenly Father! We are children of God. When our Heavenly Father blesses us—like a vineyard all cared for—we will bear the sweet fruits of faith—the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control that give all glory to our Savior and Redeemer. Amen!

To God alone all glory!