Daily Prophets
Day 70
“In that day, a precious vineyard, sing to it! I am God it’s keeper; every moment I water it…I have no anger…If he is strong in my refuge, he makes Me his friend. In that day, a shofar will sounded and the slaves from Assyria and the expelled from Egypt shall come and worship God on the Holy Mount, in Jerusalem.”(Isaiah 27:2,3.5.13).
Here is the promise that the prophet is giving to us in God’s name. The vineyard represents humanity and the promise is reconciliation, renewal and peace/wholeness with God. The song we need to sing, I believe, is the song of return, the song of faithfulness, the song of love for our fellow human beings. This song is crucial to our returning to our proper place in God’s world. Composing and singing this new song can happen ‘In this day’, not some far off time. The choice is ours.
God keeps the vineyard and waters it so we know that we always can return to God and to the ways of God. Isaiah is beseeching us to see that we are alive because of God’s Grace and even though we have strayed and our ancestors strayed and broke the covenant, God is still watering us, nourishing us and calling to us.
God’s anger is nil, what we consider God’s anger is, in my opinion, just the logical consequences of our straying from God and God’s ways. We project anger onto God because we can’t imagine the Divine Love God has for us. The verse after this tells us what to do: accept God’s refuge, accept God’s friendship.
The last verse is the promise and the dream of God, the prophet and the people. In this verse, we all get what we want-reconnection and redemption. God is calling us home, God is calling us to our proper places in life, God is welcoming us back, with love, peace and friendship.
Rabbi Heschel teaches that the first 3 verses above speak to God’s dream of “preservation of the vineyard, and His joy at the thought of continuing to care for it”(The Prophets pg. 85). God’s sorrow at having to afflict the people are overshadowed by God’s dream that God’s people will return to worship God. God would rather be at peace, in friendship with God’s People than at war with them. God wants us desperately, as I read Rabbi Heschel and we can respond with Hineni, Here I am, anytime we choose.
Our political system is not broken. Our politicians are. They are entrusted by us and by God to water the vineyard that the United States represents. They are entrusted to call all the slaves and all the expelled to come here to worship God and swear loyalty to the democratic principles this country was founded on. They are entrusted to make peace with each other and with our citizens and strangers alike. Yet, obstruction, hatred, scorched earth, walls are what many of them are building and creating. The same people who howled with joy at name calling, subterfuge, lying and stealing are accusing others of what they do. We, the People, have to call them to account before God and country. We, the People have to stop them from destroying this beautiful land and stop destroying the democratic principles our ancestors, our family members died and risked death to protect.
In recovery, we celebrate the preciousness of living in the vineyard of God. We wake up every day and rejoice in the watering and nourishment that God gives to the vineyard and to us. We are the recipients of God’s Grace and we know that God guards us and God loves us. We recognize and rejoice in the myriad of ways God shows us love and not anger. We experience dizziness and elation knowing that God wants us to be friends with each other and with God. In recovery, we are the slaves and the expelled who have come back to the Holy Mountain to worship God. We know the toil of slavery and the toll that being expelled because of our actions take on our souls and our beings. We are ecstatic that we have heard the sound of the Shofar of God and we respond with enthusiasm, commitment and continuing growth.
I, too, have experienced living in God’s vineyard. I, too, have experienced God’s care, nurturing and love. I, too, have overcome my fear of God’s disappointment to be enveloped in God’s love. I, too, have been surprised that, rather than anger, God has given me Grace, Hope, Kindness and Love. I, too, have learned how to be at peace with God, how to ask God to help me be more whole and to be counted as one of God’s friends. None of this is say that I have been or experienced being perfect in any area of living. In fact, it is my imperfections that allow me to have these amazing experiences with and of God. Because I have been enslaved by human powers and my own immature emotional and spiritual natures, I know the joy of hearing God’s Shofar so much more. Because I have been expelled, I long for and need to hear God’s call to come back, because some humans can never see their part and call for reconciliation. I am grateful to experience this reconciliation with God. Are you hearing the call to return and reconcile or are you staying willfully deaf? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark