Above: A Watchtower in a Vineyard, 1898
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-06021
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The Collect:
Eternal God, your kingdom has broken into our troubled world
through the life, death, and resurrection of your Son.
Help us to hear your word and obey it,
and bring your saving love to fruition in our lives,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 28
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The Assigned Readings:
Isaiah 5:1-7
Psalm 63:1-8
Luke 6:43-45
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O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirst for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is not water.
–Psalm 63:1, The Book of Worship of the Church of North India (1995)
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That is what a good grape from Isaiah 5:1-7 and a good fruit from Luke 6:43-45 would say. Unfortunately, the grapes are wild and the fruits are bad in those readings.
The excellent translation of Isaiah 5:7 from TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985), attempting to bring the effect of the Hebrew wordplay into English, rings inside my head:
For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts
Is the House of Israel,
And the seedlings He lovingly tended
Are the men of Judah.
And He hoped for justice,
But beheld, injustice;
For equity,
But behold, iniquity!
Social justice in the context of community, with responsibility of people to and for each other, and with all people accountable to God, is an essential part of the Law of Moses. I wonder, in fact, why I did not learn this growing up in the church–in a series of parsonages, actually. I had to learn this truth from a book after joining a Historical Jesus reading group in Athens, Georgia. In fact, much of my adult spiritual pilgrimage has consisted of abandoning what I learned as a child, for most of it was either wrong or woefully incomplete.
God commands us to live in love, to love each other as we love ourselves. Love of this variety leaves no room for any form of prejudice or animosity, or for any other obstacle to practicing the Golden Rule. This is a lesson I understand more intellectually than viscerally, but I continue to struggle with it. This is progress, at least, in my effort to cooperate with God to be a good grape and a good fruit.
May you, O reader, strive to be a good grape and a good fruit also. May you succeed, by grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 19, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN, GERMAN LUTHERAN COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF F. BLAND TUCKER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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