Sunday Stretch: Vol. 50

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Dear Readers,

Unlike the past couple of weeks - I didn’t have an immediate emotional connection to this week’s Bible texts. Which maybe even made for a richer experience for me, as I took the opportunity to dive deeper into prayer, further reading, and meditation on this week’s readings. As I did so, a deeper truth revealed itself to me, particularly concerning the Hebrew Bible text¹ and our Gospel reading.

Let’s get to the texts!

Bible Stories

Isaiah 5:1-7

Is. 5:1    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.

Is. 5:3    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?

Is. 5:5    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.

Is. 5:7    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!

What a poetic reminder of the beautiful and lyrical language of the prophets! I think it’s easy to get lost in modern-day debates about the historicity of the Bible, or its position on modern-day cultural and social issues. What we lose when we only read the Bible that way is a vision into the artistry of the Bible writers, and truly the beauty and artistry of God, Godself. I have to remind myself to slow down when I read portions of the Prophets or the Psalms. These readings are meant to be felt and savored, not merely exegeted.

What is the landowner’s relationship to the vineyard? Why does this matter?

Have you ever tended something? Land? A garden? A project? Reflect on your relationship to that tending. How did it make you feel?

What does it mean that God’s expectations were not met in God’s vineyard?

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:  ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew