October 19, 2025
Isaiah 5:1-7
Introduction
Where is God when tragedy strikes or evil is perpetrated? Why won’t God heal the divisions in our country today? When will we have peace on earth? Why doesn’t God do something about… fill in the blank with whatever you see happening in your life or the world today that concerns you.
I know the heartbreak, disappointment, sorrow, frustration, and anger behind those kinds of questions, and I’ll bet you do too. I’m betting every one of us has asked or at least wondered about those questions. I think they’re the questions many of us live with and are asking today in light of everything that is happening.
We’re not, however, the only ones asking those kinds of questions. We’re not the only ones experiencing heartbreak, disappointment, sorrow, frustration, and anger about not getting what we expected. “When I expected it to yield grapes,” God says, “why did it yield wild grapes?”
Isaiah describes how God dug a vineyard, cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines. Then God built a watchtower in the midst of the vineyard and hewed out a wine vat in it. And now God wants to know, “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?” God “expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” (Isaiah 5:1-7)
God “expected justice but saw bloodshed.” God expected “righteousness but heard a cry!” God didn’t get what God expected or wanted. But how can that be? The mere idea that God wouldn’t or couldn’t get what God expects or wants doesn’t fit with many of the images and concepts we have of who God is and how God is, and yet that is God’s message that comes through the prophet Isaiah. And it should certainly have us asking, “Why doesn’t God do something?” But maybe the better question is, “What’s expected of us?”
Move 1
Some of my earliest memories of prayer are asking God for particular things—stuff, outcomes, even special activities. I can remember getting a fishing pole for one of my single digit birthdays, so I’d pray for the chance to go fishing, then to catch a lot of fish, and of course catch a really big one. After all God was all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere. Letting me catch some fish should be easy for the “Big Guy in the Sky.” I believed God was bigger, faster, and stronger than me. God was—to use a phrase from my childhood— “Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!” Maybe God was Superman for you too.
As I got older, catching fish would be replaced with getting a good grade on a test, making the team, getting the job I wanted, fixing the problems in my life, taking care of those I loved. Then somewhere along the way God became a scorekeeper and the dispenser of rewards and punishments. You know, the God who’s “making a list, checking it twice, and going to find out whose naughty and nice.” Has that ever been your understanding of God?
And then, if God was Superman and Santa Claus, it was easy to conclude God was also like a vending machine. All I needed to do was put in the correct change—good behavior, right beliefs, a sincere and faithful prayer— make my selection, and I would get whatever I wanted. Have you ever lived with a God like that?
Of course, when the vending machine stole my money or gave me what I didn’t ask for I was told the “Man Upstairs” (because it was always a man) has a reason for everything and someday I would understand. That made God like a puppeteer planning my life and directing my every move.
Have you ever lived with any of those as your image of God or prayed to that kind of God? As much as I sometimes still want to hang on to my old images and concepts of God, they have never really matched my experience of God. And none of them describe God in today’s reading from Isaiah. God is heartbroken, disappointed, frustrated.
God created with an expectation of one beautiful and incredible result, but instead God got something completely different—and now there’s a gap between what is and what could be. And in order to bridge that gap we will have to not only reconsider our images and concepts of God, but also reconsider God’s expectation of us.
Move 2
Now to help us understand why reconsidering our images of God, along with God’s expectations of us, is so important, and how we can go about doing so, I’m going to ask a few questions. But I’ll be straight with you, these questions will likely challenge our comfort zones, but please stick with me.
What if God is not Superman, Santa Clause, a vending machine, the “Man Upstairs”, or the Puppeteer in charge of your life?
What if, without us, God is helpless and powerless to accomplish anything in the world?
What if every time we turn away from justice, love, forgiveness, compassion, dignity for others, we render God impotent in the world, or worse, absent from the world?
What if God cannot act or be realized in the world except through human actions?
What if you and I are created and designed to give God existence in the world through our thoughts, words, and actions? Through our work, our voice, our compassion, our listening, our hope, our presence?
Here’s why I ask those questions—why I’m challenging our comfort zones… Isaiah describes two vineyards— the one God intends and envisions, and the one God gets and sees. There’s a gap between those two vineyards, between what is and what could be. Where do you see that gap today in your life, in this community, in our country? What is it asking of you? What would it take for you to close that gap?
Every gap is a call, an asking, an invitation from God. Every gap waits for us to step into and fill it. We are the ones to step into the gap between what is and what could be, between what God has planted and what God expects; between the world as it is and the world as God sees it. But unless there is a response on our part… nothing happens, and the gap between what is and what could be will always remain.
Move 3
In the fall of 2024, a regional church body in the state of Arizona gathered with its clergy and lay leaders for an open conversation that would be led by its regional leaders. Among the topics that would be discussed was the upcoming presidential election.
One clergy person in attendance later wrote about this gathering saying, “Everyone there knew the intention, the desire, the heart of God was for relationship. But the anxiety and fear were palpable, and the gap was real. I watched as our vestry stepped into that gap. They were vulnerable and courageous. They were prophetic. They were hopeful. They entrusted themselves to all of us. They spoke with honesty and listened deeply. They softened their hearts and opened their eyes to one another.
They never said who they would vote for, but it was obvious. I could see it in each of their faces and hear it in each of their voices. They would be voting for, and in favor of, each other. And it made me think, ‘What if that were the first vote we each cast—a vote for each other?’”
The writer of this piece would go on to conclude their account of this conversation, saying, “At the end of the day the leadership presented their last piece for our gathering—a pledge each had made along with an invitation for anyone else to make. It states…
As a person of faith committed to the life and teachings of Jesus, I make this pledge to all people regardless of their political beliefs, whether we are in agreement or disagreement, and regardless of who wins the election.
With respect to my words and actions, whether in person or through social media, I pledge and commit myself, both before and after the election…
To love others as Jesus has loved me (John 13:34).
To treat others as I would want them to treat me (Luke 6:31).
To love my enemies, do good to those who hate me, bless those who curse me, and pray for those who abuse me (Luke 6:27-28).
To “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ” (Book of Common Prayer, 305).
To “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being” (Book of Common Prayer, 305).
This I pledge in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
*******
I so appreciated this person’s accounting of this gathering, it’s consideration to the anxiety and fear that was palpable, and the modeling of committing to a God centered, Christ-like path forward because all of it was bigger and about so much more than just the election. It was, and still is, about nothing less than giving God existence, and making God present today, in the here and now, in the midst of everything happening in the world today. It’s about God’s expectations and God’s desires coming to fruition in the vineyards of our lives, the vineyards of this community, the vineyards of this our country.
Conclusion
“What more was there to do for my vineyard” God asks, “that I have not done in it?”
Nothing. That’s the answer, and it’s always the answer. God has done everything. There is nothing more God needs to do. Which means now it’s our turn to step up, speak out, fill the gap, and make God real in the world today.
It’s a pledge— a covenant really—we need to make if the gap between what is and what could be is ever to be closed. Because believe it or not… Superman is not going to do it. Santa Clause is not bringing it. And there isn’t a single vending machine that is going to dispense it. It’s our work. It’s our call to go into the vineyard, dig, clear it of stones, and plant it with choice vines, build a watch tower, hew out a wine vat, and grow and become what God expected. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, October 19, 2025
Almighty and loving God, who cultivated a vineyard with the richest soil and choicest vines, we come before you with heavy hearts, confessing we have yielded wild grapes instead of good fruit. We have seen the fertile ground of our world, so carefully tended by your hands, produce bloodshed instead of justice, and a bitter cry instead of righteousness.
We lament the growing gaps that divide us, the walls we build that separate neighbor from neighbor. We grieve for the injustices that allow some to thrive while others thirst for dignity and mercy. Forgive us, Lord, for our apathy and for our complicity in a world where we can be so near, yet so far from one another.
Just as you asked your people, “What more could I have done for my vineyard?”, we hear your gentle, yet piercing, question to us today. You have given us all that we need— your Spirit, your Word, and the example of your Son, Jesus Christ. You have equipped us not to simply pray, but to become vessels and vehicles that bring your holy and dive presence into your world, and release and share it’s life changing power.
So move us from our complacency to concrete action. Make us your hands, to reach out and serve the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized. Make us your feet, to walk toward those who are different from us, to cross the dividing lines, and to bring the good news of your peace and reconciliation. Make us your presence, to bring healing where there is brokenness, to restore hope where it has been lost, and to plant the seeds of your kingdom that will grow far beyond our own efforts.
We pray not just that the gaps might be bridged, but that we would be the bridges. Empower us to be faithful, to be steadfast, and to have the courage to make the kinds of commitments that will bring healing and hope to this troubled world.
Please hear now the prayers of our hearts as we lift them to you in this time of Holy Silence.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our master builder and reconciler, who has no body on earth but ours, and who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…