Good morning,
Welcome to the Blue Lake Presbyterian Church.
Today’s message is titled: “The Vineyard” and is based on Isaiah 5:1-7
Growing up in Holland, I could have never imagined that someday there would be a “Vineyard” in my journey. Twenty years ago, in the late nineties we started farming in Willow Creek. One of the ranches had a small “Vineyard” on it, a few acres of different grape varietals, planted in the 70’s.
My first inclination was to rip them out, and plant flowers in its place. But my wife actually encouraged me to hang on to the old vines. I am glad we did.
Today we still grow some grapes, and in conjunction with other grapes growers in Willow creek, and the expertise of winemaker Wil Franklin we make wines under the Trinity River Vineyards label. Wil won double gold at the SF Chronicle wine competition and Wine Enthusiast Magazine rated the Chardonnay at 91points.
But the farm in Willow Creek is still predominantly a farm with flowers, decorative foliage and shrubs with berries like Rosehips and Ilex verticilata.
The preparation of the soil, and the way these crops are grown, don’t vary much from that of grapes. A farmer puts his heart soul into his crop, but there are times, when things don’t work out as expected.
When the crop is not yielding as it should, it can be extremely disappointing and frustrating. Let me illustrate this with an example:
In Willow Creek, we farm on two ranches. One of them is on a hillside sloping down to the flood plain of the Trinity River. While leveling the ground, we encountered some rocks.
We took the rocks out with a rock remover, basically a large digging machine. We kept taking out rocks until the ground was good to plant.
The other farm a mile up the road had not seen any crops for decades. It was completely overgrown with briars, blackberry bushes with lots of thorns, and the bears had a field day eating the berries and they left plenty of piles as evidence.
It took a lot of time shanking the soil, and pulling the roots of those blackberries out. But the soil was beautiful and rich. We added fertilizer, chicken manure, and grew a nice cover crop of clover.
Then we planted a crop of Privet, or Ligustrum berries, we had seen the pictures of branches full of beautiful berries. The crop grew very well in this fertile soil.
First year, there were no berries, but no worries, the plants were still young. The next year the crop grew even taller, we saw flowers in the summer, but by fall, when berries should have appeared, there were just a few plants with berries and the rest became a jungle of leaves with no berries.
By the third year still no berries to speak of, so we took a giant mower and shredder chopped down the crop and plowed the plants under.
Then we planted Winterberry, or Ilex verticilata from a supplier in Holland. The plants grew well, but after the second year a lot of those plants did not have berries.
We knew very little about Ilex at the time. Someone explained that the plants we had bought did not come from cuttings of a selected clone, but were actually propagated from seed.
Ilex has male and female plants. The males grow prolifically with many flowers but they don’t give any berries, only the females once properly pollinated, have berries.
According to the Fisher Principle an equal number of males and females will grow up if you use seed, hence 50% of the plants were males and didn’t give berries, and the female plants didn’t look very good, with lots of variation.
In the life of a farmer, things don’t always go as expected. Years ago an old farmer told me: farming is not for the faint of heart.
There is an allegorical story in the bible, about a farmer who had a patch of fertile soil, he took out the rocks and he made all kinds of improvements to his land, then he planted a “Vineyard” with the best vines he could find.
But instead of premium grapes, his vines produced wild grapes.
Not good, the farmer was perturbed, not only was he getting wild grapes that were of no value to him, he is also being judged and ridiculed by his neighbors.
This story in Isaiah 5:1-7 can be found in our pew bibles on page………………..in the Old Testament.
Let’s see who the farmer was, and what he did about this troubling situation.
Please bow our heads. Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find wisdom, and in your will, discover your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Isaiah 5:1-7
5Let me sing for my beloved, my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2He dug it, and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and carved out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4What 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? 5And 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. 6I 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. 7For 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!
This story in Isaiah starts out with the writer wanting to sing a love song for her beloved, about his “Vineyard”, describing how the soil was fertile, but some rocks had to be removed, no rock digger in those days I suppose.
Then he planted it, with choice vines, some of the best varietals available. In today’s vernacular he would have planted it with some of the most sought after clones of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Years ago, I met a farmer who had a prime location in Napa Valley and was involved in growing grapes for Opus One. His “vineyard “ was small, but at that time there were less than 200 acres spread out over 4 ranches dedicated to growing mostly Cabernet Sauvignon for this prestigious “Opus One” brand, selling retail up to $300.- per bottle.
Like the Opus One grower, the farmer in this story planted some of the best vines, on this great location.
But guess what happens? The best soil, the best varietal, but as the Ilex and Ligustrum gave no berries, these vines instead gave wild grapes, which is as bad as no grapes, wild grapes are classified in some areas by USDA as a noxious weed.
Isaiah wrote this allegory over 2700 years ago in 739 BC as a story to make a point.
In verse 7 Isaiah reveals what this allegory is about: 7For 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!
