Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
"My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill."
Isaiah 5:1
The first time that love is mentioned by the prophets comes to us as a love-song. God has established a kingdom on this violent planet. He calls it his vineyard, and with his love and nurturing, he rightly anticipates a yield of savory fruit. "So why," cries the master gardener, "why did it yield wild grapes?"
I'll bet that just about all of us can confess a few wild oats that were sown and a few wild grapes that have been harvested. Most of the world laughs at sin. But in doing so we mock the cross -- which is the one and only remedy for sin.
Jesus invites us to think of the cross as the solid healthy stem that is called the vine. In John 15:5, Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit."
What is abiding in Christ? Jesus says, "10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."
But what happens if we don't abide in Christ? Jesus says, "6 whoever does not abide in me [will be] like a branch [that] withers. [It will be] thrown away." In our house and as parents, we call that a consequence. Isaiah 5 lists other consequences. Indeed, the prophet warns us that wild oats and wild grapes will cause God to "remove [the] hedge" -- his hedge of protection. With a "br[oken] down ... wall" and "no[] ... prun[ing]" and "no rain," future success will be even harder.
Winter is generally the season in which we think about grapes, vines, and gardening the least. And yet winter is the season in which the Christ child comes to us new again. He comes not as a threatening king with pruning shears but as an a humble infant that invites us to hold him in our hearts.
In Christ's Love,
a guy who now has an excuse
to eat a lot of fruitcake
(if that doesn't remind me
to bear much fruit
maybe having to shed the pounds
of fruit cake will remind me
all next year)
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