Isaiah 5:1-7

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 watch-tower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people 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 expected 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 it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
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 people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
but heard a cry!

Our Scripture reading this morning is a song that is often called “The Song of the Vineyard.” It begins as a love song, marveling at the care and wonder of God’s cultivation of a vineyard. For many years, the image of grain and vines, bread and wine, were part of God’s promise to Israel, that they would live in a land where grapes for wine and wheat for bread grew in abundance. It was God’s way of providing, God’s way of caring, and seeing that God’s people had everything they needed for sustenance, but also for the joy of life that the vine represents. The Song of the Vineyard celebrates how lovingly God cultivated that gift for God’s people.

But, in the second verse of that song, a new refrain emerges. It is not just that the vineyard was a gift for God’s people. This verse sings that God’s people themselves were the vineyard – a garden that was cultivated so that they would bring the joy of life to God. God’s gifts were given so that Israel might be a lovely planting, a yielding crop, for God’s own delight and pleasure. And that is where the song takes a tragic turn.

At the harvest, God comes to the vineyard expecting sweet grapes, perfect for making good wine. Instead, God finds sour grapes, unfit for wine, distasteful and unusable. It is here, in the final refrain, that the song leaves the language of metaphor and poetry and makes the case literally: God expected justice, but saw bloodshed. God expected righteousness, and hear a cry of despair.

In the end, the Song of the Vineyard is a telling critique. Where God plants, God expects a yield of justice. That is, when God gives good gifts, God expects to find women and men looking beyond their own self-interest and attending to the needs of others. Where God gives nourishing rains, God expects righteousness. That is, where God sends abundance, God expects God’s people to be sharing that abundance with others, so that there will be no voices crying out in despair.

Today is “World Communion Sunday,” a day when we break the bread and pour the cup with eyes and ears pointed far beyond our own needs and attuned to justice and righteousness in God’s world. With God’s gifts come God’s expectations. As we eat and drink, may we accept God’s gifts as a way of embracing God’s call to do justice, to love righteousness, and to walk humbly before our God. Amen.