The historical context for Isaiah’s vineyard metaphor was an attack he expected against Jerusalem.
Isaiah felt that the only way that disaster might be prevented, was for Judah as the children of Israel to put aside their sinful and rebellious ways, and to once again to listen to God.
In verse 5 the frustrated farmer says: 5And 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.
In Willow Creek we put a 9ft fence around the farm to keep the deer out. They particularly like to munch on Rosehip shoots.
But the farmer says I don’t care any longer, let the animals come in, and devour my crop. Like the chopper and shredder taking out of those non-producing Ligustrum plants.
In verse 5, it will be trampled on, I vividly remember what trampling can do to growing crops, manifesting in incredible damage.
Years ago we had a farm in Del Norte County. The first year we had planted Iris in the fall, for spring time blooming. It was first week of November the Iris sprouts were just coming up.
One night there was a freak storm, with some thunder and lightning. Our neighbor had a large herd of cows, and the thunder freaked out the animals, they broke through one of the fences.
They kept running, until they came to our recently planted Iris field. This is where they came to a stop, until the rancher owner found them there the next morning.
What a mess; that trampled field of iris still gives me the shivers.
But ultimately Isaiah’s warning proved to be prophetic, when the Babylonians in 587BC ransacked Jerusalem, the walls came down and the Jewish people, the descendants of the tribe of Judah, were exiled to Babylon.
He expected justice (verse7), but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
Speaking of bloodshed, what is going on in our Country? What has happened to the moral fabric of our great nation? Our thoughts and prayers go to the victims and families of those affected by the mass shootings in El Paso TX and Dayton OH.
I rather not get in the middle of the gun control debate, but in the final analysis, we have to wonder what has happened to the moral compass in our society. Isaiah wrote he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!
In our opening hymn this morning:” America the Beautiful”. We sang that God shed his grace on Thee, Thee meaning our wonderful Country. But it makes one wonder, if our society is at a tipping point, at the cusp of sliding into the equivalent of the wild grapes in that “Vineyard”??
Some folks publicly ask: How long will God continue to bless us? At what point will he take the fence down and let things be trampled and devoured, like the wild grapes in the “Vineyard” or the folks in Jerusalem in 587 BC.
But let me stop right there, because here is the Good News:
The same Isaiah, who predicted the destruction of Jerusalem also foretold the coming the Messiah, the one who would bring righteousness.
In Isaiah 11:1 he predicted: A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse; from his roots, a branch, will, bear, fruit.
From the stump of Jesse, but who was Jesse? He was a farmer, a descendent from the tribe of Judah. The same folks described by Isaiah as the bad grapes on the fertile hill.
But through the descendants of that same tribe came the Messiah, our Savior and Redeemer. Out of this seemingly hopeless scenario came the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus underscores that he was sent by his father, and makes this crystal clear in the parable in Matthew 21:33 when he said : There was a master, who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.
When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to get his fruit. But the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent even more servants. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son , saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ …….
The Father sent the son to carry the sins of the World.
Back to the Ilex in the beginning of the story, the ones where 50% of the plants didn’t give berries (males) and the even the females didn’t look very nice.
On the surface an utter disaster, we were close to give it up, bring in the shredder, or let the crop be trampled, let the blackberries with the thorns come back and overgrow it, and let the bears come and have a field day.
But the middle of that patch of deplorable plants, we found one plant in that seedling mix, that looked distinctly different. the only plant with orange berries.
That one plant became the foundation of the Ilex breeding program that in the last 12 years has produced some outstanding varieties, including some patented by US patent office, like this stem of “Autumn Spirit”.
A shoot will sprout, from the stump of Jesse. From that stump of Jesse, from the sinful, rebellious descendants of that tribe of Judah, from those wild grapes came our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.
No matter how sinful these Judeans had been, not matter their unbelief, no matter their rebellion, God so loved the world that he sent he only begotten son.
Jesus came into a world of sinners, and provided hope and grace and glory.
The hymn we will sing in a little bit says it all: God of Grace and God of Glory, on his people pour his power, bring its bud to glorious flower.
Jesus said in John 15:1 : “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Jesus is the one who carries our heavy leaden burdens; he redeems us from our sins.
In Matthew 20:1, Jesus likens The Vineyard” to the Kingdom of Heaven,
Jesus is the vine, and he provides us with the glorious fruit
The fruit that fills our hungry souls
The fruit of the spirit
The fruit of righteousness
The fruit that brings amazing grace
The fruit that provides eternal life
You may say, how do I get this fruit?
The answer is simple.
I know a lot of people who have been going to church for many, many years, the sing the songs, they go through the rituals, but they do not have a relationship with Jesus.
Start a relationship with Jesus Christ today.
Put your trust in him,
Accept him as our Lord and Savior,
He will lead us to the ultimate “Vineyard”, the Kingdom Of Heaven.
Thank you,
God Bless you,
Amen
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